OK, so this blog went from celebrating its 6th year anniversary to being dormant for an entire month! Ummm… Sorry ah!
For whatever reason, I had super early meetings/calls/travel every single Wednesday last month, so the Tuesday nights before (the night I usually work on these blogs) was used to go bed early. I have something tomorrow morning again, but it’s been long enough! My two readers need me! 😛
Anyway, sorry for the unintentional hiatus. We back yo. Let’s do this!
* Marcus Cancervive Fundraiser Birthday Bash!
My friend Marcus Reimel is battling a rare form of melanoma cancer called Mucosal Melanoma and needs your kokua. Please consider supporting in one or both of the following ways:
Donate to his YouCaring online fundraiser. This is to help offset his mounting medical expenses. At last check they are close to their $20,000 goal with $16,500 with just 25 days to go.
* Bill Amis & Miah Ostrowski Basketball Skills Camp
Former University of Hawaii Athletics University of Hawaii Men’s Basketball stars Bill Amis & Miah Ostrowski are holding a skills training basketball camp for Hawaii’s youth from July 17th-19th at McKinley High School. Register and attend the Bill Amis & Miah Ostrowski Basketball Skills Camp today!
My New AroundHawaii.com Article: Bubble Tea Mania!
We continue our epic bubble tea journey with 5 more milk tea establishments located in town. We found out about Dragon Tea after the wife saw her friend post a drink photo on Instagram. Since we hardly ever go to Waiks, we thought it would be some time until we got to visit and taste what Dragon Tea had to offer. Luckily, my clothing company (VH07V) got the wonderful opportunity to vend at the popular Waikiki SPAM Jam festival again, so we decided to grab a hotel at the Outrigger Waikiki for the weekend to have a mini staycation since we would be there anyway…
* Spotted!
Super talented ukulele duo Honoka & Azita posted another crazy video to their YouTube channel on Monday, this time, covering the popular song “Wipeout”. The girls look awesome thanks in large part to their schooling at Ukulele Hale and the filming/editing magic of Shibby Stylee!
* VH07V at Honolulu Night Market! VH07V will be making its triumphant return to the popular Honolulu Night + Market on Saturday, June 21st! Visit our booth from 6pm-11pm for special, show only pricing and giveaways! See you there!
* VH07V at the 4th of July Spectacular at Schofield! VH07V will have a booth at the 43rd Annual 4th of July Spectacular at Schofield Barracks on Friday, July 4th from 10am-6pm! Visit our booth for special, show only pricing and giveaways and stick around for games, food, rides for the keiki, a car giveaway, and entertainment by Third Eye Blind, Willie K, etc.
* Mailing List
If you haven’t already, be sure to sign up for our mailing list to get the latest scoops! I promise I don’t email too often (takes planny effort you know da kine! 😛 ).
* Order Online!
Get all of the latest VH07V gear at:
Last week must’ve been too hard. This one won’t be any easier though (I think), but if you live in these neighborhoods, should be duck soup! Chance um!
Last week‘s Winnahs:
* Crack Seed Store (Lia)
* Hoku’s (jknakas)
* Les Murakami Stadium (Lia)
* VH07V on Tiny TV!
Our popular #TarpSurfing Commercial will air on the 3rd television show in as many weeks! Super exciting! This week, we’ll be on Tiny Tadani’s Tiny TV show on OC16 (Oceanic Time Warner Cable channel 12 or HD 1012) airing TONIGHT at 10:30pm and then repeating this Thursday and Friday at 10:30pm!
* Groove Hawaii Now Open!
This past Saturday 2/22, the much anticipated The Groove Hawaii officially opened its doors to the public. On Friday 2/21, as part of a social media event, I had the unique opportunity to preview their facilities during a soft launch opening. Was super fun, especially when you get a bunch of testosterone-filled men trying to get the better of each other on the Go-Kart race track (see pic below)! LOL! You can also play parlor games (arcades & billiards, darts, air-hockey, shuffleboard, etc.), climb a “rock” wall, take Segways tours, ride a Paradise Pedals Party Bike around town, or hold your next party or corporate event there. It’s the closest thing to Castle Park that we’ve had in a loonnnnnng time! Oh the memories. 😛 Hope they do well. Go and support them k? #SupportLocal
* Mailing List
If you haven’t already, be sure to sign up for our mailing list to get the latest scoops! I promise I don’t email too often (takes planny effort you know da kine! 😛 ).
* Order Online!
Get all of the latest VH07V gear at:
Hooo….Rice Fest is this Sunday already. No can believe! Another year’s worth of blood, sweat and tears finally coming to fruition. I hope you guys can make it down this Sunday, September 1st from 12pm-5pm at Ward Centers. Get CHOKE activities, grinds, & entertainment (see list below)! Should be fun!
This week’s photos are (of course) Rice Fest inspired. In fact, they are pictures from three of our 30+ participating vendors this year. Go here for some hints: http://www.ricefest.com/vendor/vendor-info. Go get um!
Last Week‘s Winners:
* Kailua District Park (Stickit)
* Oceanic Time Warner Cable – Mililani (Takeshi)
* Hawaii Kai (M)
* Rice Fest!
Mark your calendars for Sunday, September 1st, 2013 and come celebrate Hawaii’s beloved grain at the 4th Annual Rice Festival. Held at Ward Centers from 12pm to 5pm, this event has a full day of food and fun activities lined up including:
* VH07V Spotted!
This week’s “SPOTTED!” is a music video of the ukulele group Heart & Soul covering Jake Shimabukuro’s song Serano. Heart & Soul is Jody Kamisato, Tj Mayeshiro and Micah Ganiron. Jody is the owner and lead instructor at Ukulele Hale, where Tj and Micah were schooled. You can catch them and other Ukulele Hale students at this year’s Rice Fest as well!
Heart & Soul – Serano
* New Design: “???”
Working on an all-new mystery design, that I don’t want to mention yet because somebody else might steal the idea. Haha. Design is actually pretty basic, but the message is cool (IMO). Hopefully others will feel the same way. 🙂 More TBA soon!
* Order Online!
Get all of the latest VH07V gear at:
* VH07V at Honolulu Night Market next Saturday, August 17th!
VH07V will be at this Saturday night’s Honolulu Night Market in Kakaako! It will be one of the last two pop-up shows I’ll be doing this year so come on down and pick up the latest in VH07V swag!
* Rice Fest!
Mark your calendars for Sunday, September 1st, 2013 and come celebrate Hawaii’s beloved grain at the 4th Annual Rice Festival. Held at Ward Centers from 12pm to 5pm, this event has a full day of food and fun activities lined up including:
– Rice focused food & craft vendors (including VH07V 🙂 )
– Cooking demos with Chef Mavro’s Chef George Mavrothalassitis & Pastry Chef Elizabeth Dippong, and OC16’s “Cutty” Cutler & KITV’s Yunji de Nies
– Entertainment by Kapena, Jody Kamisato & Uke’s Rising Stars, EMKE, and Honoka & Azita
– Appearances by Tiny Tadani from TinyTV & Scott, Mayumi & Skyler from Ultimate Japan!
– the 4th Annual SPAM ® Musubi Eating Contest, and
– an attempt to break the Guinness World Recordâ„¢ for the World’s Largest SPAM Musubi
* Calling All Referees! If you are a referee or have always wanted to be one, check out the note below from my friend Alton who has been chosen to run the organization: “The Hawaii State Basketball Officials Association (HSBOA) will be having a meeting next Monday August 19 @ 6pm at Salt Lake District Park. It’s open to new first year officials and transfer officials. Well can teach people that don’t no how or are interested in trying. For more information, please contact Alton Mamiya (808) 551-0916 or via email at amamiya@hawaii.rr.com. Thanks!”
* New Design: “Jah”
Still waiting for these to come in, but I am counting on getting them in on time for VH07V‘s appearance at this week Saturday night’s Honolulu Night Market event. Crossing my fingers!
If you've been craving rice for the last year, your wait is no more! The 4th Annual Rice Fest will kick off National Rice Month and take place on Sunday, September 1st from 12pm-5pm at Ward Centers (in the square parking lot across the street from the movie theaters). Come on down and enjoy rice focused food and fun for the entire family.
4th Annual Hawaii Rice Fest Ward Centers Sunday, September 1 from 12pm-5pm
* Brown Rice Donation Center – Brown Rice and monetary donations will be accepted for Lanakila Meals on Wheels at the Lanakila Pacific / Info booth, Oceanic Time Warner Cable booth, Channel808 booth, and VH07V booth * Guinness World Record™ attempt – Construction of the world's Largest SPAM® Musubi in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record™ of 628 lbs!
