In March 2006, shortly after I joined the YMCA Shodokan aikido club, I received an e-mail saying that there was an “annual [aikido] course” in Skenfrith on 26-29 May 2006 and that there were only a few spots left. But I didn’t really know what I’d gotten myself into.

When I woke up the morning of Wednesday, 8 February 2006, I didn’t have any idea that my life was going to change that day. Well, it wasn’t quite that dramatic. However, it was that evening that I took my first tentative steps onto the tatami to learn a martial art, aikido. I now feel as if everything’s changed for me since then.