And this: Saito Morihiro Sensei in a demonstration
I always thought aikido was pretty cool (Steven Seagal notwithstanding), and I am a bit of a Japanophile (or Nipponphile or whatever), but I either was too fat or, back when I wasn't too fat, too poor.
Now I am TOO FAT and with CRAP KNEES and ANKLES from, yes, carrying the TOO FAT part of me around for decades.
But a very high quality aikido dojo is about 20 minutes from me (in good traffic) and I've got the yen. I saw their summer kids program and thought I'd love to see a similar one for adults. I mean, aikido, calligraphy, Japanese language classes--how ubercool is that? Or would that be uber kakkoii?
The video link above is to a brief clip on YouTube with the female sensei from that local dojo. (I so dig women who can take down a big guy!) The second video shows Saito Sensei, under whom the local sensei trained as a live-in apprentice (which is heavy-duty committed training). You can see other videos of the pretty darn impressive Morihiro Saito Sensei if you do a youtube search.
I did try some daiko/taiko (Japanese drumming) as some regular readers may remember as I mentioned it in a blog post from fall 2007. We did it again this past February.
I have heat intolerance issues, so we couldn't do the daiko class as regulars (though, man, that was some workout AND FUN!) The dojo was open-air-garagey and had old carpeting. My whack immune system impedes here. The day they have an a/c non-carpeted dojo for daiko (like wooden, non-allergenic floors), we'll sign up for it! Both times we went, such loud, happy, energetic fun. And the first time, I was sore for a week and thought my arms were gonna fall off. (They didn't). The second time--no problem other than some forearm and thumb soreness and one wee blister. But it was a shorter class than the marathon that was the first.
I have heat intolerance issues, so we couldn't do the daiko class as regulars (though, man, that was some workout AND FUN!) The dojo was open-air-garagey and had old carpeting. My whack immune system impedes here. The day they have an a/c non-carpeted dojo for daiko (like wooden, non-allergenic floors), we'll sign up for it! Both times we went, such loud, happy, energetic fun. And the first time, I was sore for a week and thought my arms were gonna fall off. (They didn't). The second time--no problem other than some forearm and thumb soreness and one wee blister. But it was a shorter class than the marathon that was the first.
So, there it is. I wanna be slim enough to get weight off my lower extremities' joints and maybe heal enough to be able to do aikido side by side with hubby, who also would enjoy it. (He's done jiu jitsu).
What is one uber kakkoi reason you wanna lose weight? (No ordinary stuff like look good in clothes or fit into restaurant booths, something REALLY cool.)
