A group of Takemusu Aikido Students will be traveling to Iwama with Alan Roberts Sensei and students from Aikido Auckland Seishinkan.

We leave Auckland on the morning Sunday 7th April and arrive in Japan early that evening, travelling by train to Iwama and arriving mid evening.

We stay and train at the dojo that week and then leave for Tokyo the afternoon of Sunday 14th April where we will stay until Tuesday to train at Hombu Dojo and explore the capital.

The group return to New Zealand is scheduled for the afternoon of Tuesday 16th April

"Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of aikido, called Iwama the ubuya or birth-place of aikido. He lived and trained there from the time aikido was named in 1942 until his death in 1969 and was succeeded as dojocho by Morihiro Saito until 2002. Alan Roberts was apprenticed to Saito there from 1988 to 1993. Today, the Iwama Dojo is considered the shibu or branch dojo of the Aikikai's Tokyo Headquarters. As well as the Founder's dojo and home, Iwama is the site of the Aiki Shrine, the spiritual centre for all practitioners of aikido".