List of Okinawan and Japanese Goju-Ryu Karate-do Dojo or Associations

 Dojo / Associations belonging to Senior students of Chojun Miyagi;

1. Seiko Higa - International Gojuryu Karate Kobudo Federation / Shodokan

No known website.

2. Eiichi Miyazato - Jundokan and OGKK were both founded by Miyazato

Jundokan (Yashuhiro Miyazato)  - http://www.jundokan-hb.jp/index.htm

Okinawan Gojuryu Karate-do Kyokai (Elected President) - https://www.ogkk.jp/index_en.html

3. Meitoku Yagi - Meibukan (There are two associations ran out of the Meibukan ran by his two sons)

International Meibukan Gojuryu Karate Association (Meitatsu Yagi) - https://www.imgka.com/

Okinawa Meibukan (Meitetsu Ygi) - https://www.meibukanyagidojo.com/

4. Seikichi Toguchi - Shoreikan - https://shoreikan-karate.com/en/

5. Kei Miyagi - Komeikan (Son of Chojun Miyagi) - https://www.goju-karatedo.com/

Miyazato lineage websites

IOGKF (Morio Higaonna)

https://iogkf.com/

Okinawa Goju-Ryu Kenkyu kai (Masaji Taira)

http://www.gojuryukenkyukai.com/

Jundokan International (Teruo Chinen)

Okinawakan (Kiichi Nakamoto)

Okinawa Shorei Martial Arts Association (Ko Uehara)

https://www.facebook.com/OkinawaShoreiMartialArtsAssociationOkinawaGojuryu/

Okinawa Goju-ryū Karatedo Goueikai

https://www.facebook.com/goueikai/?ref=br_rs

Goju Ryu Bujutsukan (Tomoyuki Kato)

https://goju-ryu.jp/en/about.html

Goyukan (Anyu Shinjo)

http://kanyon-kan.com/

Other Organisations From Meitoku Yagi Lineage

Ryusyokai (Senaha Shigetoshi)

http://www.ryusyokai.org/

Meibukan (Ikemiyagi)

http://ikemiyagi.com/en/

Other Organisations From Seikichi Toguchi Lineage

Ryushinkaikan (Ryugo Sakai)

https://goujuryu-ryushinkaikan.com/

Shobukan (Masanobu Shinjo)

Shinjikan (Toyama Zenshu)

https://www.facebook.com/shinjikangojuryu/?ref=br_rs

Jinbukan (Katsuyoshi Kanei)

Seibukai (Kinei Nakasone)

http://www.seibukai.com/

Okinawa Goju Ryu Kenpo kai (Yoshio Kuba)

Other Organisations From Seiko Higa Lineage

Gohakukai (Iken Tokashiki)

http://takakarate.com/index/about/

Kenshikai (Tetsuhiro Hokama)

https://www.kenshikai.org/

International Goju-Ryu Karate Do Senbukai (Izumikawa)

https://www.senbukaihonbu.com/

Organisations That Developed on Mainland Japan

International Karatedo Gojukai association (Gogen Yamaguchi)

http://gojukaikaratedo.com/

Seiwakai (Shuji Tasaki)

https://www.karatedoseiwakai.com/

Sosuikai (Tsubamoto)

http://www.karates.net/

Goju Kensha (Tadahiko Ohtsuka)

Seidokan (Tadanori Nobetsu)

Nihon Goju Ryu Etsukoukai (Noguchi)

https://www.facebook.com/etukoukai/?ref=br_rs

Seibukan (Yonemoto)

https://www.facebook.com/SeibukanUK/?ref=br_rs

Kenshokai (Jibiki)

https://www.facebook.com/karatedokenshokai/?ref=br_rs

Seigokan (Seigo Tada)

http://seigokan-japan.com/index.php?FrontPage

https://www.facebook.com/IGKSF-International-Gojuryu-Karatedo-Seigokan-Federation-312376138775149/

Yuishinkan (Tomoharu Kisaki)

Ohshikai (Kiyotaka Takasaki)

http://ohshikai.web.fc2.com/

Miyagi Chojun Karate-do Kun

 

Miyagi Chojun's Karate-do Kun

On the rear wall of the Jundokan So-hombu dojo in Okinawa there is a unique framed piece of shodo (calligraphy) that expresses the thoughts of Miyagi Chojun Sensei on what karate is.

It is titled Miyagi Chojun Sensei Karate-do Kun and translates as follows;

What is Karate?

