Part 4 can be found here: http://sueniaidokyudo.blogspot.com/2011/09/welcome-part-4-of-6.html
July - 2010 was also our first year visiting Thunder Bay and the Tribe family. With roughly 120,000 residents, the city is nestled along the north shore of Lake Superior, and is not far from the border to the state of Minnesota. Due to its proximity to large expanses of water, forests and the hills and mountains of the Canadian Shield, the locals enjoy a very active lifestyle and fondness with nature.
Eric Tribe (Iaido Renshi 6 Dan, Jodo 5 Dan) and his wife Christine moved up from the Greater Toronto Area almost two decades ago and, over the years, have been able to establish a small, yet tight Iaido and Jodo following. His club, the Rai Un Kai, hosts an Iaido seminar every fall or winter, with instruction from Ohmi Sensei. As we have always enjoyed conversations with Eric at the annual Guelph Seminar, and with the promise of good friends, Iaido training, and hiking, we couldn't think of a better way to spend a summer weekend.
We had an incredible time thanks to the Tribe family for being such good hosts!
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| Rai Un Kai, Thunder Bay |
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| Mount McKay, Thunder Bay |
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| Tribe backyard, Thunder Bay |
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| Ohmi Sensei building a Dam |
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August - It seems this year would also be one of travelling to the same place twice. After an exciting trip in January to the GNEUSKF Iaido seminar in Newark, NJ, we decided to make another visit down to Manhattan and train with our friends at the Ken Zen Institute and Shidogakuin. While it is not in my genes to brave the 750 kilometers by car in the winter time, the nine hours it takes to drive down is actually quite pleasant in early August.
The weather was excellent, and when we weren't walking our feet off site-seeing, we had great company to talk to and delicious food to eat.
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| Ken Zen Institute, New York |
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| Shidogakuin, New York |
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October - The annual Rai Un Kai seminar with Ohmi Sensei was held on the third weekend of October. After the time we had in July, there was no way we were missing out on another chance to visit. The turnout this year was much smaller due to various scheduling conflicts and the poor economy. Those who were able to attend took full advantage of the low instructor-student ratio and still had a blast catching up with Pam and Liz, also from southern Ontario. Overall, the agenda was pretty much the same as the 2011 seminar that I wrote about here: http://sueniaidokyudo.blogspot.com/2011/10/2011-rai-un-kai-iaido-seminar-thunder.html
December - An annual tradition at the Aikido Yoshinkan of Canada dojo in Toronto is to hold a "Toshi-Koshi Keiko", or New Years celebration class. After a brief practice, each rank performed an embu. From there, the food comes out and the party begins ^_^
Unfortunately, all memory and evidence of the events to follow were wiped clean. =P
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| Aikido Yoshinkan of Canada, Toronto |
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