Just got back in after a long days training and the birthday party celebrating Higaonna Sensei turning 70 and the IOGKF 30. Todays training was with Higaonna Sensei. He arrived late last night, one day late, after attending and speaking at the funeral of Anichi Sensei. We had the priviledge of hearing Higaonna Sensei spend 30 minutes talking about Anichi Sensei and his life. It was from the heart as with all things with Higaonna Sensei. We also did junbi undo for 1.5 hours...killer...and after that Sanchin training, delving into the intricate details of the kata.
Since Laura is Goju royalty now, she had a seat at the table with Higaonna Sensei and his invited guests! She looked at home and carries herself really well in that environment. During dinner a video was shown telling the story of Higaonna Sensei and the IOGKF. Hopefully I can get it on DVD for all to see. Many made short speeches about what Higaonna Sensei has meant to them personally over the years with the last speech made by Ernie Brenneke, the first American to have Higaonna Sensei in the USA in 1965. Was neat to see the respect that he and Higaonna Sensei share. Sensei Linda Marchant from England spoke of her association with Sensei and brought the room to complete silence and Higaonna Sensei to a deep bow of respect for her words. I have both of these on video and hope to share at some point with you. Sensei was also presented with a vacation to the mountains of Canada by IOGKF members worldwide...each of you participated in that through our school. Kanazawa Sensei of Shotokan sent his top student to represent the Shotokan family at the party for Sensei. Sensei was moved. Not much more. We have been really busy with training and all. The girls have wanted to blog but it just has not worked out for them...well except for Adrain...she doesn't blog! Maybe they can add their experiences on our return.
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Higaonna Sensei is really so great to train with because of his intensity and his wanting every karateka to train harder and faster each time. I enjoyed all the training and the speeches were good too. The part about the Goju Ryu royalty...I'm not so sure about that. The food was great at Higaonna Sensei's birthday party and it looked like he enjoyed himself a lot. Of course Eric ate and ate and ate...it was pretty funny. I think that is so cute! The DVD was a great memoir (or whatever it is you call them...biography?) of Sensei's life. It was made by a member of the dojo right here in Burlington from Nakamura Sensei's dojo. He did a great job makig it! I was so excited about the trip to Lake Louise for Higaonna Sensei! It is such a beautiful place and so serene.
ReplyDeleteI wish that Adrian had blogged at least a sentence...I tried to get her to give in, but she really doesn't like blogging for some reason.
I really had a great time with Carla and Adrian...this time together just made our friendship even stronger...and funnier!! We had a lot of laughs and interesting moments...the sliding door was a great one!