I get asked a lot about what books to buy when learning Japanese Calligraphy. While there are some great books out there, the selection is quite limited since Shodo is a very small niche in the art world. There isn't a singular book that has it all. Each book focuses on a particular element of calligraphy. It's up to you as a practitioner to compile together everything you … [Read more...] about Top 5 Books on Japanese Calligraphy
She was serious once I told her she wasn't graduating. It is a requirement to graduate from Culinary Arts to have a current Food Safety Manager Certification. Amber let her certification expired last year, and a week before graduation, she realized she might not receive her diploma. This is an unusual case, but it happens every once in a while. Our students in the Culinary Arts … [Read more...] about A real advantage to online learning
Toyoda Sensei came to us and started yelling, “Do you want to fuck up Aikido?! I’m not going to let you fuck up Aikido!” It was my first advanced class with Toyoda Sensei. I sat in seiza and listened as my partner got grilled by Sensei over not doing the technique correctly. The thing was that he'd just taught a basic technique with a slight change in a movement he wanted … [Read more...] about Advanced Practice
I had depleted myself by the time Shodo Essentials launched on May 26. I spent countless hours writing, editing, brushing, shooting, and promoting the online course. Also, as a challenge in April, I brushed a calligraphy every day for 30 days. Not only did I brush calligraphy daily, but I also shot, edited and uploaded a video to YouTube every day during this challenge. I was … [Read more...] about How to fertile your creativity
On May of 2017, the video above showed up on YouTube showing an Aikido instructor sparring with an MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fighter. As you can probably imagine, and naturally so, the Aikido guy gets his ass kicked by the MMA guy (not that bad though, they were just sparring). His insights at the end of the video were pretty good, and he wasn’t delusional thinking he had any … [Read more...] about Aikido vs MMA
