Griffith Shukan News

April 5^th 2007

 

Contents:

              

1. Easter Weekend Classes
2. Easter bunny Visited Nathan Dojo Last Saturday for Aikikids Grading
3. New Sunday Class at Logan Dojo
4. Aikikids – Class Time Change and Call for Helpers
5. New Capalaba Dojo Class
6. Seminar - Aikido Yuishinkai Adelaide
7. One of the doka or "Songs of the Path" written by O'Sensei
8. Gi’s For Sale
9. News From Gabby
10. Previous news (but good news) – worth another read!:

 

 

 

 

 

1.         Easter Weekend Classes

 

There are no Good Friday and Easter Monday classes, but Easter Saturday classes are on (it’s not a public holiday).

 

 

 

2.                  Easter Bunny Visited Nathan Dojo Last Saturday for Aikikids Grading

 

Easter Bunny visited Nathan last Saturday, not only to reward the 18 children on their regular attendance at their weekly aikido class, but also to watch a very impressive grading by 5 of the aikikids.  Jonathan and Reuben achieved their green ribbon while Rachael, Marcus and Liam graded for their yellow ribbon.

 

It is a great emotional achievement on the children’s part with parents and sensei’s watching, especially in the presence of Danny Sensei, the head instructor of the Nathan dojo, who was delighted with their achievement.  How proud the parents must be to watch the children follow all the expected disciplines of the aikido art.  Bowing to Kamiza; bowing to Sensei, bowing to Uke.

 

Congratulations to everyone.  To the children who performed a beautiful grading, to the children watching in disciplined silence, to the teachers for patiently training the aikikids and to the parents for taking the time to bring their children to class every Saturday, in spite of their busy lifestyle.

 

At the end of class everyone enjoyed a little party with Easter eggs, drinks, chips and cake and left happily clutching their chocolate Easter bunny.

 

Well done, everyone!

 

Jutta Dowdy

 

 

I’d like to give a quick but very big thank you to Jutta for arranging our Aikikids grading party, as well as Ben Sensei and his Saturday general adults class for providing a willing and very supportive audience for our grading Aikikids.  Much appreciated.  I know they felt a little daunted but very special.

 

I’d like to add my congratulations to Reuben and Jonathon on achieving their green tip, and Rachel, Marcus and Liam on reaching yellow tip.  I’m very proud of their accomplishment, as well as their commitment and enthusiasm for aikido at such an early age.  It won’t be long before the other Aikikids who have started more recently will be achieving similar results.

 

Steve Mitchell

Aikikids Instructor

 

 

 

3.         New Sunday Class at Logan Dojo

 

I am pleased to announce, that that I will be starting MORNING CLASSES at LOGAN DOJO/GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY,

COMMENCING SUNDAY 15^TH APRIL

 

The TIME SLOT will be 10 AM – 12PM.  All levels are welcome to attend.

 

Directions are on the website.  If you are concerned about being able to find the dojo, please contact Tim Billin, the Logan Dojo Co-ordinator, on 0427-117-556 or email: TBillin@bigpond.net.au

 

For further information, please contact me directly on:  0418 799 165 (all hours).

 

Steve Dows

 

 

4.         Aikikids – Class Time Change and Call for Helpers

 

Aikikids has been growing very well since the start of the year.  Pressure on space is a very good problem to have.  To manage this growth and allow Saturday adults class to flourish as well, I have asked Steve Mitchell, our Aikikids instructor, to move his class to an earlier time slot on Saturday.  As of 14^th April – NOT THIS WEEKEND, NEXT WEEKEND - Aikikids will run from 9.30am to 10.30am (adults class will continue 10.30am to 12.30am).  

 

While this gives both Aikikids class and the general class their own space, and room for each to continue to grow, it means there is significant setup (rollout of mats and administration, etc) which can’t be done by one person.  Further, a large kid’s class benefits from having one or more helpers on the mat to ensure safety and assist the instructor.  If anyone is interested in being directly involved with Aikikids as a helper (it is very rewarding), and can arrive at 9am consistently, please let me know.

