Had a wonderful class last night. I base that on how sore and bruised I am the following day. Today I have purple bruises on my biceps and legs. I have deep red, superficial bruises on my wrists. We did nikkyo, which explains the bruises in my wrists, and some throwing techniques that required grabbing uke's upper arms, which explains the bruises on my biceps. The bruises on my legs are not so easy to explain.
When I was uke on a throwing technique, my partner said my calf hit his elbow. Now it feels like I have a big knot in my right calf. It will go away soon, I know. I also have a good-size lump on the outside of my left knee (about three inches across and one half inch high). I have no idea where that came from. So based on all my bruises and lumps, I would say it was a terrific class.
We went to a local restaurant after class - the same one we usually hit after testing. I guess there were about 12 to 15 people there. It was nice, but I didn't stay too long. I had a bowl of soup, and took my cue for a drink from our dojo cho. He had a brandy manhattan - which I'd never heard of before last night. I'd always had my manhattans with whiskey and vermouth, never brandy and vermouth. I have to say I really, really liked it.
The only part that made me shrug my shoulders is how the waitress brought out our orders. Instead of looking at us as a group and thinking we all wanted to eat at the same time, those of us who ordered soup or salads, got our orders first. Everyone else sat there watching us eat. It wasn't until we were finished that she brought out the rest of the food. I don't get the thinking behind that. Why would I want my bowl of soup before the people sitting on either side of me got their hamburgers. It makes no sense. I guess that's why I never took a job as a waiter.
So back to the dinner. One of the members, who went to Japan recently and is aware of all the proper dojo etiquette collected some money from the rest of us, and bought gifts for our chief instructor - two really nice bottle of sake and a gift certificate to a local sushi place - and a bottle of wine for our dojo cho. I'm really glad about the second one. I heard last night that some students got gifts for the dojo cho on their own. I've thought about that in the past, but never had a clue about what to get, or even if that was the proper thing to do. This is my third year at the dojo, so I've only let two years go by wondering what to do. Anyway, I'm glad we got him something.
Then it was Sensei's turn to give us something. Two years ago we got a towel of sorts that he got from Hombu Dojo. It's a thin cotton cloth to be accurate, with kanji on it. I was told it said something about Aikido, and Hombu, and 2010. As a sweat towel, it's worthless, but I still want to frame it and put it up - maybe in my classroom. For that, it's completely cool. This year's towel is blue and it's a real towel. On one end it says AIKIDO in English. On the other end it says Aikido in kanji. It's also terry cloth, so it works at a towel. I'm going to put this one in my dojo bag and use it. Sensei mentioned that he saw Yakota Sensei from Hombu Dojo with the exact same towel when he was at the Midwest Aikido Center seminar a couple months ago. I was at the seminar on Friday night, but I didn't see a towel. It was nice to get something though. I left early (about 10:45), but it was a nice night and I'm glad I went.
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