HIS Karate-Do

Recently, at my son’s home, our evening repast (yes, I could have written evening meal, but repast goes better with reflections 🙂 consisted of some delicious old-style fare (beef stew and laulau) from the venerable Highway Inn in nearby Waipahu.  you all know the place, been there for nearly 70 years, serving up local food. As it often does, my thoughts drifted to….karate.  What!?!  Eating great local style food should start one reminiscing about the good old food from the good old days or something like that, right?  Well, in my usual roundabout way, I’ll explain how I ended up thinking about karate-do. I believe that I’ve mentioned that Sensei Wayne, Sensei Peter and myself were all members of the KAH Special Training group.  In addition, we were also members of the University of Hawaii Karate Kai.  The training was rather severe there, and the large group of young college students that would join at the beginning of each semester would rapidly dwindle to a few, willing to endure the rigorous classes.  Fast forward 45 years, and the club and the little building where we met and trained together, are both long gone. Sensei Wayne, Sensei Peter and myself are [...]

Hi Everyone, Most every Sunday, my wife and I visit her parents and usually play that old word game, Boggle. We all have a lot of fun playing and at the same time, feel like we’re doing our brains a favor. None of us is getting any younger, and we all agree that the mental effort required to find words on each random shake (three minute time limit) helps preserve and keep our minds sharp. With Dementia and Alzheimer’s having become common terms in recent years, exercising the mind as we get older, seems like a good idea. I know I’ve even seen commercials on TV for different products and programs designed to help stimulate one’s mind. I guess that just watching hours of our favorite sitcoms or sports doesn’t require the mind to work very much. We sometimes talk about karate being a way to strengthen one’s mind, especially when dealing with conflict or when under attack. Much of the value from the harsh training sessions back in the “old days” involve learning to deal with pain and fatigue. The benefit of perseverance lies in the ability to overcome obstacles and continue in one’s journey of the study of [...]

Well, we were very fortunate this weekend and escaped the full-force effects of a hurricane here in the islands.  Hurricane watching is one of those activities that really makes one aware of how relatively helpless we are, when pitted against the full force of severe weather.  The hurricane (typhoon, cyclone) pretty much goes wherever it will go, and all we can do is hope and pray.  Last time, we’re told that the high volcanic mountains on the island of Hawaii helped break up Hurricane Iselle.  This go-around, we were apparently protected by a ridge of high pressure just north of the island.  The impact we were left with has been a steady fall of rain over the past couple of days.   These weather events tend to bring back memories of similar times in one’s life.  My earliest attempt at humor that I can recall (I was three or four) was  while being carried by my dad to the car for a dental appointment.  It was lightly drizzling and I kept on telling him, “Hey dad, it’s grizzling!”.  I had recently learned about grizzly bears in association with Davy Crockett – and thought I was making a good joke by [...]