Japan Friendship Seminar - A beginning

In 2006 i first met Hashimoto Sensei at a seminar by one of his teachers Oshima Sensei, since then he has returned to Australia several times to hold seminars in Brisbane and Melbourne making lots of friends. Over tea one night he expressed a desire to strengthen the links between Australia and Japan for Aikido and there was much discussion late into the night about the best way to do this across several organisations. In late 2008 Hashimoto Sensei sent a letter of invitation to join him in a friendship Seminar in rural Matsusaka Japan with a view to inviting a few organisations to participate in what might become a regular event. It was a happy out come that Master Koretoshi Maruyama and Michael Williams Sensei from Aikido Yuishinkai agreed to teach together with Minoru Oshima Sensei from the Kodokai Aikido and planning began in earnest.

With a few visits each way to fine tune the details and many many emails the friendship seminar was realised though the support of Aikido Yuishinkai Australia and many students who wanted to come to train to practice aikido it turned into a reality.

The seminar will be held in Matsusaka, Japan from May 2-4 and is followed by an optional cultural tour. The seminar website http://japan2010.ozaikido.com lists all of the seminar and cultural tour details for intending participants and some images. So far we have many aikido students from Australia and overseas gathering for the seminar together with a strong contingent from all over Japan.

With the seminar now just under a week ago this blog site has been setup for participants to post experiences, links for photos etc. too

As Hashimoto Sensei would say 'Let's have fun'

best wishes,
Danny