My first day at the hombu

Just unlike the other first few days i had in Tokyo, I managed to wake up at 5:30 in the morning to get ready for a very important session. If I couldv'e ever dreamt of having an hour with someone important, it would be the Doshu, the grandson of the founder of aikido. This was the very first class i ever took in the hombu dojo.

After a quick shower, I left a bit earlier just in case i lose directions to the hombu, or w/e train i could go on by accident, it is just a wave of negative thoughts that would just make me believe that if i didnt attend this session by any chance, it is going to be my first bad day in Tokyo.

Hopped on my train on the Oedo line heading to the Wakamatsu station, the city looked somehow dead, except for the old people as usual. As soon as i left the station, I accidentally took the right turn instead of the left one, which was completely opposite to the one heading to the dojo. I kept moving and moving, hoping for the sign of the alley to appear, and it wasnt there! a couple of old women were on the road, and i just went to them and chanted "ohayo gozaimasu, hombu hombu", as always, it is easy to express your intentions in japanese, but the reply is usually a huge question mark. They were a cute couple, they let me follow them, we were taking iit slow, as we were barely moving. She tried to have a conversation with me, I just mentioned "Watashi wa Rayan desu, arabujin desu, dozo yoroshiku" I felt it was kind of late to introduce myself, by they were somehow laughing at me.....


The couple finally guided me to the dojo, only 3 minutes were left for the class to begin, I placed my card at the dojo counter, and dashed to the locker room. I've never ever seen a locker room so packed in my life, and one thing i realized about the dojo, the sweat smells all over the place, it starts from the moment you open up the entrance door.

I quickly changed my clothes, threw my bag somewhere in the lock room corner, and went to the curtain which lead to the dojo. Everyone was just there sitting on seiza position, waiting for the doshu to come in, If there was a noise inside the dojo at that moment it wouldn't be anyone but from me.

I entered the dojo bowing to the founder, backed in and bowed to the aikidokas in the room, it was the Ettiquete that sensei's matt, atif, and mukesh have taught me to enter the dojo. If there would have been anything i would thank them for, it would be teaching me this ettiquete. There was a guy, looked european, who just came into the hall with his locker keys ringing on his hands within the silence that the dojo had in that moment, and he forgot to bow to either of us. He got that look from the aikidoka's in the hall, that if i got that look, I would be paralyzed.

The doshu came into the hall, and we began warming up, much similar to the warming up that we did in the Ettisallat dojo, but the tremendous amount of people on the hall just kept me warming up off the mat, which somehow ached my back and shoulders. Anyways, unlike the classes I used to take before, the doshu picks up and uke and just does the technique for several times, and several is the ammount of 5-7 times, then bows and every one applies the technique that he did. Explaination of these techniques are not presented orally, it is just a show "see, learn, apply".

One of the BIGGEST problems that almost everyone have suffered from, especially for the new commers to the dojo, is that technology have never knocked the doors of this dojo. It is that either Air conditioners are far advanced to be equipped, or just that I was rolled back 40 years to train in a dojo that has fans that does not work.
If there was one person who would be having no problem with the session, it would be the doshu himself.

The regular classes in this dojo like this one, is a full-hour-none-stop action pack, there is no time to breath, just attack, apply, etc. I never felt exhausted like this before, since when sitting on seiza would sweat me! in the last 15 min, everyone was just soul-less, barely making it to the ground, I think air has just decided to never visit this hall again.