Now it is not many days left until this great seminar weekend in STHLM. This is our last reminder!

We have plenty of places left if you haven't signed up yet. Please sign up on our web site if you want to join us, but please pay the fee when you arrive! We only accept Swedish money, not euro. The cost is 600 SEK for one day, or 1000 SEK for both days, including the extra trainings.

You can read the following info on the web site to, but I'll copy and paste the most important information here...

Wednesday, Duncan arrives from a successful seminar in Copenhagen, before that he was in Hellsinki. We haven't planned any training on this evening, I was thinking of taking him out in STHLM city in the evening. If you want to join us, please contact me.

Thursday, I have my regular class at 19:30-21:00 in Kaigozan dojo, if Duncan is up for training he will join me and help, if he decides to rest you can train with me if you're in town early. Sometimes we go to Bishops Arms after training for a few beers, maybe it happens this time to?

Friday extra class 13:00-18:00
This will be in our dojo, Albygatan 117 in Sundbyberg. This extra training will be taught by all the Judan that is present including me and Duncan. I don't know exactly who is coming but I hope all the local ones will come at least? Anyway, we will share the teaching these five hours with a few shorter tea breaks. For a theme this day we said we will do Kihon Happo. It will probably be both basic and advanced, a perfect opportunity to see each instructors take on the basics. It is free for everyone attending the seminar (and Judan's), all others have to pay 200 SEK.

Saturday Seminar 11:00-18:00
The seminar is not in our dojo, it is in a Solna Judo dojo about 10 minutes walking distance from our own dojo. The address is Ankdammsgatan 23 in Solna. Note, it is kinda between the houses, you see the sign from the street.
We will open up the dojo for registration and warm up around 10:15, the training will start at 11:00 and finish at 18:00. There will be one 60 min lunch break in the middle somewhere. There is not so many restaurants close by, I advice that you bring something with you. I was planning on ordering pizza delivered to the dojo (keep your ears open in the morning).

Saturday Dinner 19:30
There is a nice Thai restaurant close to the dojo, maybe it is open (keep your ears open saturday morning).

Sunday Seminar 11:00-15:00
We will open up around 10:15, and the training starts at 11:00 and finishes 15:00 same place. Note that we will not have a longer lunch break, only shorter breaks, so bring a sandwich or something to fill up with energy. I plan to take Duncan out for early Dinner before he board the boat to Hellsinki, if you want to join you are welcome.

Accomodation
If you come earlier than Saturday morning and want to sleep in the dojo (which is free), then it is  in our dojo you can sleep thursday and/or friday night. Saturday night you can sleep in the seminar dojo if you want. If you are coming late thu or fri and can't make it to the training in time before we finish, please contact me early (I don't want to wake up and walk 15 minutes in the middle of the night if I'm not prepared).

Hotel
There are many hotels (more) around Stockholm you can stay at, some may be fully booked this late. If you want to stay close we recommend Solna Park Inn (ask for discount, say that you are with Kaigozan Kampsportcenter), it is 10 minutes walk through the park to the seminar, or 20 minutes walk to the dojo. There is also busses, 119, 509. 515 click here! Click on the following link to the official Stockholm tourist guide... http://beta.stockholmtown.com/en/

If you are not familiar with the territory, please print out maps or addresses etc.
More info on our web site... http://www.kaigozan.se/seminars/2010-04-03/

See you soon!

Mats Hjelm - Kaigôzan dôjô

_____,_               In body there exists no soul
    (o/            The mind  is not real  at all
     V           Now try on me thy flashing  steel
    / >      As if it cuts the wind of Spring, I feel

Here is a trailer from the coming Daikomyousai 2009 DVD from Quest, yes that's me in the picture behind the guy in glasses, and Duncan Stewart as the Uke for Soke.

