Okinawa 2017

On October 21, Amber and I left for the airport at 3:30 am. After checking in and saying goodbye to Amber, I boarded the plane for San Francisco, after almost 5 hours in flight, I landed and barely made it to the connecting flight to Tokyo. The flight to Tokyo was almost 12 hours, it was on a nice plane, they served us breakfast and dinner, the food was actually pretty good. They also had several new release videos available to watch. I was unable to sleep at all on the plane, so I watched several movies.

As we approached Tokyo we skirted the edge of the Typhoon and landed, I had a couple hour lay over in Tokyo, before making the flight to Naha. The ride was a bumpy ride as Typhoon 21 was in full force (Hurricane for us here in the west). I landed in Naha on October 22nd, glad to have made it. Hobbs Sensei, Talip, Umesh and Khalid were waiting for me, as they had arrived from Kyoto an hour before me. We took a taxi to Koza and our hotel. after checking in Nakamoto Hanshi, Zaha Hanshi and Takuma-san met us at the hotel and we had a nice conversation and set our training times. The hotel staff also gave us a huge steak dinner, that was delicious.

On the 23rd we got up and all met for breakfast, the hotel staff once again gave us a huge meal. We then all wondered around Koza (Okinawa City) and visited Ippondo martial Arts store, exchanged our money and we went to the grocery store and stocked up for the stay. That evening we went for training with Nakamoto Sensei and Zaha Sensei. We covered all of the Goju-Ryu kata, we ran them several times, and then we learned Fukyu Kata, for a demonstration that we were scheduled to do for Karate day. The work out was great and we trained for 2.5 hours. After training Nakamoto Hanshi gave us some of his private reserve Awamori that he makes himself, we went back to the hotel and had another fantastic dinner and then broke into the awamori, needless to say we had a late night. 

I woke up on the 24th feeling like I had been hit by a truck. We again all met up for breakfast and again Talip, Ales and I walked around Koza. We all met in the lobby to to prepare for our daily training class. While we were waiting on the taxi, Nakamoto Sensei walked into the lobby and told me to get in the car. He took me to Ippondo to try on some gi and obi, once we determined my size, Sensei took me to lunch. At first we went to McDonald's, but it was full of children, so we drove quite far to an A&W root beer stand and ate lunch. One odd thing is that i ordered french fries and they served them to me with mayonnaise and roast beef on them. Sensei and I had a nice conversation and then went back to the dojo were the group was working on the Goju kata and Hobbs Sensei on Tonfa. I was only there for about 30 minutes, before training was over and we were back at the hotel for diner.  At 7:30 we were back at the dojo for training and we worked on Tokashiki No Sai. After training it was of course more awamori and Orion Beer.

I woke up on the 25th and felt better then the day before. After a huge breakfast it was again a day of wondering around Koza. We went for training from 1-3pm and worked on Shushi No Kun, Chuon No Kun, Hama Higa no Tonfa, Nunchaku Buri, and Nunchaku Sogu. We went back to the hotel and I was off again wondering around Koza by myself. We had dinner together and were back at the dojo by 7:30, we worked All of the Gojuryu kata, then Tonfa Buri, Nakamoto No Tonfa and Hama Higa No Tonfa. We had people from America, England, Slovenia, India, Austria, Zambia, New Zealand and Australia. Of course after training you can guess what we did.

On the 26th we woke up and had breakfast, we went to Shuri, we visited Shurijo or Shuri castle, it is a beautiful place. We also visited the Harley Davidson store in Ginowa, on the way back to the hotel. Everyone else stayed at the hotel to rest before training, but I decided to wonder around off the regular paths and see if I could find some other dojos. I actually found quite a few, to my surprise. We went for our evening training and focused on Tonfa and Nunchaku. immediately after class we had tea and drinks with Sensei. And of course after that we went out to the local watering holes.

On the 27th we again wondered around after breakfast. We trained again at 1-3pm and since Typhoon 22 was on it's way for the evening we skipped our training and had rank testing, Nakamoto Sensei birthday party and our syonora party all that evening. The night was both great fun and a bit nerve racking. I was the first one to test and run my kata in front of not only Sensei, but all the other Okinawakan shibucho and the many international groups.  After the testing was over the party started and we went late into the evening before we returned to the hotel and continued the party.

On the 28th Typhoon 22 had reached the island and we were all stuck inside the hotel. Several of us took the time to catch up on sleep or do laundry. The eye of the storm, gave us a few hours to run out and visit some more stores and wonder around a bit. Once the backside of the storm hit, it was stronger then the previous round, It got a bit rocky and the hotel staff thought we were crazy because we kept going outside to watch it, eventually they lowered steel doors over the hotel doors and windows, we were stuck inside, so more Orion and Awamori.

On the 29th we went to Naha to Kokusai Dori and Heiwa Dori to do some more shopping for souvenirs. That night we went for our last meeting with Nakamoto Sensei, he gave us more awamori and gave Roy, Neil and I all a pair of kama as gifts. He also gave me several pieces of shodo. We went back to the hotel and had dinner, packed our bags, and as a group we all went out for on last night together.

We left the next morning for the airport at 7. Our flight to Tokyo was delayed 43 minutes because of hitting birds, this made us miss our connecting flight to Tokyo, after several hours trying to figure out what we were going to do and multiple trips through security to find our bags and re-check them, we finally got a flight on a different airline and flew to San Francisco, it was a horrible flight and again I didn't sleep. Once we made it to San Francisco we had to go through customs, go to another terminal, re-check our bags and go back through security before we separated on different flights to our homes. I got home about 2 am and asleep about 4 am, almost a full 48 hours from when I got up to get ready to leave Okinawa.

Despite two Typhoons, all the delays and issues trying to get home from Tokyo, this was an awesome trip to Okinawa. We trained twice a day almost every day for 2.5-3 hours each session. I spent one on one time with Nakamoto Sensei, I tested for rank at the so-honbu dojo in front of the seniors of the system and all the assembled country groups. We visited some neat places and we drank a crap load. I met some people I have talked to for years on Facebook, so that was nice. I met several of my Dentokan brethren as well. I have a lot of new material to work on and look forward to the next visit, but I am glad to be home with my wife, children and grandchild. I have to thank Nakamoto Sensei for sharing his vast knowledge of Karate and Kobudo with us. Zaha Sensei and Takuma -san for their assistance during our stay. I have to thank Hobbs Sensei for arranging the hotel reservations and knowing his way around the island. I also have to thank Neil Malpas for being such a great tour guide and the rest of the group for just the over all great time we had together.