Last weekend saw the 50th All Japan Aikido Demonstration at the Nippon Budokan, Tokyo.

‘Poster for 50th All Japan Aikido Demonstration.’

There was a big crowd this year, and nearly 7500 people taking part. It’s great to see so many people gathering together for aikido. There were many fantastic demonstrations showing both great skill in technique and also excellent ukemi. I can’t wait to get the dvd. Sadly Kobayashi Sensei couldn’t give a demonstration this year due to injury, I wish him a speedy recovery.

This year I participated in the demonstration for the Shinjuku Sports Center Dojo, as well as the Aikikai Hombu Dojo demonstration. It’s a great rush to go out onto the main floor of the budokan with so many people, even if they aren’t really watching us – everyone goes to watch the teachers! I’d like to thank my excellent partners Daizo-san and Eric.

I rented a nice lens for my camera, in the hope of getting some good photos. Here are a couple of my favourite shots from the day.

‘Doshu performing shihonage (uke is Suzuki Toshio Sensei).’

‘Doshu and Waka Sensei.’

‘Waka Sensei performing nikkyo (uke is Hino Sensei).’

See many more in the photo album.