Category: Everything else in between

You’re Free! Sort of…

You’re Free! Sort of…

Dear Boys,

The both of you have reached an age of your own thinking and making, you are old enough to be an agent of your own destiny, and chart your own course the way you deem fit. By the age of 15 I was already holding a full time job, making some ‘big boy’ decisions, and facing the world with little parental guidance, parental guidance I hope I had, and parental guidance I hope to be able to provide no matter how old you both are.

Consequences

Back when you both are younglings, I can smack your head if you misbehave, dashes across the road or throws a tantrum. Back then, reasoning would be futile, we need you to stop your wanton egregious acts immediately before you hurt and embarrass yourself and us (potentially)

When things are calmer, we will explain why we smacked you in the head, because there was dangers you cannot see, and doesn’t have the maturity to understand what bad stuff lies around the curve of consequences. Of course as your parents, we knew better.

We still know better

Smacking your heads now won’t work so well, and we can only reason, often forcefully to make sure you get our point. Even at your soon-to-be adult age, there are still dangers and faux pas you both cannot see and has yet to experience.

We can only direct you both to past cases we have encountered in our lives. There are dangers we can discourage you from getting into, but no longer possess the ability to physically stop you. If one of you deems ‘fun’ to jump into a tiger’s den, and gets mauled to death, we can’t be there to save you.

Arguments abound!

I’m glad we are still talking, and you both still comes to us for counsel and we still sit around dinner discussing our days and talked about what happened. We often reminiscence the good old days, some mistakes people made. Sharing of ‘war stories’ and reminiscent some of the old stuffs we did and explore some of the new stuffs you both want to do.

There might be something you thought to be new fun and potentially exciting. Or new friends you might have met along the way. We will tell you our opinions and sometimes you can disagree, but often it turns out to be true to how we saw it, because we really knows better. Despite of all the arguing, you can still choose to defy us and do as you deem fit, just 2 words – Caveat Emptor!

Back to consequences again

Despite of all our input and protests, you can still go ahead with your actions against our better judgement, and we cannot stop you anymore. If you chooses to commit crime, the law no longer sees the both of you as minors and can be arrested and hauled to court if you are caught. There is no more parental shield that we can use, because you have to be responsible for your actions. We can only get you the best lawyers we can afford.

This is the cold hard consequences of growing up and these are no longer the good old kiddy days where you can get away with stupid things by just being cute. Despite of these heavy reality of responsibilities that will be bestowed upon you as an adult, there is much rewards and satisfaction to be gained being one. Getting hurt, rejected and dejected is the trial and tribunals of getting to these life goals and we as your parents will always be there for you, no longer holding your hands, but will still be holding them as long as we can.

Set Easy Targets

Set Easy Targets

Dear Boys,

I ran my best half Marathon yesterday. While doing that, I was thinking about goal setting. My plan was to run 30km and there is a reason why I didn’t managed to do it. I didn’t plan for it; while I did aspire to hit the 30km mark, my current plan and mindset only allows me to achieve 21.3km. You see, I know my pace and water breaks for my half marathon regime, but beyond the 21km, I didn’t have a clear vision on how to get there, where is my next water break? 25km? How does my remaining 9km looks like? How would it end?

Even though it might be as simple as just keep running, the mind will find solace in the familiar, and it did just that, I have ran 21kms in the past, it is achievable, so once it hit that mileage the mind went ‘Okay! We are done here! This is familiar territory and we can stop now!’

Was I disappointed that I didn’t hit the 30km?

Not really, it’s just a goal I set and I knew I’m probably not ready hit it, and it’s not for any competitive means, I’m happy just able to do the run.

Easy Targets

This brings us to goal setting, always start with easy goals. For me it is 5km everyday, as often as I can, there are days it rained (and it rained quite a bit these days) I don’t run. As long as I can keep to my 5km runs and hit it, it becomes easy for me to do that distance, and 21km is just 4 splits of 5km and a bit more. 30km? It’s just 6 increments of 5km or 3x10km, depends on how you want your narrative to be, whatever it is, set an easy goal, and consistently hit it. It’s not that hard once you have it broken into bit size bits.