In ordinary times, it is an art in which to cultivate one's spirit and physical health, and in times of an emergency, it is a way of protecting oneself without carrying a weapon.

That is, in many cases, we principally fight with our bodies to defeat our opponents; however, according to the timing and circumstance, it is not impossible to use implements as well.

The shodo hangs in the Jundokan but is actually taken from the first paragraph of the introduction to Miyagi sensei famous 1936 essay which he presented to the Dai Nippon Butokukai. The original title of this essay is technically Ryukyu Kenpo Karatedo Enkaku Gaiyo (琉球拳法唐手道沿革概要) which translates as An Overview of the History of Ryukyu Kempo Karatedo, although it is generally abbreviated to Karatedo Gaisetsu (唐手道概説) which translates as An Outline of Karate.

Chojun Miyagi Sensei’s seminal essay appeared as a supplementary article in two important books, Okinawa no Karatedo by Shoshin Nagamine Sensei  in 1975 and Okinawa-den Gojuryu Karate-do by Eiichi Miyazato Sensei in 1979. An English translation was published in 1999 by Patrick McCarthy Sensei.

While this historic piece of Shodo may largely go unnoticed by many that can not read the original kanji, a beautiful rendering of the kanji complete with an English translation can be purchased for those interested by following the link below.

Miyagi Chojun Sensei Karate-do Kun

Crazy Year

 This year has been a crazy year. In fact 2019 was a roller coaster as well. Let me go back and catch you up.

2019 saw some major changes in my martial arts affiliations, teaching and training. Since January of 2019 I had panned to visit Okinawa and attend the Okinawakan Anniversary seminars and celebrations, the Okinawakan was celebrating 65 years, along with the Dentokan and Yushikan both celebrating 25 years  each. As the year progressed, I traveled and taught quiet a bit throughout the country, as President of Okinawakan International and Vice President of Dentoakn, I was pretty busy bringing in new members and spreading the teachings I received from the Hombu Dojo in Okinawa. We did take some time in after the Baltimore seminar for some sight seeing and then it was off to Illinois for a one day seminar. Even though we were busy we did take 4 days to take a family trip up to Niagara Falls, and on the way back visited the Buffalo zoo. 

I hosted the 2019 annual gasshuku in July and we held rank testing and had a good weekend of training between Hobbs Sensei and myself. We even had a Uechiryu section at this years event. The week after the Gasshuku the landlord of the property the dojo was in, thought we did such a good job remodeling that he wanted to expand his business into the space. We ended classes in the large commercial space in August after 5 years, it was a beautiful dojo and I was very sad to see it go and even sadder to lose all the money invested gone. We tried to find a comparable space but nothing worked out. We had to move classes back to the old Yushikan on the back of my families property. 

As August pushed on I was having some disagreements with Okinawa over money, mainly the fact that I had just lost the dojo and the high costs of affiliation fees, on top of the coming travel, seminar, and grading costs were jut not doable at the point in time. I tried to make arrangements to pay the fees in Okinawa when I arrived, needless to say it came to a point where had to make a decision that was best for me and my students. I resigned from the Okinawakan Hombu dojo and resigned as president of Okinawakan International and dissolved that organization. Shortly after that I also resigned from the Dentokan after 21 years as Vice President. My decision to leave Okinawakan was a personal one and was not an easy choice, Nakamoto Sensei and I had a good relationship for several years and I was sorry that the decision had to be made.

I was unsure what would happen in Okinawa, given that i had just resigned and turned down a chance to grade for a rank, I may never get the chance to test for again, but my students and I went to Okinawa anyway. My wife and I took several students with us, 2 from my personal dojo, 1 from the Illinois dojo and 3 from the Baltimore dojo. We had a great time sight seeing and training for 2 weeks with Josei Yogi Sensei in Konan Ryu (Uechi) and Matayoshi Kobudo. We also rained and received some excellent shodo from Tetsuhiro Hokama Sensei, we spent the majority of our time training everyday for 4 hours  with Kenei Shimabukuro Sensei and Hiroshi Ganaha Sensei. I have to say that it was a great time and I received the most detailed and comprehensive training in Dento Gojuryu and Kobudo that I have ever received. I was appointed as a Shibu Dojo for both Shimabukuro Sensei and Yogi Sensei.