 

Danny James

 

 

  

5.                  New Capalaba Dojo Class

 

Hi all,
As of 14^th April, Capalaba Dojo (located in the Scout hall near PCYC at Degen rd.) will be conducting a Saturday afternoon workshop every week from 2.30pm to 4.00pm.  T-shirt and Gi pants preferred dress, as these will not be formal lessons but basic technique exploration and correction.  Cost will be $2 per person.

Everyone is welcome.  More details or contact at: www.brisbaneaikido.com/redlandsaikido.html

Tony Neal

Aikido Yuishinkai Capalaba

 

 

 

6.         Seminar - Aikido Yuishinkai Adelaide

 

I wanted to give our aikido colleagues in other states preliminary notice of the forthcoming Adelaide seminar with Minoru Oshima Sensei and Yoshitake Hashimoto Sensei.

 

Expected dates are 28^th and 29^th April.  Dates and venue will be confirmed shortly.

 

Yoshitake sensei resides in Osaka and has been a student of Maruyama Sensei since the Ki Society days.  Oshima was one of the chief US instructors for the US and many say one of Toheis’ best aikido students. Of course there is a long association with Maruyama Sensei and since he arrived in the US in 1974 as chief instructor, I assume Oshima was also practicing with O’Sensei at Hombu. 

 

Cost will be $130 for a full weekend of training with both sensei.  Billets and accommodation can be arranged.  Please find dojo details at aikidoadelaide.com.  For more information, you can contact us by phone on 08 8303 8685 or e-mail john.ward@aikidoadelaide.com

 

John Ward

Aikido Yuishinkai Adelaide

 

 

 

7.         One of the doka or "Songs of the Path" written by O'Sensei – from John Steven's book "The Essence of Aikido"

 

The following is one of the doka or "Songs of the Path" written by O'Sensei.  Throughout many of the traditional arts, the master would use song to convey his/her teachings to a deeper, subconscious level.  The students were encouraged to sing the doka as part of their daily dedication to their art.  More of O'Sensei's doka can be found in John Steven's book "The Essence of Aikido".  I encourage you to do the same.

 

Kojo wa

hiji mo keiko mo

araba koso

gokui

nozomuna

mae zo mietari

 

Translated:

Progress comes to

those who train in the

inner and outer factors.

Do not chase after "secret techniques"'

for everything is right before your eyes!

 

Submitted by Simon Russell

 

 

 

8.         Gi’s For Sale

 

The club has been offered a one-off deal of some gi’s at good discount prices, which means we are able to offer gi’s at good discount prices too.  There are still some left.  They are the lighter summer gi.  Having an extra gi will come in handy when you least expect it.  Pongy sweat-filled gi’s are often noticed by your clubmates who are usually very nice and don’t say anything.  To avoid embarrassment, consider another gi!! JJ   For details or to have a look, please ask Jutta at training.

 

 

 

9.         News From Gabby

 

Hey guys,

 It seems crazy that I only left in Feb, so much has been happening and I feel like I've been living at the dojo for months, not weeks. Have short phases of homesickness sometimes and really love to recieve emails with news from home (and OS), so keep 'em coming!

 

It's Sunday here and that means (relative) quiet. If there's one thing that Paulistanos agree on, it's that Sunday is a day to rest. The rest of the time it's a contrast of workaholics with no time and homeless with too much time. Actually even the homeless are often busy. Some of them have carts that they live and work from, collecting boxes for recycling, and which also make excellent beds at night time. One local cart wheeling guy I see all the time is also the one that wakes us up some nights yelling at the top of his lunges as he passes the dojo. He has two dogs that follow him everywhere and his nickname is "Noia", short for Paranoia. http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t77/trumproy/Brazil/Sao%20Paulo/IMG_1069_cropped.jpg 

But that doesn't mean that most of the homeless have mental disabilities, he's an oddity. Many other homeless collect cans for recycling and will often go through your rubbish to find them. There's no wheelie bins here - just garbage bags left out on the street. There's also no bin day and so it's a gamble as to whether your garbage will a> get picked up b> get strewn all over the road by someone looking for cans (fortunately never happened to us) or c> get left to bake in the heat of the following day. 

