Quote:
Joe Curran wrote:
Dear Peter,
While you might find the prospect of a thousand people at a seminar where one man teaches the class,leaves you cold I bet the finance officer of the event will be thinking that Xmas comes more than once a year!!As an alternative for others why not visit some U.K summer schools, and the 1000 guys would get more for their yen, euros etc imo.?Hope you are well, Cheers, Joe
|
Hello Joe,
The large seminars are a feature of any training event that Doshu himself attends, especially when he travels abroad. In Japan, too, at IAF meetings, 800-1,000 tatami is the minimum number of mats required for people to train without being uncomfortably aware of bumping into people. My own view is that, in terms of seeing what Doshu is actually doing and teaching, such seminars are not at all useful. On the other hand, other aspects of such seminars have been mentioned, like being part of the crowd in a general papal audience. Visitors to Tanabe in 2008 generally enjoyed the experience, partly because Tanabe still has the atmosphere of a small country town, with the sea and mountains not far away. It all adds to the exotic flavour of doing aikido in Japan.
Best wishes,
PAG