Stories from my life.

When I was in Ecuador in 1988, I found the Aikido dojo in Quito.  I went there, and Mishi Lesser greeted me at the door in English.  She asked me where I was from, and I said New York.  She asked where in New York, and I said Long Island.  She asked where on Long Island, and I said Plainview.  She was from there too!  We went to the same high school and had most of the same teachers, but she was 3 years ahead of me and so we had never met.  She asked me if I knew [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshimitsu_Yamada Yamada sensei], and I said yes.  She said "He's coming here in two months to give tests and a demonstration!"  Small world!  So for the next two months, I assisted in test preparation for the students (I was first kyu, had practiced for 7 years, and was well aware of the USAF test requirements.)  When Yamada sensei came, we gave a demonstration that was on all three Ecuadorean television stations, with a live audience of about 3000.  I had to be his uke that he threw around, because the Quito instructor was a small woman, and it wouldn't look good for him to throw around somebody much smaller than he was.  During the freestyle demonstration, he told me to grab his hair, an attack I had never practiced in Aikido, so I grabbed enthusiastically.  He did a cool sankyo technique and threw me.  Afterwards, he said to me "You pulled my hair hard!"  Oops!

When I was in Ecuador in 1988, I found the Aikido dojo in Quito.  I went there, and Mishi Lesser greeted me at the door in English.  She asked me where I was from, and I said New York.  She asked where in New York, and I said Long Island.  She asked where on Long Island, and I said Plainview.  She was from there too!  We went to the same high school and had most of the same teachers, but she was 3 years ahead of me and so we had never met.  She asked me if I knew [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshimitsu_Yamada Yamada sensei], and I said yes.  She said "He's coming here in two months to give tests and a demonstration!"  Small world!  So for the next two months, I assisted in test preparation for the students (I was first kyu, had practiced for 7 years, and was well aware of the USAF test requirements.)  When Yamada sensei came, we gave a demonstration that was on all three Ecuadorean television stations, with a live audience of about 3000.  I had to be his uke that he threw around, because the Quito instructor was a small woman, and it wouldn't look good for him to throw around somebody much smaller than he was.  During the freestyle demonstration, he told me to grab his hair, an attack I had never practiced in Aikido, so I grabbed enthusiastically.  He did a cool sankyo technique and threw me.  Afterwards, he said to me "You pulled my hair hard!"  Oops!