More info will be added as we get closer. See y'all there!
VH07V Gear The latest in Hawaii lifestyle apparel. Check it out!
Hungry? I hope so! This week is na-ting but local kine grindz!
Last week, we had 25 comments! Woo hoo! Mahalos to errr-one, especially newcomer Surfdad for the (inadvertent) dupe posts! EH! Any help we can get with the comment count these days… LOL!
We are super excited to announce that VH07V will have a booth at the super popular Honolulu Night Market taking place from 6pm-11pm THIS Saturday, 6/15 in Kakaako (Auahi Street).
We’ll be fully stocked (including our new Tron and Racerback designs) at our booth, which will be located in the “Pinch of Salt” Warehouse during the event. Come on by for special, show only pricing!
At this Saturday’s Honolulu Night Market (where we have a booth, as mentioned above), the Red Bull X-Fighters will be performing live freestyle motocross jumps right on the streets of Kakaako (6pm-7pm)! The jump demo will be followed by a meet & greet and autograph session with the athletes themselves: Keith Sayers, Wes Agee, & 3-time X-Games Gold Medalist Ronnie Renner (7pm-8pm). Here’s a sneak peek at what these guys do!
* VH07V Spotted!
This week’s “SPOTTED!” shot is via another video from the crazy talented Andrew Agcaoili, aka Shibby Stylee! Shibby and his “Bomb Squad” visited the Big Island of Hawaii to do some gnarly dives off South Point. Check out the video below!
* Shooting a Commercial!
This past weekend, we shot the first few scenes for our new commercial for VH07V. Click on the image below to see more photos from that day!
I think last week’s video was a bit too difficult because, although we had a handful of Facebook shares via the blog, the comments/guesses were unusually low.
I had another food video queued up and ready to go for this week, but to avoid another slow comment week (hopefully), we’ll try something a lil’ different (yet again). If this doesn’t work, we may just have to go back to good ol’ fashioned photos again. LOL!
The quiz for the video is still the same (guessing Where In Hawaii this is), but you also get to enjoy a bit of “entertainment” while you’re at it. I use the term “entertainment” loosely because it’s yet to be determined if the video is actually entertaining to you. Ahahaha! LMK what you think (good or bad) in the comment area below k?
Points for Video #1…
* When do you use your shaka and why?: 3 points each
* Constructive feedback (good or bad) about the video: 2 points each
* Location: 2 points
* General area: 1 point
* Closest street(s)?: 1 point each
* Google Street View link (if get)?: 2 points
* Month video was shot?: 1 point
* Day of the month video was shot?: 1 point
* Day of the week video was shot?: 1 point
* Year video was shot?: 1 point
* Exact time video was shot?: 5 points
Once again, Marc Orbito of Hungry eYe Photo continues to impress. Following up our last VH07V photo shoot at Kaka`ako Kool, I hired Marc to help shoot our next scene at the iconic Rainbow Drive-In. With the help of fellow blogger and friend Catherine Toth, I was able to get permission from owner Jimmy Gusukuma (Toth’s friend) to shoot some scenes there for VH07V. Wow, much mahalos Cat and Mr. Gusukuma! What an honor!
Below is a shot from Marc’s collection from that night! Unreal yeah? Can’t wait to see how the rest of the day’s shots turned out. To hire Marc for your photographic needs, be sure to contact him via his Facebook page here: Hungry eYe Photo!
This week’s “Spotted” shot for VH07V is of friend and supporter Jody Kamisato. He owns and operates the very popular ukulele school called Ukulele Hale. Jody is also a member of the Na Hoku Hanohano nominated band Heart & Soul, mentors keiki through his Ukes on the Loose program, and has a regular gig in Aulani’s Starlit Hui show every Monday and Thursday.
VH07V at the Big Boys Toys & MMA Hawaii Expo next month!
Just another reminder that I’ll be at the Big Boys Toys & MMA Hawaii Expo on June 15, 16 and 17 at the Blaisdell. Come visit my booth and say hi k? I’ll have choke New VH07V Products, so come holla atcho boy! Here’s the action-packed schedule for that weekend’s festivities.
