Intensive training review

So, we did it. We made it through the entire week of training. Plus regular training and work. We only missed the Tuesday to go to Arakaki dojo and the Friday afternoon to prep for the party in the evening. 

I spent the entire week trying to hide from the film crews and they caught me on the last day. I'm not good at speaking to people, not new people with tv cameras anyways. 

It was so cool. Oyakawa Sensei taught us a lot. We did 4 kata, lots of bunkai and kote kite. Very cool. 

We did ananku, wanshu, seisan and tokumine no kon (bo kata).

Oyakawa's Sensei was Nakazato Sensei who was Chotoku Kyan's student. A very pure lineage. 

Most questions we asked Oyakawa Sensei he gave quite short and direct answers to, then i (James) asked him to tell us about his Sensei, and you could see him think about it for a second and then so many memories and stories came back to him. I really love the fact that you can see how much admiration and respect these Sensei have for their Sensei. 

he said he was a kind man who was very strict about timekeeping. 

He was really good at playing the sanchin and liked to drink awamori. He was a teacher/ worked in education (can't remember exactly). 

One day when I'm old, I'm going to be able to tell stories all about my time in Okinawa and the Sensei I've been able to meet and train with and learn from. 

I'm pretty sure that will be the thing that makes my eyes all sparkly and bright again too.