Consistency is Key

Easy goals isn’t simple, it needs commitment and consistency. There are times where the mind will dupe you into thinking of easier goals. so instead of 5km, 3km is easier, 1km is easiest still, how about lazing on the couch, easiest! So you need to pick and easy task and keep at it; until 5km becomes easier than 10km, and 10km becomes your new easy.

Consistency is the silent work, that nobody knows or care about, it is all about you and how much you want it. The major ‘C’ to avoid is Compare, never compare your goals with other people’s, a Navy SEAL’s baseline is very different from yours and if you want that baseline, you will still need to start with your easy. What’s easy for a ultra-runner who does hundreds of km on end isn’t the best role model for you.

Also avoid comparing yourself to yourself, and doing so builds up that self competition that can be detrimental to your progress, as long as you are hitting 5km, at a statistically consistent timing and effort, it is all that matters. You may be slow at days or fast at days, when it comes down to months and months of grinding, that little blip or drop will not be significant. It’s just you going about with an easy goals you set for yourself, so take it easy, competition is entirely optional.

What’s mine is mine

When you tell people about your easy goals, some might say it’s a walk for them, some other might admire your grit. It’s all a matter of perspective since we all comes with differing capabilities. My timing is probably nothing in the competitive standards but these are my timing, it’s up to me to improve them and set anther easy target, maybe running a half marathon fortnightly? I think that is doable. Remember that people will compare, let them, just don’t allow yourself to be affected by their opinions, keep going at the targets you set for yourself, never mind that its good to some, and lousy to others, their opinion belongs to them and it is again entirely optional

Easy going

Easy targets also means a good self esteem, it motivates your mind into getting at it, because it isn’t ‘hard’. We will put off mammoth tasks eventually, even though we gets very rah rah over a big high profile target, eventually if we do not have the consistency to chip off the large tasks bit by bit, you will fizzle out. Sometimes we see people scoring big dramatic wins and we wondered how they did it, it’s really quiet behind the scenes, working and working, failing and getting up again. In reality, it’s not a big win, its a series of small wins that leads to a big wins, but if you don’t start with small steps, you can never get to a point where you are ready to take on the major milestones.

If you want to have the ambition to build something big and monumental, start with your baby steps and get easy things done.

Absolutely no competition

Absolutely no competition

As an Aikidoka, one of the core concepts is ‘No Competition’. Which generally means that there is no tournaments, no gold medals, no ‘winner/loser’ in that sense, and most of us gets it.

So I thought.

It was only recently I came to a realization the true virtues of ‘No Competition.’

Sure, we all know that you don’t go out there and compete against others, we don’t race for the first place, but… do you compete against yourself? If you run 5km at 30mins yesterday will you try to beat that record today? And if you do, did you ‘win’? Give yourself a pat on the back?

While I have been practicing Aikido for more than 2 decades, it took an Austrian, Alfred Adler to really bring home this point. As a psychotherapist, Adler also espouses non-competition, as he sees everyone as ‘different but equal.’ Which means that a baby is equal to a billionaire but different, it makes a lot of sense to me, and I hit an eureka moment.

I am equal, but different

How is this possible for me to compete against myself, if I am different in every moment, and the past me cannot equate to the present me, and the future me is a potential that has yet to be discovered? So who am I competing with when I compete with myself? It is simply a delusion of the mind that props a ‘protagonist/antagonist’ duality for us to justify a shallow existence.

True peace comes from non-competition with self.

I was jogging one day and this really hit me, about improvement, do I improve based on my past? That the past is a poor representation of who I can really become, because the past is gone and exist as a figment of our fickle memory; while we move forward, we can only look at our current capabilities built from the past, and move along from there.

