I woke up this morning to the wonderful chiming bells at the Chuo Community Center at 7:00. The center is located directly across the street from Izumi Sensei's home and it quite loud. It is used to wake the community up each morning although many citizens are up much, much earlier. Izumi Sensei and I left to do our crossing guard duty in a terrible thunderstorm which completely soaked us. A neighbor saw us out in the rain and brought us two umbrellas to use.

We left to teach at Chatan Montessori School for the day's lesson which was a disaster. We were completely spoiled teaching the Okinawan children at the local pre-school but when we taught the American Montessori kids, it was terrible. No kids would listen or follow along and spent more time crawling under tables and running around-all of this with no help from their teachers. In true Izumi Sensei humor, he had me attempt to teach the class while he sat and took pictures of me losing my mind and my temper. He just giggled and laughed everytime I asked "Tasukette kudasai!"-Please help me!"

It came time for me to get a lesson in a dance from Shuri and I can tell you that it was more technically difficult than 20 Chinto kata put together. The slightest detail goes into the foot movements, turns and distribution from the ball of the foot to the heel. Like in karate, the back stays straight when transferring from one stance or movement to another.

I tried my best but the Sensei said 'Maybe you should stick to karate!" I completely agreed with her but told her that I was honored at the opportunity to learn more about this cultural treasure.

Afterwards, I had a great kobudo training session with Naka Sensei where we worked on bo technique and the kata Kanegawa no Timbe. Naka Sensei has a boyish enthusiasm towards kobudo but his favorite topic is iri kumi. He has won the all Okinawa Full Contact Championship many times and now dedicates himself to helping train the students in the dojo. He is a master at kumite and it is amazing to watch a 55 year old man move like he is 16.

I woke up to the bells again and did crossing guard duty with Izumi Sensei. We taught class at the Koza pre-school and had a great time with the kids. After lunch, we had another "fun" session with the Montessori kids and decided to give a storytelling lesson on the history of Okinawa karate-for 4 year olds.

We took the standard trip to Shureido where I picked up a couple of items for students and browsed through the new books.

We went upstairs, had dinner and went right to sleep.

Izumi Sensei and I drove to Ginowan to shop for family, buy baseball bats for me to break and I took him out to a yakiniku restaurant. We drove to Futenma to visit the famous shrine there where we bought an oufda to place inside ours at the dojo. We saw a nice elderly gentleman who was having his new car blessed for safety and longevity. Perhaps I should have had him bless my baseball bats!

When we arrived at the Hombu dojo that evening, Gibu Sensei told me that my test for Rokudan would be held after class was over.With my nerves on full tilt, we went through all of the kata 3 times with corrections and then concentrated on kicking and striking techniques.

The test was afterwards and Makato Sensei took the time to carefully tell me the protocol for testing. After the test was over, Gibu Sensei awarded me two certificates, one in Japanese and one with English. He said that he was going to buy two nice frames for them both and to bring them to our private lesson tomorrow so that we could frame them together.

I was very honored to have my seniors present for the test and I told them that I had a lot to work on and would train even harder from this day forward. Izumi Sensei and I went to the Lemon Grass to celebrate and it was nice to have my friend there to celebrate the evening's events.

Hanshi Gibu's horse bridal nunchaku.

We woke up for the final day of Flag duty and then paid Izumi Sensei's parents a visit. His father, in typical Okinawan fashion, was very youthful for his age and we found him tending to his garden in the front. We all sat down for Okinawan pancake and tea and discussed family and things.

We had lunch in Awase with my friend Miyazato San who is the father of one of Izumi's students and discussed taking a trip to Minna Island or Kudaka Island tomorrow. Izumi Sensei has to work but Miyazato and his family would be coming along.

I went to the dojo for my private lesson where we framed my certificates and concentrated on bo and sai.I had a great makiwara lesson with Yagi Sensei, 7th dan/Kyoshi who is one of the most fit gentlemen I have ever met. At 65 years old, he can do the full splits with his chest to the floor, shin kick a sand bag until he PARTS the rock-hard sand to each side of the bag and is more fit than most 18 year olds. (His rabbit hop drill around the dojo is torture) The makiwara lesson was very detailed and he continued to repeat the same instruction" it is not how hard you hit the maki but how often you hit it and how correctly."

Another very important benefit to this trip was translating the differences between local dialects as well as "aquaintance Japanese." Speaking proper Japanese(the use of te forms and masu forms) are extremely important and allow you to maintain a formal conversation with seniors and strangers however it is very different then how people speak to each other. The casual language also changes within certain settings and it was interesting to learn to recognize these. I asked Izumi Sensei if he was speaking unchina guchi(Okinawa language) with his friend one evening when he said "arrun da." When I asked him what it meant, his response was that I spoke Japanese and knew what he said. He said "arimasu ne" or arimasu ka? Same same." I had a lot to learn about the day to day language.

Miyazato San , his wife Niroko picked me up in his van and we were joined by his two sons Taku, Riku and his daughter Biku. Niroko san is a school teacher also and we had some good conversations comparing the US and Okinawa school methods. We drove to Toguchi Port in Nago to catch the ferry to Minna Jima. It was a very fast boat that had air-conditioned seating with great views of the surrounding islands, Sesoko and Ie.

Minna Jima had beautiful white beaches and crystal blue water with lots of snorkeling opportunities. The kids were very excited, as were Miyazato and Noriko, that summer break had started yesterday and they were ready for a well-deserved day at the beach.

I was grateful to Miyazato and his family for the wonderful day and I had a great time snorkeling with his kids.