April trip to New York.

So this month was actually Mary’s turn to come to Iowa City but being between conferences she was not going to have time to prepare and travel to see me. So instead I headed out to New York to see her. We figured it would work out so she could see me and I could go explore Manhattan some more. I flew out on Thursday morning into JFK again. This time the trip was shorter than the last time I went so I packed less, managing the bags while going on the trains and ferry was allot nicer.

Mary picked me up at the ferry terminal around supper time. I wasn’t too tired so instead of just going back to her place I followed her out to the mall to get her taxes done. I wondered around the mall checking things out until she was done. We then got some pizza from a place call "Goodfellas" . This has been my favorite for a while. Mary being from Chicago is still partial to Chicago style. But I am slowly being won over to New York style pizza.

Friday Mary had a workshop to attend in Manhattan so I grabbed my skateboard and followed her into town and escorted her to where she needed to be. Since I was going to have to find a way to keep working out while getting ready to test I wanted a way to see the city and still get some exercise. So I figured the skateboard would be the way to do it. I have always felt that board sports and martial arts go hand in hand. There is no better way to cross train working on your balance and endurance than surfing, wakeboarding, snowboarding, or skateboarding.

Manhattan has a great bike path that starts near the ferry terminal and runs up the west side of the city. I have to say thanks to Raf and Laura for giving me a ride home the last time I was in town otherwise I probably would not have seen and known about this. Out of the 4 boardsports that I listed earlier skateboarding definitely not one that I do allot, so I did not feel comfortable skating in traffic like some of the locals I have seen. So I decided the bike path would be a great way to start skating the city. It took a little less than an hour to skate up to 18th street. I stopped along the way to take in some of the sites and take some pictures.


Just after dropping Mary off I walked by an area where they were getting ready for a Greek parade. I had a nice picture lined up but by the time I got the camera out the troop moved and I ended up behind them.


Skating thru Battery park past people dressed as the Statue of Liberty you can get a small glimpse of the real one


An overcast morning


a memorial to the Merchant Marines


At 18th street I got off the board and walked up to where the New York Aikikai was located.



Unfortunately there were no classes going on at that time so I was unable to pop in and watch one. But I picked up a brochure to get some more info on the school. The Aikikai has been around since the 60’s and is supposedly the second largest school compared to the Aikido headquarters in Tokyo. My plan was to head back towards Broadway since I have been becoming familiar with the area and I knew I would not get lost as long as I stayed near that street. On my way to Broadway I came across the International Martial Arts Center just a couple of blocks away.



The I.M.A.C is run by Grand Master Hahn who teaches Taekwondo, Aikido and Judo. When I stepped inside to get more information I notice the sign on the wall actually said Aikido/Hapkido. Unfortunately no one was in the office and there was not another class until later in the evening so I figured I would do some research on the internet and stop back in when a class was scheduled. Afterwards I found my way back to Broadway and hit up some of the local shops like the Strand bookstore and Forbidden Planet. About that time it was time to start heading down Broadway to meet up with Mary. After we met up the plan was to head up to 56th street to sit in on a Kendo class with the kenshin-kai Kendo club. We took the train up to where we needed to go. I had gotten the information off of the clubs website. Unfortunately what we found out was that the club had moved and the website was not updated. So after no one answering the door we decided we would walk down thru Times Square then hop on a train to the village for supper.



Times Square on a Friday night was packed. It was really hard trying to get thru the crowded sidewalks with a skateboard strapped to your back and a girlfriend who can easily drown in a sea of people from being in the crowds. We manage to fight our way to the train station which lucky for me is right next to the Quicksilver store. So Mary nicely took my board and bag, sat down to take a break so I could check out their rashguards and surfboards. While I was looking around I guess one of the sales clerks came up to Mary who saw she was holding a skateboard and was admiring my board. (since I had not ridden it much it still looked pretty new). I guess he was mumbling in a New York accent that Mary did not realize he was even talking to her until he started to spin one of the wheels on the board.