Once we can really cease all hostilities and waging a phantom war against ourselves, then we can find true peace, and look at our past, good bad, and the ugly without judgment. I often said that we are our own worse enemy and perhaps it is time for us to be just us, in the present, me-enemy, me-friend and me, all rolled into the present self.

Beat Yesterday

This is actually a slogan for a smart watch company, in reality It’s not gonna be a very fruitful endeavor trying to achieve past glory, because we are a gold medalist once, doesn’t means we can do it again and again, once you are past your prime, what will become of you? When all the accolades have faded, and you are left alone, who else can you beat, if you can no longer beat yourself? Or beat yesterday? Why don’t we just stop beating ourselves, yesterday or any timing, people, achievements, heights and all that? Just live a life of peace and acceptance, just simply do your best and let that shine, when your best isn’t good enough to win, you’ll know that you will not lose you.

Not Always So/ This too shall pass

Not Always So/ This too shall pass

Dear boys

We all live in a place and time where there are many cases of injustice and tragedies in this world. Recently, Ian, you told me that a hoard of aircraft photographers descended upon a supposedly ‘secret’ location to take pictures of some rare warplanes, and because that was actually a commercial place, they were chased away by the security guards, the secret spot is secret no more.

And you considered it as a ‘bad’ thing. That is where I need to bring to your attention. ‘Not Always So’ Sometimes what we thought of a problem as a problem, but in reality it is how we receive and value judge the situation that makes us determine if it is bad or not. Value judging isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since we need to know clearly friend from foe, so that we can collaborate effective and work with others, this is our greatest strength as humans.

‘Not Always So’

These 3 words serves me well as it keeps my bias in check, arrest my fears and insecurities, tone down my euphoria and good vibes, the Not Always So mindset cast a realistic eye on what I see before me. It’s not to throw a shade of grey into everything we do, if indeed it is a case for celebration, then truly celebrate unreservedly. If you need to feel sad, don’t fight it. However if you need to critically decide on an action, think it through and think it through again, Things might not be what they appear to be! Think twice and apply ‘Not always so!’

In the case of that ‘secret’ location being exposed, it might not be such a bad thing as you might end up going to a new spot and find a better location to take pictures! Is it that ‘bad’? Not always so!

This Too Shall Pass

The other phrase that keeps me going is ‘This too shall pass.’ This is deeply rooted in the concept of impermanence, which is both terrifying and liberating at the same time. Similarly, when you get too sad, or too happy, always remember, ‘This too shall pass.’ Again it is not to cast a pall on a big win or a terrible tragedy, this is to make sure we retain a level of equilibrium in us and not go over board with what we are doing, it also helps us endure hardship with character, dignity and patience. If you are in a terrible painful situation and wish for the suffering to end, knowing that ‘This too shall pass.’ helps us harbour some glimmer of hope for an upturn. It is not always so that we must suffer, as our suffering will pass and we can be in a better place once we are over a bad patch in our lives.

It cuts both ways

When you win and win big, neve get too cocky, as This too shall pass! We will not always win and we need to be humble, virtuous and grateful in our win, because we didn’t win because we won, there is a whole bunch of people helping us, supporting us that allows us to win, and for a moment of foolish ego, we throw it all away and forsaken those who stood with us, we will end up in a bad place sooner that we thought!

Back to that secret location case, ‘this too shall pass, as there will always be a change of security guards, and people will forget that incident ever happened and it will become a plane spotting spot again, until another hoard descend on it and spoilt it all over again.

Life is after all… cyclical

Finding your own January

FeaturedFinding your own January

Dear Boys,

This December was particularly dreary for me, as I am not generally a festive person, so much so I confessed to your mum I was rather ‘Grinchy’ this year end. I guess the whole celebration and holidaying is not my kind of thing.

