Tako á Feira

Little stop of travel articles not to bore you

On May, 23rd of 2009 I went to one of the most important demonstrations in the world of Aikido. The 47th All Japan Aikido planned by the Aikikai Honbu Dojo.

In this event, all Aikido dojos, schools and clubs show their skill at the Nihon Budokan.

Interior del Nihon Budokan (日本武道館)

In 2009’s edition approximately 6000 “aikidokas” took active part.

Here you can see some videos from Youtube and some pictures I took myself:

Now, a video of my Wednesday’s teacher:

Hiroyuki Sakurai sensei, 6th Dan Aikikai

And Thursday’s teacher:

Hiroshi Fujimaki sensei, 6th Dan Aikikai

Last but not least, a video of the actual Doshu:

Moriteru Ueshiba – 10th Dan Aikikai

And his son:

Mitsuteru Ueshiba

I got it! I’m member of the Aikikai Hombu Dojo!

For those of you who doesn’t know it, Hombu Dojo is the headquarters of Aikido in the world. At the Hombu Dojo are held the lessons from the direct descendents of the creator of this martial art, O-Sensei (Great Master) Morihei Ueshiba. Who currently owns the title of Doshu (”Master of the Way”) is Moriteru Ueshiba.

We can see him in action in this next video:

The truth is that this dojo is relatively hard to find as it is not located in a main street but in a residential alley. This is the address:

I didn’t realized of taking a picture of the street, but this is one of the front:

And this is a picture of the main gate closer:

These pictures have not the best quality as it was late and the camera performs really bad with so weak light. Other day I’ll try to take better ones. This is what I got there:

And this is the schedule for the classes I can take (except the ones for women):

I don’t know, I don’t know… there are so many lessons I don’t know which ones to choose! … That’s true, ALL OF THEM!

This is my super-carnet of super-aikidoka (hahahaha):

The other way round will show my progress:

This is all for today. Have a good night!