This past Saturday, we had a really great potluck immediately following training.  It was an informal little gathering such as we haven’t had in years, and was due to the planning and hard work of Sensei Trish and Roxanne.  Each of the five sensei’s were able to attend, along with Sempai’s Dave, Kevin and Robert (Sempai James and Helen had a conflicting engagement). Predictably, the black belts all congregated on one end of the long tables while the rest of the group filled in the other end.  If we were on a ship, we’d probably have tilted one way and capsized :0…haha.  The good food and small talk made for a very relaxing and enjoyable time and without their gi’s and belts, the senior members actually looked like the regular folk that they are.  The sunny, cool weather and nice ambiance of the new enclosed area at the center combined for a perfect setting. The anagram game and like-a-charade game (drawing pictures or using play-doh) to figure out the underlying karate terms proved to be difficult, fun, and “untilted” the ship by mixing all of our club members together.  Craftily designed by our potluck planners, the activities served to bring [...]

In the last few years of his life, my dad would often lean back and exclaim, “Time waits for no man…”  Yes, Dad was the original man of deep (and trite) thoughts.  By then, in his late eighties, his eyes closed, I’m sure he could see himself when he was young, muscular, and as he would describe himself, “athletically inclined”.  Dad was also an honest, if not too humble, man. Last Monday night, our old sensei, Shihan Kenneth Funakoshi held a rare seminar in Hawaii.  Sensei’s Wayne, Peter, Trisha and myself all attended (Sempai Kevin too).  They all trained – I trained in vicarious fashion sitting in a comfortable chair.  I apologized to Shihan in advance, and let him know that I would have loved joining in the line but didn’t want to risk re-injuring my achilles tendon. Needless to say, it was nice to see him, feel his charisma, hear his booming commands, and feel like it was 1974 in the old Pucks Alley dojo. Shihan is the same age as Sempai James, they’ll be 79 years old this year.  Although he has aged and his legs seemed rather stiff, his great strength and confidence were still evident in [...]

That old song (sung to Auld Lang Syne) “We’re here because we’re here…”  always runs through my head at this time of year.  It does have some extra meaning to me, and speaks to me of perseverance.  Four decades ago when Sensei Wayne, Peter and I were part of the KAH, it contained some of the best karateka in Hawaii and I daresay, in the US.  We were proud to be a part of the organization and while we could hold our own with our fellow black belts, there were definitely some that were better than us.  Recently, we reminisced about the old days and the quickness of one, or the power and technique of another and so on.  You know, for every hundred white belts who started training in the old days, one or two might make it to black belt.  Out of these, just a few would ever be selected for the old KAH’s special training.  And within that elite group, there were a few who were quite amazing to us.  As we were talking story, we also acknowledged how few of these gifted and tempered karateka were still involved in the art.  I suppose that it’s only [...]