There was an unfortunate incident that transpired in Okinawa and after returning, one of the branch dojo were not invited to continue on the path forward with us. In October I landed in Indiana, went home got a little sleep, swapped luggage and we headed off to see the younger of our twins get married in Tennessee. After Okinawa, turning around and going straight to Tennessee for a weekend, Amber and I were tired but classes resumed on that Monday and we kept at it. Later in the month we were back on the east coast for the east coast gasshuku and rank testing, we spent a few extra days on the east coast taking our granddaughter to an aquarium in New Jersey. 

The remainder of the year we spent working on the material learned in Okinawa and enjoying the holiday's with family. I did re-organize the International Karate Kobudo Association that I had founded in 2016 and re-named it Sekai Budo Hozonkai or World Martial Arts Preservation Society. This was done to provide an avenue to further not only karate and kobudo, but also as a means to provide instruction and certification in Jujutsu and Iaido. Having spent over 40 years training in the various fighting arts of Okinawa and Japan, I thought this would provide me with the venue to pursue those endeavors and support my students.

2020 came in fairly normal and I began planning the annual gasshuku with guest instructors from Okinawa, but as the year progressed everyone knows what happened, we experienced a world wide pandemic that had us on lock down for several months. This lock down saw several of our branch dojo shut down and lose their training spaces. I went fro  50 students to 10, some of the branch dojo have been able to survive training outside but as a whole 2020 has shut down several dojo all over the world.

I cancelled all of my travel and the annual gasshuku has been pushed back several times, this year we will do a one day event and offer zoom sessions, but it won't be the same. On a bright note, Ganaha sensei is committed to coming to the USA in 2021. One of the best things to come out of the lock downs and pandemic is the zoom seminars that have happened. I have been able to take classes with Sakumoto, Fujimoto, Hokama, I was able to attend 3 days of training at Uechi SummerFest, I have a few more seminars scheduled with Okinawan masters and I have been attending weekly classes with George Mattson Sensei. Truly a silver lining in an other wise crap year. 

Now that I have given you a brief synopsis of the last two years, i can say that I am almost complete with my duel bachelors degree program and I hope to be able to get back to writing more. I have several partial books, one for kobudo, one for jujutsu, two on Gojuryu and one on Uechiryu that are all at various stages of completion, I hope that I can get them done. I will try to add new content to the blog on a more regular basis.

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Evolution of a dojo name

I began my adventure to teaching at my father's dojo, I started out by leading exercises, then teaching children's classes, then filling in for him when he wasn't there and eventually acting as Chief Instructor when he moved away. After a few years of leading the dojo, I got some advise from Mr. Phillip Koeppel, did a lot of soul searching and decided in the Winter of 1993, that I was going to stop using the name of my father's dojo and use my own name.

I am sure there will be several people that will say "oh my" and "how could you", well I wanted to pursue and teach a more authentic Okinawan karate, and could not do that in that particular dojo. On January 2, 1994 I opened my dojo and called it Mike Jones Karate-do Budokai, again taking advise from Mr. Koeppel.

The more I pursued the Okinawan arts, I decided that my dojo needed a Japanese name, eventually the dojo was called Yushikan (a name that we still use, but only by those already in the dojo). For almost 10 year I taught all classes at the Yushikan located on the back of my property adjacent to my home. I had grown tired of commercial karate, that coupled with my schedule as a law enforcement officer and eventually Chief of Police lead me to make the dojo private and I was very selective about who was admitted into the dojo. Training was old school and hard core, it was not for the feint of heart and not many people made it through the training. I was particularly hard on my children.

Fast forward to July 2014 and I had grown tired of the politics of being a Chief, the climate against police was turning, the Ferguson Riots had happened and the War on police was beginning, I decided it was the right time for me to retire and do something else in my life.   In October 2014 my family, a couple of students and I began construction on a newer and much larger dojo, which opened in January of 2015.

After several sit downs with the family and black belts, it was decided that normal people would have a hard time understanding Yushikan and being able to pronounce it. So we decided that we would have a public name for the dojo that would be better received by those unfamiliar with Japanese language of martial arts culture. We choose the name Okinawan Martial Arts Center, which made since, it was kind of generic but we thought hey we teach Okinawan karate, Kobudo and Toide, so it was kind of a catch all name that we thought the public would better understand.

You would be surprised how many people can not pronounce the word Okinawan, and don't get me started on the number of people that have called asking about marital advise. In hindsight maybe I should have kept Mike Jones Karate, people didn't have trouble with that. Then again, one of these days one of my son's will take it over, so having my name on it isn't planing for the future.

