HIS Karate-Do

Well, I’m back after a couple of back-to-back trips to Las Vegas and Colorado Springs, respectively; one for vacation, one for work. Both were quite enjoyable, and I learned a lot, though I missed several karate training sessions. Fortunately, I had great coverage from Sempai James (thanks James!). I am very happy to be back home and to be back at training. The week in Vegas was a great time spent with my son Matt. We had conversations over meals and walking through the downtown area and the Strip. I also met up with my in-laws (Matt’s grandparents), who were there for a high school reunion. I was able to make progress reading through a couple of books and got to visit the the Palazzo, one of the most recent hotels on the Strip, adjoining the Venetian. The week in Colorado Springs was work-related and quite busy, but very enjoyable as well. I hadn’t been in Colorado Springs since 1992, when we went up as a family, to visit my brother-in-law’s home there. It had changed a lot over the last sixteen years, but remains a largely rural area dominated by the hills surrounding Cheyenne Mountain. My room had a [...]

I usually forget to remind everyone that it’s gonna be the first Saturday of the month (this weekend), which means…two hour training available for everyone to train together. So here’s your reminder that this Saturday is double the fun, double the exercise, double the blessing of being able to stretch, strengthen, move and learn something new. Anyways, I was thinking of all the things we should be thankful for when we arrive for training: 1) A great place that’s large enough to accommodate our group…with covering too. 2) The blessing of good health which allows us the freedom to enjoy a great, stress-releasing workout. 3) Having/making the time in our busy day, to be able to come to the ministry once or twice a week. 4) The blessing of fellowship, received from those who are training next to us (obviously, we’d be hard-put to come out and train all by ourselves each week). 5) The sempais in our group who willingly share their knowledge with the kohais, purely out of the desire to help their progress. 6) The kohais in our group, who, during the process of being taught, help teach the sempais too. 7) And most importantly, the Lord, [...]

Over the last three Saturdays, we have enjoyed training with Sensei Ed Fujiwara, and I know everyone (myself included!) has learned so much from these sessions; especially his famous lines, “Easy training today!”, or “More down in your stances!” Sensei always has had an ironic/sardonic sense of humor. Anyways, he finally gets to teach at the NHM karate ministry’s new location at Mililani Ike School, Building E. I understand that similar to Momilani Rec, it’s an outside covered area. We are all invited to bless his new location on Saturday and train with him there for his inaugural session. Sensei and I will share teaching duties like we did today. Training will start at 09:00 am, just like usual. I will be sure to send out a map later this week so no one gets lost. You’ll find that just like training with a different instructor, training at different location is…different! And that, in itself, is a learning experience. I learned an interesting thing from Sensei Ed these last couple of weeks. First, he switched from a different martial art to karate many, many years ago, because of a chance visit to his high school friend’s house. His friend’s older [...]