Shotokan Karate for Adults and Kids in San Bruno near San Francisco
Welcome to JKA NorCal Shotokan Karate!
We are a traditional Shotokan Karate club affiliated with the Japan Karate Association American Federation. To find out more about the karate club, go to the about us page. We have kids & adult karate classes six days a week, at our Dojo in San Bruno, about 20 minutes south of San Francisco. If you’d like to train with us, please see our schedule and contact us to find out more.
Hello JKA NorCal family and friends – For those we have not seen (in person or virtually), hope you are all keeping well and staying healthy. For those who have hung in there with us since the shut down, training on Zoom, at the various park locations outdoors, “good on you, congratulations! Thank you for persevering!”
THROUGH ADVERSITY, WE BUILD STRENGTH! And we COUNT ALL OUR BLESSINGS …Grateful that we are healthy and still training AND getting to know each other much better (locally and internationally). We are now only a zoom session away from any training worldwide, with our broader JKA family! Closer to home, as we emerge from the many lockdowns and uncertainty, it was the right stimulus for us to look for a permanent solution — so we can get back together and train. We have outgrown PrimeTime (physically and spiritually)…
On Friday, October 1, 2021 we held our dojo soft opening at our new space/location. Thank you to all who helped prepare the dojo for this and to everyone who came to launch this very momentous next step for JKA NorCal. We are so very excited to share the experience and growth of our dojo. It is a beautiful space with so much potential. As you can see, we are still setting up, but plan on having an auspicious GRAND OPENING at a later date when we will invite some of our karate friends and seniors over to formally celebrate the event (pending COVID restrictions) – date TBA.
In the meantime through the end of October while we continue to fix up the space, we will be retaining our restricted schedule of 2 daily classes Mon-Fri (Kids 5-6pm; Adults: 6-7pm) at our new space, and Saturdays by the Bay (Seal Point Park 8:45-10:15am) – training indoors with mask out of precaution for our younger students who are not yet vaccinated. We are also looking into “live-streaming” our classes for those who are yet not comfortable to train indoors.
Stay tuned
A Dedication to Omine Okinawa Karate Kobudo Dojo:
Thank you for the beautiful dojo, we commit to keep the spirit going, with fortitude and hard work!
JKA NorCal
Sensei Wauriman found a scroll with calligraphy embedded deep behind the artwork shelves while cleaning the Tatami/Meditation room.
HISTORY OF THIS DOJO LOCATION: Omine Sensei was from Okinawa. In 1973 he immigrated to USA to teach shorin-ryu karate and opened up a dojo with one of his students Susan Borgr (a Nidan at the time). When Sensei Omine died in 1975, Sensei Susan assumed the dojo until 2009. Sensei Pat Mcgale grew up in Okinawa to a Japanese mother and an American father, a sensei in Okinawan JuJitsu who taught until age 90 (and is living in Okinawa today). Sensei Pat has been martial artist since the age of 5. Upon moving to the USA, Sensei Susan often had him teach as a guest instructor, increasingly more so after she fell ill. Upon her passing in 2009, Sensei Pat inherited Omine dojo until it was forced to close its doors early into the pandemic.
An update: Sensei Pat stopped by the dojo last week and was pleased to see JKA NorCal at the dojo — in the same spirit and tradition. Perhaps we will have a chance to get to know him as well.
Other acknowledgements
As we continue to put up finishing touches around the dojo, we finally have a place to put up the BEAUTIFUL CALLIGRAPHY penned by Emily Montgomery-Brown’s neighbor. We thank her!Our beloved GRUNDY PARK which has been JKA NorCal’s “pseudo dojo” for the past year and a half — we are so grateful for the opportunity to train and enjoy the lovely outdoors
And of course 🌊 SATURDAY’S BY THE BAY🥋 training with Senpai John and Senpai Harry at Seal Point Park, San Mateo … We are blessed with the beautiful hinterlands afforded to us in the Bay Area. So we will continue our Saturday rigor training at this venue.
Thank you for your donation in time, materials and funds. ❤ So far (as of 10/11), we have raised $4,550 in funds … we will be using it for Rent Deposit and retrofitting the Dojo space.
November 1st … We Will Start Our New Schedule and Pricing!
We hope that this will get us back to a rigor and the discipline we need to grow at our dojo 👊.
SCHEDULE: We’ve put a lot of thought to the new schedule which offers some flexibility for all of you to plan what fits your routine and which classes to take. You may want to discuss with Sensei Wauriman “a development plan” for you/your child and what is needed for the next belt promotion.
ATTENDANCE: Therefore, we will start to track attendance which will provide the data to determine qualification for promotion.
WAIVER/INDEMNITY FORM: All students will need to sign and turn in as part of our “start up” in this new location. Appreciate your cooperation as we need all new paperwork. Will try to explore some online solutions to make it less painful for everyone.
PRICING: As expected, in our new setup/location, our dojo fees will need to be adjusted to sustain our dojo/school. We have put a lot of thought into it, recognizing the support from you our “founding members” and part of our karate family. While our new rates go into effect November 1, 2021 for any new and reactivated members, we will NOT be raising rates for active (as of Oct) members until January 1, 2022. Everyone will be on New Pricing next year. Our new rates go into effect November 1, 2021 for any new members and people who reactivate after October. Please feel free to ask Sensei Christina if you need more clarification.
We are grateful to have this new beginning for our dojo and share this experience with you, our karate family. We may not get it all right now, but let’s iterate and aspire for better day by day. Help us, let us know how we can do better.
Sensei Wauriman & Sensei Christina, Senpais John, Mathew & Harry
Senseis Christina and Wauriman, John, Harry and I have been meeting over the past month to discuss how JKA NorCal could start returning to regular indoor classes. Even though we all very much want this to happen soon, given the fluidity of current County and State Covid requirements for a high contact activity such as Karate, we cannot come up with a definitive timeline yet. However, we do have some developments to share:
First, though, I would like to thank Sensei Wauriman for continuing classes and finding places to train outdoors and ways to teach remotely during the Covid pandemic; and to thank parents and students for continuing to train and support the dojo and Sensei Wauriman through these difficulties.
photo by Francis Dick
The past year has given us all perspective on the twelve (!) years since the club was founded, and also highlights some possibilities for the future. This dojo was started because we wanted to create a dojo that respected and supported the needs and goals of parents, students and sensei, and involved all of them in major decisions.
In keeping with the spirit of this dojo, we are proposing a meeting at the next belt test to discuss ideas and plans for the future of the club. Because of the restrictions on group gatherings, we will set up a zoom meeting: Sensei Wauriman and Sensei Christina will share more information on the slack channel. If you don’t have access to the slack channel, please contact Sensei Christina.
Osu! and Thank You!
Here are some of the photos posted to the slack channel over the past year (click on any thumbnail to see the large image):
We are not currently training at Primetime due to state and county Covid restrictions to group activities. However, we have been hosting training both in zoom, and very limited outdoor physically distanced classes. We look forward to resuming classes when it is safe to do so and wish you health and wellness in this difficult time. Osu!
A HUGE thank you to all the Judges, Volunteers and Competitors who made this tournament a success. This was the first time JKA NorCal hosted Nationals. There were over 210 competitors from 26 dojos in 63 events. Congratulations to all.