This year we celebrated 25 years since I opened that first dojo. Some years we have so many students we have to split classes and then some years it is just the small dedicated group that trains regularly.
My advise is that if you open your own dojo someday, keep it simple, name it after your city or county or your last name followed by family karate. From a marketing standpoint, regular people just don't get it.

T-Shirt Store

Hello for those people that follow our blog, we have added a T-shirt shop with several designs for Men, Women, Children in T-shirt, Long sleeve, swat shirts and hoodies. There are several options and color choices. Please use the drop down menu

https://www.storefrontier.com/store/okinawan-martial-arts-center

Nantambu Camara Bomani Hanshi

Mr. Bomani began his martial arts training in the 1960s. By 1968, Mr. Bomani, had traveled to Okinawa and began training with Eiichi Miyazato Sensei at the Jundokan. Mr. Bomani was a student of Miyazato Sensei’s, until Miyazato Sensei passed away in 1999. Since that time he had trained under Koshin Iha Sensei.

In the early 1970s, Mr. Bomani opened his first Jundokan dojo in Ithaca, New York. Mr. Bomani was also responsible for introducing Jundokan Gojuryu to Tanzania and Africa. He established the first ever Goju Ryu karate school in Dar es Salaam in 1973, naming it Tanzania Jundokan, and he founded the Tanzania Okinawa Gojuryu Karate Association. Mr. Bomani was also instrumental in spreading Jundokan Gojuryu through out the United States. He founded many dojos in New York, Washington, Kentucky and Ohio. He has left several yudansha spread across the United States and Africa. He also spearheaded the formation of the Okinawa Gojuryu Karate-do Kyokai Jundokan USA in 1971 and served as it's first president, later he also founded the West Africa Okinawa Gojuryu Karate-do Kyokai and Ghana Jundokan. Several of these branch dojo are still in operation.

Mr. Bomani continued his affiliation with the Jundokan and Okinawa Gojuryu Karate-do Kyokai, he

continued to visit and train in Okinawa and he spent a great deal of time traveling between his various branch dojo. All of his Gojuryu grades to 8th Dan Kyoshi were issued by Eiichi Miyazato Sensei, his 9th Dan was issued by Koshin Iha Sensei.

His senior student in the USA was Lloyd C. Johnson Sensei, who he awarded the highest grade he had ever issued and appointed him as president for his associations.

In August of 2009, Mr. Bomani passed away from a massive heart attack; he was buried in Accra, Ghana, West Africa. Bomani Shihan was a true pioneer of gojuryu, he was graded 9th Dan Hanshi, through his efforts he spread the Jundokan and the OGKK methods, to various dojo on two continents. He was a great teacher, friend, role model and inspiration.

So much going on and so little time

2018 just like 2017 has been super busy for me both in terms of my budo and also my personal life. I realized that I have not done a very good job of writing new content or keeping the blog updated as I probably should. I have been busy teaching at my dojo and traveling around and teaching at the various branch dojo, along with continuing to pursue another college degree and my own budo training. I am in the dojo 4/5 days a week, I spend almost every Sunday at the dojo of Jeff Davidson, where a group of us take great joy in punching each other and I spend almost everyday with my favorite little person, my granddaughter. When i get some down time, I have been working on three new books as well. So her is the highlights to get everyone up to speed;

4-8 of April Amber, Jason and I traveled to the east coast for 5 days. We left Indiana on Wednesday and arrived in Maryland Wednesday evening and got a hotel.  On Thursday, we spent a day wondering around at the beach in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. It is a very neat little town and has some neat shops. That evening we went to the dojo of Jeff Sullens (Anshinkai Martial Arts) in Belcamp, Maryland. Jeff’s dojo is a nice little space, his students were all very nice and we had the opportunity to teach for about three hours, covering several sections of the Okinawakan International

curriculum and evening getting a little of track with a section of Aiki-Jujutsu. Later that evening Jeff provided dinner at his dojo and we were able to socialize and met several of the students off the mat and get to know everyone. Jeff, his wife and students were great hosts and are working hard to adapt to the new organization and curriculum changes.

