new member from russia

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!

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

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).

Hello,

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

Happy Spring indeed,

Mark

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?

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

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

regards,
Bülent