After arriving back from Minna Jima, Izumi and I quickly got ready to go to Urasoe where Gibu Sensei and the other Butokukan black belts were giving me a welcome party. The party was held at the very beautiful Pizza House(don't let the name fool you, it was very upscale with fine food and spirits)

Makato Sensei began the evening as the MC of the banquet and each senior student gave speeches. I was very honored by their words and their humor as they did not hesitate to bring up how badly I was sweating during this trip and how I had to be followed around with a soji mop!

It was then time to eat and the buffet was incredible with all types of seafood, meat and an open bar. Each attendee stood up and made a brief introduction/ speech and then it was time for karaoke. Gibu Sensei started us off with a song from Shuri and was quite impressive. Each of us took turns at the microphone and Daigo Sensei performed a great version of Bon Jovi!

We ended with the "Ja ken pon Taikai" (Scissors/rock/paper contest) and I lost, again. They had a fierce competition between the Butokukan members and then the two winners were awarded a cash prize, which they gave to me.

At the end, I was presented beautiful gifts from the Butokukan and most of the group left to continue the party in Naha. I have to pinch myself sometimes at how fortunate I am. Sensei is such a talented man and has the biggest heart and I told him that I am thankful everyday for being his student.

Makato Sensei came to pick me up with his son Hiroshi and daugher Ryoko for a day of sightseeing in the pottery district of Tsuboya. It was fascinating to see all of the different types of pottery and walk through the narrow, windy streets. We found a Shorin-Ryu dojo but the Sensei had passed away and so the dojo had closed.

We went to a pottery shop where you received a lesson on making a shisa and the kids and I tried our hand at Okinawa pottery. It was a lot of fun and would be an interesting project to attempt with my 5th grade students.

Spending anytime with Makato Sensei is a treat and he is the carbon copy of his father. He is incredible at kumite, kata, and kobudo and has his father's kind nature. You will never find a moment with Makato Sensei is not smiling and he is joy to be around.

We left Awase port and traveled 2 hours out into the ocean on a quest for squid and tuna. It was a great experience seeing Hama Higa jima, Tsuken Jima and Katsuren from the water and we made our way out until we were in around 300 feet of water. It was excellent practice to try and translate the "language" of the uminchu which had it's own dialect. Miyazato san went also and was so funny when he heard me trying to speak with the uminchu, Yonehara san. In Japanese he kept saying, "Five minutes ago, this American was speaking perfect Japanese and now he can understand anything!"

As the sun set and the moon hid behind the clouds, Yonehara san hit the lamps on his boat and dropped a huge light over the side of the boat, which created a 20 foot radius of light aroung the vessel. Within 10 minutes, every type of sealife imaginable was swimming around the boat-venomous sea snakes, hammerhead sharks, dolphin, tuna, jellyfish, pufferfish-you name it.

We hand-lined for squid while Yonehara san rigged for tuna and it was great hojo undo training pulling 55 meters of line repeatly with squid attached. We fished for about 4 hours and then got back to Awase at 1:30 a.m. where Izumi Sensei was waiting with Mos Burger meals.

It was an incredible experience, one that I will never forget as long as I live.

I started packing for the trip home and Izumi and I went to the Four Seasons Steakhouse where we both had Kobe beef for the first time. It was incredible!

I had a private lesson with Gibu Sensei at six where we continued to go over kata and kobudo. It was interesting to learn the history of the weapons kata that we practice. He was telling me that when he started training with Nakazato Shuguro Sensei in the 1950's, there was 1 sai kata and 1 bo kata taught in the Shorinkan. Through, the years, Nakazato made up nunchaku, tonfa and other kata. He said that he preferred to stick to the kata that Nakazato Sensei learned from other kobudo teachers and tried to preserve them how they were passed on to him by his teacher.

We had a great workout and later met up with Naka Sensei at Torihori Cho community center where his kobudo teacher Matsukazu Kinjo was conducting class. Kinjo Sensei was very open and allowed me to video tape the entire class and take pictures. They performed Hama Higa no Sai, Miyazato no Tekko, Tsuken Sunake no Eku, Shushi no kun sho, Kanegawa no Kama dai and Hama Higa no Tonfa, All of the students were very impressive and it was interesting to see Kinjo Sensei show many bunkai to the techniques in each kata. Naka Sensei surprised me by presenting me with a beautiful set of old fashioned sai and Kinjo Sensei himself gave me a pair of nunchaku that he made himself as well as some tekko. It was a great evening all around.

Izumi Sensei and I returned to the Lemon Grass afterwards with some of the sashimi-grade squid that Yonehara San gave me from our catch the night before. Kyan sama prepared us sashimi, grilled ika and ika tempura with the last night's catch and it was wonderful.

It was really neat that we didn't discuss the 2008 Okinawa trip and Sensei just said very casually, "See you next year." I am so thankful for this year's experience and the cultural experiences that were provided for me. I am very excited for next year's trip and for the 2009 Williamsburg Gasshuku with Hanshi and my Butokukan family from Okinawa.

A trip to Okinawa has to be about its culture first and karate second. I am honored to have learned so much more and will always treasure every moment of this summer's journey.