{"id":2887,"date":"2010-12-27T17:20:58","date_gmt":"2010-12-27T22:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aikidocenterofjacksonville.com\/blog\/?p=2887"},"modified":"2010-12-30T16:56:54","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T21:56:54","slug":"i-nya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aikidocenterofjacksonville.com\/blog\/2010\/12\/i-nya\/","title":{"rendered":"I ♥ NYA"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a love letter to New York Aikikai.<\/p>\n

My fondest Aikido memories\u2014the lessons I remember best, the stories I think most about\u2014all begin in New York. I don’t think it an exaggeration to say that my first visit to the dojo eight years ago transformed me. It was, in a very direct and practical sense, my first real exposure to this wonderful martial art.<\/p>\n

Recently Dee and I returned from their Christmas seminar, after a short week training. Of course for Dee, New York Aikikai is a family reunion. For me, however, it’s something else: a glimpse perhaps, at the possibility<\/em> of Aikido, when practiced at an exceptional level. I’ve experienced this before, at other seminars<\/a>, and I’m always left astounded.<\/p>\n

And of course we saw Tonya test for shodan.\u00a0For her, I’d imagine the seminar to be an ending of sorts, as well as a new beginning. I remember well<\/a> when she first stepped onto the mat, and then later, her adventures as an uchi deshi. To her, Sensei and I wish a warm congratulations.<\/p>\n

But it’s more than that. New York Aikikai is more than that.<\/p>\n

In my mind’s eye, when I picture my Aikido self, my idealized sense of me as a martial artist, I see myself with Dee, leading me up that narrow staircase, the\u00a0sound of bodies crashing in the distance.<\/p>\n

That’s<\/em> what New York Aikikai means to me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a love letter to New York Aikikai. My fondest Aikido memories\u2014the lessons I remember best, the stories I think most about\u2014all begin in New York. I don’t think it an exaggeration to say […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,15,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jerry","category-new-york-aikikai","category-seminars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aikidocenterofjacksonville.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aikidocenterofjacksonville.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aikidocenterofjacksonville.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aikidocenterofjacksonville.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aikidocenterofjacksonville.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2887"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/www.aikidocenterofjacksonville.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2996,"href":"https:\/\/www.aikidocenterofjacksonville.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2887\/revisions\/2996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aikidocenterofjacksonville.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aikidocenterofjacksonville.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aikidocenterofjacksonville.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aikidocenterofjacksonville.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}