Saturday morning was not the typical Misogi breathing class. Instead it was an action packed two hours of practice with about 15-20 minutes of Ki breathing, culminating in an excellent 5th kyu test by Laura Rosenbloom.

When I arrived at the dojo 30 minutes prior to class, there were a few aikidõka sitting on the tatami stretching out. Butch and Glenn greeted me warmly from the edge of the mat. As always I felt a sense of pride walking into the dojo as if I were walking into my own home and being welcomed by family. I could definitely feel a buzz of excitement in the air.

The only question lingering on my mind would be how many students would arrive to take part in the special class. At this point there were only a few people as far as I could see, and I knew of several that were not going to make it due to being on vacation.

After suiting up I joined the others on the mat and began to stretch myself out. One by one, more people entered the dojo door. Todd Kupper, 4th dan, better known as Taddo by Sensei and his friends started to go over the schedule of events with Butch, Glenn, and myself. I was glad to see the mat start filling up with ready and eager practitioners.

Todd clapped his hands and beckoned us all to sit seiza. We did the traditional bowing to the kamiza, and bowing to the instructor. Then Todd explained that for proper ki meditation, we needed to forget about all the outside influences, and concentrate on our breath. If we had problems at home, work, school, etc. we had to let them slip out of our mind. He began the breathing techniques with a clap of the wooden blocks. For the next 15-20 minutes the only noises made were from everyone’s exhaling (”HA”) and inhaling (”SU”) breaths.

After breathing exercises, Todd led us through warmup calisthenics, and then offered the class to Butch to go over shihonage tenkan technique. I had the privilege of going over the irimi variety of the technique. After a little practice of each, the bell tolled for Laura. The instructors congregated at the shomen, and students made room in the middle by sitting at the edge of the mat. Laura stepped into the spotlight and went through her test with astounding vigor and authority. There were even a few chuckles as she forced Charlie to the ground for her finishing arm pins.

After Laura’s well executed test, we took a small water break and continued with class. Todd showed a few techniques, and then turned it over to Jim O’brien, Glenn Needs, Nancy Demasi, and myself to show a technique.

At the conclusion of class, I could sense the overwhelming feeling of satisfaction from everyone’s demeanor. The class, test, and breathing was time well spent for all who participated. This set the stage for some well deserved rest and relaxation at the castle, a rowing club house on Kelly drive that Butch utilizes as part of his club membership benefits.

Most of us from class drove down to the castle. Upon walking in the kitchen doors we were greeted by an enormous BBQ pig that was smoked in South Philadelphia, and delivered by Butch. There was a sicilian style pizza to accompany the shredded pork sandwiches and an amazing pork broth cooking on the stove. As far as beverages, we had Alan’s magic mango juice, Tommy’s wine, soda and of course beer.

As some of us ate in the kitchen, others reclined on the front porch. One thing was sure, we all enjoyed each other’s company. As we sat there spinning the yarn and telling tales, laughter could be heard from every room. At a certain point Jim O’brien, and Ralph Pillischer showed up to add more fuel to the “party” fire. Unfortunately, shortly after was the point that I needed to leave for home.

Luckily for anyone who missed, Butch is planning another similar event some time in the fall. There will be a larger group of lower ranking tests at the dojo followed by a pig roast at the castle.

Namasté, Samurai J

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Friday June 20, 2008, The Expedition Begins:

It was not by chance that I chose to lead this great group of people into the wilderness on this midsummer day. I chose June 20th because it was the summer solstice and the longest day of the year. Of course I was also hoping that June would supply us a dry and rainless climate to make the experience more enjoyable. Unfortunately, the weather forecast was not living up to my expectations.

What else could go wrong I thought???

Just the day before, my transmission died on my Jetta leaving me car less for the journey. I couldn’t get a hold of Tommy to get him directions, Ben was M.I.A., Paul’s tent size was an unknown variable (i.e. the original tent we were going to use had no roof) and we were off to a late start with the weather against us. Well, I’m glad to say that things started getting better as soon as our caravan set off.

We arrived in the town of Easton at approximately 2:30 p.m.
Many of us missed breakfast and lunch so we decided to make a pitstop and find somewhere to get a little snack. We ended up at Phenom Thai restaurant just down the street from Drinky’s bar jutting off the town circle.

We stopped at a wine store to grab some last minute camping essentials and then entered the restaurant.

Within a second after sitting down at the outside atrium table, I unfortunately, BROKE the FROG!!!!!!

My wine bottle knocked into the motley wall ornament of porcelain, metal and marble, causing it to shatter in half with a resounding crash. Luckily the owner would rather have our money for lunch, and did not push the issue, although Paul was trying to egg them on. Needless to say we took the top half of the frog to be our mascot for the remainder of the trip. In the end, Paul was going to adopt it to replace his Xmas tree star topper this year, so the poor broken frog was saved.

Finally, we made it to the KOA East Stroudsburg campsite!

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It was getting late and the sky was starting to dim a little. I was getting a little anxious to get the tents up and to hang the giant tarp that Chris and I dubbed Valhalla (Old Norse Valhöll, “Hall of the Slain”). If you remember in Old Norse mythology, Valhalla was the hall of the gods that was said to be so wide that 800 warriors could walk through side-by-side. The plan as always is to hang this enormous tarp over the picnic tables, food tent and campfire/sitting area so that if it rains we can still enjoy the outdoors.

