One night after class O'Sensei Urban invited
me over his house for dinner at the time I was training in Union City N.J.; this
is when I first met his wife Mieko, after being introduced to her she brought
out a letter that came in the mail addressed to Sensei. It was a letter from
Grand Master Yamaguchi, not being able to speak good English, she read the
letter to Sensei in Japanese; occasionally Sensei would smile and acknowledge in
Japanese, when she finished reading the letter Sensei explained some of it to
me. At that time Sensei and his wife both missed Japan very much. After dinner
Sensei and I sat around talking about GoJu and about possibly opening up a DoJo
at the Hoboken YMCA and also in NY. It was at this time that Mieko came over to
us with a small box and handed it to Sensei, which he then gave to me, saying
this is a gift from my wife and I; it's nothing but a bunch of old post cards of
Nagasaki before the war and we both thought you would like to have them. When
they gave them to me they conversed in Japanese and, needless to say, I did not
understand a word they were saying. O'Sensei said his wife wanted me to accept
this as a gift of thankfulness; I did the only thing I knew how in
Japanese and that was to bow and say Osss, he and his wife both laughed and then
Mieko returned the bow two times. This was the beginning of a friendship that I
never forgot. At the time little did I realize that I would also become good
friends with his mother and father as well. Please go through the postcards and
enjoy the beauty of Nagasaki.
Sincerely;
Shihan Ed. Verycken
Click on thumbnail to enlarge.
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