Griffith Shukan News
Thursday, November 22nd 2007
CONTENTS:
1. Griffith Aikido Christmas Party
2. Bokkens On The Beach - Stradbroke
3. Grading Practice This Saturday 24/11/07
4. News From Danny Sensei From Japan
1. Griffith Aikido Christmas Party
You are all invited to the Griffith Aikido Christmas parties on Saturday 1st December. The Aikikids Christmas party will be followed by the adult members’ party after their respective Saturday morning gradings. Both parties will be held in the old School Age Care building (N49), a very short walk from the dojo. It is the first building on the left as you drive in on Recreation Rd. – located up behind the Child Care Admin building, on the walking path. The kids will go down there with their parents after their grading finishes and have their Xmas party from around 10.30 am until 12.30 / 1pm. Everything will be supplied for the kids’ party.
The adult members will follow the kids and have their Xmas party at the completion of the adult gradings from about 1pm to late afternoon. For the adults’ party the club will supply meat & sausages. The rest is BYO. Everyone should bring a plate / salad / specialty dish / desert / fruit. And please bring own drinks. Aikikids and their parents are welcome to stay through the afternoon but please bring a plate.
Does anyone have a portable barbeque that they could bring to the adult Christmas Party on Sat 1st Dec?
2. Bokkens On The Beach - Stradbroke
STRADBROKE “BOKKENS on the BEACH” 17/18th November 2007
The first enjoyment was the one hour ferry trip across the waters from Cleveland to Stradbroke and then the drive through lush green virgin bushland to Amity Point.
On arrival at the “Sea Shanty” resort everyone was immediately reduced to a state of relaxation with the view of the ocean and the peaceful surroundings.
The cabins were clean and well equipped. Adults and children alike enjoyed the vast display of wild life in its natural environment. A sea eagle displayed his fishing skills before our eyes and then settled into its huge nest nearby. The Kookaburra waited for the BBQ to start; the large male Koala waddled through the resort to park itself onto a tall tree to observe the coming and goings below, keeping some people awake with its noisy grunt during the night. We could have quite happily done without the very noisy peacock who trumpeted day and night. But most enjoyment was caused by the display of the frolicking dolphins who visited our shore in the evening lights. There also were turtles, a baby moray eel and a small harmless shark. All this was a great delight to all the nature lovers present.
After the first bokken session/ instruction, some wonderful persons toiled over a hot stove to cook a great variety BBQ dinner for 40 people. After that it was all relaxation with drinks, great company and chatter until the relaxation turned into tiredness and all looked forward to a decent sleep, only to be woken up by the delicious smell of bacon and eggs early in the morning.
8.30am – Bokkens at the Beach. Everyone joined in and it was admirable to see Murray Loader Sensei to attend to everyone, aikido student or lay person with the greatest patience. The general comment after the class was: “That was so much fun!” We hope that this was felt also by Murray Sensei who made the trip from Canberra especially to teach a small part of his skills to the people who ventured to Stradbroke for the week-end. Thank you Murray. We hope you also had fun, enough to return for another ‘Bokkens at the Beach’ in 2008.
Most of all we have to thank Tony Neal Sensei who organized the week-end, the food, the accommodation; the car pooling and the instructor.
I think we can all say: “THE WEEKEND WAS A GREAT SUCCESS”.
Hope to see everyone back at Stradbroke in 2008.
Jutta Dowdy
3. Grading Practice This Saturday 24/11/07
There will be grading practice this Saturday and even those that aren't grading are most welcome to join in since we need as many ukes as possible.
Ben Tan
4. News From Danny Sensei From Japan
Lost in Translation,
Hi everyone, I've been in Japan now for about 3 weeks, nominally I am staying 2 hrs south of Tokyo in what could be described as the surfers town of Tsujido. I say surfers town because, the waves are pretty small and the beach is black, but there sure are plenty of surfers. On a clear day you can see Mt. Fuji in the distance, this is something of a rarity though and the day after a typhoon has passed even the locals were out taking photos of Fujisan. Although this is my third visit to Tsujido and the nearby Keio University Campus it is my longest stay by far and starting to feel at home, rather than terroised by the local cyclists wizzing by on the side walk, and buying less delicous looking pastries that are actually filled with curried something or other.
I am here courtesy of a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science fellowship, host by Assoc Prof. Yuji Ohgi at Keio university. Yuji and i met 2 years ago at a conference in Tokyo where I presented some work on sword swing analysis. Its been great to seen him again as well as his wife and daughter, who we had the pleasure of hosting in Brisbane earlier in the year. We are continuing a collaboration which I hope will grow over the years reaching into local universities and hi-tech busnesses in Australia and Japan.
