Heihachiro Takarabe

Hei was born in 1938 in Japan. He was raised in Manchuria, and after the end of World War II, at 8 years old Hei came back to Kagoshima, Japan, in 1946 as a refugee with his family.

In 1957, when Hei was 19, he came to the USA to attend Pasadena City College. He was able to transfer to UCLA in 1961, graduated in Chemistry. He then attended San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, California and graduated in 1967.

Hei was called by Parkview Presbyterian Church in Sacramento, California and worked for 17 years there. Then he was called by El Estero Presbyterian Church in Monterey, California, and worked there for 21 years. Hei retired at the end of 2003. In the same year his wife of 37 years, Gloria Ishida Takarabe, died of Pancreatic Cancer.

Hei has been practicing Tai Chi for the past 26 years. It was at a ministers retreat at Asilomar, CA, in November of 1985, when his friend, Harry Chuck (then the director of Cameron House, San Francisco) showed him the first few forms of Tai Chi. He immediately knew that this was what he really liked to learn. The next time Hei saw Harry was one year later at the same place. He decided that he couldn�t wait another year to learn more forms and since he was a minister who really couldn�t find any consistent time to practice from a teacher, he decided to learn from a book.

Hei found a book, �Thai Chi: Ten minutes to Health� by Master Chia Siew Pang of Singapore. It was about Yang 44 form, and it took him about 6 months to learn. Hei really enjoyed the process of learning and the satisfaction of being able to do it all the way through from memory. As he practiced every day early in the morning, he experienced alertness, warmth, and a noticeable increase in his energy level.

However, Hei knew that he needed to find a teacher who would really teach him the �correct� Tai Chi. Book learning wasn�t enough. He felt that he needed to learn more about the transition from one form to another and host of other things.

It was in June of 2004, after the death of his wife, that he heard about Dr. Paul Lam of Sydney, Australia, who was leading a 7 day workshop at Asilomar, CA. He really didn�t know who Paul Lam was, but with fear and trembling he signed up to learn the Sun 73 form. It was one of the best decisions of his life. He realizes now that 18 years after he was first introduced Tai Chi, he found a Master Teacher at the same location. Hei also met Master Trainer, Dr. Stephanie Taylor, and ever since then, has helped him with his tai chi.

Hei has attended Dr. Lam�s June Workshop every year since then. He has learnt Sun 73 (which has has taken for 3 consecutive years), Yang 24, Combined Form 42, Yang 40, and Chen 36. He is also Certified for �Tai Chi for Diabetes (TCD),� �Seated Tai Chi for Arthritis,� and �Tai Chi for Arthritis Fall Prevention� in 2011. He has also been certified for �Exploring the Depth of TCA�, in Monterey in 2007 and in 2011 and practises Tai Chi from 1 to 2 hours a day. At this moment, Hei is particularly enjoying TCA because it is giving him an edge to grow in Chi.

He is currently teaching TCA at the Seaside Community Center (Oldemyer Center) to seniors (about 18) on Tuesdays and Thursdays and is enjoying this experience very much.