Whenever I go abroad, I always take with me a keikogi and try to find new places in order to practice and meet people. In this respect, Aikido is truly an art of communication. I often write about these experiences and the following section regroups the resulting articles.
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| Aikido - Travels | | Written by Guillaume Erard | | Thursday, 30 June 2011 15:00 |  I often receive emails from people seeking information about practising at the Hombu Dojo. Unfortunately, I don't always have as much time as I would like in order to answer each of them properly so I thought I would try to address these issues formally in an article. For many practitioners of Aikido it is a dream to one day, have the chance to train the Aikido World Headquarters in Tokyo. Hopefully, this dream can eventually become a reality as more and more people travel each year to Japan in order to study at the AikikaiHombu Dojo for a few days, weeks, or even months. While some might be lucky enough to travel with a Sensei or a Sempai who knows the ins and outs of the place and who can act as a guide, others might make the trip on their own and for them. The prospect can be a source of great challenge and excitation but it can also be the cause of a few worries. Some of the most frequently asked questions are: where am I going to stay? What should I bring? How much does training cost? Which classes can I attend? What are the rules that I should be aware of?
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| Aikido - Travels | | Written by Guillaume Erard | | Monday, 19 May 2008 15:00 |  The beginning the month of May 2008 saw the realisation of a very old dream of mine. As far as I can remember, I have always been interested in Asian countries, in particular Japan, and always had the wish to travel there. The way things turned up, it ended up happening much later than I had hoped, at the age of 27 and after 12 years practising Aikido. In fact, things happened quite quickly and without me giving it much thought. A group of students from the Dublin Aikikai Aikido led by Cyril Lagrasta had been planning a trip to the Aikikai for some time and quite spontaneously, I ended up buying myself a ticket along with them, never mind my PhD thesis that I was supposed to be working hard at completing.
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| Aikido - Travels | | Written by Guillaume Erard | | Saturday, 30 June 2007 15:00 |  There are some days I really love my job. Apart from banging my head on the walls in my lab because of some non-working experiments, I do get to travel a bit for scientific meetings everywhere in the world. It is nice because I also get to meet individuals as miserable as myself and we discuss the conditions of our respective failures. I can already hear you say "but what does it have to do with Aikido?" Let me explain...
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| | Aikido - Travels | | Written by Guillaume Erard | | Tuesday, 20 May 2008 15:00 |  This is the second part of the series of articles on my first trip to Japan in May 2008. It is day two, the night has been short and full of surprises (not the least of which was an earthquake shaking their bed for a whole minute in the middle of the night) and our group is heading in jolly mood for its first practice at the AikikaiHombu Dojo.
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| Aikido - Travels | | Written by Guillaume Erard | | Monday, 02 July 2007 15:00 |  In a previous article I talked about my wanderings in San Diego (California) and described my time in Chiba Sensei's dojo. Always looking for new experiences, I decided to use the little free time I had within my tight conference schedule to train at the San Diego Aikikai. Indeed I could have given in to the relaxation, the sandy beaches and the sun of the Californian coast but instead I decided to take the "Trolley" (tramway that crosses the city from north to south) and put on my keikogi (which due to the infernal heat and the tough training, was starting to look rather miserable) once more. This time, my choice settled on the Jiai Aikido dojo, affiliated to Mitsugi Saotome Sensei's organisation, the Aikido Schools of Ueshiba.
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