New Year’s Eve The Movie

It wasn’t until your mum and I serendipitously walked into Orchard Cineplex one of our dating weekends in a December in 2011 and we decided to pick this movie to watch at random. Well, the movie is extremely and unusually star-studded, and moreover Robert De Niro is in it, it can’t be that bad.

It turned out to be good, damn good.

At least for me, I can make some significance as to why people put so much energy and effort into celebrating the new year. It was a sense of closure, renewal and moving on, and every time I hit the year end doldrums, I would think of that movie and the significance. The movie has multiple storyline and tensions running at the same time, which all converge at the stroke of the last embers of December 2010. It was a feel good moment that really bodes all’s well, ends well.

What January brings

Further maturing into that thought, I thoughtfully reflect on the meaning of January, and again, why does people make such a big fuss about a year’s end?

Societal, Economic, Financial, Business, Academic and Religion Reasons

There is in fact more than that, since between December and January, a lot of organizations closes their books, rest and prepare for the new year, in some places where there are 4 seasons, it is perhaps the turn of a new season. Winter’s over for some places, Spring arrives. For where we are, in perpetual summer, there is not really any reasons to celebrate the end of a cyclical cold spell.

Some companies closes their financial books, some starts their business at the turn of a new year, there is a sense of hope, moving on and a renewal of energy, resources that is exciting and exhilarating. School ends with a holiday and the new academic terms starts, there is a sense of progress and propulsion.

What January means

It’s just a date many people rally around to make a change, do something new, a new year resolution of sorts, and there is hope in doing so. We yearn to break away from our old limiting beliefs and start afresh, January brings hopes.

Your own January

So bearing that significance in mind, January is just, January. You can make your own January, any day, month, time of the year. You can start afresh anytime, and you don’t have to wait for the January to be January, before you make a change.

If things isn’t working out, think of the hope the month of January brings and use that vibe to make a change. don’t just sit there and waste 11 months knowing things isn’t working out and then change just because the clock went from 31 December to 1 Jan.

Horii Shihan’s Lessons

We had the good grace of hosting Horii Shihan again earlier November, as he came by our dojo for another visit. Horii Shihan is a good and dear friend of Harry sensei and to have him train at our dojo is certainly a weekend I wouldn’t miss.

It was also a good time to catch up with some old Aikido friends and I’m always so happy to see them again.

Simplicity-but never Easy

Horii Shihan’s style is always very simple, these techniques are never flashy and at one glance looks deceivingly easy, which encourages beginners to try without being too intimidating. He don’t encourage break falls, and you can always find a way to do a simple backward roll or forward roll, no high jumps necessary.

While he does comes with a very highly level of technical expertise, which is expected of a Shihan, he does it in such a manner where you’ll need to be very simple to be very precise, there is no fancy complicated footwork, just a lot of tai sabaki, move your body away from the line of attack. The hands are always tactically up, protecting and at the same time, ready to strike (atemi).

So when he teaches, it gives me some clarity, not to overdo things. While teaching Aikido, sometimes for the heck of it, I compound techniques and makes the movement interesting. Learning from Horii Shihan resets my orientation and keeps me grounded, the most effective techniques are the simplest.

Weapon lessons

One the second day of training, Horii Shihan taught us weapons and how it connects to our hand techniques. Again his methods are simple and using weapons adds a new dimension to our training and really helps us focus on our relationship with our uke.

He stresses a lot about our alignment as we often seem to be slanted or skewed to one side. He wants us to keep our strike straight and while there is one part of us, withholding that fear of accidentally hitting our partner, the paradox is by not getting our strike straight, we will indeed end up hitting our partner!

So he stressed the importance of striking properly and getting the alignment right, this can only happen when we clock enough time with weapon under quality instructorship, our training with him tells me that I have a long way to go when it comes to weapons training. It also reflects our worry mindset and we are not clear nor committed in our striking.

