Saturday, October 07, 2006

Pictures

This is the best picture of Chinen Sensei had I have found on the internet. I bet Sempai Tony took this picture because he’s a professional photographer.

This is an awesome picture of Sempai Mark on top of Mount Spokane.

This picture was taken at the dojo. These are the implements that we work with sometimes. I’ve seen my Sempai work with them. However, I’ve only worked with the stone blocks in the front of the picture.

I love this picture of Sensei’s garden. When I was working there, the grass wasn’t green because it was dead and brown.


This picture was taken where we congregated at Sensei’s garden after training in Gasshuku. This is where we ate lunch after we worked in Sensei’s garden too.

This is a picture of Bonsho who’s Sensei’s chow. Whenever, we came to Sensei’s house after class, we waited on a side walk to wait until everyone was there. We usually waited for the men because they would close the dojo and then, buy cold beer. Then, Sempai Scott would start leading us down the ally way to the back of Sensei’s house where Sensei Chinen and Sensei Mary had their cars parked. Then, Sempai Scott would bang a gong letting Sensei or somebody else know that we were there. A few times, someone would unlock the gate and let us in. Usually, Sempai Brooke would open the iron door with a key. Sensei always had the gates locked because of the bad neighborhood. Then as we came in, Bonsho would always be there greet us. We always had to keep the doors/gates closed in Sensei’s garden because Bonsho would get out and run away. Sempai Derrick told me that chows weren’t that affectionate. However, Sensei really loves Bonsho. He says that Bonsho can do the dishes and other household chores. Sensei also said that he can to kata. In addition, Sensei likes to feed Bonsho people food. Once, he fed him an entire hamburger from a bowl.

Sempai Mark is training on a makiwara.

Sempai David who moved to Seattle is training on the makiwara. Sensei had makiwara scattered along the paths in his garden. I never had the opportunity to train on them in his garden. One can see the water lilies that Sensei likes to grow which are below and beyond Sempai David. Just beyond the water lilies, is Sensei’s front entrance to his garden.

This is a sign for All Northwest Conference in 2000. I’ve only watched in once and it was very interesting because I saw my Sempai work with all kinds of training implements. One can see the side of Sensei’s house in the background. See the tools? Sensei is always working in his garden. He spends two or more house working on it. I’m very impressed with it because he built the garden all by himself and it’s very beautiful. He actually has a pond too; however, I never seen it filled with water.

This was taken inside of Sensei’s garden dojo. I’ve never been in there before. However, I’ve looked inside and it has really nice hard wood floors.


This picture was taken at the front entrance of the garden.

10 comments:

Mir said...

That is a beautiful garden.

Thank you for sharing those pictures with us. You must have some fond memories of working in a garden like that.

I've seen some other types of gardens... like rock gardens. I'm always impressed with how people can bring beauty to chaos by imposing order, and randomness at the same time.

Are you ever hoping to have a backyard like that one?

Anonymous said...

Those are nice pictures. Your former sensei has a lovely garden. It's a pity he doesn't put as much care into cultivating his students.

As for the dog, feeding it people may make the sensei feel better, but it is not healthy for the dog. Again I see a parallel in the way he treated you. It may have made him feel better, but it wasn't the best for you.

Lizzie Woolley said...

You're welcome supergroup. I acquired all of these pictures from the internet.

I would love to have a backyard like that. However, that would take lots of work. In addition, it's going to be a long time before I have my own back yard.

I agree Becky. I realized that if Sensei really cared about me that I was his student, he would have felt sorry or remorseful that he and my Sempai kicked me out of the dojo.

ZenHG said...

So I did see you at borders, I was sitting at a round table in a corner close to the entrance of the bookstore reading the Journal of Asian Martial Arts.

Anyways, those are very nice pictures. Sensei Chinen's garden looks a lot like my back yard. ;)

Lizzie Woolley said...

Dang. Oh well. It's sort of hard to meet eachother if we don't know what we look like.

ZenHG said...

I figured you'd see the magazine I was reading. I had on a black fleece and extremely short hair.

What book did you end up getting?

Lizzie Woolley said...

I didn't see you. I was looking at the people who were standing in the magazine section, instead of sitting at a chair. When I was looking at the magazines, I couldn't concentrate because I really wanted to meet you.

I bought a book called karate basics. I started flipping through it and reading certain sections last night.

ZenHG said...

That's pretty funny actually. Looking at that picture, I was right next to you in the magazine section a few times before I went and sat with my magazine.
I apologize for the mix-up. Karate Basics huh? I don't think I have that one.
There is a great book written by an Aikido Sensei named Kensho Furuya called 'Kodo: Ancient Ways' which I have read cover to cover about twelve times, great book that applies to all martial arts.

Also, The Way of Kata is another great book by Lawrence Kane, an aquaintance of mine.
His Teacher's book 'The Way of Sanchin' is coming out soon, which should be a very good read.

Also, don't limit yourself to Karate-Only books, you can gain some insight into Karate by picking up some Kung Fu and Tai Chi books as well.
I tend to stay away from books about the UFC and things like that, but I also really like the Military Combatives Manual they have for sale there.

Mostly, if I am not in the Martial Arts section, I also go to the Eastern Spirituality section, Psychology, and Physics, sometimes History.
Martial Arts and Physics, in my view, go hand-in-hand, you cannot have one without the other, the same with Taoist Philosophy and Physics.

Lizzie Woolley said...

I may have seen you because I remember a short guy in black with short hair. I do remember him coming up next to me. He was wandering around the magazine section. I remember him coming back from a section of the store too. I'd know if he was you or not when I meet you. Am I taller than you?

I'm never in the magazine section. I didn't even know that they had marital art magazines. I'm usually in the music part of the store. I always need more music. Right now, I'm getting bored of my CD's. It's so hard to find really good music that entertains me. The only good medieval music that I can find is on the internet at magnatune.com. I've been mostly listening to Ensemble Sreteniye on their CD called Ancient Church Singing of Byzantine Georgia and Rus. In addition, I like listening to Joglaresa and to the Dunfay Collective on their CD called A Lestampida. These are one of the best music that I have heard in my entire life. I love medieval music. I wish that I can find this type of music at Borders; however, I haven't been successful yet.

ZenHG said...

Yes, that was me and yes, you are taller than me.
Interesting selection of music, I am not so into midieval music.

I like certain Middle Eastern beats, classic rock, some of the modern rock, blues, jazz, swing, ect.