Our uchideshi-life in Japan

The Hungarian Kobayashi Dojo's Federation had its 10th anniversary in 2006, and got a generous birthday present from the mother organisation: the travel and training costs for two Hungarian aikidoka (a male and a female) were to be paid by the Musubi Fund of Aikido Kobayashi Dojo, Japan. The names of the two lucky persons were randomly picked out of two hats, and it was the caprice of Fortune that a married couple was choosen - we:-)

Hereby we would like to express our heartfelt thanks to Kobayashi sensei and Hiroaki sensei for this great opportunity and for everything they did for us. We also thank our Hungarian aikido sensei, Szabó Balázs for his manifold help.

That time we both had practicing aikido for more than 10 years, and this way we managed to go to Japan for three months (from 10.02.2007-10.05.2007). As one of us (Feri) is an enthusiast amateur photographer, we decided to create and weekly refresh a homepage dedicated to our adventures. We wanted to share our experiences with as many members of the Hungarian Federation as we could, as we considered ourselves as representatives of the Federation, and we were aware of the fact that the birthday present was not meant to be our personal present;-). So we created and maintained this homepage in Hungarian, and after returning home we decided to translate it to English, as well. The translation took some time, but it is complete now.

Almost a year has been gone since our visit, and we would like to write several sentences about our overall conclusion and feelings. Regarding aikido practice or aikido technics, our approach has been totally changed by the Japanese experiences. We became aware of the importance of learning directly and personally from people who dedicated their lifes to teaching aikido. This is a special kind of parent-child connection called uchideshi (live-in student) which is still alive in budo - at least within Kobayashi Dojo. This seems pathetic or exaggerated, but true - we really were considered and treated as if we were children (in the good sense of the expression), and not only regarding aikido, but also in everyday life in Japan. This was sometimes a strange feeling for European people (as we are adults and we are used to be (over)autonomic;-), but a great one in a country that was unknown to us. So beyond the technical issues and problems, this way we discovered the importance of community and helpfulness in the aikido training, as well. Of course, technically we made some progress during those three months, and we are still progressing and trying to implement and practice things we learned over there. Put in a nutshell, the uchideshi life proved to be quite hard but still very pleasant and attractive (and useful:-) to us. And we would like to go again, of course...

About ourselves.
My name is Komsa Ildikó (Ildi). I was born in 1972 in Budapest, Hungary. I am a dietitian and actually I am studying at Semmelweis University again and I am on my last year at healthscience teacher course. Besides these I am a teacher of dietetics, phytotherapy and anatomy/physiology at a company. Main hobbies: hiking, singing and holding the flashgun for Feri while taking pictures:).
My name is Köteles Ferenc (my nick is Feri or Feca, as surname is the first part in Hungarian), i was born in 1969 in Budapest, Hungary. I took a master's degree on biology in 1995 and one on psychology in 2007. I am a teacher of phytotherapy and human anatomy/physiology at a company, and currently i am also a PhD-student at ELTE University, Budapest. My hobby (besides practicing aikido) is photography, mainly plant photograpy.

Komsa Ildi Köteles Feri

And let's see the pictures now!