new member from russia

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[Aleks Sizikov]

hello! zdravstvuite! ciao! merhaba! gamarjobat! selam!

hope everyone is doing fine and is in good health!!

have been stopping by this web site for a couple of years but never got to register, for some reason.

i have been doing Aikido for only about three years but cannot imagine now how i used to not have to go to a practice every evening..

i live in st. petersburg, russia. before coming here with my parents in 1992 i lived in germany and central asia (anyone from shimkent here?). in 1999 i went to the states for a year-long university exchange and stayed in new york state (st.lawrence university). besides upgrading my english i also learned some georgian there and made friends with people from all over the world (argentina through japan).

right now i am close to finishing grad school and looking for a job.. will maybe sign for official photography classes as this is one of my ways to express myself and share my vision of the world, something i am not very good at when using words. ironically enough, languages are my passion as well. i speak english and german plus i have some knowledge of italian, norwegian, georgian and turkish. since last year i have been learning japanese as i want to eventually go to japan.

Aikido.. i try to practice it at all times meaning that i view it as a way of life and not only sweating on the tatami. it's hard but the practice is in the attempts, i think. at least, that's how i see it for myself.

happy spring to all!

[akiy]

Hi Aleksandr,

Thank you for your introduction and welcome to the AikiWeb Forums! Please tell us more about aikido in Russia if you get the chance.

-- Jun

[Michael Bravo]

There's lots of Aikido in Russia, and even in St.Petersburg in particular. I don't know where exactly Alexandr trains, judging from the general popularity patterns, probably one of the Aikikai dojos. Me, I'm Yoshinkan :) not that it matters, it's still Aikido. Just to illustrate the activities, we have just recently had a seminar led by Kenji Nakazawa, 5th dan, and if all goes well, in June Ando Sensei is coming for a seminar - it's a great honor, and a wonderful opportunity to learn.

I will be putting photos from the last seminar at http://mbravo.spb.ru/gallery/aikido and http:/yoshinkan.spb.ru/ soon (this weekend, in fact, so check it Monday, if you are interested).

[markwalsh]

Hello,

Welcome. Trained with many Russians/ Ukranians who come to England each year, and had many good experiences.

Happy Spring indeed,

Mark

[taras]

Hi there!

Glad to see another Russian member on this forum. Originaly I am from St.Petersburg too, although now I live in England. I started doing Aikido in Lenkai dojo under Chernyaev Sensei.

Where do you train?

[hopparn]

Dobre utra
I am from sweden and i regulary visit st petersburg for seminars, i have actualy been to the lenkai dojo (we rent it every january for a seminar with Takemori Sensei). I think i am going back for the weekend in november to have a small seminar with our dojos headinstructors and i cant wait to get there :)

I really love st petersburg and i think all the aikidokas that we meet on our seminars is just wonderful =)

best regards
Patrick from Uppsala

[kocakb]

merhaba komşu (neighbour) :)
welcome to aikiweb and happy training...

regards,
Bülent