 

Daniel Carne is coming to live here soon and I'm really looking forward to it. I spoke to him and his mum on the phone last week and from their questions got a flashback of how foreign Brazil seems to someone from Australia, how dangerous and strange, but once you get over the obvious oddities, or what seems odd to us anyway, it's just normal life, not so dangerous, not scary at all in fact. Sooo many Brazilians are interested in Australia. It's probably the number one destination in popularity, but unfortunately for them, also the most expensive in terms of airfares. Marcos, our surfing, aikidoka friend here, knows the names of more Australian beaches than we do and I feel oddly spoilt and foolish when pointing out the few places I've travelled to in Australia to someone who would give their right leg to be there. So yeah, I think we get a few extra popularity points for being an Australian gringo, rather than an American..

 

Had a crazy bus ride to Sensei's house a couple of days ago. When the bus pulled up I thought we'd have to wait for the next one - it was packed. But no! They were still somehow letting people on and after the initial scary moment of thinking the doors were going to close on me and leave me half in and half out of the bus, I had the next scary moment trying to get my hand up to find a handhold as the bus hurtled it's way, swaying left and right, down the road. I had nothing to fear however as the compression of hot, sweaty bodies meant that I was, even if suffocating, at least held vertical. The last issue was - how on earth were we going to make our way from the front of the bus to the rear, where the exit is, in the 10minutes before we reached our destination? But true to form with anything here, somehow it happens and you are spat out at the other end, in need of a shower (or was it - just had a shower?)

 

Aikido is great, lots of it and quality. Bueno Sensei has LOTS of energy, is lots of fun, has as much charisma as Michael Williams and does real nice aikido. The kids classes at the favela are also going brilliantly, even if quite challenging and we are writing a blog entry about it at the moment so have a look soon if you're interested. We're making some money being ukes at Bueno's corporate aikido presentations and soon will be starting to teach English - to the favela kids for free as well as to the rich Paulistanos for income.

 

As for Portuguese, it's slowly, slowly improving and we are going to get some lessons soon. It's easy to be misunderstood and even easier to misunderstand. The other day I innocently ordered a pineapple juice and was handed a cup of thick, slimy, green liquid. The portuguese for pineapple is abacaxe (a-ba-ca- she) and the portuguese for AVOCADO is abacate (a-ba-caa-ch). I should have known something was up when they asked me if I wanted my pineapple juice with water or with milk!

 

Better stop before this turns into a novel. Miss you guys, please write!

 

Take care,

Gabby xx

 

Photos:http://s157.photobucket.com/albums/t77/trumproy/Brazil/

Blog: http://gpbrazil.vox.com

 

 

 

10.         Previous news (but good news) – worth another read!:

 

Hep B Alert

 

There was an item in ‘The Australian’ newspaper recently regarding a study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, which reports the transmission of Hepatitis B via sweat amongst a group of Turkish wrestlers.  We similarly train in a full contact sport in which participants can often sweat a lot, even if the contact with the sweat of our training partners is not so constant and not in such close proximity.  This news may have strong ramifications for sporting organisations with a possibility that all participants in contact sports may eventually need to be vaccinated.  I would like all members to be aware of this news, and I encourage you to carefully consider what this means in terms of your own health and the steps you can take yourself to minimise risk of exposure, and if you are not sure, to seek vaccination.

 

Danny James

  

 

Club Sponsorship

 

We have a sponsorship arrangement with Brisbane based residential home loan manager, Direct Credit Home Loans Australia.   As part of an ongoing relationship, Direct Credit Home loans has made an attractive home loan offer to our club members, their family & friends.   In addition, they have offered to pay us a spotter’s fee on each home loan referred through the club.    Just let one of the Executive know if you think you know someone who may be interested.

 

Danny James

 

 

 

 

 

Steve Mitchell

GUAC Secretary

Mob.  0432 269 534

Email:  stevemitchell@ecn.net.au