Mind matters

Well, since people are starting to complain that I have written nothing for a while, it’s time for an update! Here is a recap of what I’ve been up to the last few weeks.

26:th of June - 8:th of July

This period of two weeks I spent as an uchi deshi in Gothenburg Aikido club for shihan Ulf Evenås, who has 6:th dan in Aikikai and 7:th dan in the style formerly known as Iwama Ryu. To be an uchi deshi you live in the dojo, you eat in the dojo and you train in the dojo, oh and you also clean the dojo. Uchi deshi means “inside student” and originally you lived with the sensei of a dojo and helped the sensei with all his daily chores, both in the dojo and at the senseis home. It could include garden duty or shopping duty or other duties. This uchi deshi is a lighter form of that. We don’t help the sensei at his home, but do all our duties around the dojo instead.

In the uchi deshi program one person is appointed to dojo sempai. The dojo sempai sets the schedule outside of training and is the person who runs the uchi deshi group and sees to that we are aware of what is required of us. This year the schedule looked like this:

06.00 Wake up, cleaning of often used spaces (toilet, corridor, dojo mat)
06.30-07.00 Breakfast
08.00-09.00 Bokken training with Ulf
09.30-11.00 Jo training with Ulf
12-ish Lunch
15.00-16.00 Own training, to repeat what we’ve been taught
16.30-17.30 Cleaning of the dojo, bigger tasks (cleaning windows, above lamps)
18.30-19.45 Tai jutsu with the rest of the club
22.30 Lights out

For every day, three people are put in charge for toban - the kitchen arrangements, and three people are toban assistants. The toban sees to that groceries for breakfast and lunch are shopped, and prepares the meals. The assistants help set the table and clean up afterwards. Depending on who is toban, the food varies very much! This year we were lucky that everyone made an effort to make good food, and we ate well. Last year a couple of the Lithaunians made meatballs and pasta, with ketchup, for lunch. That’s the poorest uchi deshi lunch I’ve ever eaten. But I’ve heard stories from people who have been uchi deshis in Japan, that the food can be really awful somedays.

I originally intended to stay only one week, but after a massive campaign from some of the people I’ve gotten to know from the club, and from the three danish uchi deshis who were going to stay two weeks, I finally buckled in and decided to stay for the second week also, since there was room for more people on it.

The life of uchi deshi brings you close to the people you train with, and you make friends for life! When you see someone you’ve been to an uchi deshi week with, you talk like old friends. I really enjoy that!

Being an uchi deshi and having the privilege to learn from Ulf-sensei is soo much fun that I will definitively repeat it many times over! And you also get a t-shirt when you stay for a week, so I got two very nice t-shirts! They’re of new design every year.

8:th of July

The same day I returned from uchi deshi, we had a board of the budoclub-party! We didn’t drink so much, and we ended up in one of the dojo’s, playing with balls of different weight and size! It was much fun, but ah, so tired I was!

9:th - 13:th of July

Nothing much happened, more than training Aikido on monday and wednesday. Felt strange to only practice two times a week after having practiced almost four hours a day for two weeks! On wednesday there were several aikidokas who ventured to my home and we watched Soylent Green, a sci-fi movie from 1972 with Charlton Heston. From this movie comes the famous line ‘Soylent Green is people!’. It wasn’t so good, but I gave it a 3 out of 5.

Thursday 13:th of July

Had a date! A guy from Örebro was over. It went well, since he didn’t leave until friday morning.

Friday 14:th of July

We had a barbecue party with aikidokas. Not so many people showed up, but we had much fun nevertheless! We’re planning the making of a mocumentary of Aikido, to be shown on the budo day that is going to arranged in the fall in the budo club. And at the party we had lots of ideas of what it might contain. It was hilarious

Saturday 15:th of July

Me and two friends, Lars and Modin, went to Heron City, which is a large enterntainment center close to Stockholm. We left at 10 am and were back home at 11 pm. During that time we managed to eat at Pizza Hut, play a lot of arcade games, bowl for an hour and see Pirates of the Caribbean 2! The arcade section of the place was much run down, alas. It was much more fun last year. The movie was great though! I’m really looking forward to nr 3!

Oh, when I came back home, I started to chat with a really nice guy from Jönköping! This guy I really want to date atleast!

16:th - 17:th of July

I went to my hometown Motala to visit my parents and my brother and his family. One of my nieces had a birtday while I was in Gothenburg, so I brought her a present this day instead! I ended up playing with my nieces for several hours and then went to sleep at my parents place. Ah, and I introduced Mango Lassie (you could call it an indian-style smoothie made with mango, very tasty!) to both my brothers family and my parents. They all liked it! Yummy! I also went to Varamon, a beach, and took my first swim for this year. I went there in the evening, when the sun was setting. Extremely beautiful!

I went back to Linköping, today, 17:th of July. I helped David, a friend of mine, to move some furniture and throw away a lot of garbage. Then I went to aikido training, read and replied to emails and then back to David’s place where I got treated to dinner; roasted lamb in bacon, with rice and fried vegetables. Yummy again! We also watched the latest episode of Top Gear, episode 6 of season 8, and it was fantastically funny! They had a story about how they went camping to see what it’s all about. They ended up torching their caravan!

And now I’ve finished this blogpost, while being chatting with the nice guy from Jönköping on www.qx.se, and I bid you all good night!

Posted in Random musings

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