As always, a big mahalos to everyone for your support and for helping to spread the VH07V! 8)
And finally… I’m officially a Guinness World Recordsâ„¢ Record Holder!
Well, I can’t take all the credit, but it’s pretty exciting nonetheless. 😉
We finally received notification back from the Guinness World Recordsâ„¢ folks that our record setting attempt for the “Largest SPAM Musubi” at last year’s Rice Fest was made official. Me, along with the other 20 or so volunteers/participants in the building of the musubi got our names in the record books. Cool right? 🙂
Guinness World Recordsâ„¢ Certificate
Never satisfied, we’ll be attempting to break our own record for the “Largest SPAM Musubi” at this year’s Rice Fest in September. More info to come when I get it…
These Tuesday posts are getting later and later yeah? Before you know it, da buggah goin’ run into our Where In Hawaii Wednesday post. Oh well, better late than never ah?
So I guess it’s obvious that I nevah watched Hawaii Five-0 live last night – hence the lack of a Five-0 post – but feel free to use the comment area below to chat up about the show with your fellow peeps anyway. I heard rap singer Nas made an appearance. Hah?
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This weekend, I attended two events that had some killah live music and I wanted to post some videos I took to showcase the local talent we have here in Hawaii.
The first one is of a rock band called Elephant (who performs every Saturday from 9pm-2am at the Irish Rose Saloon in Waikiki). Lead man Kevin Jones is a talented DJ for Star 101.9FM, a better singer/rock star, and an even better friend. Check out Elephant performing a cover of Prince’s “When Doves Cry” below.
Elephant – “When Doves Cry”
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The second band is called Heart & Soul, comprising of two talented ukulele players: Chris Salvador and my buddy Jody Kamisato. I recently featured Jody (and other fellow Kaiser High grads) in my November AroundHawaii article: “Cougar Pride – Three Kaiser High Grads Making a Difference“). Jody is the owner and head instructor at Ukulele Hale, and Chris is a young, but talented player with sick vocal skills. Below is a short clip of them covering Pure Heart’s “How Can I Get Over?” at their recent CD Release Celebration Party at Gordon Biersch at the Aloha Tower Marketplace.
Heart & Soul – “How Can I Get Over?”
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Here’s a little bonus cut from one of my favorite Youtube singers, an obvious ode to John Tyner’s experience with the TSA. OMG Hilarious!
When it comes to careers, they have an old saying… “Do what you love and you never have to work a day in your life.” Most of us chug along through the day to day of life, wondering if there’s a better way. Personally, though I love my job, I often wonder if the folks in Major League Baseball are still out there looking for a mediocre-ly built, over-the-hill, talented (in-his-own-mind) right arm to be the next best thing in the bigs. And then I wake up.
A lucky few, however, are fortunate enough to find something they fall in love with and follow that path towards something they can make a career of. Below is the story of three such men.
Jody Kamisato – `Ukulele Hale
Jody Kamisato is the owner of Ukulele Hale, an ukulele school in Kaimuki that teaches students – from small kid time all the way up to our senior citizens – the art of our beautiful 4-stringed instrument.
Though we both knew of each other from our Kaiser High School/Hawaii Kai days, I think I actually first met Jody when I asked him to perform at an event I was putting together back in September (the inaugural Rice Fest). Not only was I impressed by the talent he showcased during his performance on stage (through his group Heart & Soul), but I was also taken aback by the way he mentored and encouraged his students before their performances.
Here’s an interview I had recently with Jody:
An Interview with Ukulele Hale’s Jody Kamisato
[Edward Sugimoto] When did you first pick up the `ukulele and how long was it before you fell in love?
[Jody Kamisato] Geez, I first picked it up in elementary school. So I went to Kamiloiki Elementary and in their Hawaiiana class, they offered ukulele. So that was my first time, and started taking lessons, and actually it wasn’t until high school that I got really into ukulele.
[Edward Sugimoto] Kaiser right?
[Jody Kamisato] Kaiser. *winks*
[Edward Sugimoto] That’s right!
[Jody Kamisato] Kaiser! *laughs*
[Edward Sugimoto] Kaiser baby! *laughs* At what point did you know it was the path for you?
