Karate Party

The younger boy started karate recently at JCCC. He's going to try it for a month to see if he likes it. I think he was getting discouraged by the aikido, because he hadn't mastered the front or back rolls. Anyway, there was a Halloween party at the Hombu on Saturday. It was a 4-hour party with about 50 kids! There were snacks, games, and trick-or-treating stations, plus a dungeon with monsters and other creepy stuff. The whole dojo was decorated. The Hombu really outdid itself.

Here are the boys.


Sensei Mark had the coolest costume ever!



This is the spouse and Sensei Nada, who was his karate instructor 20 years ago. Sensei Nada was the one who took care of him when his nose got broken (in case you ever noticed, that's why his nose is crooked). After that accident, he started taking aikido, which instead of being mostly offensive like karate, is mostly defensive. The other big difference is that karate is a competitive sport, whereas aikido is a philosophy of self-improvement (like yoga).



This was the costume parade.




Here are the kids who dressed up. There was a large contingent of siblings who didn't dress up. We were asked to bring food or treats for about 45 kids, so we brought 48 loot bags with novelty toys and Halloween-themed pencils and such, but were about 6-8 short at the end of the evening. Oh well, next time we'll know better.


Here's my little karateka. I would've taken pictures of the other son, but he was in constant motion and was hard to pin down.




They were extra-tired when we got home. What a great party though!