Back in 1963, when I was just twelve years old, my dad had decided that I should learn the art of Aikido (not well-known then). I asked dad if I could invite a friend. After he said said yes, I quickly called up my best friend from school and told him how neat it would be, to start training and learning a martial art together. In the few days before we joined, we sat in the living room of his home and weaved all kinds of fanciful scenarios of how our new-found skills would wow the girls in our class and awe any bullies in the cafeteria into submission – this is how twelve year olds think;) Aikido turned out to be more than we’d hoped for; though there were no fawning girls or awed bullies. Over the next few years, we learned throws, falls, rolls, holds, the bo and the bokken; not to mention a little bit of Japanese culture. By the time we got involved in other activities and had gradually ceased our training, we had completed intermediate school and graduated from different high schools. I only got to see my childhood pal on special ocassions or during the holidays, and our busy lives were filled with other interests and groups of friends.

The last time I ever remember visiting that home where I had spent so many days playing was on such a special day – New Years Eve. I had driven there to say “hi” and to wish my friend and his family a Happy New Year. While waiting in the familiar living room, I noticed his older brother’s many karate trophies lining the stereo-hi/fi set. His brother was a black belt, training under his two idols, Asai Sensei and Funakoshi Sensei. Looking at the inscriptions, I was surprised to find my friend’s name on a couple of the trophies! For the first time, I realized that at some point, my friend had begun training on Shotokan, like his brother. And at that moment, I decided to give karate a try too…in the very living room where years earlier, we had fantasized about Aikido. Repeating the earlier process, I was able to persuade another long-time friend to start up with me. He agreed to give it a try – today, you know him as Sensei Peter. Ironically, the friend who had inspired me to try Shotokan, stopped karate training just about the time that we started. Fortunately, many of our other mutual friends continued to diligently train, including his college roomate – whom you now know as Sensei Wayne. Can you believe that 40 years have now passed and we’re still at it?

Speaking of old memories, if you’re interested, there is a Shotokan website for the FSKA dojo in Mililani. Like many websites, it contains a photo gallery. The site is: http://fskah.com/ Unlike the other websites however, it just happens to contain old karate photos that will tease/amuse you with a few rare shots of a young Sensei Wayne, a young Sensei Peter and a young…me, haha. You need to look at the Misc Photos section. In the Gasshuko beach scene from 1985, I’m somewhere in the middle of the front row in seiza. If you look at the thumbnail photos below, you’ll see a young slim black belt with long hair masterfully holding the opening pose from Sochin (It’s Sensei Wayne! – I kid you not) – you need to click the thumbnail to enlarge the pic. Scroll a few to the right and you’ll see Sensei Wayne executing a nice yoko kekomi-geri (he could do such things back then, haha). Scroll a few more to a pic of about 25 black belts standing on temple steps, our old Yudanshakai…Sensei Peter and I are standing around the middle of the front row (Sensei Peter was around 60 lbs lighter back then!), while Sensei Wayne is behind us to the left, in the second row. These other photos date from around 1974 – over thirty five years ago! You see, while we may change and age with the passing of time, karate-do remains karate-do.

So this time of year, full of the holiday spirit, the spirit of the old and new year, the spirit of Jesus….also marks that moment that I first encountered the spirit of karate-do and began a long, fruitful journey with Shotokan. I am very fortunate to be sharing that journey with each of you…Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Blessings, Wes