Half-Year of Living, Practicing and Sweating in Japan
Kevin Ahrlind Hideki
A half year has already flown by and now I’m sitting on thetatami of Tokorozawa dojo with my laptop in front of me. I getshocked but also amazed everytime I look back on this journey.
Before becoming a uchideshi I heard the stories about theeveryday practicing, with the 5 hours sleep and the long never endingdays. These kind of stories that my sempais told me got me allinterested in going to Japan to try it, because it sharpens once aikido,
body and soul they said. But for me it was not only all about the practicing thatmattered and how good you could become as an aikidoka, for me it was also about
going and living in Japan as a conscious human being. The reason why I use the word
conscious is because I was born and lived in Japan for a total of 6 years. But it's not
something that I really remember to well of, so to be able to come to Japan as anadult and see but also understand how people and society works felt like a once in a
lifetime opportunity, and to do it now when i'm fairly young 20 year ish is better thandoing it when i'm 40 or 50 years old.
So anyway, the first day I came to tokorozawa dojo I met the head uchideshi
Lin and the other uchideshis Franco and Melissa they taught me how to sweep thetatami clean things and so on. And I got amazed by how much cleaning we had to doand when Franco said “Me and Melissa are gonna leave next week” I felt like, how
am i supposed to do this all alone, cleaning, cooking food etc. But it turned out fineafter few weeks and the more time passed the more I started to understand how things
worked with the cleaning but at the same time I realized that there where always newplaces to clean and new things to learn.
Sleep was also something that was difficult to get in the beginning especially at
tokorzawa, because the train on the Siebu shinjuku line that passes by every now andthen. So in the start I always woke up and stayed up late because of the trains thatpassed by which made my sleep less. But with time I got use to it and it stopped
bothering me after awhile. And my sempais that only said that 5 hours sleep was
everything one would get turned out to be false in a way because sometimes you
could get sleep between the classes which was nice as well.
But after the first two weeks of learning adapting to the surrounding I started tofeel more comfortable with myself and the people around me. So instead of think
how I should clean and in what way I should help sensei that just went to auto modeand I didnt have to stress in the same way so I could relax and at the same time I
became friends with the members of kobayashi dojo and we would spend time
together eating lunch, dinner sometimes together etc.

With the other uchideshis and members of Aikido Kobayashi Dojo

The training schedule was very tight and as uchideshi you are busy all the time,
it was keiko everyday except mondays, normally I used to go to aikido hombu dojo inshinjuku and sweat there as well. But sometimes sensei would take us out on a trip
somewhere which were very nice and sometime we uchideshi or friends would dosomething together. Someday I was juststaying in the dojo all day because oflack of sleep but overall Mondays areimportant as recovery day for uchideshi.
But more that the regularuchideshi routines I had the chance toexperience some unique thing while I
stayed in Japan. We uchideshi could
follow Kobayashi soshihan to theministry of defence in Japan to see all
Japan self defence force aikido
Dojocho took us to Koma shrine and after that
we went to a nearby onsen
demonstration which not many people
don't get access to.
And some of my swedish friends came to Japan, some for work but some foraikido practice so during my time in Japan I could also maintain my swedish but also
hang with people I knew since before.

I did also turn 20 in Japan meanwhile
I was doing uchideshi and I had the honour
to put on a kimono and take some seijin
pictures. Seijin means adult in japanese andwhen a person turns 20 no matter the sex
normally takes a photo while posing withkimono as sign of becoming mature.
Thanks to the Kobayashi family I had thehonour to have a once in a lifetime
opportunity like this fulfilled and im very
Just Outside of the Ministry of Defence
Headquaters
greatful. When I showed the pictures toKobayashi soshihan he laughed and said “You look young, must be your brother!”
Now when i’m sitting here thinking about what changed me most is probably
my view on sleep and tiredness that has changed a lot. Before I used to think that I
always needed 8 hours of sleep to keep up with school, work or normal life. But withthe uchideshi experience it has given me a new understanding that sometimes when
you get 4-5 hours sleep you can still keep going if you’re devoted and motivated. OfCourse you’re tired but still somehow it shows that no matter how few hours yousleep you can keep going. Maybe not forever, but still Its feel good to know that mybody worked well with few hours of sleep.
But probably I won't be sleeping 4-5 hours during the night when I get home toSweden but it feels good to know what your body can do.
The other thing that probably changed is my mind or how I work as a person I
can now work better under stress and see different things around me, like splitvision.
That you can be concentrating on one
thing, but do another at the same time but
also understand what people want before
they show or speak. And these are thingthat I hope that I will bring back toSweden so I can use that in everyday life.
But at last the most important thing that I
will be bringing back to sweden is thejapanese norms and culture, how thingworks, but also, how people work,
everything from what's happening outside
Some of my Swedish friends Helga, Magnus
on the street to things happening on theand Nicklas. Magnus stayed in Japan fortatami. It can be small thing from pouring three months, practiced a lot meanwhile
beer for someone else to letting someone
teaching at Tokyo University, and also took
his 3rd dan test.
get of the elevator off first, like everyday

happenings. And as an conclusion I hope that I’ve become a better person, a personthat understand different situations and how you can handle them in different ways
according to the society.
Lastly I want to sincerely say thank you to Kobayashi soshihan and Hiroaki
dojocho for letting me experience the uchideshi life these past 7 months, thanks to themusubi kikin I received. I would never been in Japan for a long time without themusubi kikin so from the bottom of my heart thank you. And also thank you
Koyanagi sensei, Kasahara sensei and all the other teachers and all the members at
Kobayashi dojo for showing your hospitality and support. Without your help I would
never been here thank you. Thank you.
この 7 ヶ月間お世話になりました。心から感謝いたします。本当にありがとうございました。