[Jody Kamisato] Um, well actually Jake Shimabukuro from Pure Heart had come to do one of our assemblies at Kaiser, and he was in a group called Pure Heart along with Jon Yamasato who’s another Kaiser graduate… Um, but after that, I just you know, I saw what he did and I was just amazed at what the ukulele, you know, the possibilities of the ukulele. And just the way he played and the style that he played in really caught my attention, so I just called him up and I was like “Hey, can I sign up for lessons?” and so I did and a few years later he asked me to teach. He opened a school called Ukulele Academy in Hawaii Kai and so that’s where I kinda got my start from… was teaching at his studio.
[Edward Sugimoto] Do you draw from any positive experiences from some of your mentors from your past and apply them to your teaching methods today?
[Jody Kamisato] Absolutely. You know, I think one of the greatest gifts with music is the ability to share it. And so, some of my mentors, which included Peter Moon, Jake Shimabukuro, Troy Fernandez…You know these guys have really done so much with music and really taken it to, not just Hawaii, but outside of Hawaii so, they’ve gone international. And especially with Jake, and so, just from that, he’s really opened a lot of doors with music and with ukulele. So that’s what I want to try to do with our music… it’s to take it on another level and share it with people not just from Hawaii but around the world.
[Edward Sugimoto] And you have a business: Ukulele Hale. Talk to me about your keiki.
[Jody Kamisato] Alright, well, we have a school called Ukulele Hale in Kaimuki and I’d say a majority is students, is the keiki. You know we actually teach students of all ages and skill levels. So we start them… Our youngest is 3 and a half years old, and we also have senior classes as well. Right now we have about 170 students.
Kody Kiyokawa and Jody Kamisato jammin’ on the uke
NOTE: Kody Kiyokawa recently represented Ukulele Hale at the Duke’s Ukes contest and came home with a brand new Kamaka Ukulele after winning the Best Showmanship award.
[Edward Sugimoto] On top of being a teacher, you also have a group with Chris Salvador called Heart & Soul? Tell me a little bit about that.
[Jody Kamisato] I partnered up with a friend of mine, his name is Chris Salvador, and we call ourselves Heart & Soul, and we are actually in the recording studio now working on our debut album. We’re hoping to have it out, gee, in the next few weeks and actually have our CD release party in November. It’s set for November 21st. Chris and I just got back from touring Japan as well as New York. We participated in the New York Ukulele Festival, and also Japan has this event called the Ukulele Picnic which draws 10,000 ukulele fans. So it was an amazing experience and we just feel very blessed to follow our passion and play music.
[Edward Sugimoto] Where can we pick up the album when it’s ready?
[Jody Kamisato] It’ll be available on iTunes and definitely in music stores and book stores throughout Hawaii. Yeah, so go out and support local music. *laughs*
[Edward Sugimoto] You were mentioning that you guys tour a lot, you were in New York and you go all over the place. You were at the Rice Festival of course…
[Jody Kamisato] Rice Festival, yeah!
[Edward Sugimoto] … Where else can we find you guys going forward?
[Jody Kamisato] We’re definitely going to be performing more. Right now we’re focusing on the recording. Once that’s finished, we plan to do more steady gigs for the public. And definitely we’re actually planning a Japan tour this coming December. We’re going up for about a week and a half. It’s a Heart & Soul CD Japan Release Tour.
[Edward Sugimoto] That’s awesome.
[Jody Kamisato] Yeah, we’re excited.
[Edward Sugimoto] You’re all over social media. You wanna give some plugs out there to your various locations?
[Jody Kamisato] *laughs* Sure. Alright well you can come check us out on Facebook. Um, I just set it up recently. It’s uh facebook…
George Kotaka is legend in karate. He is a 4th degree black belt with 30 years of training under that belt. He is the son of Chuzo Kotaka (a legend in his own right), the man responsible for bringing IKF (International Karate Federation) Karate to Hawaii. George is one of the main instructors for IKF Hawaii teaching students at dojos in Kamiloiki, Kailua, Kaneohe, Kapolei and the University areas.
My first memory of George was seeing him grow through the karate ranks right alongside of the rest of us. Under Sensei Kotaka (Chuzo), I was fortunate enough to earn my brown belt, and I remember little (at the time) George showing up at our dojo to train periodically. Eventually our paths crossed again while attending Kaiser High School.
George sat down with me during this recent interview:
An Interview with IKF Hawaii’s George Kotaka
[Edward Sugimoto] First of all, please introduce yourself George.