Being Aikidoka is Being Human

There is simply nothing ‘great’ about Horii in the best sense possible because he never projects that aura of greatness, despite of being in demand to teach Aikido globally. He is a very simple and kind person, and talks to everyone in the dojo, regardless of your grade. You can reach out and touch him, and talk to him like another human being. There is no celebrity status about him, and he trains with anyone, and never sticks with just the senior belts.

While he is just ‘visiting’ us for the weekend, he cares about the dojo he visits and wants to know more about the dynamics of the dojo, and if there is any challenges the dojo faces and if there is anything he can do to help. When he observes certain conflicts within the dojo, he will ask about it and try to find out a way to solve the issue.

It is certainly my privilege to have received by 4th Dan from him in 2022 and train with him this year.

Don’t Quit!

Don’t Quit!

Dear boys,

I’m sure by now you both have heard many times over these 2 words, “DON’T QUIT!”

Do you know exactly what it means?

Recently I learned a very subtle yet profound lesson over the past months. You see, there was The Quarrel. an argument which involved a good and old AIkido friend of mine and a newer member of our club. The new guy also happens to be one of the 2 financial contributor to the club. As it would have it, the new guy is in every way an incompetent politburo, and does pretty much nothing constructive for the club. He simply uses his money and ‘buys’ his way into the club.

The unfortunate fate for this new guy was, he has to deal with me, which he has no leverage, as yet. Instead of picking on me, he picked a quarrel with my friend and in the fit of anger, told my friend:” If you don’t like it! There is the door! You can get out!” Mind you, my friend along with me has been in the club for the longest time and this new guy? He’ just a f**king new guy (FNG). I was there when it happened and I know exactly how it went down. My perspective? That FNG is a dick. I’m biased? Guilty as charged.

Emotional Decision

Point is, my friend decided to leave the club completely, and in the preceding months, some of us tried to heal the divide. The other financial contributor, who is the most senior member in the club, did nothing to bring the 2 differing parties together to sort things out. The matter was left as it is. There was no justice for the impacted party, and the wrongdoer was never made to apologize.

It did also affected me and I too wanted to quit the club; I did actually, but rescinded the decision. There was a part of me that isn’t ready to let this go, after I told that senior member I’m quitting, I felt a very deep part of me pushing back, I’m not leaving yet.

Changing narrative

It is true, that nothing stays the same; everything changes, and while that singular incident split the club in a catastrophic manner, time ticks on. In the a fit of emotional outburst, our psyche locked onto that moment and it stays as it is in our memory, every time we think about it, it riles us up, every time we mentioned that FNG, we rolled our eyes. While we replay that in our mind over and over again, we lose track of the present and the present will dictate the reality as deem fit, since we are still stuck in the past with that old image.

Manipulating the narrative

While I stayed on, I can see how that FNG is able to change the narrative to suit his whims, for my friend who left, his absence cannot challenge that narrative. While the FNG craft and weave half truths, and some complete lies, my friend will be used as the bogeyman in that narrative. The one who stayed wins, never mind that he’s an almost complete dick, now a lying dick.

Speak for yourself

Its a good thing I stayed because I bear witness in the coming months, when people who didn’t know about The Quarrel, will come to learn about it from those who stayed. Guess what they’re gonna say? Good things about themselves of course! What about those who left? Who’s gonna be around to tell their version of what happened?

Takes a lot to stay

You’ll need courage, and maturity to stay, despite of being ostracized, wronged, or made the public enemy. For me I wouldn’t learn this had I quit; and since I’ve made myself very clear to that FNG that I didn’t like him, he too will create an ‘asshole story’ about me and how good he will look. Who is going to be around to knock some reality into the story, and set the matter straight? Me, because I am still around.

Staying also means that you will be around to see how things move along. That quarrel is nothing but a memory in me, we need to keep it as such and not let it taint our reality. And memory is a fickle software, we will remember things not as it was, but as we favors, we will add a healthy dosage of ‘me, good guy’, and ‘them, bad guy’ into our timeline. Chapters are written by those who prevailed, about those who didn’t.

