Dude Looks Like a Lady

It was a nice warm day; the sun finally decided to come out after a few weeks of nothing but grey skies and rain. It felt good to sit in seiza (sitting on heels with legs folded under) as we waited for sensei to come into the dojo. The only problem was that sensei didn't come! Class was supposed to start at 9:30 this morning, and at 9:45, one of the students had to go downstairs to see if sensei had forgotten about us because we were still without an instructor. Finally, Suzuki Sensei entered with an awkward look on his face. He is a shidoin (training to be shihan -- master). Oh well, mistakes happen...even at Hombu. It gave me time to do several minutes of zazen (meditation) though.

I was in the back row as we waited for sensei to enter, and I was noticing how Japanese people nowadays are not accustomed to sitting in seiza for periods of more than ten minutes. Everybody was shifting around due to numb feet and sore legs (myself included). There were a few men who actually changed and sat cross-legged ("Western style"). It was an interesting cultural observation. So it's not just foreigners who have trouble sitting in seiza!

Before class, I saw a friend of mine, Kobayashi-san, sitting in the back row, so I sat next to him and we chatted for a little bit. He is a yudansha (black belt) and his English is quite good. I haven't seen him in over a year. He was surprised at my appearance; he said I had lost a lot of weight. I was flattered. He said the last time he saw me (at a drinking party), I was overweight and my face was chubby "like Bill Clinton's," but now I "look like Robert Kennedy." I guess he follows U.S. politics a lot! Nevertheless, it made my day. We made plans to get together again to go drinking (a favorite pastime of many aikido practitioners!).

We worked on moves today that are typical for beginner's class: shomen-uchi ikkyo (standing and sitting), irimi-nage, and shiho-nage. I had trouble in the past with shiho-nage. When it was time to down my partner, my technique wasn't good enough for me to take him down. I realized today that I wasn't cutting down enough as I turned while walking under his arm. As I turned, I also cut down on the arm, thus making it easier to throw him off balance. I love it when I discover little gems like that. It makes me wonder why I didn't learn it before, but I guess that's why we need to train a lot; it comes with experience.

For the last ten minutes of class, Suzuki Sensei drilled us on how to turn and pivot (sitting and standing). Then we went through some exercises that reminded me of yoga: We did the splits (legs out to our sides as far as they can go) on the ground, put our hands on the floor in front of us, and lifted our bodies off the ground. We also tried this while sitting in some kind of lotus position. My upper thighs started cramping, so I had to stop. I had never experienced exercises like this in aikido. I'm not sure how I can spread my legs further apart; they just don't seem like they are designed to do that!

On my way out of the building, I checked my name on the signup sheet for the Aikikai demonstration next weekend at Nippon Budokan. It was still there, but I noticed that I had previously written my name under the wrong column; I was signed up in the women's category! I didn't notice the first time since almost all the names were written in Japanese, nor did I notice the categories marked (in Japanese) "men" and "women." Luckily the kanji characters for gender are easy enough for me to read. I'm not sure why I didn't catch it the first time though.