[George Kotaka] My name is George Kotaka, I’m 33 years old and I’ve been taking karate since I was 3 years old.
[Edward Sugimoto] Back in the day, your father (Chuzo Kotaka) was my sensei at IKF in Kahala. Is this where your interest in karate first came from?
[George Kotaka] My interest in karate began, like I said, when I was 3 years old, and my father actually didn’t really force me to take karate. He was just bringing me by the dojo and kinda like just like anything else, you know, where you’re introduced to it so often, after a while you just start to pick it up. I just was really kinda just drawn to karate. Never forced to start it.
[Edward Sugimoto] As the sensei’s son, did you feel any extra pressure to be better and perform well because your dad was the sensei?
[George Kotaka] Being the sensei’s son, I really didn’t feel any pressure at all. I always just went to practice, worked really hard, always had goals in mind that I wanted to achieve since I was young. Just, you know, just like short term goals in the beginning and then later on, fulfilling my long term goals, but never had the pressure because I always just knew that if I just relied on my training and my skill, you know, good things would come about.
[Edward Sugimoto]Lyoto Machida of the UFC, he became the Light Heavyweight Champion a while ago (UFC 98 on May 23rd, 2009) and probably burst karate into the mainstream. Did you kinda feel that karate/”Lyoto Effect” in your studios/dojos?
[George Kotaka] I would say there was a little bit of an affect from the UFC fight where Lyoto won the UFC title. We saw a little bit of an influx of students inquiring about karate, interested in martial arts, especially the traditional martial arts. He comes from a traditional Japanese background, his style is called Shotokan, and it’s a very very popular, I would say one of the four major styles of karate in Japan. So I would say there was a little bit of an influx of students when that happened.
George Kotaka knocks out opponent (from shotokan68’s channel)
NOTE:George does not endorse this clip (a popular video on Youtube with over 29,851 views) and was frankly quite embarrassed of it when I brought it up. I snuck it in here just to give you a glimpse at what George’s karate is capable of.
[Edward Sugimoto] What inspired you to take the next step and become an instructor?
[George Kotaka] I always was intrigued and motivated to be an instructor, to be a teacher. Ever since I was about 14 or 15 years old, I began helping my sister at one of the local karate classes and being kind of like a junior assistant or junior leader and from since that time on, I was really just drawn to teaching, I always liked working with other people. So even after the competition aspect, I could always rely on going back to teaching and falling back to that background.
[Edward Sugimoto] You mentioned your competition background. You’re pretty much a karate legend here and around the country. What do you have in store going forward?
[George Kotaka] Most importantly right now, after retiring from competition in 2008, is just to really work on my students and giving back to the dojo and going back to that teaching. Whether it’s producing the next state champion, national champion, Pan-American PKF Champion or even world champion, that would just be great. I just want to produce quality students most importantly. They don’t have to be champions. If that comes along that would be great but overall I just want my students to be good mannered students, have good morals and ethics and really go by the karate way.
George Kotaka Highlights (from CHAMPOFFICIAL’s channel)
NOTE:This clip I found on Youtube is probably a better representation of what George is all about (as opposed to the previous one). Check it.
Todd Tanaka holds a black belt under the prestigious Relson Gracie Jiu Jitsu system. He is the owner and head instructor of the Relson Gracie Jiu Jitsu Team HK team, with locations in the University area, Kaimuki and Lutherville-Timonium in Maryland. He teaches the art of jiu jitsu and self defense to keiki (ages 5-13) and adults of all ages. He (along with George above) also just started a women’s cardio kickboxing class on Sunday nights (5:30pm-6:30pm).
Of the three, I probably knew Todd the best during high school. We ran in similar groups and hung out at some of the same places. Todd helped me land my first “celebrity” interview with his good friend Jason “Mayhem” Miller and even let me train at his dojo for a little while.
Here’s Todd and I catching up in this recent interview:
An Interview with Relson Gracie Jiu Jitsu Team HK’s Todd Tanaka
[Edward Sugimoto] Please introduce yourself.
[Todd Tanaka] Hi I’m Todd Tanaka and I’m the head instructor and owner of Relson Gracie Jiu Jitsu Team HK.
