We travelled from Kyushu east making several interesting stops all the way to Tokyo to catch our plane back to Europe.

We visited following cities:

-Fukuoka, Nagasaki and Kagoshima (Kyushu) mainly focusing on the Samurai History and the Meiji Restauration, without of course forgetting the Atomic bombing of Nagasaki;

-Matsue (Chigoku) as a special tribute to Lafcadio Hearn;

-Gifu (Chubu) with special attention to Nobunaga’s castle and the Great Buddah Shouhouji Daibutsu

-Hamamatsu (Chubu) our traditional stop at the Tenrikyo church for New Year and this time a visit to Hamamatsu-Jo, the castle;

-Osaka, Nara and Kobe (Kansai) for some shopping and a special visit at the Yakushiji Temple;

-Tenri (Kansai) our last stop for the traditional Kagami Biraki.

Here a brief preview, but on coming week-ends detailed information will follow: stay tuned!

Some more life lessons from our amazing little friends.

Just to remember here Judo’s Moral Code:

Politeness is respecting others.

Courage is doing what is fair.

Friendship is the purest of all human feelings.

Self-Control is keeping quite when anger wells up.

Sincerity is expressing oneself without concealing ones thoughts.

Modesty is speaking of oneself without vanity.

Honor is keeping ones word.

                                                                Respect, without Respect no trust can exist.

I hope you will approve and enjoy it … with a smile.

Your comments will be more than welcome.

I hope you really enjoyed this 8 weeks with me.

I thank all those who have published on the web/facebook the beautiful pictures used to illustrate the Judo Moral Code.

Some more life lessons from our amazing little friends.

Just to remember here Judo’s Moral Code:

Politeness is respecting others.

Courage is doing what is fair.

Friendship is the purest of all human feelings.

Self-Control is keeping quite when anger wells up.

Sincerity is expressing oneself without concealing ones thoughts.

Modesty is speaking of oneself without vanity.

                                                                                    Honor is keeping ones word.

Respect, without Respect no trust can exist.

I hope you will approve and enjoy it … with a smile.

Your comments will be more than welcome.

Follow me next week for part 8.

I thank all those who have published on the web/facebook the beautiful pictures used to illustrate the Judo Moral Code.

Some more life lessons from our amazing little friends.

Just to remember here Judo’s Moral Code:

Politeness is respecting others.

Courage is doing what is fair.

Friendship is the purest of all human feelings.

Self-Control is keeping quite when anger wells up.

Sincerity is expressing oneself without concealing ones thoughts.

                                                                    Modesty is speaking of oneself without vanity.

Honor is keeping ones word.

Respect, without Respect no trust can exist.

I hope you will approve and enjoy it … with a smile.

Your comments will be more than welcome.

Follow me next week for part 7.

I thank all those who have published on the web/facebook the beautiful pictures used to illustrate the Judo Moral Code.

Some more life lessons from our amazing little friends.

Just to remember here Judo’s Moral Code:

Politeness is respecting others.

Courage is doing what is fair.

Friendship is the purest of all human feelings.

Self-Control is keeping quite when anger wells up.

                                                                      Sincerity is expressing oneself without concealing ones thoughts.

Modesty is speaking of oneself without vanity.

Honor is keeping ones word.

Respect, without Respect no trust can exist.

I hope you will approve and enjoy it … with a smile.

Your comments will be more than welcome.

Follow me next week for part 6.

I thank all those who have published on the web/facebook the beautiful pictures used to illustrate the Judo Moral Code.

Check this one out!

Just to remember here Judo’s Moral Code:

Politeness is respecting others.

Courage is doing what is fair.

Friendship is the purest of all human feelings.

                                                                        Self-Control is keeping quite when anger wells up.

Sincerity is expressing oneself without concealing ones thoughts.

Modesty is speaking of oneself without vanity.

Honor is keeping ones word.

Respect, without Respect no trust can exist.

I hope you will approve and enjoy it … with a smile.

Your comments will be more than welcome.

Follow me next week for part 5.

I thank all those who have published on the web/facebook the beautiful pictures used to illustrate the Judo Moral Code.

And the important life lessons continue.

Just to remember here Judo’s Moral Code:

Politeness is respecting others.

Courage is doing what is fair.

                                                                  Friendship is the purest of all human feelings.

Self-Control is keeping quite when anger wells up.

Sincerity is expressing oneself without concealing ones thoughts.

Modesty is speaking of oneself without vanity.

