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Can you go back? I've been back training for 8 months, and that has been good, but it is all very different. New faces, new club, new association.

Since returning, I have contacted my old Sensei via email.

What is a Sensei? It means teacher, but there is nothing in the English language that has the same importance. The literal translation is ‘one who lived before’.

It is such a status term in Japan, that it is also applied to Doctors, Lawyers, or people who have truly mastered a field, such as renowned artists. Can you imagine calling a Doctor "teacher" to honour him?

In English we have the term mentor. That fits, but it is incomplete. We call people coach as a sign of respect, but that isn't exactly it either.

The best portrait of a Sensei in western literature is Mr. Miyagi in the original Karate Kid movie.

In Karate, there are Senseis everywhere. "Look, there's Sensei X talking to Sensei Y, and later there will be a meeting of all the Senseis." These people are treated with respect, which they deserve.

If a student is lucky, they will find THEIR Sensei. Some never do. I've been lucky. I've had two. The first was Foster Sensei, who introduced me to Shotokan, and was my teacher up north. We lost touch twenty years ago, and I have no idea where he is now.

The other person I call MY Sensei, is Yasuo Sakurai. I met him when I was a Green Belt. At the time he was a 5th Dan, and was the chief instructor in Montreal. He was in BC doing Seminars. He later moved to Vancouver and took over the head roll of this provinces branch of the JKA.

He came north to teach us many times, and I trained with him whenever I was in Vancouver. He moved back to Japan over 20 years ago. He returned frequently to give seminars, and I was always a participant.

He became a friend, as well as a teacher.

Ten years ago I stopped training, and have recently returned.

I got in contact with Sakurai Sensei, and he asked me to get in contact with the head of the JKA in BC. Both gave me permission to attend his most recent seminar.

Would I be really welcomed back?

How would I do training through numerous, high intensity classes? The last time I've done this was over a decade ago. The only recent such efforts have been the two half marathons I've run. I expected the Karate training to be harder, and it was.

Helen and I were up at 5am to catch the first ferry. On the Mainland side, it's an hour and a half drive out into the Valley. We got there nice and early, and killed time with fancy coffee at McDonalds, and the use of their WiFi.

Helen dropped me at the Dojo.

Not many were there when I arrived, but a few. Got changed upstairs, and shortly after returning to the ground floor, Don Sharp and Sakurai Sensei arrived. Don saw me first. Smiles, bows, handshakes and a hug all mixed together, then the same with Sakurai Sensei.

Shortly after, the session began.

The first class was for the BC members going to the big tournament in Taiwan in August.

There were 18 of there, including Sensei. The second special class was slightly smaller (two gone, but one more arrived), and the third smaller still (about 12 left). The three sessions all blurred, so I'll treat the team training times all together.

We worked a lot on Kata. Mostly it was Heian 1-5, Tekki Shodan, Bassai Dai, and Empi. The competitors all need these ones for the tournament. It was a mix of 'correct' movement, and moving with speed.

Besides Kata, there was a lot of partner training with the hand pads on. Moderate body contact is expected, and no problem. We played dummy for one another many times, and changed partners frequently. Bam, I got a heavy shot in the ribs. It felt weird right away. It generated a sharp pain, very localized. These things happen, so I just continued. I'm sure my partner didn't even know. He didn't really hit me overly hard. Some kind of freak result.

The injury didn't affect my performance at all, but deep breaths became a problem. A shot in the same spot would have caused a real injury. Whenever Sensei sent us out to get our hand pads in later classes, I stayed out and got changed. This happened twice, and I gave up about 20 minutes of training each time, but old people don't heal fast.

My other injury was a bashed foot. I call it a stubbed toe, but it's really two of them that got conked. One might be broken. My foot hurts when it bends, or gets bumped, and generally all the time. I had to ignore it.

The other three classes were open to all the team training participants, and any JKA BC Black or Brown Belts. There were about 30 people at each of these sessions. These were more generalized training, and also excellent.

After one of these, Don Sharp called all the Black Belts over to make a few announcements regarding upcoming events and such.

He then said how happy he was to be able to train again with Sensei...Gordon. That's me. He went on to tell the assembled people a bit of my own Karate history, and at the end everybody bowed to me.

Up until that everybody had been quite polite to me, and friendly enough, but also somewhat reserved. They didn't know who I was. Suddenly everybody was smiling at me, and addressing me as Sensei.

I had come home.