New here...

[ryoma]

My name’s Martin from Basel, Switzerland. I am new here on the forums but not new to Iaido. I am 37 and started out with Karate at twelve. My focus shifted then more to Japanese history, culture and arts with frequent trips to Japan. With 21 I picked up training in Iai (Seitei, MSR, Tamiya Ryu). Ten years ago I quit my job and moved to Tokyo for studying Japanese full-time and I have entered a Ishido sensei affiliated dojo. I passed my shodan at the Tokyo Taikai.
In ’98 I’ve married my longtime girlfriend (yes, Japanese…) and started working in the sales dept. of a japanese company. Then I realized that my one year full-time study just covered the basics… and my Japanese ability kicked in then with daily customer contact. Due to the “nice” working hours I was forced to quit Iai.
Since 2002 we are back in Switzerland. Also our son was born then. Unfortunately my old dojo changed a lot and I never managed to train again. Interestingly my oldtime friend has trained in MJER and just passed his rokudan. With him I have travelled in the ninties to Japan and visited also his sensei in Shikoku. Now I am about to start in MJER (ZNIR)....

Besides that I am a longtime member of the NBTHK and I am very much into contemporary japanese ceramics now.

[ghostdancer]

welcome to the forums

[Fred27]

Welcome to the madness and silliness. I stand for silliness.

[Bailemor]

Welcome to the madness and silliness. I stand for silliness.

I must stand for madness then, they were a great band

Anyway, welcome to the forums


David

[Peter West]

Why change to MJER.
There is a good dojo in Berne.
The seminar I mentioned on your other thread is led on the MSR side by 3 of Ishido Sensei's senior students in Europe. Ishido Sensie teaches more than 2 times a year in Europe. Why lower your standards? Stick with ZNKR/IKF and continue in your existing lineage.

[ryoma]

Why change to MJER.
There is a good dojo in Berne.
The seminar I mentioned on your other thread is led on the MSR side by 3 of Ishido Sensei's senior students in Europe. Ishido Sensie teaches more than 2 times a year in Europe. Why lower your standards? Stick with ZNKR/IKF and continue in your existing lineage.

You are refering to Stefano Ferro in Berne? Yeah, I know him from my old days. I have trained with him. But I am not taking a 200 km round trip twice a week for training. What do you actually mean by "lower my standards" when taking up MJER????

[Peter West]

What I mean is that with ishido Sensei overseeing the European MSR group, and that is the line you previously trained in Japan, changing to ZNIR which is not so well represented in Europe would almost inevitably not present you with the same high level of teaching. This is nothing to do with MJER, simply that they don't get much better than Ishido Sensei.

[chidokan]

I am trying to track down a sensei from Kochi who was teaching at one of the Swiss universities... he kept a low profile, but Neil went to practise with him and was very impressed... 20 odd years at Takeshima sensei's dojo apparently, so if he is still there I would go to him for regular high level teaching....