Paul watched in bewilderment as we tried to slingshot the ropes tied around rock anchors over tree limbs to hoist this beast of a roof into the sky. He wasn’t too happy we were sleeping on lightly graveled ground, and I think this added to his frustrations as he scolded us saying,

“It’s not going to rain! Stop wasting your time with that tarp! I can’t believe we’re sleeping on gravel!!!!! I’m outta here!”

I felt like Noah being ridiculed for building an ark on a beautiful summer day, but I knew it was destined to rain and Valhalla needed to be hung!

After the camp set-up was done, Barry, Laura and I started the fire while Chris and Paul looked for the local store to get dinner. By the time they got back and we started to cook dinner, the rain came. And came it did, as the thunder shook the halls of Odin and the rain poured from the heavens pushing Valhalla downward onto our heads!!!!! With a makeshift walking stick support and us huddling on top of the picnic tables, we were able to stay reasonably dry.

We drank and told stories by the fire into the night until eventually the rain slowed, and we were visited by a stranger named George. George was the closest thing to camp security you could get. Armed with a flashlight, rain parka and golf cart, it was his job to make sure people were keeping the peace. We invited him to sit with us. During the time he was with us, we learned some interesting things about his life, namely how he became disabled and met his wife. After George left us, we continued on our path of celebrating with drinking, smoking cigars and telling stories, until we started dropping off one by one. We all went to bed except for Paul, who must have continued drinking with the forest Kami spirits till 5 a.m.

Saturday June 21, 2008, The Expedition Continues:

Morning came swift and hard, as I lifted my head in agony. I looked at the clock and noticed that it was 8 a.m. People were on their way to join us for a 3-4 hour hike, misogi ki breathing, lunch and jo kata practice. I needed to get up and start the preparations despite the pounding in my head.

Chris, Paul, and I ran to the store for the sandwiches, and apples to pack with the power bars, trail mix and water we already had. No one was going to drop on my watch during this hike!

First came Nancy, then Dave and Meier and then, um then, uh… no Tommy! Where’s Tommy! I checked messages and saw a voice-mail; OK this is a start at least. Tried calling back, no answer!!!!! I was starting to panic; we were already down two men and didn’t want to lose another. Tried again and got nothing.

We were just about to leave when sure enough Tommy called. Hope was not all lost; he decided to leave his house and meet us for dinner and festivities after the hike. The best that could happen at this point.

We reached the Douglas/Garvey Springs Parking lot around 10:40 a.m., and started on our hike on the orange-blazed trail. This was a great deal shorter of a hike than the trail I hiked a couple years ago from the Dunnfield parking area. What I didn’t realize was how steep it was going to be. I was a little concerned in the beginning that the group wasn’t going to be able to handle it, but everyone toughed it out as we climbed to the top of the Appalachian mountain vista. The goal was to reach Sunfish Pond, a glacial pond that is full of wildlife and amazing scenery.

As we traveled upward we met other hikers on their way down who were friendly and gave us updates on our location in regard to the destination. We saw interesting mushrooms, ferns, waterfalls, flowers and oh yeah FROGS, well actually toads. Don’t worry, I didn’t break ‘em …

We finally hit the lake and found a nice rocky plateau to eat lunch. After lunch I led a misogi ki breathing session. We often utilize this Japanese Shinto-based ritual as a means to enhance our aikido training, but it is also very beneficial to our health. It was a very surreal experience to be out in nature doing misogi by a lake on a mountain. The only thing that was distracting was the huge horse flies that flew around us, which Barry said made it look like I was doing some sort of Tai-Chi arm movements as I swatted at them every once in a while.

After misogi we went through jo kata number 1. Barry led the others as I tried to help Laura with her kata movements since she was just starting out with the jo. All in all, we must have practiced for a good 30 minutes until the flies drove us away.

Before we headed out, I had to take advantage of the pond for some water misogi purification. Boy was it cold, but very exhilarating and refreshing.

Right before we left a hiker was kind enough to get a shot of us as a group.

The climb down was faster, but more difficult on the knees. Many were sore and tired when we reached the bottom, but it was a good tired, and we were all satisfied.

We said good-bye to Meier and back at camp we met up with Tommy. Tommy, Chris, Laura, Dave and I got in a game of catch with the Frisbee and a football before Dave had to take off.

We set a fire and smoked salmon on cedar planks, roasted BBQ chicken and heated up pulled pork on the propane stove. We enjoyed another night of fun and fellowship, although the day’s activities made us sleepy and we had to wait for our second winds.

George came by again, but didn’t stay long after he noticed that we were dragging a little compared to the night before. We did have another visitor though, Chris’ roommate and co-worker Pete stopped by since his parents house is not too far from where we camped. The night ended the same as before, we all crashed but “one more” Paul lingered on, this time with Tommy by his side.

Sunday June 22, 2008, The Ride Home:

The next morning we all woke to the sound of thunder, which was a little disconcerting. Barry and I looked at each other and decided it was time. We quickly got the others moving to break down the camp, but we were not quick enough. The rain started coming without reservations. All in all we managed to get everything packed up and in the cars. We all decided to look for the diner we saw on the way in.

The Water Gap Diner was a delightful eatery with a huge table in the back room with our names on it. This was the last time we would have to eat as a group and swap stories before we got home. Nancy told us some stories about Sensei, and we reminisced about prior aikido events.

The drive back was solemn but yet I reflected on all the fun we had and the huge success this trip was. The trip was a huge success not only because the weather was fantastic and nobody got hurt on the hike, but mostly because of the great group of people I got to spend the weekend with.

To everyone who made this trip great!!!!!! Kampai !!!!!!!!!!!!

Namasté, Samurai J

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