Robert さんのプロフィールOkinawa Boundフォトブログリストその他  |  ツール ヘルプ |
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1月29日 Karate FestivalMaple Ridge, 2006. Akemi & I have moved into our new townhouse and we love it. Now that we have settled in, it is time to start getting in shape. Akemi suggested Martial Arts of some kind and I immediately thought of Karate. As Akemi is from Okinawa, the birthplace of Karate, this seemed like a grand idea.
I got on Google and did a search for Karate in Maple Ridge. The first entry was for a dojo very nearby - about 3 blocks away - and it was associated with Okinawa. Cool.
I went there and signed up, and the training began. With the head dojo based in Naha, Okinawa, I would have a place to train while I am on vacation! Very nice.
About 6 months later, it was vacation time. I asked my sensei here if he could get in touch with the sensei in Naha and ask if it was okay if I trained there for two weks. Of course the dojo there would be glad to have me. Very friendly group.
A few weeks later, we were in Okinawa. I love it there! A quick trip to the dojo and I was in my first class. Now picture this if you can. Tall white guy, white uniform, white belt. Everybody else is Japanese, mostly short, very oriental and mostly black belt. What a contrast. But they are a great group, they treasted me like a family member from the beginning. The classes were great, even with the language barrier. Fortunately they were very patient. I suppose they are used to visitors there. As I was about to find out.
The third evening class was a bit of a shock, when I heard a lot of voices speaking English. A group had just arrived from P.E.I. and Ontario, about 15 all together, mostly black belt! Wow! They had come to train of course and to perform in a festival, the 4th Annual Budokan and Karate Festival. These are held every four years and I was there just in time to see it! Cool!
I think it was the next evening, the class was very small. Me, a local girl and the Master, Yagi Sensei - 10th Dan Black Belt. Yagi Sensei is the best in the world now, at the very top. What a great class, what an honour! Imagine if you were just starting to learn physics and could spend two weeks learning with Einstein!
At the end of the class, Yagi Sensei asked me if I would join his dojo during their demonstration at the festival. Well how could I say no? Of course! Wow!
Then he told me the kata we would be performing...Tenchi...Yeow! This is a black belt level kata! And I have been doing Karate for three months! Yeow! To top that off, I have never done that kata even once, only maybe twice the first half...
So I have three days to learn a 45 move kata.
The next day, the other Canadians were back, so I asked the sensei of that group if they could help me. He said yes of course, and I asked if I could video one of them doing the kata, then I could watch it at home and study it over and over. One of the group was selected to do this for me, and he did the kata for me, move by move. Very nice.
When I got home, I started dissecting the moves and wrote them all down in terms I could understand. Bad Dog, Sandwich, Want some Tea, StopSign......and practices over and over and over and over. From move one, to move one and two, then one , two and three, and on and on. My wife Akemi was a big help, as was the rest of the family. Putting up with me dancing all over the house.....
And the day arrived. We all went to the Budokan building, a great big auditorium type building...about 3000 visitor seats and they were all full. Boy, no pressure here!
All the family was there to watch me, even a lady who was a friend of my Sister in law Suemi came to watch. Wow!
I was outside getting organized with the other dojo members, and was surprised to find that all the other Canadians were actually performing with a different group and I was to be the only white guy to be performing with Yagi Sensei's dojo. Yeowch!
Well the time came, we all ran onto the floor and took our positions. Yagi Sensi's son did the announcements and gave us the count for the kata. I think I did okay, I messed up at one point when I rotated the wrong way nut overall not too bad.
When we finished we all ran off the floor and I just about passed out! Well not really but it was exciting. Wel all went back to the dressing room and grabbed our gear then said goodbye. I went up to the gallery to meet my family, they were very happy to see me and they all said I did great!
But let me tell you, we had the smallest group of the whole performance, 8 Okinawans and one white guy! Most groups had at leat 25 and most were a hundred. And black belts everywhere! And me with me shiny new white belt, Damn did I stand out!
Well, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity, for one person. Me. Thanks to all my friends and family for helping me with this. 7月6日 about me!Things people say about "ThunderAce":
BWT at the Road Apples Dinner:
"Hey ThunderAce, you ride as fast as you talk?"
