Happy New Year/New Dojo!

Happy new year to all current and prospective students of Snake River Aikido. 2008 was an exciting year for me personally, and for our dojo. I was promoted to 4th dan after giving a comprehensive demonstration at Aikido West in Redwood City (home dojo of Doran Shihan, head of our division in the California Aikido Association). Many thanks to all the students who helped me prepare as I worked through material the past few months, and particularly to Michael Cardwell and Heather Peterson for traveling with me to Aikido West and playing a large role in my demonstration. I received several very nice compliments about their performance, which makes me proud to be their sensei. A special thanks to Cyndy Hayashi sensei as well, who gave me advice, moral support, reviewed my demo during her vacation in Idaho, and recruited uke for my randori the day of my demonstration at Aikido West!

The big news for everyone is that we are moving from EITC after 18 years. We will be renting space/time at the Idaho Falls School of Ballet, 410 W. 16th Street in Idaho Falls. They have a nice link that provides directions (http://www.ifballet.com/web/) You can also learn more about their instructors. Over the holidays I purchased enough foldout mats to cover a 20'x40' section of the main dance studio floor. I encourage anyone interested, and current/former students who might not be ready to train yet, to come and see the new facilities. We'll be conducting classes at the same time they were held at EITC, Mon-Wed 7:30-9pm. We will also have the flexibility of rescheduling classes when I'm gone for work, and also having additional classes. Right now I'm planning a women's self defense class for teenage girls that will be held the last weekend in January, and Cyndy Hayashi sensei has also volunteered to conduct her well-respected self defense workshop as a fundraiser for the dojo sometime later this year.

Speaking of Hayashi sensei, she and her husband have a condo on Ski Hill Road going up to Targhee, and we were very fortunate to have her be the first high-ranked sensei from our organization to visit this past November. Now that she's broken the ice, we hope to have her back during her visits to Idaho in the future, and have also planted the seed hoping to have Doran Shihan visit us (at least to fish the Idaho rivers!) this coming summer.

Thank you all for your continued support and commitment to Aikido. I hope that this move will help us all to train harder and reach new heights in our Aikido training!

Frank