Honor is keeping ones word.

Respect, without Respect no trust can exist.

I hope you will approve and enjoy it … with a smile.

Your comments will be more than welcome.

Follow me next week for part 4.

I thank all those who have published on the web/facebook the beautiful pictures used to illustrate the Judo Moral Code.

Another important life lesson to learn from our little friends.

Just to remember here Judo’s Moral Code:

Politeness is respecting others.

                                     Courage is doing what is fair.

Friendship is the purest of all human feelings.

Self-Control is keeping quite when anger wells up.

Sincerity is expressing oneself without concealing ones thoughts.

Modesty is speaking of oneself without vanity.

Honor is keeping ones word.

Respect, without Respect no trust can exist.

I hope you will approve and enjoy it … with a smile.

Your comments will be more than welcome.

Follow me next week for part 3.

I thank all those who have published on the web/facebook the beautiful pictures used to illustrate the Judo Moral Code.

Being passionate about Oriental Arts and as Judo Teacher over decades, I have noticed the mental and physical transformation of the judokas throughout the years.

Those of my age and some of the younger ones know the Judo Moral Code, which has been passed over to us by the older Senseis. But the great majority ignores its existence. Those who might have heard about it, do certainly not apply it in their daily lives. It is considered to belong to the Samurai period.

Be aware, that also many young Japanese have never heard about it and many do not bother to apply it in their daily activities.

Just to remember here Judo’s Moral Code:

Politeness is respecting others.

Courage is doing what is fair.

Friendship is the purest of all human feelings.

Self-Control is keeping quite when anger wells up.

Sincerity is expressing oneself without concealing ones thoughts.

Modesty is speaking of oneself without vanity.

Honor is keeping ones word.

Respect, without Respect no trust can exist.

While surfing on the web and gathering pictures of some friends I have reached the conclusion that in the animal world this code is applied every day in an outstanding way.

We should all learn from them.  Do you want to see? Follow me from today on for the next eight weeks.

I hope you will approve and enjoy it … with a smile.

Your comments will be more than welcome.

I thank all those who have published on the web/facebook the beautiful pictures used to illustrate the Judo Moral Code.

The Judoka Aida Guemati with the Gold Medal “Vice”

Aida Guemati - 2011 European Veterans Judo Champion

Liebnitz (Austria) – The European Judo Veterans Championship run by the EJU took place in this small town from 10th to 13th November.  Aida started on 12th in the age group F4 in the 63kg weight division. The three athletes entered had to face each other in a round robin tournament, which means that each had to fight with the other two and the winner was going to be the one with the highest number of victories.

In the first fight our Italian lady has to face the French Emmanuelle PARAZZA, who pushed her with the intention to get the same reaction. But Aida who is an expert in these kind of actions took advantage of the situation by going on the ground in order to throw her opponent with an outstanding “Tomoe Nage” – foot at the abdomen – over her head obtaining half point after only 15 seconds from the beginning of the fight.  Basically Aida has applied the principle of “letting go in order to better win”.

The initial score allowed her to control the fight wisely. Being aware of her good ground work she took the opponent down and pinned her for about 20 seconds obtaining a full point and therefore winning the fight by Ippon.

In the second fight she faced the Austrian Marianne REITER, an opponent she had already defeated at the World Championships in June. Marianne cheered by her Austrian friends immediately attacked, but got stopped by Aida, who first attacked her to the back and then took her to the ground in order to pin her down. Thus winning again with a full point, Ippon. Aida Guemati is European Champion once again. The silver medal fight took place between the Austrian and French lady.

2011 Italian Team - Cristina Marsili, Aida Guemati, Angela Tassi and Cristiana Pallavicino

On the following day, 13th, the European Team Championships took place. Aida was part of the Italian team of four athletes: Cristina MARSILI (kg. 57), Aida GUEMATI (kg. 63), Angela TASSI (kg. 70) and Cristiana PALLACIVINO (plus kg 70). The Italian ladies have faced the teams of Austria and Russia and again in a round robin tournament. At the end of a rather well balanced competition they have lost the opportunity of the highest podium for very little. The fight with the Russians ended 2 to 2, but for the difference in the judo score the latter got the title, Austria the silver and Italy the bronze.

Aida Guemati has a rather rich medal tally:

-At the World Championships, both individual and team (2004/2011) three gold, three silver and six bronze medals.

-At the European Championships, both individual and team (2005/2011) five gold and two bronze medals.