Staying to heal

A lot of times we did things to hurt people, and vice versa, so we leave, give some space, and sometimes give ourselves space to heal. Sometimes staying heals too, because that is the source of the hurt, and as long as you don’t treat the source, the hurt will follow you where ever you go. Sure take some time away, but come back.

We have read so many comeback stories, that turned from failure to triumph, go ahead, celebrate that success, but it can only happen when you “come back”. If not, you will just be a quitter, so stay, hang around like a bad stench, give your haters a reason to hate you, and when things are more settled, turn their hating into compassion. You can only do this with your presence, in the present. It also sends a very clear message to these naysayers, that, it will take a heck a lot more than that to upend you. By hanging around we stand our ground, fight for what matters, and build strength and character, not just run away when the s**t hits the fan, or simply because we don’t like working with dicks.

My Primary Schools

My Primary Schools

Dear Boys,

I went to primary school from 1982-1988, and attended 2 schools, Bedok South Primary School (BSPS) and Bedok View Primary School(BVPS), both are walking distance from where I used to live at Blk 49 Bedok South Ave 3. I do not know why my parents enrolled me into Bedok South Primary School, which was further from our house compared to Bedok View Primary School. I guess it was a matter of vacancy, which explains why I was able to switch BSPS to BVPS when I went from Primary 3 to Primary 4.

BSPS

First fight

It wasn’t much of a fight actually, there was this boy who kind of like to pick on me, and I think I was in Pr 2 or Pr3? He was a typical bully, small built, fast and mischievous, I don’t remember why or what he picked on my for, but I challenged him to a ‘fight’ during one of the recess, but it ended up like a kind of a catching, he ran and I tried to catch him, him being faster, ran me out of my breath. One thing I vividly remembered, after we stopped running and he was taunting me still, the rest of my classmates caught a hold of him, held him and egg me to hit him. I couldn’t find it in me to inflict harm on him, but after that incident, he never pick me to bully anymore.

BVPS

Discipline

One thing I remembered about this school was we had a form teacher in Pr5? He was as stern as any student can asked for and he made us cut weeds around the school fence, and the whole class has to recite the Pledge in the classroom, even after assembly. No other classes did that, and they all looked at us, bewildered when they walked past our classroom, as we say our Pledge.

Haunted Toilet

The school was also reputed to have a haunted toilet at the 4th floor, but I personally never experienced anything like that.

BVPS now

The old school building still stand as it has been repurposed for use by APSN for special education.

Surviving an Aikido Seminar

Surviving an Aikido Seminar

Going for an Aikido seminar can be fun and very insightful, you will get a huge bump no only in your Aikido technique but also in terms of stamina, as well as overall fitness. However, you can only enjoy if you are also in the right physical conditioning to enjoy the seminar and also use some of the tactics and strategies below.

What is an Aikido seminar

It is a training event where Aikidoka gathers over a period of days, mostly because there is a visiting Aikido Shihan (師範) in town. So typical training can stretches over a weekend, starting from the morning all the way to the late afternoon or evening.

Usually such seminars are open to Aikidokas from other schools or even out of town and it is an excellent time to train with people outside of our own dojo clique, and get a sense of how harmonious our Aikido is. It also helps to keep our ego in check when we train with someone more skilled and senior to us, Suddenly we feel less competent and cocky.

How to get the most out of an Aikido seminar

Bring Your Own Bokken (木剣) and Jo (杖)

Some visiting Shihan teaches weapons and empty hands during a seminar and Aikidokas are encouraged to bring their own bokken (木剣) and jo (杖) so that they can use it during the seminar. When I was younger, this is an opportunity for me to show off my weapons, not limited to how proficient (or not) I am with these personal training weapons.

