Peas In A Pod
Hiroaki 'Rocky' Izumi Sensei was my first Aikido teacher. It is unfortunate that we lost him in 2013. He was only 59. If he were still alive, he would be turning 65 tomorrow.
Rocky was a lecturer at City Polytechnic of Hong Kong at the time, when I was a final year undergraduate. It did not take long for me to fall in love with him. He was a charming man. Every time you said goodbye to him only sets you up for wanting to go back for more. Looking back, I cannot say for certain if my initial enthusiasm to go to Aikido practice was for keiko or for more time with my idol.
In our little group on campus, there was a Taekwondo student named Jonathan. Jon was a typical young man who liked to ask questions like: How come we don't practice kicks in Aikido? What would you do in Aikido if someone comes at you with a Taekwondo kick? If a kick boxer matches with an Aikido person, who will win? Rocky Sensei usually just smiled without a word. It drove Jon nuts.
Many times, Jon brought up those questions after class. To put Jon's curious mind to rest, Rocky Sensei would sometimes let him test it out.
One time, Jon asked about defense against a gun. Rocky Sensei had Jon stand at a corner diagonal to him in a 10' x 10' space. All Jon had to do was to raise his hand to point at Rocky and say "Bang!" as if he were shooting a gun. Rocky Sensei had a rubber knife to defend himself with. Sure enough, in all three trials, before Jon could even say anything, Rocky already had gotten behind Jon and slitted both his wrist and throat.
After ceaseless pestering, Jon finally got to test out his kick vs Aikido thing. He somehow chose to whip out a big round house kick. In response, Rocky simply entered the center in an assertive manner. Result? Nuts hit Rock. Jonathan fell like an autumn leaf. He kept his hands between his legs and could not speak for a very long time.
Wherever he went, Rocky Sensei kinda stuck out in the crowd because you do not find many Japanese men who wear a black leather jacket, cowboy hat and cowboy boots, walking around town smoking a pipe while carrying a bag of wooden sticks on his back. Not in Hong Kong, and probably not anywhere else in the world.
Rocky Sensei seemed to really enjoyed his bad ass image. He was the chief of security for the grand opening of Planet Hollywood in 1994. Many celebrities -- local and international -- came to the event. Media came to get a glimpse of the extravaganza all ended with pictures photo bombed by Rocky. He was always obstructing the view of the photographers. "An unidentified Japanese man was yelling loudly to the crowd and blocking reporters the entire time" was a common narration in news stories. When presented with these reports with photos of himself standing in front of the stars with a stern face, Rocky snickered proudly, "Hehehe! I look good in those photos, don't I?"
Rocky was a popular but unusual lecturer at City Polytechnic. Among other things, he was known to fall asleep at his own lectures. Many times, he stopped mid sentence and closed his eyes. Suddenly, he realized he dozed off and started laughing out loud. It startled students at first when he did that. Soon, people figured out what was going on and laughed with him. "Lectures can be boring. Can you blame me?" Rocky used to say.
I left Hong Kong for France after nine months of tuition under Rocky Sensei. It was a hard goodbye. I cried on his shoulder for a very long time. His shirt was totally sailed when we parted. For two years, I missed my teacher day and night. The moment my family got me home from the airport, I grabbed the phone to call Rocky. "Hey, welcome back! Have you eaten? Why don't you come over to meet me for lunch?" The insensitive sensei offered, and his equally insensitive student accepted. Not having seen my parents for two years, of course, I took a shower and head out to see my sensei right away! I only came home at dinner time to find my siblings sitting silently at the table with my irate parents. I sure had to pay big time for my gleeful reunion with my teacher. Lesson learnt: One really should be more discreet in displaying their priorities . . .
Rocky Sensei is more than just an Aikido teacher to me. He taught me many things in life. Here is my favorite teaching of his: "It is better to be an outlaw than an ordinary person who always abide by the rules. You'll be so much happier."
