Aikido in Mississauga, Ontario

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[Gabriel O'Brien]

Hi folks,

I'm in the process of moving from Ottawa to Toronto/Mississauga and I'm looking for a new dojo, wondering if anybody can give me recommendations with a bit of detail as to why they would recommend that dojo. I come from an ASU dojo (De-Ai Aikikai) and ideally would like something that's at least loosely in line with Saotome sensei's approach to Aikido, especially since in the mid-long term I intend to continue testing and training in the ASU.

I'm living in the west side of Mississauga and I work near Pearson so ideally I'd like to train somewhere in Mississauga, however if it's a matter of quality I've already come to grips with the idea of long commutes to train...

Thanks in advance!

cheers,
Gabriel

[Julian Straub]

Hi Gabriel,

Despite my obvious bias, an option that is available to you is that my teacher (T. Kimeda-sensei, Hachidan) runs a Yoshinkan club in Hamilton, which is not at all far from Mississauga.

Hamilton Aikido Club
Instructor: Sensei Takeshi Kimeda (8th Dan)
Classes: Tue./Thurs. 6:30-9:00pm, Sun. 12:30-1:45pm
www.aikido.ca

Best,

[tedehara]

The Toronto Ki Society is about half an hour away, if you are interested in a soft style. They are located in the Village by the Grange, so you need to contact them before showing up.

Contact info:
nobuyoshi@gmail.com
416.456.3279

Give it a try and see if it fits.

[Gabriel O'Brien]

LOL

Looks like I've hit both extremes (sorry for oversimplifying it). I apreciate your responses and I may look into it but I'm sort of looking for something that would run right down the middle of those two.

Honestly at the end of the day I'm mostly looking for somewhere that's convienient enough that I won't have trouble attending class regularly (my problem with the JCCC Aikikai) and that is training at a relatively high level of seriousness. Ideally I guess I would prefer a dojo that is affiliated with Aikikai Hombu Dojo too, but affiliations are somewhat secondary. At the end of the day I intend to continue my relationship with West sensei (my teacher in Ottawa) in some capacity so it would have to be a dojo where the head instructor was comfortable with that, I don't intend to do anything sneaky.

I've been forced to move to GTA for employment reasons and ideally I think I'd have just stuck it out at my old dojo! In fact I was pretty torn about the move because of this, but at the end of the day it's pretty damn hard to train if you don't have a roof over your head and shoes on your feet. :(

I realize you can't necessarily speak for your teachers, but can you tell me if it would be acceptable for me to potentially train on a casual basis there? I still haven't quite worked out the logistics of getting around in the GTA so I can't really commit to anything yet, just trying to figure out what my options are.

cheers,
Gabe

[roosvelt]

Honestly at the end of the day I'm mostly looking for somewhere that's convienient enough that I won't have trouble attending class regularly (my problem with the JCCC Aikikai) and that is training at a relatively high level of seriousness.



http://ca.geocities.com/aikido@rogers.com/

If you're comfortable with JCCC Aikikai, you may already know about Aikido Hokuryukai, which I believe it's not far away from Mississauga.

You may want to check it out.

[barnibis]

Hi Gabe,


I noticed that your last post was well.... quite some time ago, I was just wondeirng where you ended up.

After all there are sooo may clubs in T.O.


where are you now?


o..

[tedehara]

LOL

Looks like I've hit both extremes (sorry for oversimplifying it). I apreciate your responses and I may look into it but I'm sort of looking for something that would run right down the middle of those two.

Honestly at the end of the day I'm mostly looking for somewhere that's convienient enough that I won't have trouble attending class regularly (my problem with the JCCC Aikikai) and that is training at a relatively high level of seriousness. Ideally I guess I would prefer a dojo that is affiliated with Aikikai Hombu Dojo too, but affiliations are somewhat secondary. At the end of the day I intend to continue my relationship with West sensei (my teacher in Ottawa) in some capacity so it would have to be a dojo where the head instructor was comfortable with that, I don't intend to do anything sneaky.

I've been forced to move to GTA for employment reasons and ideally I think I'd have just stuck it out at my old dojo! In fact I was pretty torn about the move because of this, but at the end of the day it's pretty damn hard to train if you don't have a roof over your head and shoes on your feet. :(

I realize you can't necessarily speak for your teachers, but can you tell me if it would be acceptable for me to potentially train on a casual basis there? I still haven't quite worked out the logistics of getting around in the GTA so I can't really commit to anything yet, just trying to figure out what my options are.

cheers,
Gabe
As someone who has had an opportunity to try only a few Yoshinkan classes, I really liked them and think there is a lot to be learned from the curriculum. I guess you could label me as an extremist.

As far as the Toronto Ki Society goes, you need to contact them and see what they say.

I understand why you would like to test in the dojo you started in, but isn't the Aikikai rank "portable"? It doesn't matter what Aikido organization you got the rank in, but the rank itself comes from Aikikai and would be recognized by any dojo that is affiliated with it. I would think that you could practice in an Aikikai dojo and test in it also. I'm thinking you might inadvertently insult an instructor by offering to practice, but not test in their Aikikai affiliated dojo.

I'm not a member of Aikikai and could be speaking in total ignorance of the situation. You probably should make the round of the candidate dojos and see how you fit in. In any event, good luck in you choice.