Charlie has joined me for a week or so (almost post PhD thesis submission but sadly not to be) and two w/ends. During this time we visited the Hokone region, famous for its hotsprings and views of Fujisan. Here we stayed at a Ryokan (traditional inn) enjoying traditional dinner and breakfast in a shared living room. Dressed in Yukata (like a gi) and Haori(over coat) for the occasion, we managed to gorge ourselves on a series of traditional foods and drink. Mals seem to be a series of small 'trests', one meal incudes fermented squid in liver paste - definitely not for the faint hearted esp. for breakfast (nor any other time). The hot springs have a lovely mountain aspect and are great to soak in before and after meals. The bath takes some getting used to, not only do you have to get nakie with all the other patrons (females and males are seperated...sorry guys) but there is of course japanese ettiquette to follow. Firstly dowsing ones self from wooden buckets is essential (while perched on what i am sure passes for a decent sized stool for the japanese butt) before entering the baths, and the wearing of your washing cloth on you head as you soak (so as to not sully the water). Fortunately i had previous received expert instruction from Sunter-san and a local plumber on a previous outing at a sento in Tokyo. Of course no trip to Tokyo is complete with out visiting the Meguro parasitological museum, that's what Charlie told me anyway. Coming face to face with an 8m tapeworm certainly has me rethinking the amount of raw fish i am eating over here, though Yuji assures me that all Sashimi chefs are trained to recognise all the parasites in fish, I'm not so sure. LOL... just the other night at a conf commitee dinner I finally met my match, being served live squid (actually trying to crawl off the table), before the tentacles were cut and handed around to eat, contemplating still twitching tentacles...while the squid stared me down...wel...l. Fortunately the (the squid) returned later onroasted and I was able to appreciate the freshness much more.
On Charlies second last day we visited Kamakura, a well known temple region quite close to where we were staying and was the home of the first Japanese shogun. It was a real pleasure to get away from the hustle and bustle for awhile and explore the somewhat ruralised location. Along the way were were fortunate to stumble upon a traditional music concert in one of the shrines and were treated to shakuhachi (japanese flute), koto (a dozen strings or each on a seperate ridge ) and shami sen (3 stringed banjo), from what i could tell the performers where led by an 8-dan practicioner and most of them held sandan or above in their respective instrument schools. Later on we visited one of the shrines where people go to wash their money to give themselves good fortune - probably a good opportunity to clean the tired VISA cards too! I'll be returning to Kamakura for a swimming conference later in my trip. On Charlies last day we spent some time strolling around Enoshima island, a pilgrimage destination of sorts supported by the gentry and artisans of yesteryear with many shrines on it and one of the few places where we saw traditional souveniors that westerns appreciate.
I have managed thus far to train several times with Maruyama Sensei, although its a 2hr trip to sensei's dojo involving train, subway and buses and asking lots of stupid questions along the way. We also spent some time with him, Yasuko san and Tokyo last wekend. As many of you know I am just his student, whilst Charlie is his favourite (Yasuko san even knitted her a special cardy) and it was nice to spend some relaxed time with them away from seminar pressures.
Although i've been to Tokyo a few times its still a daunting network of busses, trains (JR national railway), the subway and private railway lines as well. There are few traps for the unwary, in addition to signs in english(romaji), hiragama and chinese characters not all stations sharing the same name are attached, though most are joined by labyrinthine passageways filled with purposeful locals, scurrying to make their train (even though the next one comes in 5 mins time). Note to self, don't stay out too late with the dojo drinking sake as you might just miss the last direct train home and have to find alternate routes or explain what a 'capsurel hoteru' is to Charlie (i took the former option as being easier). It been nice to see some familiar faces there from previous visits, together with meeting other western visitors who drop in from time to time. It was nice to see Will Reed sensei there and also to receive Daito-Ryu inspired instruction again from Okajima Sensei from Osaka who took part of the class.
With Charlie back home I'm currently in Tsukuba for a conference before moving on to another in Kamakura. I think I'm just a few hours from the shrine to O'sensei but that will have to wait for another trip. Interestingly the president of what was to become Tskuba University was Jigaro Kano the founder of Judo. Before returning home I head up to Yamagata university in the north for some research and hope to have time to explore the mountains with Yuji. as well
Some images from our trip can be found here
http://guedu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=20007&l=bb005&id=577176299
I'm looking forward to returning home and especially the gradings, many of you have worked so hard during the year and this will make a nice part of the Christams celebrations. Thankyou everyone who has filled in for me whilst i have been away and esp. to those receiving my occasional email rants
Danny James
Griffith Aikido Newsletter Editor
Shirin Mohebbi
Email: shirin(AT)internode.on.net
Having problems with message search?
Offline 
Send Email