For 5 days, starting bright and early this Thursday morning (May 17th, 2012), I will be off on an Aikido road trip. I’ll be driving to northern California and back for the “O Sensei Revisited” workshop, at a lovely little camp/retreat center. You’re invited to come along. You don’t even need to pack, just get in the car!
Here’s the description from the flyer:
“The inner work of O Sensei should not be lost. Nadeau Sensei believes that it is critical to preserve this face of Aikido and to experience the O Sensei process of development. Through direct practice as well as techniques, weapons work, and discussions, we will highlight this aspect of O Sensei.”
Here’s my proposed route:
View Aikido Road Trip, May 2012 in a larger map
I’m planning on posting all along the way, time and internet access permitting. If all goes as I hope, there will be a class with Saotome Sensei on the way up, visits with a few friends, and an annular solar eclipse on the way back. The scenery should be amazing. I’m expecting the workshop itself to be an intense one, with five brilliant instructors over three long days. A dozen people are going from our dojo! There is something that feels important about this.
As for what you’ll find here, there may be stories, photos, poems, rants, links to maps and places of interest, videos, a few surprises, and probably a lot of stream-of-consciousness writing about my experiences, both on and off the mat. I don’t promise it will be good, or even interesting, but it will be honest.
Things may get a little bumpy. There will be more expression, from the heart and the gut, and less polishing and explanation. Expect typos and grammar wrecks. We might encounter detours, or get lost. (Although I hope this time I won’t lock my keys in my car, for 3 hours, at a hot gas station in the middle of tall rows of corn, with baaa-ing goats nibbling at the drying weeds around the propane tank.)
It will be an adventure.