[Edward Sugimoto] Long before the MMA (Mixed Martial Arts)/Jiu Jitsu explosion, you were training with Relson Gracie before anyone knew what it was. How long ago did you start training in the art of jiu jitsu and why did you first start?
[Todd Tanaka] I started in 1990 and I was in, I believe, 8th grade. That’s when (Jean Claude) Van Damme and Steven Seagal was all popular, and me and my friends John and Jared wanted to take a martial art because of the popularity of the martial arts. We were thinking about taking like kickboxing, aikido and stuff and Jared’s father suggested that we go with him to this jiu jitsu class, Brazilian jiu jitsu classes, and we were like, “What is that?” We had no idea. And the dad was like just come down and see if you like it. So we went down, met Relson, started taking the classes from there, and we fell in love with it from day 1.
[Edward Sugimoto] What inspired you to take the next step and become an instructor?
[Todd Tanaka] Well after the UFC started (1993), a lot of my friends wanted to learn and they’d always see me at the weight room and ask me to teach them and I was like “Man, sounds like a good deal.” You know, I could use the side cash so I asked Relson “Eh, can I start teaching?” and he said, “Well I want you to take an instructor program from my brother.” So he flew me up to his brother Rorion’s school in Torrance California, which Royce Gracie was there at the time and the dad (Helio)… And I stayed there, I took their instructor program, and I came back and I helped Relson open his new school in Kaimuki. And that’s pretty much how it all started for me in teaching.
[Edward Sugimoto] Talk to me about your kids. What brings you the most joy when you teach them?
[Todd Tanaka] The most joy is probably just seeing the smiles on their face and seeing how they really like it when they actually do the move correctly.
Todd Tanaka watching over his students
[Edward Sugimoto] Do you have an opinion or any comments to those who feel jiu jitsu is dangerous for young kids?
[Todd Tanaka] Yes. You take a risk in any sport… You do… but they have to understand that jiu jitsu and MMA is totally different things. I don’t teach my students to fight. I teach them to defend themselves, self defense, you know. And, you know, if you go in there and you think that jiu jitsu is all about fighting, then yeah, you’re gonna have that perception, but I’m gonna let you guys know that the Relson Gracie jiu jitsu system is about self defense and not fighting.
[Edward Sugimoto] What about personal goals? You received your black belt in July of last year? Anything else in store?
[Todd Tanaka] Um, well, I’m just gonna keep training. I currently just opened two other schools this past year. I have a branch in Kaimuki, and I opened one with another Kaiser classmate/alumni Stuart Ramos. He opened a school under me in (Lutherville-) Timonium, Maryland. Hopefully I dunno, maybe my schools can start growing.
Relson Gracie Promotes Todd Tanaka to Black Belt (from GracieTeamHK’s channel)
[Edward Sugimoto] How about any professional fighting for you at some point?
[Todd Tanaka] *laughs* No, I’m too small and old for that.
[Edward Sugimoto] Finally, you’re big into social media. Do you find that it helps a lot?
[Todd Tanaka] Yes. I can’t remember where I heard this, and I’ve always been using this for years… It’s not who you know, it’s about who knows you. So I’ve always put myself out there. You know, they say there’s no such thing as bad publicity right? Everything’s good publicity, so whatever I do, I put myself out there, I’m easy to find. *smiles*
[Edward Sugimoto] Why don’t we do some plugging of some of those web sites?
Three great individuals doing great things in their respective communities… who, oh-by-the-way, all happen to be graduates from my proud Alma mater of Henry J. Kaiser High School. They have found a way to follow their passion and find a career doing something that they absolutely love.
I guess you can say they never have to work a day in their lives…
Happy November 1st y’all! I hope you’re all recovered from a lonnnng weekend of Halloween partying. *grin*
So the other day on Twitter, the hilarious #moviesinmypants hashtag picked up a lot of steam. It’s a funny game that cracked me up and made me think about you guys. The idea is to think of a movie name and fill in the blank for the following statement:
__________ In My Pants
The more creative you get with the movie titles, the more we’ll crack each other up. Yes it’s juvenile… but what the hey, it’s a good way to help each other get through this Monday together right? LOL!
So in the comment area below, post your favorite movie in your pants! Hurr’s an example: “40 Year Old Virgin In My Pants”… Ahahaha! Get um?
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In other news, check out my new article (including videos!) on AroundHawaii.com:
World Wide Ed 