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Old 09-22-2002, 11:47 AM   #1
Gri
 
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Dojo: Fukushinkan Dojo
Location: Athens
Join Date: Sep 2002
Posts: 10
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Introduction (that's original)

Hi y'all.

This is Grigoris from Greece. I've been studying aikido since May 2001 although I've been couch studying since 1977 or something (this is probably what my aikido teacher means when he says "you're too intellectual"). Our flavour is SSTA (my teacher was Toyoda sensei's student) although after Toyoda's death we became affiliated with the UK Aikikai and our syllabus is part ki exercises/tests, part Aikikai techniques, part weapons.

Other aikido related activities are Aikido-L -I've been on it for about a year- and the translation of one book about aikido (John Stevens' "The Shambhala guide to Aikido" if you must know) in Greek. Seeing part of the aikido online action is here, I thought I'd register at last -AikiWeb was always a personal favourite and I still don't believe the heights Jun has reached with it- and when he decided to give away a t-shirt it was the spark I needed.

IRL, I work as a journalist covering the Internet for various papers and mags and as a translator. As for training, I practice in Fukushinkan, a metro area dojo (in downtown Athens) and I try to squeeze at least ten hours of practice every week (2h/d-5d/w). I usually manage it and add a couple of seminars as well. For the moment I'm checking purely for academical purposes koryu stuff (mostly iai/ken). One day, when my aikido is passable I think I'll try my hand in something like that as well. FWIW I did Shotokan for a couple of years back in 1986 and also tried Tai Ch'i for a couple of months -I prefer aikido <g>.

I guess that's enough for now. Take care and train.

Gri
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