Aikido
I started Aikido in college after having tried a
little Karate, and Shaolin. My friend Russell recommended it to me as
he saw I was looking for something both martial and spiritual. I am
greatly indebted to all those I trained with, both students, sensei,
and uchideshi, and naturally O-Sensei. But I feel most grateful for
having begun my journey under Shibata Sensei from Berkeley
Aikikai/Dojinkai.
I also studied at Shobu Aikido Boston with Gleason
sensei for about a summer, and briefly with Kanai sensei in Cambridge
the summer before that. Both are amazing teachers and a great
group of people to practice with. In Taiwan, I practiced with
sensei Michael Ricca who was another wonderful teacher, and great group
of friends at his dojo. Currently, I live in south bay, CA, and
am fortunate to practice under Shiohira Sensei and all the great people
there. Come to think of it, I have been extraordinarily lucky to
have such excellent teachers right from the beginning.
Art
I have been drawing since as long as I can
remember. My parents sent us to group art classes after school. For me,
that was around kindergarten in Hong Kong. All I remember doing was
these graph drawings while my sisters got to use watercolor. I was
deemed too young and messy. Plus I was a boy. Here's what I mean by
graph. You start off with a X-Y axis, number both 1 thru n+1, then draw
straight lines with a ruler starting from opposite points. So X-axis 1
connects with Y-axis n+1, and Y-axis 1 connects with X-axis n+1, and
then all the points between makes a lot of triangles. In the end, you
get a curve. I thought it was pretty cool. I will try to put in a
picture of what I mean later.
My sisters and
I continued art classes learning watercolour, pencil, oil, etc.
Actually, my entire
family is pretty artistic. My dad has some nice ceramic mugs; my sister
chose to become a fine artist, etc.
Myself, I prefer pencil, clay, oil pastel, and photography.
Outdoors
I like biking, camping, hiking. I'd like to try
more rockclimbing. Also love waterstuff. If there's a lake, I will jump
in it. Did some river tracing in Wulai, Taiwan, that was quite fun -
just my kind of tea. Some memorable places I've gone:
Pacific West Coast Trail (Vancouver Island), Point Reyes,Chilai
Mountain, Russian River, Hualien
History
Majored in History at Cal. Again, an amazing
experience to have been taught by top people in their field, e.g.
professors D.N.Keightley, D.Johnson, etc.
Film & Music
Some films I highly recommend:
- Akira Kurosawa: Rashomon, Ran, Hidden
Fortress, Seven Samurai, Dreams
Great Scenes:
the Foxes, first episode in Dreams.
the Fire Festival in Hidden Fortress.
opening sequence in Rashomon.
- Seventh Seal
berries and milk: a moment of peace.
- Tron
- Dark Crystal
- Conan the Barbarian.
Surprisingly well written, thematically cohesive, once you get past the
notion that it's merely a sword & sorcery film.
- Le Grand Bleu/Big Blue
The ocean and dolphin cinematography is amazing.
- Anime: Spirited Away, Totoro, Nausicaa, Ghost
in the Shell, Final Fantasy, Robotech