Reopening:Keeping It Going

‪https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ1-eQs_A4A‬

We are in our second week of inddors contact training, using the Mt View dojo as a training space. Even though it is a 20 minute drive to get to training, it has been a new and fresh experience.  One cannot underestimate the importance of human contact in the Aikido experience. and the immediate feedback one gets from a partner on the mat(uke) is priceless on so many levels.

We have now gone through 2 Wednesday classes sandwiched around a Sunday class. Again classes are Wednesdays noon to 1pm and Sunday mornings 11:30am to 1pm. A special waiver available online must be signed online and proof of vaccination must be provided. before you can get on the mat. No exceptions. We had to turn away a young woman this morning because she did not know of the online waiver. Hopefully she will be back to try out a class.

Class size has been consistently around 8 people. We are hoping longtime students we haven't seen in a while will drop in. We have not been doing weapons, which we have focused on during the pandemic.

For now I want to use the time for people to have the contact with one another and to start to move.

We did some chanting sound at the end of class which I hope people enjoyed. We need to set the recording for the original sound to avoid some of the distortions that come about during some Zoom recordings. So next indoor contact class will be this Sunday.

We are continuing the online classes Mondays and Fridays at noon. Onegai shimasu...

 

Reopening.....for now!

Yesterday we had our first indoors contact class since the dojo was closed due to the pandemic classes in March of 2020. So over a year. Those of you who have kept the dojo open by supporting our online classes, outdoor trainings in the park, or by paying online even though classes have been restricted to the aforementioned, Thank YOU!!!!!!

The class was, as you can see, well attended. As was our July 4th outdoors potluck/barbecue...

And

 we have a tight knit group within the dojo as evidenced by this photo of a group gasshuku at the island of Kauai in 2018.

So we have a good foundation to go forward with our group past the pandemic into hopefully a brighter future. We will continue with our online Zoom classes Mondays and Fridays noon to 1pm. There is a thought to possibly add an outdoors class Saturday mornings at the park near the Martha St locations. Remember now for those vaccinated there can be contact and social distancing restrictions lifted. So that may change things for some of you.

Personally, of course , I found the pandemic and dojo physical closure challenging. I want to thank David Eves sensei for stepping in and helping to establish then maintain the online classes. Nadeau sensei and I maintained contact via phone through this all. I felt buoyed by Osensei's spirit and how he kept Aikido alive during World War II. I tried to keep Osensei's 'old sounds' or prayers alive. And I hope some of you may have felt the prayers for those of you in the dojo.

And also during the pandemic my partner Elle fell, broke her hip, then was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. For the record(July 15th) , today is her birthday. So far she is responding well to chemo and is recovering well. The day she went into the hospital we were served a 30 day notice by our then landlord. But I was able to find an apartment and she had a place to come home to from the hospital and care facility. From my viewpoint Divine protection from the kami. And Osensei's spirit.

So hopefully we can ride that into when our permanent location, which is just outside of  Japantown. Hope more of you who are reading this will join in our reopening. Onegai Shimasu!!!!

And here courtesy of David Eves sensei is the July 14th reopening class:

 

https://youtu.be/fq9o8JzQu2c