35 years ago today-Tokyo, Japan. This photo was taken around 5:30 AM outside of my host family’s house on the final day of Kangeiko-cold weather training. I had left SDSU to attend Waseda University and this was a yearly tradition of the Karate Team, of which I was a member. I remember waking up thinking, “Man, it’s really cold..” then looking out the window and seeing snow falling. I decided to get a jump on things prior to the formal training at the University. I threw my uniform bottoms on thinking if no shoes are good no shirt is even better, then ran downstairs and began practicing. Within about 2 minutes my host Mom rushed out our front door and into our cul-de-sac with a look on her face that said, “What the hell??” She then scurried back into the house, came out with a camera, and snapped this picture. I’m glad she did.
I was very well prepared for the training (thanks to the group at the South Bay/ Hawthorne dojo), but at the same time unprepared for what a huge, positive impact the whole experience would have, even to this day. Grateful🙏.
Series Tokyo 