BWT at a gas stop on the road to Ainsworth Hot Springs while I am videoing...
"Hey you ride as shakey as you video!" (I had two coffee's in Hope about 1/2 hour before - I don't normally drink coffee...)
RichardT on the RoadApples Site - After we arrived at the Hot Springs..... After Dinner:
"Having a great time, and listening to ThunderAce - and YES for the record he does talk as fast as he rides!!
 Luv ya man! "Billy Davis on the post trip dissection: "ThunderAce was steady and solid all weekend long, he never got in over his head, and knew when to back off when he couldn't keep up with me." Rick Mack on my 50th Birthday: Happy 50th Birthday, Thunder Ace !!!! Richard T on my 50th Birthday: In 1957 - 50 years ago:
6月2日 Road ApplesWhat a great day it was!
It even started out the night before when I hit the road to Aldergrove to visit my Mom.
As you all know I live in Maple Ridge so to get to Aldergrove I just hop on the Albion Ferry.....
Nice being on the bike cause I can go right on the first ferry.... dont have to wait!
And what a GREAT surprise at the ferry terminal....
I have been there ONCE in my car when there were only three cars in front of me, but last night the parking lot was EMPTY! And a Friday night!
Needless to say it was a quick crossing.
I got a nice picture of Mt. Baker, our destination.....
A nice ride to Mom's place, a nice visit and then back home. But WOW were the bugs ever out! I got splattered! Aldergrove at night is a great place to avoid on a bike. I pity da fools with those skull caps and no windshields that ride there. But I guess they will be getting a lot of protein in their diet!
Had to wash the bike when I got home, a lot of scrubbing! The helmet too....
So the new day arrived.... HOT already!
Akemi and I hit the road at about 8:15 heading for Langley. A quick cruise to Tim Hortons on 200th and the freeway, and there they are! Wow look at all the bikes!
We met everybody and then headed out. We hit the freeway towards Abbotsford and found very quick that the idiots in the cars dont wait till evening to come out.....
We all were cruising in the fast lane, just about to pass a line of cars when a little car raced up beside us on the right side and then pulled in behind 'BackWheelTango' and right in front of Chris on his Honda....barely a car length between them....
At the first chance he then flipped back into the right lane and gave us the bird..... It never fails to amaze me how STUPID people (and I use the term loosely) in cars get when they see a bike.... like we don't exist.
The rest if the ride was cool, we stopped at the Timmy's on the way to the Sumas Border crossing to meet another group of riders.
We had our fist bad news of the day there, one of the riders had his bike trampled by a lady in her car....he was ok, thank goodness, she just hit his bike, then continued back over it. HUH? Which part of the BIG bump didn't you understand?
We had to leave him behind, sorry. Next time we will make sure you join us!
On to the border..... Hot Hot Hot.... about a 1/2 hour lineup, we were down to our skivvies pretty quick. Just pushed the bikes along... well, some of us got a bit excited and did a bit too much pushing.... yeah that was me! I pushed it too hard and didn't check the side stand.... over it goes! Oh well! Little damage.... it's already 11 years old so no worries.....
Thru the border and a stop at a gas bar to fill up and hydrate.
We organized and headed out.
The scenery was fantastic. Beautiful trees and fields and stream and mountains and bugs....
The sunshine was playing tricks, shadows everywhere making fantastic shadow patterns on the road.
As we got closer, the air started cooling a bit, that felt nice. The roads were clear and smooth and relatively traffic clear.
The twisties were, well, twisty.
The road went up and down, mostly up.
After about 45 mintues riding we reached to top, it was snow and sun and cool air (nice!) and warm air and beautiful. Shortly after we arrived another group arrived, driving some of those cheap (KIDDING!) Ferrari's and Porsche's and Lanboughini's. Ouch were they sweet.
We rested for a while, took some pictures and headed down.
We stopped in Glacier for lunch at a burger joint, nice cold drinks and big burgers. The Ferrari guys were already there, they were very nice, gave us nice comments on our bikes and showed their wisdom when they deferred to our riding skills as being able to take their cars on the winding roads....
Lunch was nice, we all had a nice time to relax and talk and swap stories. The guys at my table were wondering what type of person can afford a car like a Ferrari or Lamborghini, so I went over and asked the guys. Turns out you need to be a Specialist Doctor or Architect to afford one. Guess I'm out!
