We've returned from the Chiba Seminar at Fox Valley Aikikai. TK Chiba is the founder of our association, Birankai International, and was a 4th generation uchi-deshi (live-in student) of O'Sensei himself. You can read more about him here.

Sensei and Chris picked us up Friday afternoon for the drive down. The ride was pretty uneventful, if you disregard the constant bickering and nannering between those two. They must thrive on it. Brian and I just giggled together in the back seat. The hotel was just as mediocre, yet adequate as I remembered it. They supposedly renovated since we'd been there last, but I couldn't tell. Though we'd been volunteered for clean-up duty at the dojo, we were never called upon, so we got to eat out at an awesome Japanese steakhouse with my buddy who lives in the area and hang out while we waited for our other two dojo comrades to arrive. They got incredibly lost and a 3 hour drive ended up taking them 6 hours, but they were in remarkably good spirits.

That night, I laid awake quite a bit. I had my ipod hanging on the corner of the bed in case Sensei's snoring kept me up. It's practically legendary. I was surprised that I didn't hear a thing. I managed to get some rest and in the morning, we had IHOP for breakfast before heading to the dojo. I was so incredibly nervous, it was ridiculous.

Mat space was hard to come by. I was unable to participate in some of the warm-up drills because of space. We thankfully did not do much rolling at all, not that I care at this point about what people think of my abilities anymore. I just wanted to be able to survive the seminar. Browne Sensei taught the first hour, then second was taught by Apodaca Sensei and third by Savoca Sensei. We broke for lunch and I got an awesome iced chai and caesar salad at Panera Bread. We ate in our hotel room and let our sweaty uniforms air out. I think I'm a big fan of the two hour lunch breaks. It actually gives you a little time to eat and let it settle. We also had time to shower, which was nice as opposed to hurrying to eat and get back in time so you can put your sweaty (and now cold) gi back on.

Chiba Sensei led the last three hours of Saturdays training. I don't have a lot to say about the training itself. A lot of it was review. I was mostly impressed with Chiba's demonstrations of techniques I've seen before... at how little he had to move in order to manipulate his uke. It was also intimidating to watch him throw around his student, Savoca Sensei. It was particularly interesting as I'd found Savoca to be very intimidating when he led a weekend long seminar at our dojo back in May. So seeing him humbled in front of everyone was a key point of interest for me. I think I even whispered "holy crap" to the person next to me.

I think the most difficult part of day for me was when I was in the dead center of the mats. The training area was raised and spring loaded, so when you were in the very middle, the floor moved a lot. I may have never mentioned it here before, but I'm sort of claustrophobic. Most of the time it just causes me a little discomfort, but this time, completely surrounded by people, getting bumped into and with the whole floor moving. I felt very disoriented and felt as though I couldn't breath. I didn't really freak out, but my eyes started watering and I started panting. Even still, I didn't stop training. The guy I was working with seemed very concerned for me and when we were finished, he told me to get off the tatami and take a quick break. I tried to find him at the end of the day and apologize to him, but I never saw him again. I'm surprised my claustrophobia hasn't bothered me before this, though I am glad that it's a very mild case.

I have a nice bruise on my wrist from blocking one of Brian's attacks. I twisted my finger on someone's wrist, further pissing off my bad knuckle. That knuckle has been getting worse, not better and it's really beginning to concern me. It's beginning to interfere with things that should be a big deal, like catching myself and putting weight on that hand. I HOPE it's just a bad sprain. Urgh.

We all went out to dinner then got ice cream, picked up some alcohol and headed back to the hotel. We showered, put our uniforms in the wash and kicked back. I swam in the hotel pool and soaked in the hot tub for a little bit. Chris joined me and we had some good girl talk before heading back up. Fart jokes run rampant. No one had too much to drink this time. I was all ready tired enough to sleep when I had a little vodka mixer and then that put me out completely.

We had breakfast at Pancake Cafe and I was feeling pretty crappy. I didn't participate in the first hour of Sunday's training. I took a lot of pictures for Chris, then put my gi on and got ready to jump in after the first break. We did some disarming techniques where I mostly worked with some newer students who were quick to tell me "I don't know what I'm doing!" so I walked a few people through techniques that I'd never done before. I must not be the hard case I think I am, haha.

I worked with this one guy who I gave my bokken to so he could watch me do the technique and try to understand it. I backed up and was looking around me to make sure we had room and when I turned my head to look back at him, the end of the bokken was hitting me in the face. I'm of the school that you should be ready for the attack at all times... but you should at least wait for your partner to be looking in your general direction and have at least enough control to not actually whack them in the face.

We all thought the training for Sunday was supposed to go for three hours, but Chiba ended training after only two. I had Starbucks for the first time and I have to say, my vanilla latte with soy milk was delicious. I'm impressed. When we got back, Brian and I sat around the condo all evening, got plenty of sleep, had a lazy morning and sat around for most of the day Monday until it was time to leave for class.

Class last night was awesome. I didn't get hung up on many of the techniques first hour. There were some techniques that I've done before, but I don't know their names or how to even describe them. Second hour we worked on the same jo kata we'd been working on before, but everyone was much further advanced in it than I was. I got along all right, but there were times I would get stumped at one particular place and by the time I figured out how to progress from that point, everyone else was three or four steps ahead of me. It was difficult to keep up, but Brian knows it pretty well, so I'll get him to help me practice and perhaps then I'll be up to speed.

I'm well rested and I feel pretty good despite some digestive issues. I'm disappointed I have to wait until Saturday for more training.