By Eddie Au

On April 28th, after three weeks in Canada, Hayashi Shihan and Terada Sensei left Vancouver and headed back to Japan.  Were they eager to leave? Had they tire of the Canadian way of life?  Did they want to get away from the rain of Vancouver? Had they have enough of our version of miso soup?  “No, I would like to stay longer.” Hayashi Shihan said with conviction when asked.
Now, what about the students?  After almost a month of breathtaking, heavy duty training, were the students happy to see the two karate masters go?  Were these two people not specially sent from Japan to wreak havoc on our members here? Not only were the training classes conducted at a hellish pace, even the warm up routine had our members’ legs shaking....literally.  Surely, the Vancouver members would be breathing a sigh of relieve at the sight of the airplane flying off into the West.

However, despite the sore backs and muscles as well as the gruelling promotion test, the Vancouver members wanted the guests to stay longer.  Even more strange is that they wanted both Shihan and Sensei to come back and visit again soon.

It seems that over the three weeks, the guests had won the hearts and minds of the Vancouver students.  The members could see within the Senseis the passion and disciplined attitude towards the art of Karate.  Their teachings, while differing slightly from what our members are used to, are well thought out and each gruelling exercise has a purpose. It is convincingly apparent that both Senseis were eager to pass on important karate techniques to the students here.

In the end, the weeks flew by like minutes and it was time to see the two visitors go home.  For both the Senseis and the Vancouver members, this visit ended up being more than just an exchange of karate knowledge, cultures and understanding.  A unique bond was created over the previous weeks that will last a lifetime. “I feel like we are brothers [and sisters],” Hayashi Shihan said to the karate students.