After lunch we headed back to the border and a stop in Abby to re-group and we all said goodby and headed off in our respcetive directions.
All in all, a great day! I met some really nice people, had a great relaxing ride and after living within 50km of Mt. Baker almost all my life, finally visited it.
Thanks to ALL the Road Apples! 5月7日 Yamaha YZF 1000 ThunderaceWell It's biking time again!
After too many years without a bike it was time again.
The commute to work every day is getting crazy. Too much traffic, too slow on the freeway.
Really, can you picture sitting in your car, stopped, on the freeway right next to the speed limit 90 kmh sign? This is stupid.
So, I began a search.
Always been a Yamaha guy, and Love the YZF 750's...... so start looking. Internet site, used bikes of course.
Not a lot out there, that's for sure. Looking for about a year.... and time to get serious. Found a few nice ones in my price range (cheap) and showed some pics to Akemi (my wife).
Well she decides to make it hard for me, says 'ok, sell the boat and you can buy a bike.'
So, I put the boat for sale on some free websites on Sunday, and Wednesday a guy comes over and drives off with it.
Well, how about that?
So the next day I stopped at the Yamaha shop in Port Moody, GA Checkpoint. It was raining and the bike was outside, wet. They gave me a couple of paper towels to wipe off the seat (I think they thought I wasn't serious) but I did and the bike felt good. Not too big, well balanced, and it looked good.
I put a deposit on it to hold it until I could ride it on a dry day and went home with good dreams already happening.
The next Saturday I arrived before they opened and waited to take it out for a ride. They got it ready and I took off!
WOW is it fast. And it handles like a bike half its size. And stops on a dime. Lots of room for another rider on the back and a good fairing that keeps me warm and dry.
Needless to say, I bought it the same day. And a nice helmet to match.
Well the pictures don't really do it justice. It is smooth and fast and powerful. It will exceed every speed limit in B.C. in first gear. And has torque coming out every pore in its body. Fifth gear (it only needs five!) down the freeway at about 120 k and a twist of the wrist and you're at 200. No downshifting, just GO! Wow. Thank Yamaha for a great handling bike. No wobbles, no rough ride, no worries. just goes and turns and stops.
Oh Yeah, did I mention I love it!
(It's a 96! and pretty well everbody who looks at it thinks it is new.) HA!
2月17日 Musashi MiyamotoWe were walking through the city of Tatsuno, near Osaka. Tatsuno is a smaller city about one hour south of Osaka. This is where Akemi's Sister and her family live.
It was our last day in Japan. Terumi (Akemi's sister - remember her?) dropped off Akemi & me near the Bullet Train station, to let us walk around by ourselves for the afternoon. We had a map of the city but it wasn't extrememly clear.
We wandered around, found a temple and looked in a bunch of small stores. Most of the stores I could not even recognize as stores. Oh well.
We found an interesting building where there was an older gentleman was standing by the door. It was a senios center and it had displays of woven pottery. These were really neat, as we talked to the gentleman there he told us they were all made by the seniors there. Most were really neat and very artisitic.
Later, as we wandered around, we walked past an open gate and saw some big buildings inside a compound that looked like some temples. There were no signs anywhere and nobody to see inside. We went inside to look around, and I saw this statue that looked familiar.
??? What? How can this be familiar? Was I going nuts or what????
Okay, lets go back a bit. Couple of years before, Terumi sent us some videos. A set of three told the story of Musashi Miyamoto, a VERY famous samurai who basically invented the two hand sword fighting method. I thought the videos were just stories, exaggerations like Billy the Kid in the old west.
So here I am thousand of miles from home, years later, and I recognize a statue. What is with me?
Well it turned out we had found one of Musashi Miyamoto's Schools. He established lots of these all over Japan, including one here.
This was not even on the guide map, we found it by chance. Oh Was I happy! Can you even imagine the chance of finding a place like that?
We looked around a lot of course, there was a statue and two stone signs explaining what this area was.
I experienced almost a religious feeling, I was so surprised and overwhelmed... finding out that this person really existed and did everything he said he did. This is all documented. He also wrote a book, "The Seven Rings" that expalains the theory behind the two sword method.
