HIS Karate-Do

For Sensei Peter, Sensei Trisha and myself, one of our greatest joys in Karate-Do has been learning and practicing the various katas. Many folks practice kata just so they can pass the next promotion exam. For us, it’s always been practicing something we love. When we are performing a kata, we actually become immersed in it. We feel doubly blessed when we can share and teach kata with all of you. I hate to admit it, but another thing that I enjoy, is watching Kdramas and listening to some of the South Korean singers (So Hyang and Lee Hi are among my favorites). I know I’m getting pretty old, but I even enjoy the music videos of certain KPOP groups for their energy and catchy dance moves. Anyways, the reason I mention this, is that I recently came across a number of YouTube videos which feature a KPOP random dance game. Hundreds of teens will line up outside of a large rectangular space and the speakers will play about 20-30 seconds of random KPOP dance songs. The kids are all waiting to see if they can identify the song. As soon as they do, they go rushing into the dance [...]

I first met Sensei Allen Wakai some dozen years ago when he visited our club as one of several long-time black belts Sensei Ed had brought along with him on a joint training session at HISkarate.  Although he had begun training many decades before, I recall that he insisted on wearing a white belt for the purpose of attending our class. Then, about a year later, a bunch of our brown and black belts attended a training seminar given by Kancho Nobuaki Kanazawa, head of the SKIF world-wide.  Sensei Peter and I had a great time working out during the several-hours long session with many senior karateka from other dojos.  I remember mentally comparing my speed/power in technique to the younger black belts around me and feeling pretty good about myself, haha.  Big, big mistake!  In all of my life, I had never encountered any difficulties with any long training session.  Then the Kancho called a short break with 15 minutes to go…and as I walked back for some water, both of my 60 year-old legs suddenly surprised me by cramping up, haha.  As I stiffly limped back to the bleachers, I found Sensei Peter already there – his 60 [...]

Hey – who remembers what an autostereogram is?  Nope, it’s not another version of Instagram, haha.  Actually, it’s a throwback to the 1990’s, and while you older folks may not have known the term, I’m sure that you’ve all seen and stared at one, many years ago.  Back then, there was a fad that involved staring at a colorful picture filled with repeating patterns.  These pictures resembled colorful psychedelic wallpaper, but if one stared at it long enough, one would be rewarded by a hidden three dimensional image that would appear.  These were called autostereograms and were very popular with the public for a short period of time, then quickly lost their “fifteen minutes of fame”. Our younger members probably don’t know what an autostererogram is nor have ever seen one.  For that reason, they may find the one below interesting.  Unlike the usual autostereogram, this one doesn’t contain a hidden 3-D image.  Instead, it contains a checkerboard pattern of leaping tigers.  If looked at long enough, the tigers pop out into several rows of differing depths.  I chose it because it’s easy to tell when the 3D effect takes place (no hidden image) and also because the tiger is [...]