Due to the extreme cold I have changed dojo for my private/self-training. Until last week, I had been practicing at the old Aso Budojo, which is located in Miyaji. This dojo while great—due to its age—is literally like a commercial freezer. Yes, the dojo even has icicles in it!!! With the snow now falling in Aso-shi, my feet were going purple and numb from the cold… Due to this, and it finally reducing the quality of my practice, I decided to move my self-training to the new Aso-Budojo.
As added bonus is that the new Aso Budojo is located in Uchinomaki only five minutes away from our apartment in Mikubo. Clearly, this is a another advantage as Japan's winter intensifies and travel becomes a challenge.
Anyway, here are some photos from my first training at the dojo, yesterday, on December 17th. The practice to christen the dojo included jiyu-kumite “image training” with hangeki-waza (countering jodan and chudan with chudan gyaku-zuki); stationary kihon (chudan gyaku-zuki and chudan mae-geri and jodan mae-geri); ido-kihon (chudan jun-zuki, jodan jun-zuki, mae-geri and mawashi-geri); and the following four kata: Heian-shodan, Heian-nidan, Nijushiho and Unsu.
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| Image training: chudan hangeki |
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| Nijushiho kata: my new work in process... A major challenge for the coming years. |
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| Unsu kata: Christening my new dojo |
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| Outside the Aso Budojo in Uchinomaki, Aso-shi. December 17th, 2013. |
© André Bertel, Aso-shi, Kumamoto. Japan (2013).