 Welcome to the show. This is where we talk about the plan based diet and anything vegan today. I'm actually having my first guest from my beloved Japan from a city north of Japan called Sendai. My guest today is my dear friend, Laina Takahashi. Hi Laina. Welcome to the show. Hi Laina. Thank you for having me. My pleasure. It's a very exciting for me to have someone from gorgeous Sendai, a place where I lived for 30 years and you have been there for how long Laina? 17 years. Wow. Isn't that strange that I only met you like literally a week before I was leaving Sendai to come and move to Hawaii. Having been in the same city and just not ever crossing paths. So very interesting. I know I was thinking about the same, but I'm glad that I could catch it before you left. Yes, me too. Laina, so happy to have you on the show. I'm very excited to tell people about what you do. You are living in Sendai and you are actually a lakey master and co-founder of Healing Land Lakey. Reiki, yes. Reiki. So you were co-founding this with your husband? Yes, yes. Awesome. So a lot of people, including myself, don't know much about Reiki. So I would love for you first of all to introduce yourself and then we'll talk a little bit about basically what Reiki is. So tell us about yourself, Laina. Yeah, I originally born in Ukraine and I live in Japan pretty much half of my life. So I'm not native speaker, so pardon in case I make some small mistakes. So I speak Russian, Ukrainian, Japanese, English and four years ago I came into Reiki and that's what I do for now. Really happy to share Reiki with the world. Awesome. So people are probably wondering why you are on my show when I just mentioned about the plant-based diet and veganism. But basically I think when you start taking charge of your health and in particular when you go on a plant-based diet, which is what I promote and which is what I think is one of the healthiest diets out there, you start kind of wanting or searching for other things that can help with your well-being, your overall health and well-being. So this is why I've asked you to come on the show to share with us the secrets to Reiki, which seems to be really helping people with their overall health and well-being. So by the way, you only speak four languages? So far, yes. That's amazing and for anyone who wants to know, Laina is very fluent in Japanese. So you also conduct your Reiki classes in Japanese and English. Yes. I guess we'll get into that more later on. Laina, tell us about Reiki, what it is and how it works for people. Okay, Reiki is a Japanese method for stress reduction that promotes healing on all levels. So basically it's a good for heart, body and mind. And it's a great life management tool that can be applied for any life situation. That's how short I can put it. No, that's fantastic. That's very, yeah. In a nutshell, you just pretty much explained it very clearly. I found when I was looking into Reiki to prep for this show with you, I did come across a few things I would like to mention, if you don't mind. First of all, where the word Reiki comes from, the Japanese or Chinese characters, Rei, which means God's wisdom or the higher power, and Ki, which a lot of people are familiar with, Ki is the life force energy. So it makes a lot of sense. According to Wikipedia, I'm going to quote Wikipedia. They say that Reiki is a form of alternative medicine called energy healing. Reiki practitioners use a technique called palm healing or hands-on healing through which a universal energy is said to be transferred through the palms of the practitioner to the patient in order to encourage emotional or physical healing. Yes, exactly. Very interesting. Let me put some disclaimer to it that whatever we will be talking now on, we're not trying to substitute medical treatments. Everything is going in support for whatever treatments or therapy person having. So it's a great tool to combine with anything you do to enhance your benefits with the main treatments or medical treatments. So yeah, that's what I wanted to add. Thank you, Laina, for adding that. That's very important to know. How did you come across Reiki and how long have you been practicing Reiki and when did you become a Reiki master? Yes, we are now going through the major shift, like energetic shift in the world. And I think it hit me like five or six years ago and I started to think that maybe there's something I need to change within myself. And due to some things that I needed to change myself, first was diet. I started to actually go into vegan diet and learning about what is, you know, how to eat vegan and all kinds of things. And maybe like a couple of years afterwards, that's when I went to India and after my trip, I came back really like not feeling myself. And when I would go to the hospital, they would say, well, there's nothing wrong with you. But I really feel like I'm like covered with something and I'm not present here. I don't know where I was. So, and my friend recommended me to have like Reiki session and I made an appointment and Lady came and had one hour session with me. And I was just amazed the way, you know, it worked for me. It's kind of brought me back. It's, I started to feel a lot of like ideas and a lot of guidance of what I would want to do in the future. And, you know, it's kind of like had everything like for me just like right after one session. And then I started to have every month or once or twice Reiki just treatments for myself. And what I started to learn about Reiki is that there's, you don't need to have a special ability to do Reiki for others. So that's how I, I was like, oh, really? So I just need to join the class and have my training and I can do the same. So, and that's how I got into Reiki. