Greetings from Finland

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[Lari Hammarberg]

Yuki ni oowa reta finrando kara no go aisatsu. (hehe, i hope it's correct? ;) )

Let me introude myself, my name is Lari Hammarberg, born 23.1.1984, i've lived all my life here in South Karelia, Finland in a small town alled Imatra. As my profession i could say i'm self taught semi-professional musician and a drummer. I have many interests and hobbies in my life, most of those have to do with music, art, esoteric knowledge, learning, meditation and so on. I'm also very much into ancient history.

As my hobbies i do some metal and wood works, i've built some traditional instruments, medieval armours etc. I love nature, fishing and so on. Music is bigger than a hobby to me, its a calling, a job(unpaying one to be honest.) and one of the things i'll probably do till the end of my days.

As a person i'm kind, talkative and most of the time very open minded and willing to learn new things and to meet new people. I could ramble a lot about myself here, but you'll find out more later on if you feel like it. ;)

Then i'll tell what brought me to Aikido and to this forum. (Skip if you feel bored, it's a looong story.)

My interest in history and ancient cultures quite naturally drew me to medieval history of europe and asia, and to history of warfare. Since i was a little kid i've had a everlasting love to swordfighting, ninjas and knights, armours and castles, all of it. I guess many here know what too much of historical stuff, Ginga Nagareboshi Gin and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles does to a boy? :D Must to have wooded swords and to fight with friends and stuff. Well, i love it. Having an older brother who has a lot of experience with european fencing and Aikido, friends who do LARP, thus free swordfighting etc. really good me hooked with no way back.

So i always have had this little spark of thought, maybe i will start doing some for of budo some day.. When i was kid, i was too occupied with school, friends and other stuff, i really didnt give budo much though, when i was teenager, i was way too lazy for anything like that. Now when i'm a bit older, things have changed, no school, music and band goes by normally, my civilservice for finnish state is done, i'm officially unemployed so, heck why not!

Only problem i had was that my experience of life this far and lot of studying warhistory has made me into a pacifist.. Not exaclty anti-war but rather pro-peace. And knowing the violent and warlike history of almost all budo made it a hard decission for me. Not that i'm against anything else than Aikido, but it seems other styles are not my way as a whole.

Thanks to my bro i was already somewhat aware about the Aikido philosophy and more i find out, the more it seems like this might just be THE thing that i have to do. It is still MARTIAL art, it has contact, there's swords training, seems to be very efficient exercise and so on. And one thing i like is that people say Aikido is quite hard to learn and takes time to pratice, good, i like chanllenges! And i know what it takes to learn and pratice things that take years or decades to master. Drumming is kind of art whih takes long time to became even decent in and it's never perfect, there's always new stuff to learn. Same seems to be the case with Aikido. All this combined with the great philosophy and goal seems to be the thing i must do.

So here i am, as a newbie and very eager to find out about the world of Aiki, i just some days ago called a local Dojo and i'm heading to my first class tomorrow evening. And i tell you what, i havent been this excited in a long time! Last week or so i've been reading about Aikido non-stop, i even doug up my old training sword and have been streching and practicing posture and basic sword techniques for last couple of days... (My darn joints and muscles are burning now..)

Ok, thatäs about it. Please come here to talk, i'd be honoured to get to know some of you who started this journey before i did. :) I just cant get enough of the information here...

Tomorrow is my big day, i'll let you all know how it goes. By the way, it's very nice to see there are people of all ages at all levels of experience, gives me hope and confidence that i will do well. Darn it, if a 70 year old can learn and handle Aikido, then can i as well. ;)

Doumo arigatou gozaimashita, in advance.

Lari

[akiy]

Hi Lari,

Welcome to AikiWeb and thank you for your introduction. Let us know how your first day in aikido goes.

-- Jun

[Lari Hammarberg]

Arigatou, Jun, for your reply, i thought nobody was going to say hello at first. :D

Get ready for a long ramble about it, i'm very excited, cant wait for tomorrow night..

[grondahl]

Hyvää ilta.

I hope it goes well tomorrow and welcome to Aikiweb, there are a few swedish and danish members here but no finnish (at least not as I can remember).

[Lari Hammarberg]

God kväll, som tillhör Sverige? :)

Nice you came to say hi Peter. No Finns here? Am i the first Finnish person to register here? Now that's a surprise.. There's quite lively Aikido community here as far as i know.. Strange, we need more Finns with their "sisu" here. ;)

I have a gut feeling it will be fun, i know something about techniques(specially with swords) and ant wait to have a talented teacher to guide me. I happen to have some balance problems and it seems Aikido works wonders for it. =)

[Lari Hammarberg]

Oh, i noticed at least two posters with Finnish names, they might live abroad then... :)

Whoaa, this flow of information on the forums here, how can i possibly absorb all this new knowledge.. ;)

[ninjaqutie]

Welcome! Good luck with your first class. You will have to let us know how it goes. :D

[Lari Hammarberg]

Hei Ashley, thanks for your reply.

I will tell you guys and gals everything. :D I'm sure i'll be satisfied, even more enthusiastic and probably have really sore and practice aching body, but thats what it takes.

I actually wish for this Dojo to have tough training, i've been sitting on my ass for too long. I consider heavy metal drumming to be very physical and tiring, but the darn thing just works on limbs and breathing.

By the way, the Dojo im going to practice with is a small local one, Lappeenrannan Aikidoseura Asahi ry. They have some approx 30 people there, what would you more experienced people think, is it good to pratice in rather small dojo, or at one with more people?

I'm lucky to have this dojo just in next town, and hour drive there, and they have practice in my town too, two times a week. They have practice for adults five days a week.

I think, i'll attend at least 3 days week or more if i get a ride..

This seems to become into a real talk, i think i'll make a new thread for newbie talk elsewhere. :)