We then hopped on the train to head to St.Marks place to go to a restaurant called "Kenka"



according to the NFT book. (not for tourists) it was advertised as a local style Japanese restaurant that you should not expect to get sushi at. And boy were they right. I think it offered everything but sushi. You could of course get some shashimi but they did not offer dozens of different types of rolls like allot places do now. It did remind me of the local restaurants that you find at the train stations in Japan when I was there last. Only this time there was more english on the menu and I did not end up trying to eat broiled chicken skin on a stick. The food was really good. I had Oyakadon which is one of my favorites. One of the best things about this place was the service was fast and it was really really cheap. Both Mary and I ate + my 6 or 7 beers ( Iost count) for $30. Compared to allot of restaurants we have checked out that were actual sit down places, this was really cheap. We had gone to a place call "Sushi Samba" last year for $30 bucks I think that got you a salad and a glass of water. We headed home afterwards with a failed trip to Trader Joes.

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Mary had to do allot over the weekend getting ready for class and a conference in Buffalo. So even though the weather was pretty nice out we decided to just hang out around the apartment. Later on we went out for supper at a sushi place that we both liked not too far from Mary’s

Sunday we thought the weather was going to be nice but it turned out to be a little windy and cold. But we decided that we needed to get out of the apartment. For Christmas I had bought Mary a pair of roller skates, so we decided to head down to the boardwalk and do some skating. It was a little cold but still it was nice to get out and get some exercise.



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Monday I decided to head back into Manhattan to find a school to workout at. I decided to walk up Broadway again from the ferry terminal. It’s a nice walk to get up to 18th street, it takes you thru parts of the village and on the edge of Chinatown. I decided to head back to the International Martial Arts Center to see if I could possibly join their class and to see if they actually had a Hapkido class. When I arrived there I was greeted by Master Hahn. He was very nice and polite and it looked like he had a really nice school. Unfortunately he said that he could not accommodate me. He mainly taught his students Taekwondo and his advance students did Hapkido. For me to join his class would disrupt what he had planned for practice. I thanked him for his time and told him I totally understood. On his website he is listed as a 6th Dan in Aikido but does not list his Hapkido rank I was really curious to see what he taught.

My choices at that point was to go to the Aikikai and watch a class or go back to the World Martial Arts Center. I decided that I needed to workout more than watch a class, so I went back to WMAC and bought a day pass. I still had their school uniform that I received the last time I worked out there so I quickly changed and waited for their final class of the day to start. While I was waiting for the class ahead of me to end I was watching them do their techniques. The partners closest to me was doing armbars against attackers with a knife. Since I am not part of their family I was wearing a white belt. A 2nd Dan saw that I was waiting and turned to me in between a takedown and said " I see you watching, you won’t do this for a couple of years but it is a good idea to watch so you have an idea of what is to come" I really had to bite my tongue but I was respectful and just smiled and replied " yes, sir"

When my class started up I had a different instructor than the last time I worked out there. It was still a good class and the people are very friendly. This time we did not do any takedowns it was strictly punching and kicking drills with situps and situps with some more situps with a side of situps. It was definitely what I needed help get ready for testing. The last part of class we did forms. I learned what they call "tiger 1". I have never been a big fan of forms but I did enjoy doing this set more than the first couple of forms I learned when I tried Taekwondo. After the class I decided to walk back to the ferry station instead of take the subway to cool off. I was pretty tired by the time Mary picked me up at the station on the Staten Island side.

I am still on the fence about this school. It’s extremely clean, with friendly people and offers classes thru out the entire day. They have a trial month for $149 so I can only assume compared to some of the other schools that the price may jump up to $200 or more after the first month. I think it is going to depend on what type of job and schedule I may end up with if I move. If I get a job on Staten Island I’m not sure if I would make the trip into the city enough to make it worthwhile. Plus I still have would like to learn some Kendo if I get the chance.

On my next trip I am going to try out a jujutsu class that I found that is actually only a block away from Mary’s and a Gracie Jujitsu school that is a 5 min bus ride.

Tuesday I had to catch my plane back at JFK. Mary rode the trains with me to see me off. So now I am back hopefully will put the finishing touches on my preparation for my test. :)


Pan hiding between my bag and board while I was packing up to leave.