Dojo in the Woods - Paul Yanuziello

Dojo in the Woods by Paul Yanuziello

Chapter 1 Meet Miko

As a young cub, Miko was always getting into trouble. Miko was a black bear but he thought he was a grizzly bear just like his uncle Akira. His uncle was one of the biggest, toughest and smartest bears around. At least that’s what Miko thought.

Chapter 2 Miko Sensei

When I first met Miko I was very young, I had been training with my friend and cousin, Adrian. He was a great martial artist, already very skilled and at such a young age. Adrian was only a few years older than me, but he had trained with some of the best martial artists. When Adrian realized that I was serious about the training he told me he wanted to bring me to meet his new sensei. Sensei means teacher. His new sensei was Miko sensei and I will never forget that first meeting.

Chapter 3 The Dojo

The dojo or training place was deep in the woods. Adrian and I lived close to the river. We did not get to the woods too often and it took us quite some time to get there. We had to go over a small hill, very rugged, I thought of it more as a mountain and I mentioned this to my travelling partner.

Adrian assured me it was just a hill.

“Ok, yes. A small hill that never seems to stop going up,” I thought.

I really admired Adrian, I thought he was in great shape. This small hill on the way to the dojo in the woods was going to kill me. Travelling to the dojo in the woods almost required that you needed to be a skilled martial artist just to get there.