Many of the dojos hosting the seminars, will typically have some of their own spare stock of bokken (木剣) and jo (杖) and I’m very inclined to use theirs instead of lugging my own long wooden sticks all over town, in buses and trains. If you are good with yours, you are good with any other stock bokken and jo, and if you are no good, then any bokken and jo will do as well. This non-attachment mindset saves you from worrying about losing your own precious weapons as well.

Picking your training partner

The good thing about a training seminar is you will get a plethora of Aikidokas, of different grades and skill levels; some are very high level skilled Aikidokas and will milk you for all your worth, these Aikidokas bring with them a level of performance that will level up your Aikido intensely.

However, they also come with superb stamina and fitness, so for you to enjoy training with them you need to keep up, and give as much as you got. If they are fast, you need to be fast. They lead, you follow, and when you lead, they will chase. In such a close exchange, Aikido movements becomes very fluid and you will enjoy Aikido training at a high level. These Aikidokas are very fun to train with and you will burn calories, no doubt.

The drawback is, if you are not as fit as these Aikidokas, you will not outlast them, so you will need to slow down at some point during the seminar, and that’s where you pick more junior belts to train with, when you are tired. Typically these junior belts are not so sure of their techniques and will take pause here and there to check and correct themselves. The pace will be less intense and you can catch a breather training with them.

Lots of Kneeling

If the seminar lasts over the weekend or more, there will be a lot of seiza (正座) and this will take a toll on your knees, you will feel numb and even painful after a long day of training, kneeling, getting up, even doing Suwari waza (座り技).

It will put your legs’ flexibility and pliability to the test, heck, some senior Aikidokas are also not used to such prolonged kneeling and it is ok to resort to sitting cross legged.

Some will use knee pads as some form of cushioning but through these years I’ve never found the need to put extra padding, instead these thick paddings can get in the way of the kneeling. so we have to bear with the pain and occasional blisters.

Enjoy your training!

At the end of the day, an intense 2-3 days seminar is a very good way to accelerate your training, you get your fitness level bumped up, and you’ll learn loads of new techniques from the visiting Shihan, deepens your understanding of Aikido, make lots of new friends and get to know a lot of people.

A good Aikido seminar is one where there is a lot of laughter, and learning, this is provided that you train smart and use some sensibility to fully enjoy the experience and not get worn out or worse injure yourself.

Friends of Aikido

Friends of Aikido

Singapore is a place of transit, and we have many working professionals who come here to work and some of them needs a place to practice Aikido. Over the decades, many of these Aikidokas came and went, some stayed in Singapore for a long period of time and left because their work here is done or for other reasons.

Harry sensei is quite well known during his time and many overseas Senseis who were friends with Harry sensei will send their students this way, when their students came to Singapore to work and needed a place to train.

Long lasting friendship

This is the magic of Aikido, when we train together we build friends for life. There are friends from Germany, United States, Thailand, Poland and Indonesia, far and wide. It makes this even more precious when they came back to Singapore for holidays, in tow, the family, kids and their roles expanded from being just an Aikidoka to a father, mother, spouse and much more. No matter the roles they play, it was Aikido that brought us together and like the song goes, You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave. In a good way.

Keeping the Spirits Alive

Even with Harry sensei gone, many of these students still return to the mat to relive the memories and this keeps me going so that these folks who remembered Harry sensei fondly can come back to the place where he used to train.

While there are many dojos in Singapore, there is only one where Harry sensei lived and taught, you can learn Aikido anywhere else, but this is the place where we keep Harry sensei’s vibes and ethos as much as possible.

Moving Forward

It is nice to know from Gabe who came recently that he still gets the same welcome he got when he was training with Harry sensei more than 10 years after he left Singapore. This feedback is an encouragement that I am heading the right directions in keeping Harry sensei’s practice and vibes alive.

This gives me reasons to go on, keeping this place going so that more of Harry sensei’s students far and wide can come, and pay homage to his legacy and memories as an Aikido sensei.