Autobiography Part 21: My Stay in Moromi Hilton (Okinawa)

Q: Can you please continue with your story in Okinawa?

A: Right, this is clip number 21 and we're continuing from Okinawa where Sensei accepted me into the dojo. I was training every day, traveling five or six kilometers each way on the mountain from Okinawa City to Jaguru. People who have been to the dojo know how steep the hills are. Going down is very easy, but after training, going up those hills is terrible. I was doing this three times a week to that dojo, and two times to the other dojo, so about five times a week. I was training twice a day, once in the morning at the Moromi Dojo. Moromi is the name of the area in Okinawa City, and Sensei called the dojo Moromi Dojo.

Opposite the dojo was an old, abandoned house or hut. After my first visit, Sensei gave me a place to stay, free of charge.

One day, after saving money by not eating out or taking the bus, I extended my training from one week to five or six weeks. I asked my wife to send me some money so I could stay longer. The training was really hard. After a couple of weeks, Sensei came to me and said, "Hey, I found your emails, faxes, and telegrams that you were coming." His secretary had found them under a pile of other letters. He apologized, and I said it was okay. Then, he said, "I've got good news for you. I have an apartment for you."

He put me in an apartment in Okinawa City, at the top of the mountains. His job was in real estate, buying and selling buildings. He had bought this older building and hadn't sold it yet. It was a big apartment. It had a big veranda, a rooftop, a kitchen, a sleeping room, and a shower. He just told me I could come and stay there and that I didn't need to stay in a hotel. This allowed me to stay a little longer. I didn't know what the rent was, so I asked Sensei. He said, "Oh, we'll speak about it later."

Every day, I went down and up the stairs to go to the dojo and back to my room. One day, as I was going down, I noticed something different. I realized something was wrong. I went back up the stairs and came down again, and I felt my kneecap was gone. I remembered this early in the morning and went back to the dojo and told Sensei, "Sensei, today my kneecap is gone." He just said, "I told you, just train." I still tell my students this story today.

Anyway, I was staying in this apartment and training. Then, on the second or third trip, the second dojo was in Moromi, which was also his office. Opposite that office, he used to have an old hut. He had sold the other building, so this hut was now his main office.

He said I could stay and sleep there. It was a terrible experience for me. I was sleeping on the tatami mats. In the wintertime, it was really cold. The shower was outside, and the tap was ice cold sometimes. In the morning, I had to go there and wash. It was just inside the building, but still outside. I could cook there and everything, as there was a store nearby. I didn't know I needed a sleeping bag or anything.

The first time I stayed in the apartment, there was no mattress, only tatami. I used two or three old karate gis, rolling one up to use as a pillow and using another to cover myself from the cold. My legs were all free. The next day, I would wash the old karate gi to dry and then wear it again to sleep. No blanket, no bed sheet, nothing, just the floor.

In the second room, when you slept, you'd suddenly see cockroaches going all over you. This kind of experience was really hard. Early in the morning, I would train. At night, you couldn't sleep. There were a lot of dogs fighting, and the American base was nearby. The Americans would get drunk and start fighting outside, hitting each other or fighting with the Okinawan people. You just had to hear all of it. You couldn't sleep with the dogs barking and cats shouting. But you just had to forget it. When you were tired, you slept.

Sensei used to tell the Americans who came down, like Jeff Nagata Sensei and Dan Smith Sensei, "Jamal lives a very hard life. He trains so much, he walks so much to the dojo, he sleeps in this kind of room, it's a hard life." Dan Smith Sensei once said, "Oh, if that's the case, I will also sleep there." So he came and slept one night, and the next day, Dan Smith Sensei ran away to the American army camp. Nagata Sensei heard about this and said, "I also want to do that." So Nagata Sensei came and slept. He couldn't sleep because of the cockroaches running around. At 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning, I'd smell food. I thought I was dreaming, but it wasn't a dream. Nagata Sensei couldn't sleep because of the cockroaches, so he was already making soup and breakfast. Later he'd say, "Hey, food is ready. Wake up." I found out later it was because of the cockroaches and all this stuff that he couldn't sleep.

People like Mari Sensei from Argentina also used to come and train, and Sensei would give them this apartment free of charge. My first trip, he gave me the apartment upstairs.

It was a wonderful time. Before leaving, Sensei would sometimes come in the evening to visit me and bring two ice creams. He'd say, "I was down here just now. You weren't here. I went for a jogging. Sit down, I brought you ice cream." We'd sit on the veranda, eating ice cream in the evening, talking about karate, the histories of his time, my time, Malaysia, other countries, India, all this stuff.

Anyway, when I wanted to leave, Sensei said he'd send me to the airport on my first visit. I said, "Sensei, I want to pay for this apartment, the rent." He said, "Oh, forget it. This is my apartment. You don't need to pay." Inside, I was thinking, "My God, why didn't you tell me this earlier? If you had told me earlier, I would have had some better food and other things." I had saved my money to pay, and now he didn't want any money. I gave him the money, but he didn't want to take it, even for the training. He believed that if somebody loves karate and wants to train, he isn't worried about money. He's not interested in money. Whether he likes you or not is the question. If he likes you and you're really interested in karate, he'll give out his own money, take you out for food and drinks. This is the generosity and character of this Sensei.

I haven't seen so many like him. Dragon Sensei is one of them, Kana Sensei is one of them. This Sensei was very strict, but his teaching was different than to Kai Sensei, but his character was totally different, and I liked his character.

Anyway, when I went to the airport, he brought me and we were standing down there. I said, "Sensei, I have a letter for you inside. Please open this and read it when you are in your office or when you go back home." He took it and put it inside his coat. Inside, I put some money, about $200 or $300, and a long letter in which I expressed my thankfulness. If I gave him money in person, he wouldn't take it. So I gave it to him and bowed. He gave me his hand and wished me all the best. I told him I would come back or invite him. He said okay. Maybe he thought I wouldn't come back or invite him.

Before leaving, he said one thing: "Whatever happens, I will back you up." I get goosebumps when I talk about this. He said that, and he does that till today.

It's a great honor.

I went back home and started teaching my students whatever I learned in those five or six weeks. All the kihon, all the zenkutsu, all the kihon kumite kata up to Gojushiho Dai, everything I trained in those weeks, I brought it back and taught to my students. In about four or five months, I was contacting Sensei every month and week, writing letters to him.

He started writing back! Before, he didn't write. I was informing him what was going on, and I told him I was going to invite him. He was surprised and said, "Really?" I said, "I'll be sending you the ticket soon." I can explain what happens next in the next episode.

Q: Okay. Thank you, Sensei, for this interesting clip and time with Sensei.

A: Yes.

These two apartments, one is the apartment which I was staying upstairs. Whenever people like Aoki Sensei from Canada go, Sensei used to tell him, "Hey, this is the apartment Jamal used to stay in." And he writes to me and tells me about it. That apartment is no longer there.

The other apartment, that is also no longer there. We call it the Moromi Hilton. Nagata Sensei and Dan Smith Sensei gave it that name. They used to ask me, "Hey, where are you staying?" And I used to say, "Moromi Hilton." They'd say, "Moromi Hilton? Where is that?" When they saw the hut, we used to laugh and still talk about Moromi Hilton. They used to come to pick me up, Dan Smith would rent a car in the morning, and one more lady, his student, they all used to come. They'd shout my name like cats, call me, and we used to have a nice time in those days. I won't forget those wonderful days in the Moromi Hilton.

When I say I used to stay in Moromi Hilton, people say, "What? Hilton? You must be very rich." But they wouldn't stay in that hotel.

Okay. Till the next time.

Thank you. Goodbye.