Hawaii Shotokan Karate

In the early beginning of 2008 my sister was telling me, that her son (my nephew Jonas) has the chance to visit Hawaii within autumn of 2008. Because of a research assignment with an American University of Science (placed in Boston), the other nephew uncle of Jonas (name Helge) was accommodated for two years at the Hawaiian capital city Honolulu to work for the institute of volcano.
Helges research assignment was phased out at the end of 2008, so he invited Jonas to visit him for the last weeks of living at the Hawaiian Islands. First of all I was kidding "Oh I will attend Jonas!" and the result was that I and also my father were sitting with Jonas within the United Airline at October 2008 to enter the pacific archipelago.

We stayed with a great view to the rainforest mountain within Helges penthouse of a skyscraper of Honolulu, traveled around the main Island Oahu, were surfing at the famous north shore of Oahu, visited Maui, saw white deep reef sharks Manta eagle rays and turtles while a beach diving trip and visited the big Island to saw the active lava flows and volcanoes.

Altogether, our time at the Hawaiian Islands was great. Helge gave us a lot of insider tips and there was seldom the feeling of being a usual tourist. We were living like townsfolk of Honolulu. A very small impression of our travel should be documented with the images above.

But now I want to report about my karate experience at Honolulu: Of course, within my baggage, beside my clothes and dive equipment, there is all the time my karate-gi with me; -you never know if there is a dojo around your travel destination. And it was! Perhaps of the next eastern accessible country Japan it seams like karate is very famous at Hawaii. If you google "Shotokan Karate Hawaii" you will find a lot of karate dojos.
Like our Homepage, which is also placed at the first google "Karate Giessen" finding, I choose the "google winner" dojo "www.hawaiishotokankarate.com". One evening, shortly after arriving, I set out for it. With a lot of jetlag in my bones, I put my karate-gi in my sport baggage and entered the Hawaiian Shotokan Karate dojo which was luckily placed closely to our Penthouse.

The "karate middle group" of the dojo were practicing Kihon Kumite as we arrived. The chief instructor Alan Sekiguchi and other instructors were moving around the group and were giving help to them. Sensei Sekiguchi came to me and asked me what I want and I answered, that I’m a german karateka and that I want to practice Karate at Hawaii. He was very friendly and invited me to take the upper school training shortly after the middle group. So I changed my clothes, put on my gi and was waiting nervously for the great moment.

The upper school exists with about twenty-five black belts. The beginning was nearly the same like our training, - "Seiza, Mokusu, Mokusu Yame, Oss!" but there was one big different. After Mokusu Yame, Sensei Sekiguchi introduced my self in front of all other students. This was a very great moment for me. So I was very motivated and I started with full Kime. This should be a mistake, because the training takes about two hours, with a lot of Kata and Kihon.
First of all we were making all of the higher Katas (Sochin, Unsu, Chinte, Nijushiho, Gankaku, Bassai Sho, Tekki Nidan, Tekki Sandan, Gojushiho) without explanation, only fast counting. After this we were starting with a never ending Kihon. We were making a lot of different Tsukis, than all kinds of Keris and finally combinations with Tsukis and Keris. At the half of this great experience my conditions seems to give tribute to the jetlag, but I managed it and my old school said to me "NEVER GIVE UP". At the end of the training all other karateka came to me to said “Welcome” to Hawaii and they were giving me a lot of travel tips.

Dear Hawaiian Shotokan Karateka, I thank you all for this friendly and great karate experience and hopefully we will see us again.

Kind regards

Thomas