Last Sunday was the 2017 Spring Grading at the Aoyama Dojo. The day
started with kids testing in two sessions based on age groups. It was so exciting to
watch and very moving to feel all the emotion coming from kids cheering loudly.
Seeing kids trying so hard for their next belts and to improve is very
motivating and it’s even more wonderful to see them when they are well behaved.
In the afternoon we had
the adults grading and that also was very exciting. We had nice surprises from
the performances of many students. As Yamaguchi-Sensei predicted, there were many nice surprises from students trying out.
Thank you to
Yamaguchi-Sensei again who is always putting his heart and soul into helping us
improve when in and outside the dojo. He is always guiding with powerful
expressions especially that of ‘Sei Ippai’ which means of course doing your absolute best no
matter what. Not only does he say this to us - he leads it best by example.
