Midwest Aikido Center's Autumn Seminar

October 7th & 8th 2006

By Kiyoshi Yasutake (Midwest Aikido Center)

The Midwest Aikido Center hosted its annual Autumn Seminar on the weekend of October 7th. Our guest instructor was Yoshiaki Yokota, Shihan from Hombu Dojo. Yokota Sensei was no stranger to the MAC. He previously visited the MAC on two other occasions. The first was in November of 1989 when he accompanied Nidai Doshu as his otomo for our 15th anniversary. The second was last year for the celebration of our 30th anniversary (with Yamada Sensei). It was during last year's celebration, that with Yamada Sensei's assistance, we were able to receive a commitment from Yokota Sensei for this year's seminar.

Yokota Sensei arrived on Wednesday prior to the seminar and graciously agreed to teach Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday's morning and evening classes. This pre-seminar treat was welcomed by the membership as an opportunity to not only receive additional excellent instruction from Yokota Sensei, but also be able to practice in less crowded surroundings than the anticipated crowded seminar practices. Our two day seminar in reality turned out to be a five day seminar for many of our members.

The seminar turn out was just shy of one hundred. There were three practices on Saturday and two on Sunday, all well attended. Yokota Sensei often explained, and demonstrated, the Aikido waza from the perspective of sword movements and kumitachi. With the excellent translation of one of our members, Yoshie Fujiwara, we were able to receive Yokota Sensei's in-depth explanations and teachings.

As with any Aikido seminar the final element that is vital for a truly successful seminar is the party. The food and drink were plentiful and consumed in large amounts (especially the beverages) -- a good time was had by all. Yokota Sensei told many stories of his experiences. For example, when he was in Chicago for our 15th anniversary Doshu and the Shihan were eating lunch when a local TV station showed up and requested a short demonstration to be used on the evening news broadcast. Doshu agreed. Yokota Sensei, having just eaten his own lunch and the leftovers that Doshu pushed onto his plate both, excused himself, went to the bathroom and purged himself so that he could take ukemi for Doshu. There were other stories, many very humorous, that he told us during the evening. Additionally, we are excited that Yokota Sensei has committed to annually being the guest instructor for our Autumn Seminar.

Finally, as with all events this seminar would not have been successful without the help of all of our members who attended to all of the details required for such an event. Without their help we would not have been able to host this seminar so successfully.