最後の実戦忍者高松寿嗣より古武道9流派を受け継ぎ、古の技を今に伝える現代の武神・ 初見良昭。その初見宗家の誕生日にちなくで開催される年に一度のセミナーが、大光明祭 である。その教えを求めて世界中から集まった高弟たちに、初見自ら武神館武術の奥義を 伝授するセミナーが大光明祭である。3日間にわたり行われるその模様を完全収録。20 09年11月30日-12月2日・東京。

Here is a rough translation of the above. Three day Kobudo seminar held by Masaaki Hatsumi Soke, the successor of the last Ninja, Takamatsu Sensei. People from the whole world attended. Complete recording of all three days. November 30, 2009 Dec 2, Tokyo.

This years theme is taijutsu with the feeling of rope, and also a little sword. It is still early to tell how the year will continue, I was there the first two weeks and it will of course change. It is stupid to think you can get the whole thing in just two weeks. As soke so often says, "nothing is decided." We should go along with what is given by the gods or spirits, not steal techniques or take something that is not given. If you train slowly and correct you should be able to sense what uke is giving you, if you go to fast your ego is directing you and you will not be able to see and use what is given to you.

Enlightenment can be found in three places. Under your feet, up in the space (heaven), and written on your eyelids. It is as simple as that. In our case that study Bujinkan it is as simple as Soke says. Go to japan and train with him, and train with those that do to keep yourself on the right path. So simple!

To become a master you need three things. Ability (what you are born with), soul (how much you put into the training), and openness (being open enough to take in all that is taught). There is also other words that can explain the kanji in other words, maybe even different. Look them up in a dictionary and read what others already explained on blogs and forums.

I wrote this in January already and just discovered it waiting to be posted. Sorry, but better late than never.

Soke asked us to spread the word that it is ok to send in donations for the new honbu dojo. I would suggest that each dojo-cho will collect money and donate it in the name of respective dojo.

He did the same thing to another uke until he was on the floor and then soke was pinning him down. He tried to escape the pain, move to a place where the pain would be less and he almost broke his fingers. Another uke said the pain was terrible (my words), and Soke said that the pain should not be so that the opponent tries to jerk out and try to escape, but it should be in such a way that the uke is too scared to move at all. I strongly belive to achieve that is beyond physical techniques, anyone can inflict pain (so please don't think inflicting more pain in a technique will cause this effect!). Soke also said that you should lock the person and make him feel secure, like you take care of him (like holding a pet and stroking it).

Well I won't go into more details here. When I get home I will try to upload some pictures to the kaigozan photo album. Next weekend I will be teaching a seminar in Istanbul, I hope you can be there... http://www.bujinkanturkey.com

The second class with Nagato sensei was simple movements in to good positions taking the balance and have a strong kamae to make the final technique strong. Not because you use power but because you put the opponent into a weak position and yourself into a strong position (same as Shiraishi sensei!). Then lightly apply the technique. The important point I think is to get into the technique so that you don't have to use so much power. My training partner this session was very stiff and rigid, he took my balance pretty good but when applying the technique there was no "koppo", no technique, just muscles against my stronger points and not the weak points, as if he didn't know how to do a gyaku. Very far away from what was being taught I think.

The third class was with Noguchi sensei. His classes is all about feeling and henka, he show the class something and get the training going and immediately show people henka of what he was just teaching, then he break the class and show something new. You have time to do the techniques two times each if you do it quickly. These training's is very intense and a lot of fun. This training my partner was pretty good and we had a lot of fun.

By being so critical I wondered if I should post this or not, but then it is my blog and why shouldn't I write what I feel. I hope there was some kind of insight.

Oh, yesterday I saw a few pages from the new book by Hatsumi Soke. It was just as I expected, text describing the techniques and not pictures describing the techniques as far as I could see. But there was many pictures, some I never seen before of Hatsumi Soke and also pictures of Takamatsu sensei I never seen before. The book was just a sample, and it will probably be ready in June.

Noguchi sensei showed the techniques in the beginning and Soke played along with variations. There was not much feeling I could pick up, no techniques I could relate to, so I don't know what to say about the training really. So I leave it there. The theme now is no theme at all, only feeling, how do you describe that?

Sorry this post serves no purpose at all, I just wanted to use band width .

Ganbatte kudasai!