![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/wes_allen-225x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"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. \u00c2\u00a0Although he had begun training many decades before, I recall that he insisted on wearing a white belt for the purpose of attending our class.<\/p>\n
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. \u00c2\u00a0Sensei Peter and I had a great time working out during the several-hours long session with many senior karateka from other dojos. \u00c2\u00a0I remember mentally comparing my speed\/power in technique to the younger black belts around me and feeling pretty good about myself, haha. \u00c2\u00a0Big, big mistake! \u00c2\u00a0In all of my life, I had never encountered any difficulties with any long training session. \u00c2\u00a0Then the Kancho called a short break with 15 minutes to go\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6and as I walked back for some water, both of my 60 year-old legs suddenly surprised me by cramping up, haha. \u00c2\u00a0As I stiffly limped back to the bleachers, I found Sensei Peter already there – his 60 year-old legs had also gone into full cramps a few minutes earlier! This was a first for both of us! \u00c2\u00a0God was reminding us that we weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the young, tireless karateka we thought we were. \u00c2\u00a0Fortunately for us, a few feet away was a Godsend\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6a man was waving at us with bottles of Pedialyte (an electrolyte). \u00c2\u00a0I recognized the burly man to be Sensei Allen (this time, wearing his black belt) and we gladly accepted his generous offer. \u00c2\u00a0After chugging the Pedialyte down, we felt fine just a few minutes later. \u00c2\u00a0What a blessing to have run\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6er, limped into him!<\/p>\n
Shortly thereafter, Sensei Allen asked if he might join HISKarate, and never left us. \u00c2\u00a0Over the years, his creative teaching style blended in well with the way Sensei\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Peter, Wayne, and I taught and I know that he really enjoyed sharing his extensive knowledge of the art with our members. \u00c2\u00a0He was also a fountain of information about everything under the sun, having degrees in the fine arts (pottery was a specialty), studied the culinary arts, had been a gentleman farmer and interpreter in Japan, a teacher, even a professional poker player, among other things. \u00c2\u00a0Yes, a wealth of information about everything – kinda like the human version of Wikipedia Encyclopedia on the internet. \u00c2\u00a0 That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why, in my mind, I sometimes thought of him as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Wakai-Pedia\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, haha (a double pun for carrying bottles of Pedialyte around with him).<\/p>\n
We really enjoyed our lunches with him after karate when he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d share many of his interesting stories about his life adventures. \u00c2\u00a0In the dojo, he could be gruff, opinionated, and loud; often correcting and scolding students even from the sidelines. \u00c2\u00a0Yet he was also kind and generous, and wouldn’t hesitate to give a gi to a needy student, magically pulling one out from his car trunk. \u00c2\u00a0He might have been past his karate prime by about 40 years and by a hundred pounds, but he could still effectively teach karate by making ingenious and creative use of props and having someone younger like Sensei Trish, demonstrate a technique the way it should be done. \u00c2\u00a0Sensei Allen was a bear of a man and his natural strength and presence was obvious. \u00c2\u00a0I always thought that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d live to a ripe old age like his late father, the Reverend Masayoshi Wakai (99+ years old), who sometimes joined us for a post-karate lunch. Unfortunately, that was not to be.<\/p>\n
With the pause in training due to the pandemic, I hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seen Sensei Allen since way back late summer, 2020. \u00c2\u00a0Last month, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d heard that we were finally going to gradually restart karate classes and he was intending to come in May. \u00c2\u00a0On April 28, he sent Sensei Peter a text that he wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to make training because he wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feeling well. \u00c2\u00a0A week later, he was gone. We were shocked. \u00c2\u00a0HISKarate has lost a good friend and devoted sensei. \u00c2\u00a0We will miss him.<\/p>\n
Rest In Peace, Sensei Allen.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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. \u00c2\u00a0Although 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. \u00c2\u00a0Sensei Peter and I had a great time working out during the several-hours long session with many senior karateka from other dojos. \u00c2\u00a0I remember mentally comparing my speed\/power in technique to the younger black belts around me and feeling pretty good about myself, haha. \u00c2\u00a0Big, big mistake! \u00c2\u00a0In all of my life, I had never encountered any difficulties with any long training session. \u00c2\u00a0Then the Kancho called a short break with 15 minutes to go\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6and as I walked back for some water, both of my 60 year-old legs suddenly surprised me by cramping up, haha. \u00c2\u00a0As I stiffly limped back to the bleachers, I found Sensei Peter already there – his 60 [...]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2725"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2732,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2725\/revisions\/2732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiskarate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}