It was a pretty awesome weekend. While visiting some friends in Chicago we all got to attend the Seiso Aikido Organization’s Friendship Seminar. We meet and trained with a bunch of great Aikidoka in IL, and more importantly got to meet a bunch of great people that I hope to get to train with again.
That has got to be one of the best parts of the martial arts – when you show up at a dojo you are going to meet a bunch of martial arts nerds. It doesn’t matter what country you are in, or where you are from, you instantly have this huge thing in common. Looking at the picture of me from the end of the day I am not sure I would have let myself on the mat, but they were very welcoming.
Come to think of it, that’s actually how I met Phil, Belinda, and Dusty in the first place, at a martial arts training camp. Then here we are a few years later meeting up to catch up and train. It is funny how many of my friends I have made while I was trying to stab them!