On Friday morning we went to downtown Baltimore and visited the Harbor and National Aquarium, it is truly a cool place, it is unique in that you follow a spiral path up several stories and then back down again, seeing several different habitat displays. We all three really enjoyed the visit to the aquarium and spent several hours there. Later that evening we changed hotels, to be closer to the seminar venue. Friday evening we began the first of a three day Gasshuku at the dojo of Vance

Parker (Parker’s Gojuryu) in Woodlawn, Maryland. All three days we worked on the Okinawakan International curriculum, covering basic’s, Break falls, Ido Dachi, Ido Kogeki, Sandan Uke Harai, Sandan GI, Ippon Kumite, Nippon Kumite, kata from Gekisai to Sanseru, and bunkai. Vance took us to a nice dinner at an Asian buffet on Saturday evening.

22nd of April we hosted Black Belt testing for my dojo. a four hour test that included, History, kihon, Kihon ido, kata, yakusoku Kumite, bunkai and self defense, I am proud to announce that Stan Range and Michael Hehe were promoted to Shodan. Thank you to Mr. and Mrs. Davidson for assisting with testing.

On the 5th of May, Amber, Jason and I traveled to Jacksonville, Illinois to the dojo of Steve Foster (Karate-do Kai of Jacksonville). We arrived an hour and a half before the seminar start time, so we ventured around Jacksonville to take in the sights, it is a nice town with a cozy feel to it, and several

of the homes were architectural marvels, just beautiful homes. We met everyone at Steve’s dojo and had a nice seminar. We had some guests join us from the Gojuryu Karate-do Kyokai. We trained for 5 hours total, with a small lunch break that was provided for us by Steve. We covered Sandan Uke Harai 1-4, Sandan Gi, Ippon Kumite 1-6 and then began to work through the kata, worked bunkai and then bo Buri.  After the seminar, several of us went out to eat at a very nice restaurant and enjoyed talking with each other. Steve and his students are working hard to adapt to the Okinawakan International curriculum

23rd of June, Curtis and I traveled to the Indiana Genbukai and had a great day training with Fumio Demura Sensei. Lots drills, lots of kata, lots of sweat. After training we went to their organization banquet and got to speak

with Demura Sensei more. we had a very nice conversation about the training and past events, training in Okinawa and the modernization of karate.

26th of June, Chris Minnich visited for some training at the dojo.

5-8th of July, Amber and I jumped in the car and drove straight through to Fort Myers, Florida. We attended the wedding of my long time fried and dojo mate, John Manley. We took some time to visit the beach and also spent an afternoon lounging by the pool. John and Kim had a beautiful beach wedding. Even though Amber and I drove down and back 20 hours each way, we needed the rest.

27-29 of July I hosted my annual Gasshuku. This was the 18th straight year that we have done the Gasshuku. We had a few before this 18 yer run, but not consecutive. This gasshuku we had Col Hobbs, Col. Willis and myself as the instructors. We had people attend from Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Illinois, Missouri and Indiana.

The first day we worked on basics, two person drills and a little kata. Day two was more kata with a lot of details explained and several drills to help reinforce the techniques and some bunkai. Day three was with kata or Nunchaku depending on the group you chose. There was a lot of little details pointed out over the weekend.

This weekend we also celebrated the 60th Anniversary of martial arts training for Sensei Roy Jerry Hobbs and presented him with a cake and plaque. It might be interesting to know that it was also 20 yeas ago that I was

appointed as Vice President for Hobbs Sensei Dentokan association and that Indiana was first established as a Dentokan branch.

We also had a small cake for Deirdre Fusco for being pinned as a nurse the night before the Gasshuku.

This year we also held the first yudansha testing with people testing from three dojo. This year everyone tested in Gojuryu

Congratulations to my students that tested and passed their grading in front of the Testing board;

Curtis Jones 5th Dan

Jeff Sullens 5th Dan
Jason Thompson 4th Dan
Chad Kutcherman 1st Dan
Yondan to Patrick Polvinale
Nidan to Michael Pauley
Shodan to Dan Fusco
Shodan to Kendall Cosgrove
Shodan to Ike Walker
Shodan to Ishan Abdul-Jabbar
Jun Shodan to Jesse Shiflett

Also congratulations to the students of my students that passed as well;

Rick Martini 1st Dan 

17 - 19th of August  Amber Jones, Brit Pile and I Were again on the road. We had a great road trip to and from Republic Missouri, visiting some unique places along the way and we laughed like crazy. The seminar was excellent! Anthony Willis Sensei and his wife were excellent hosts. Anyu Shinjo Hanshi was very genuine and

humble, he is an extremely thorough and exacting Instructor. He truly is an excellent example of his teacher Eiichi Miyazato Sensei.

