First: The Dojo's in Fukuoka

To start off this blog I want to give a quick summary of the Dojo's in Fukuoka, Japan. This is not a full list, but it is the ones I know of. So if you are in Fukuoka and want to do Aikido please check them out.

The list:
1. Takasago Dojo
2. Tenjin Dojo
3. Gokoku Dojo
4. Honbu Dojo
5. Ijiri Dojo
6. Fukuoka Dojo

So far I have been training at 3 of these dojo's and I must say that I already have a favorite, Takasago Dojo. There is so much atmosphere in Takasago Dojo and it has a great display of pictures of O'Sensei and other important sensei after the Founder. There is also a set of nametag's that contains all of the students that is connected to this dojo. It is said that the dojo is more than 30 years old. One of the biggest differences in a japanese dojo is the mat or tatami. The tatami at Takasago is hard as opposed to the mats we have back in Norway. I thought I had a good base for sitting in seiza, but I was wrong. It is getting better for each day are passing.

Tenjin Dojo is much bigger than Takasago Dojo and is located in the center of Tenjin area. The Dojo is about seven years old I was told.

Gokoku Dojo is located a bit out of town towards the west part of town. This Dojo is special in that it is shared with practitioners of Kendo. So two thirds of the space in the dojo is for Kendo and the last third is tatami mats for Aikido. The building is a rather old wooden building and looks to be taken out from a movie about the samurai. The dojo is well hidden behind a park.


I will upload pictures as fast as I can get this net connection to enable me to upload anything bigger than 1kb..