May 15, 2024
This article summarizes Soke's visit to the members in Arlon, followed by their visit on our Japan headquarters.
For the first time since we started training online with Ichi Dojo in Arlon, Province of Luxembourg, Belgium and facing the difficulty of quarantine, Soke paid a visit to their dojo in April, 2024.
During our training with the members of Ichi dojo online every weekend, the web camera's inability to transfer spatial information had always been our concern, making us wonder if we were giving appropriate feedback over the video meeting. Therefore, Sensei and the members of Ichi dojo had several in-person training session during the stay in order to provide detailed lectures, as well as intensively giving feedback on each members' performance.
Over these face-to-face practices, we found that our online training was successful to a certain extent thanks to the extraordinary efforts of Ichi dojo members. Meanwhile, we also noticed that the in-person training with Soke on occasion will still be necessary for the precise development of Iaido skill, as long as we keep using the same video meeting system as our online training media. Thus, we became eager to keep developing a more efficient online training system for the members abroad!
The owner of Ichi dojo offered Soke a tour around his shop of Japanese martial art equipments, Samourai-Medieval. Although Soke had already inspected their aluminium training sword before, it was his first time to see the other equipments that were difficult to export to Japan.
Soke was surprised by the high quality of his products. If you are interested, you can visit his website!
During the trip, the members of Ichi dojo offered Soke and other members from Japan many opportunities to experience their culture.
Soke met the mayor of Arlon to introduce our activity, and exchanged the Japanese Sake (rice wine) with the local specialty of Arlon, Maitrank (flavored wine).
The tour also included the historical places in Arlon, Bastogne, and even other countries such as Luxemburg and Germany.
The city tour of Arlon introdoced us the long history of the place since the era of Treveri all the way through Roman conquests, the world wars and prosperity today.
The tour to Bastogne was carried out on the restored vehicle from the siege of Bastogne.
Soke could learn about the battle at the actual place, and also about the memorial events still carried on today.
Soke was also welcomed by our member's favourite shooting range.
As the city Arlon is at the edge of Belgium, Soke had a chance to visit the capital of Luxembourg and also Trier, the oldest city in Germany. Soke visited many historical sites including churches, Porta Nigra (an ancient gate) and also traditional restaurants.
Overall, Soke and other members from Japan enjoyed the great hospitality that the members of Ichi dojo had offered. It was certainly one of the most fulfilling days in our life with such amazing activities one after another. By learning our members' background abroad, we believe that our quality of training could furtherly improved to suit our different lifestyles.
After the journey, three of the Ichi dojo's members travelled to Japan to take the Kyu promotion exam. The exam was supervised by Soke and other skilled members in Japan. In the end, all the the examinees passed the test. Congratulations!
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