This was a revolutionary idea in Feudal Japan. Befor this, all samuari would use just their main sword. The smaller one as exclusivly for Hari Kiri - the ending of your life.
Musashi Miyamoto thought, well I've got two hands and two swords, why not use both? So he learned how and developed a new style. Then he wrote books about it. And became famous.
It is told that he once one a sword duel using only a fan for defense and attack - against a samurai sword. Impressive.
I still get goose bumps thinking about that time. I hope some of you can experience something similar.
2月4日 School CelebrityWe were visiting Tatsuno, 'near' Osaka on the mainland of Japan.
We stayed at Akemi's sisters' house. Terumi has three fantastic children, all very talented and super smart. Norie is the oldest: "Miss Tatsuno". Kinue is second only in age, she is fantastic at sports! Toshio is the only boy and he LOVES Baseball - he was about 8 years old at the time.
When we were there, I realized that I had never really seen anything of the school system. I've seen the outsides of some as we drove past but that was it. Figuring it was time to change that, I asked Toshio if I could come to his school the next day for a visit. I thought he would jump at the chance - you know, "My big Uncle Rob is here from CANADA!". I doubted very much that any other white people ever came thru that town, it was quite off the beaten track.
Toshio's response was different. He said "No". What???? Why not? I asked. Well after a bit if translation - He was shy. Too shy to invite me.
So I asked his mom Terumi. She picked up the phone and was right away talking to the Principal of the school. Well Terumi is pretty well known with the school, she helps out a lot at the functions, so of course the Principal said Yes right away.
The next morning we all piled into Terumi's van and headed over to the school.
The Principal met us at the door and showed us where to put our shoes (all the schools have loaner slippers for you to wear, you leave your shoes at the entrance so everything stays clean), then she took us to Toshio's classroom.
The students were all sitting at the front of the room on the floor, playing musical instruments. The Principal told us this was the very first time the class was playing together as a group. They weren't that good yet but were certainly having fun. Already some of them noticed me and were wondering what was happening. I think the Principal had already told the teacher we were coming so he just kept on going like normal.
We quietly went in the back of the class where Akemi pointed out some of Toshio's work - some posters that he had painted. The class finished their music and put their stuff away, then everybody got up and went outside. I asked (of course) what was happening and was told it was their gym class now. We followed them all outside to a sports field. This was the really strange part.
Outside along the edge of the field was a series of long metal pipes arranged parallel to the ground, at various heights. The students had chnged into short by the time we got there and were all 'playing' on the bars. I asked what was going on and was told - basically what is required to pass the P.E. class (from what I could understand anyways) was that the students must flip themselves around the bar twice.
The first time they would run at the bar and use their momentum to fling their legs under the bar and flip over backwards. Then, while holding onto the bar they would swing their legs back and forth till the momentum had built up again and they would flip around once more. Do that and you pass the class. (This apparently is a REALLY big thing to do - We went to one a temple later and were invited inside - in the family's living area they had a portable bar set up so the son could practice at home!)
Well we watched the students working on this for a bit, then one of the students came over to me, took me hand and said "You try". Brave little kid.
Well as most of you know by now I'm pretty outgoing and love new experiences. I went with him to the bar and with a little bit of help told him he needs to show me what to do. By this time more of the class was watching me now. (Did I mention I am TALL compared to most Japanese? I was told later that I was the talles person they had ever met - even taller than their teacher and he was the tallest in the whole school!) The teacher came over to help me, he gave a good demo for me what to do. Well I gave it a try, running for the bar, grabbing it and sliding right under and stood up on the other side. Everybody laughed of course, my intention! Then I came back and did it properly, I actually managed to flip right over the very first time without injuring myself! All the kids were really happy to see me do that. I couldn't do the second part, that takes a lot of practice - I was told. But it was fun trying.
After I finished, the young boy who originally asked me to try came over to shake my hand and thank me. That was really nice of him.
THEN - the whole class was around me! All of the students trying to shake my hands all at the same time! WOW! It was almost scary, all these kids trying to grab me at the sme time! I was almost worried I might lose an arm! But it was great. At that moment I think I knew what it was like to be a Movie Star and have everybody want a piece of you.
It was a great time and I will never forget.
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Okinawa BoundWishing I was there!
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