Day 1: Junbi Undo, 80 High blocks, 80 middle blocks,80 down blocks, 600 forward punches, 200 front kicks. Hour and 15 minutes in walking in sanchin dachi. Not a bad warm up. Then we worked on kata for the rest of the day.

Day 2: Junbi Undo, 60 High Blocks, 60 Middle blocks, 60 low blocks, 180 punches and 60 front kicks, then we moved on to kata.

I have to thank Amber and Mrs. Wills for taking tons of pictures. We also had the opportunity to eat dinner twice and lunch once with Shinjo Sensei.

Also a big congratulations to Col. Wills on being promoted to Hanshi 9th Dan on the last day of the Gasshuku by Shinjo Hanshi.

9th of September, we had a surprise guest at my dojo. Lloyd C. Johnson III Hanshi and his student Eric Jefferson both came to the dojo for an impromptu day of training. Mr. Johnson taught hojo undo and also kakie, as well as reviewing several kata. Mr. Johnson also had a surprise presentation that he made. He promoted MR. Jefferson to Kyoshi and Hachidan. He then issued several of my students certification recognition from his association. He then presented me with a promotion that I in no way deserve, accompanied with documents from Okinawa acknowledging such.

28th of September I was promoted to the Rank of 8th Dan in Ufuchiku Lineage Kobudo through the Ryukyu Dento Kobujutsu Hozon Budo Kokai under the authority of my teacher, Kiichi Nakamoto Soke.

10th of October I awarded my Son's Curtis and Alec with their Renshi license, Jason Thompson with his Shidoin License and Stan Range and Michael Hehe with their Fuku-Shidoin license. Curtis was also issued a Renshi license from my teacher, Kiichi Nakamoto.

October 19-21st, Jason and I traveled to Maryland for the purpose of Black Belt testing and instructing at the Fall Gasshuku.

On Friday evening we got started around 6:00, tested 8 candidates for rank advancement, the testing consisted of a written test, Junbi Undo, kihon, two person drills, kata, bunkai and some self defense. We left the dojo around 12:30am

Saturday from 9-5, after warming up, we worked on Gekisai Dai Ichi and Dai Ni, breaking down several small details, we worked on Gekisai Rensoku, covered the finer points of Sanseru and kihon waza. On Saturday evening we went out to a nice pub for dinner and had a great time socializing. I had the opportunity after 25 years of corresponding through email and social media to meet in person Howard S. High Sensei. I enjoyed our conversations and he did a demonstration of his sword art for us.

On Sunday we went from 9-2, we started with a warm up and basics, we then moved into Bo Buri and Toma Nu

Kun, we then covered Sanchin Dai Ichi and Dai Ni in great detail. I then passed out participation certificates and then presented the following promotions:

Renshi to Jeff Sullens

October 25-27, I had the opportunity to spend three days with my good friend, and mentor Roy Jerry Hobbs Hanshi and his lovely wife Dianne.

We worked on Jujutsu and Kobudo together this time. Not many friends enjoy making the other holler in pain while doing a wrist lock or throw, but for over 20 years we have been “abusing” each other.

I thoroughly enjoyed the visit, training and excellent conversations. One highlight was that Hobbs Sensei showed me the various menjo, menkyo and Makimono that he has earned from a virtual who’s who of martial artists. Masters that some of us have only read about in books. Certificates from white belt to 8th, 9th or 10th Dan in several Okinawan Karate, Kobudo and Toide systems. The same for Japanese Karate, Jujutsu, Iaido and even Kung fu systems. 60 years worth of historical documents and photos with legendary masters. It was truly humbling.

I have to thank Dianne and Hobbs Sensei for being gracious hosts and allowing me once again to share their home and family time.

I also have to give a special shout out to my beautiful wife Amber Jones, who allowed me to take off again, after only being home for 2 days from the last karate trip. Not too many wives would support their husbands traveling all over the world to teach and train or spend every evening at the dojo, weekends at tournaments or clinics and spend almost every Sunday watching me Kumite. She has given up a lot to support my endeavors over the past 28 years and I am eternally grateful.

December 1-2, we had two visitors from our Baltimore branch dojo visit for training. I gave detailed instruction on Gekisai Ichi and Ni, Sanchin Ichi and Ni, Saifa, Seiunchin, Shisochin, Sanseru, Seipai, Kururunfa and seisan. Along with Ido Dachi and bunkai.

The remainder of the year with see a holiday party, end of year testing and preparation for our first event of 2019 to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the dojo.