Well, that was a different seminar. For personal reasons Taira sensei had to cancel coming to the seminar. Some of the international participants were already here or were in the air. So there was no thought of not running the seminar.
Of course the first thing Sensei Kapel thought of was the participants. So he determined a suitable refund for those that were still to attend, and notified all the participants. Very few decided not to come, indicating that they would get much value from the seniors that were to attend and teach, and to support Mark. Those that did not come missed out on important interactions and training.
International Okinawa Gojuryu Kenkyukai seniors that arrived and taught were Ken Erridge Hanshi, Kyoshi Glenn Cunningham, Mark Kapel, Brian Loterbauer, and Brendan Murray, and Cesar Camara Martin Sensei .
There were three formal session days. There were a few pre-session days with the visitors. There was a concentration on kihon and kata. There were supporting bunkai sessions but this was an opportunity to get everyone on the same page. With the vast geographic separation of the teachers it was gratifying to see how close we all are while recognising we all have different skills sets and origin stories.
Socially it was rewarding. The event centred around Sensei Kapel's house and his beautiful dojo. Everything worked well for all the attendees. Mark is well supported by his delightful wife Illyce, a great dojo team and a pack of dogs that interacted with everyone.
We did have a dinner out of Jersey Shore. A beautiful location and I had never been there before.
It was a great seminar. It wasn't a Taira sensei seminar but I believe everyone got at least as much from this one as they might have from Sensei. Though there were possibly fewer brain overloads.
It was an intense series of classes, it was pretty physical especially compared to a Taira sensei seminar, and I'm glad I came.
I was bit surprised by one set of comments. People said "I didn't know we had a web page", or "are we on Facebook?". Given I try to keep all the information on this page current, especially the seminar list, I am not sure how to keep people up to date.
Brendan Murray. New Zealand.
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