Gasshuku with Gleason Sensei

Last week we had a very successful Gasshuku. Forgive the cliche', but for the few of us who have been training at the Chikyokan Dojo long enough, the experience was "like the good ol' days" as it has been about four years since Gleason Sensei last visited us for a weekend seminar. Sensei was very impressed with the turnout as this was probably the largest Gasshuku we ever had. He was also pleased with the amount of progress that this dojo has made since his last visit. Thanks to everyone who made the extra effort to clean the dojo before his arrival and to everyone who attended the seminar, especially those who made it through the entire weekend. Furthermore, our dojo would like to thank our friends from Canada (www.seikokan.com), Cleveland (http://pages.prodigy.net/clevelandaikikai/), and Columbus (www.aikidoschool.org) for visiting and training with us. And of course, a special thanks to Gleason Sensei for his brilliant teaching and demonstrations. We sincerely hope that he will return to our humble dojo on a regular basis.

Gleason Sensei and Jay Sensei are continuing to conduct the special Okugyo retreats. The next one will be held at Vermont on April 23-27. There is another retreat to be held here at Ohio from July 30 to August 3. For more information, please visit the Shobu Okugyo website at www.shobuokugyo.com.

And for those who still can't get enough of Gleason Sensei, you can purchase his book The Spiritual Foundations of Aikido at our dojo store or his video Aikido and Japanese Sword at http://www.shobu.org/DVD.php

And now here are the photos from that weekend.

After the first class on Friday night, we went out to Sakura, a hibachi-style Japanese restaurant in Toledo.










After a few Guinness and Ichiban beers and some sake served in a pink bottle(?), we decided it was Bob's birthday. And so the restaurant staff came, sang him a song, and gave him a birthday cake. Banzai!!!




Okay, now here are the photos from the mat. I tried to get some good action shots, but it was difficult when you don't have the type of camera that Roy uses. (http://roykatalan.blogspot.com/)