If you ever find me crazy and weird, blame Rocky. His wonderful qualities rubbed off on me. I just can't help myself.
Rocky was a lecturer at City Polytechnic of Hong Kong at the time, when I was a final year undergraduate. It did not take long for me to fall in love with him. He was a charming man. Every time you said goodbye to him only sets you up for wanting to go back for more. Looking back, I cannot say for certain if my initial enthusiasm to go to Aikido practice was for keiko or for more time with my idol.
In our little group on campus, there was a Taekwondo student named Jonathan. Jon was a typical young man who liked to ask questions like: How come we don't practice kicks in Aikido? What would you do in Aikido if someone comes at you with a Taekwondo kick? If a kick boxer matches with an Aikido person, who will win? Rocky Sensei usually just smiled without a word. It drove Jon nuts.
Many times, Jon brought up those questions after class. To put Jon's curious mind to rest, Rocky Sensei would sometimes let him test it out.
One time, Jon asked about defense against a gun. Rocky Sensei had Jon stand at a corner diagonal to him in a 10' x 10' space. All Jon had to do was to raise his hand to point at Rocky and say "Bang!" as if he were shooting a gun. Rocky Sensei had a rubber knife to defend himself with. Sure enough, in all three trials, before Jon could even say anything, Rocky already had gotten behind Jon and slitted both his wrist and throat.
After ceaseless pestering, Jon finally got to test out his kick vs Aikido thing. He somehow chose to whip out a big round house kick. In response, Rocky simply entered the center in an assertive manner. Result? Nuts hit Rock. Jonathan fell like an autumn leaf. He kept his hands between his legs and could not speak for a very long time.
Wherever he went, Rocky Sensei kinda stuck out in the crowd because you do not find many Japanese men who wear a black leather jacket, cowboy hat and cowboy boots, walking around town smoking a pipe while carrying a bag of wooden sticks on his back. Not in Hong Kong, and probably not anywhere else in the world.
Rocky Sensei seemed to really enjoyed his bad ass image. He was the chief of security for the grand opening of Planet Hollywood in 1994. Many celebrities -- local and international -- came to the event. Media came to get a glimpse of the extravaganza all ended with pictures photo bombed by Rocky. He was always obstructing the view of the photographers. "An unidentified Japanese man was yelling loudly to the crowd and blocking reporters the entire time" was a common narration in news stories. When presented with these reports with photos of himself standing in front of the stars with a stern face, Rocky snickered proudly, "Hehehe! I look good in those photos, don't I?"
Rocky was a popular but unusual lecturer at City Polytechnic. Among other things, he was known to fall asleep at his own lectures. Many times, he stopped mid sentence and closed his eyes. Suddenly, he realized he dozed off and started laughing out loud. It startled students at first when he did that. Soon, people figured out what was going on and laughed with him. "Lectures can be boring. Can you blame me?" Rocky used to say.
I left Hong Kong for France after nine months of tuition under Rocky Sensei. It was a hard goodbye. I cried on his shoulder for a very long time. His shirt was totally sailed when we parted. For two years, I missed my teacher day and night. The moment my family got me home from the airport, I grabbed the phone to call Rocky. "Hey, welcome back! Have you eaten? Why don't you come over to meet me for lunch?" The insensitive sensei offered, and his equally insensitive student accepted. Not having seen my parents for two years, of course, I took a shower and head out to see my sensei right away! I only came home at dinner time to find my siblings sitting silently at the table with my irate parents. I sure had to pay big time for my gleeful reunion with my teacher. Lesson learnt: One really should be more discreet in displaying their priorities . . .
Rocky Sensei is more than just an Aikido teacher to me. He taught me many things in life. Here is my favorite teaching of his: "It is better to be an outlaw than an ordinary person who always abide by the rules. You'll be so much happier."
If you ever find me crazy and weird, blame Rocky. His wonderful qualities rubbed off on me. I just can't help myself.
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