A weekend of Ki-Aikido training in Honolulu (and a visit to a temple)

A weekend of Ki-Aikido training in Honolulu (and a visit to a temple)

I recently came back from Honolulu, Hawaii, where I attended a three-day event involving intensive training in Ki-principles, Ki-Aikido, and Kiatsu. I went as a member of the Oregon Ki Society (more info here) and stayed in the dojo there with a few other Ki-Aikido practitioners.

Overall the training, led by head instructor Tabata Sensei, was great and I got to learn a few new things, as well as practice some things I had seen before. But to be honest what I enjoyed the most was the social element, which includes both getting to know people better that I train with on a weekly basis, as well as meeting people from other dojos (including a group of great folks from Hawaii and Canada) that I either saw for the first time, or had only seen a handful of times before. Everyone has different personalities, experiences, and perspectives on a variety of topics, and I had a wonderful time training and conversing with many of the event attendees.

I spent roughly a day and a half doing sightseeing things, including heading to the beach several times. Early in the trip, I got a minor injury by attempting to walk on wet volcanic rock in jogging shoes, slipping and landing hard on my hand and leg. Given the suddenness of the fall I was lucky to get by with only a little scrape on my knee, a bruise on my thigh, and a tiny scratch on my hand. In any case, I highly recommend against using running shoes when walking on slippery volcanic rock.

On the last day I woke up around 5 am and headed to one of the popular beaches on Lānaʻi as part of a group event where we were supposed to watch the sunrise from six-person canoes. Unfortunately, it ended up raining pretty heavily right as we arrived, with 20+ mph winds blowing. As a result, the boating was canceled (many of us were beginners), and the sunset barely visible behind a host of clouds. However, it was still a memorable experience trying to hide under one of the trees and escape the elements as we enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

We also spent a little time in touristy Waikiki in a few stores and restaurants, and along the beach there. Personally, having been born and raised in South Florida around a mile from the ocean, the beach is not a particularly special place to me. In addition, if you consider that this was my third trip to Hawaii, it’s probably not much of a surprise that I wasn’t that much into the tourism element. 

Possessing its own language and deep history, I guess in a sense Hawaii is sort of like a new country, and yet at the same time it isn’t nearly as different from the mainland as a place like Japan is from the US. So while I will be happy to visit Hawaii again, it will be more for specific experiences as opposed to general beachgoing and shopping tourism. I do love the weather there, which is quite similar to that of South Florida. By the way, Hawaii also has a strong connection with Japan and Japanese culture, and it’s not uncommon to find Japanese written or spoken in everyday places like advertisements and restaurant menus. 

On the last day we had a nice banquet with the entire group, where I got to sample some traditional Hawaiian food. The meal started out with sushi (not my favorite type, but delicious nonetheless), and continued with a bunch of dishes including a heavenly tender breaded chicken that was a little like chicken katsu, served with a sweet barbeque sauce. For dessert was haupia, a traditional dish made from coconut that was a bit unusual texture-wise but reasonably tasty. The meal also came with a small portion of poi, a paste made from fermented taro root. While it wasn’t exactly horrible, I will say it wasn’t quite what I expected (something sweeter). Sometime near the end of the meal I decided to whip out my phone and start playing chess with a younger guy sitting next to me. I’ll let you guess who won (:

The dojo for Honolulu Ki Society is known as Seishinkan (精心館), and you can see more info and pictures of it here. This dojo is historically important as one of the first Tohei Sensei attended outside of Japan, and besides being beautifully designed it has amazing calligraphy throughout, including special pictures and calligraphy drawn by Tohei Sensei himself. As an interesting aside, the dojo is on the first floor below a large space that is used for other types of training, such as hula dance, kendo, and kickboxing, and this makes for interesting background music/sounds.

Also, the dojo happens to be on the grounds directly adjacent to a beautiful Nichren (日蓮）Buddhist temple called Myohoji (妙法寺), which looks like something that was transplanted directly from Japan. I was fortunate enough to be able to participate in a Buddhist service where they talked about some core elements of Nichiren Buddhism. While the frequent chanting took a bit to get used to, it was a wonderful experience to learn more about Buddhism. Also, viewing the picturesque temple in a variety of types of lighting (like in the early morning, or late evening) was wonderful.

Near the end of my trip, about 40 minutes before I was scheduled to leave for the airport, someone unexpectedly asked me about a handful of Ki-Aikido techniques, so I just jumped on the mat and started teaching. It was a bit weird in my everyday clothes (there was no time to change), but nevertheless we were able to cover a few important points, and a few times another sensei came on the mat to clarify a few things. I ended up training close up to the time when I had to leave, but it was a nice way to end things. While I don’t have decades of experience like many of the instructors who were at this event, it’s nice when I do get an opportunity to help teach, even if just for a few minutes.

Years from now I will probably only remember a few scenes of this trip: being caught in the chilly rain and wind at the beach, an embarrassingly serious conversation about a certain anime remake, a delicious baked salmon poke with mayonnaise and furikake, and some random phrase I heard in a car that stuck in my head. But overall I was delighted that nearly everything went well. Maybe it was because I was extending Ki…

I heard that this may be an annual event going forward, and if so I am hoping to go again next year. If you have any questions about the event, feel free to ask me in the comments or email me. I took a few pictures on the trip, and I may highlight a few of them in a separate post at some point.

(You can read about one of my previous trips to the same dojo in this post.)