How it all began
As long as I can remember I have been fascinated and attracted by budo training. The strict etiquette, the hard physical training and the emphasis on spiritual development are all things that have drawn me towards the traditional Japanese martial arts disciplines.

I started out training Kyokushin Kai karate in the early 1980’s and liked it very much. However I soon found that, to me, the karate training system had obvious limitations and I started looking for something that suited me better.

In 1990 I saw a flyer advertising Aikido training. I went, tried it out and was immediately hooked. I signed up and started training as a student in what is still my home dojo: Aikido Dojo Gamle-staden. I threw myself into the aikido training and during my first years I trained extremely hard, practically living in the dojo. In addition I frequently travelled in Sweden and Europe attending as many seminars as I could, studying for teachers like Morihiro Saito Sensei, Hitohiro Saito Sensei, Tomita Sensei, Sugino Sensei, Tissier Sensei and many others.

The Dojo and the teachings
Aikido Dojo Gamlestaden was founded in 1989 by my teacher John Patrick Johnsen Sensei. In a couple of years it grew to involve over a hundred members, both kids, teen agers and adults. John Patrick Sensei was a frequent visitor in Iwama during the 80’s and 90’s and through him the dojo had a direct connection to Morihiro Saito Sensei  and our Aikido was kept very much alive and updated, something that ensured a really high quality in the dojo, especially in the weapons training. I had exclusive access to the constant changes in a way that very few others had. Still a big dojo, Aikido Dojo Gamlestaden today offers 12 classes a week taught by a number of high ranked aikidokas.

In 1999 me and my teacher travelled to San Diego to attend the AANC spring gasshuku. Afterwards we continued on to San Leandro to visit Pat Hendricks Sensei’s dojo. The result of this visit was that our dojo, as the first Swedish dojo and probably one of the first European, entered the AANC and also invited Pat Hendricks Sensei to teach her first official seminar in Sweden. Now, a member of the CAA, we still keep the connection to Pat Hendricks Sensei, inviting her regularly to teach seminars in Sweden and also sending students to her dojo as uchi deshi. In addition to that we also send students to Iwama to Hitohiro Saito Sensei’s dojo. In that way, through Pat Hendricks Sensei and Hitohiro Saito Sensei, we still keep our aikido updated and maintain the connection to Iwama and the Saito family and the lineage as we know it.

My most Memorable Aikido moment
The moment described here, didn’t actually become my most memorable Aikido moment until quite some time after it had occurred. I had only been in Aikido class for about two months and hadn’t even done my first exam when my teacher proudly announced that we were going to have a small seminar in the dojo. As I practiced day and night, and lived and breathed Aikido, I naturally signed up to participate. So, in November 1990, the dojo was packed with people and there was a strange anxiety and atmosphere of anticipation in the air. All the senior students seemed really nervous and were running around like crazy. It was all very strange and I wondered what was going on. Eventually my teacher arrived along with two Japanese guys, one big and one small. Class started, things settled a bit, but there was still this strange sensation in the air, the sensation that something extraordinary was going one. Well, we trained, everything was good, I was happy. The big Japanese guy corrected my tai no henko and the small Japanese guy translated. It wasn’t until later that I found out that the big Japanese guy was Saito Sensei and the small Japanese guy was Tomita Sensei. And it wasn’t until much later, many years later, that I came to realize what an extraordinary event this really was: Saito Sensei, coming himself to a small dojo in Scandinavia. He did it as a personal favour, to pay his respects to his student, my teacher. This has come to grow into a fantastic memory and an evidence of the close bond between Saito Sensei and my teacher and the spirit of their Aikido. This is the bond and the spirit that I try to continue to honor in the dojo today.