Wednesday July 14

Our first stop of the day was to conduct a short class and demonstration at a preschool in Awase. Izumi Sensei has contracts with about 5-6 preschools to teach karate in the early mornings before work as their PE component. We demonstrated some kata and yakusoku kumite and then did some of the preschool’s dances with the kids. The most famous of the activities, as we were to find out, was the Ryujin mabuya theme song to the popular tv show on Okinawa.  The Mabuya Ranger is a kind of power ranger that is the protector of the Okinawan people and does battle against invading monsters. The kids of Okinawa LOVE this show and we would be doing this dance many times before leaving Okinawa. Sadly, the Okinawan people are still treated like second-class citizens by the Japanese and it is of great pride to the young children to have their own national hero instead of someone from the mainland.  The teachers gave us a short time to interact with the kids (or should I say turned them loose on us) and my daughters were convinced they were going to be able to take some home with us!

Izumi Sensei then drove us to a huge slide in the public park in Awase and the kids (and adults) had a great time riding down on pieces of cardboard. The Okinawa weather was typical this day and we were a little concerned about the kids overheating but it did not seem to deter their enthusiasm for this great ride. Even the adults took part in the fun and we were hoping that this excursion would help wear the kids out and get them ready to “crash” at bedtime tonight, setting them finally on Okinawa time.  We left for Peyo Market to have lunch and the group enjoyed seeing the morning’s catch and had a great lunch of freshly-caught seafood.  This is one of our favorite places to eat when on Okinawa and a great opportunity to get fabulous food at a very low price.

After lunch, Izumi Sensei told us he was taking us on a “shuugakuryokou “ (field trip) to Gushikawa before heading back for our kimono appointments. As I should have expected, Izumi Sensei took the kids to a huge mall for a five minute candy shopping spree.  Every kid was given a basket and Izumi Sensei insisted that they pick out candy as a gift. The children were obviously uncomfortable to having a senior teacher on Okinawa tell them to pick out candy so he can buy it for them so Izumi Sensei started grabbing candy and putting it in their baskets. When we caught up to Joe and the other moms, they had found a fun arcade with a Taiko drum game and had a blast playing. We headed back to the hotel and we set out for our appointments at White River Photo studio. My daughters loved having their makeup and hair done. The kimono pictures were something that we had promised them and they enjoyed the process but learned how tight a kimono obi can be.  They loved the makeup so much that they left it on for the rest of the day.

In the evening, we headed early to Izumi Sensei’s dojo to get some extra training in before his kids class showed up. Joe and I were so impressed with a new addition that Kiyuna Sensei had built for the dojo that we wanted to send pictures home immediately for the guys to start building. Izumi Sensei’s dojo is breathtaking as it is but the new tanren deck was pretty impressive. We ran through some kata and then concentrated on kama and kama bunkai.

Our friend Joe Botulinski surprised us and it was great to see him and catch up on things. He said that Shimabukuro Eizo Sensei was hospitalized with 3^rd degree burns to his body and since he was a medical chief and a former student, he had been visiting him to check in on his status.  Shimabukuro Sensei told Joe that he had been in his kitchen cooking and had spilled oil which caught on fire. He started trying to stomp the fire out with his hands and feet which became covered in the flaming oil during the process. Joe said that he would be in intensive care for a while and that he was probably going to receive skin transplants from his leg but would heal due to his youthful strength and spirit.

During dinner, Izumi Sensei called each of his kata teams and recognized not only the winners from the Okinawa Times tournament but also the ones that did not place and commended everyone on their hard practice and effort. Motoaki-kun and another student were also celebrating their birthday and Izumi Sensei surprised them with a special Butokukan cake and had sashes to wear.

Our kids were fascinated with Maddie Fry who was a American student of Izumi Sensei and went to a Japanese school on Okinawa instead of a base school. Her mother was a lawyer and lecturer at the University of the Ryukyus and they both were getting ready to move back to the States. Maddie’s Japanese language skills were incredible. She has been speaking Japanese since she was three years old and even has an Okinawan dialect. If you were to hear her speak with your eyes closed, you would think that you were listening to an Okinawan child. Our kids from the dojo were asking Maddie to translate for them so that they could meet the students from Izumi Sensei’s dojo and they in turn used Maddie’s skill as well.