The son of Nakazato

The amount of experiences that are packed into each day continues to amaze me. I jogged the canal again this morning which was only about 500 -700 meters twice, doing 25 air squats and pushups at one end and doing 25 burpes at the other. After showering Mari and I walked to the closest beach which was closed for cleaning but still a nice walk. The slightly overcast weather and ocean breeze made the day time weather a bit more bearable.

early in the afternoon Banks Sensei's Okinawa contact stopped by. His name is Tanaka and Banks sensei met in an airport in Taiwan of all places. Tanaka san asked to borrow a pen and they've been in touch ever since. He is in charge of all the contracts that are awarded to local businesses to work on the base and either because of work or his social habits, seems to know everybody. Banks sensei had told me that when he told Tanaka San that he was looking for a musician named Nakazato he called a friend who knew the local musicians and was able to find Nakazato in about 15 minutes.

We got off on the wrong foot as because of a miscommunication between Banks sensei and Takana San caused Tanaka San to wait at the monorail station near the hostel for 2 hours on the night of my arrival waiting to pick me up. I thought at first he was angry at me but soon learned he was just ribbing me. He is not reserved like most Japanese but rather very jolly and out going. Right away he took us to soke's house which has fallen into incredible disrepair. Vines grow through the ceiling and the floors are rotting out. We only saw it briefly but Banks sensei plan on returning this weekend to dig around and see if we can find anything else.

Anyway at about 7 Tanaka took us out to meet Nakazato's son Naohide. Because Naohide's bar didn't open till later Tanaka took us for "just one beer", which as I told Banks sensei, "It's never just one.". The bar was close to Naohide's bar, up some very narrow stairs on the second floor of whatever building. After a few snacks that ranged from meats to tiny baby fish and chips we had some beer and wine and pretty soon Tanaka san was singing karaoke. Banks sensei of course sang "sexual healing".

Afterwards we drove to Naohide's bar which is called The Little Brown Jug and is on the 3rd floor of the building it's in. The bar has a brick facade and looks very jazzy, and like most bars in Okinawa is very small. Naohide, who looks just like father with a wide face and same
hair was very happy to see us. His blind piano player recognized Banks voice right away. We quickly got a beer and began to talk with Tanaka San translating. Much to our delight Naohide seemed to love the opportunity to talk about his father and was quickly pulling weapons out from all over the bar including two different yawara bo's, a steel nun chuck like weapon with one short and one long handle, sai's and another nun chuk like thing with 3 short arms that s mean to be concealed. Naohide demonstrated choking with the steel nun chuck and also used regular ones in a demonstration. His sai work was incredible for someone who claimed just to be a musician. I had a suspicion as soon as we walked in that he had trained based his forearms and overall build and it turns out I was right! He talked about kapo and sapo, sapo being death and hapo being life and rescutation. Afterward he demonstrated a pressure point for healing by having both Banks sensei lay face down, foot turned out so that the inside of foot was flat and on the floor and then applying pressure mid thigh with his thumb. He was very particular about the placing of the foot. Afterward, sitting on the couch, a little drunk and my mind blown I watched as Tanaka san sang karaoke with the blind man playing piano and Naohide rocking the clarinet. What a fucking trip! It was a life changing experience that for as much as I've written I can't completely describe.

That was the second full day in Okinawa. Naohide seems keen on meeting us again so hopefully we'll be able to do that again. More to come...