Lord Voldemort

I got my Green Belt late in 1983. Shortly after that, we had a seminar with a different sort of guest instructor.

This was the third seminar we'd had, I think, but this time it was a Japanese instructor. His name was Sakurai Sensei. He was the instructor in Montreal, and was doing a visit to Dojos in BC. I have no idea how we'd wrangled to get him up north.

He scared us all to death. Back then his English wasn't great, and we had to try hard to understand what he was saying. It was doubly important as he didn't say much. He also never smiled. Not once. Not even a glimmer.

He pushed us incredibly hard. Exhausted and blistered, we tried to keep going. He had us do a few new things, but we couldn't do them, which I'm sure frustrated him. As our bodies faded we did worse and worse. I was frustrated, too.

But we made it. Nobody died, and the scary Japanese man went away.

Later, he moved to BC, and visited us quite often. His English became top-notch. As it turns out he smiles all the time, almost. He isn't scary at all.

But back when I was a Green Belt, I swear he was Voldemort... or worse.