These past five years have been increasingly challenging for all of us. I have witnessed a number of crises in my life in several countries and what caught my attention is the effect of those crises on people and the resulting changes in their lives and their relationships. We assume that decades of budo study and practice would bring us peace of mind and composure, but it’s rarely the case, especially for those of us who have been solely concentrating on the technical part and have been neglecting training our minds. We easily lose our vision and make irreversible decisions that will make it impossible for that vision to reappear in the future.
The sign above the old Yoseikan Honbu Dôjô in Shizuoka, Japan, said Samurai Gakkô (samurai school). The three qualities a samurai was expected to cultivate were duty, loyalty and courage. Put together, those three qualities constitute honor, the expression of the deep internal confidence that we live by our principles, respect our parents, our teachers, maintain the lineage for the next generations, manage the consequences of our decisions –good or bad, and always maintain our vision of what is important, what ever happens.
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“The recording and preservation of the history of Aikido in a Hawaii is an important function of this site. The history of Aikido in Hawaii preserved through the input of many people. We are actively seeking pictures, narratives, recordings, and information regarding the various dojo and instructors in Hawaii. If you have historic information or documents, or would be willing to author articles or interviews related to the history of Aikido in Hawaii please contact us.”
Brian Kagen is an avid web researcher with a particular interest in martial arts. His training background includes both judo and aikido. He has contributed hundreds of article links over the years for AJ readers.
Ah, it is the end of the decade .. 2010 in another day or so, and I realize … we have traveled another decade further from O’Sensei, and we have lost even more of those people who had first-hand experiences with him.
“O Sensei believed in Ki, and he apparently talked and certainly wrote about it a lot. He did take a rather mystical approach to it, which can be rather hard to understand, and perhaps even harder to put to use in the actual practice of Aikido, let alone in daily life.”
The article below has been selected from the 
How do we impart knowledge in physical sense? How do you imbue a student with not only the information that is contained in a physical culture of budo, but also with the fully embodied realization of said information—knowledge made manifest in action? The answer is inevitably drills, drills and more drills. Repetition of the physical information (aka waza) and lots of it. In Budo training such drills come in a variety of shapes an sizes and go by a variety of names.
From the things you hear, one who did not know otherwise would be forgiven for imagining that there is aikido; and then there are other ways to do things; and each is restricted to its own box and way of doing things and woe betide anyone who dares to break out of the calcified, mould encrusted mold.
“Dabbling with the technical aspects of Aikido is like talking about art and then claiming that you are an artist. Sometimes you just have to stop playing around the edges, jump in and get your hands dirty.”
Stan, this is so good and so well articulated I could not really hope to improve upon the content. Whilst it is pointed at Judo it is entirely relevant to Aikido, since all pushes in combat are in fact faster and therefore strikes.
From the 
“When I first came to the United States, it was never a goal of mine to open a Japanese restaurant and when we opened, I had absolutely no experience working in a restaurant of any kind, either in Japan or the United States. The idea for a restaurant only came to me one day as I thought, “A restaurant would be a good way to attract people to the dojo to observe Aikido practice. This would be a great way to help introduce Aikido to the Denver community.”