We ran our first Summer Camp at the Sellersville location last week, during the first full week of summer. This was Shuto Karate’s first camp since 2015, which was two dojo locations ago, back at “Candyland” (actually a candy distribution warehouse) in Hatfield.

Surprising probably no one, I would rate our first Sellersville camp to have been a big success. We had almost all of our children there, and they both trained hard and seriously, and had a lot of fun and played together very well. It was a real pleasure for all.

Big thanks to Sue Pirello, without whose help in planning, preparation, and implementation it simply could not have happened. Thanks also to Stefano, my afternoon helper and “hired thug” for the self-protection sessions. And domo arigatoh to my wife Nobuko for leading the kendo sessions and the origami making on Friday, and my daughter Saya for her assistance during origami, and photo-taking of the kendo lessons.

Here’s the list of the things we did: karate classes in “the basics” and kata, sweaty games and lunch in Lake Lenape park, free time for playing games together on their own, a series of lessons in self-protection, Japanese language learning & games, crafts, “Japanese snack challenge,” and the aforementioned kendo lessons. Am I forgetting something? Probably…

Out of all those activities, I believe that the children’s favorite was…playing 4-square during the free time.

Which is perfectly fine by me. Although they may not be aware of it, the children definitely sharpened their budo (martial arts) skills during the week.

やった ! *

(* Yatta, i.e., “We did it.”)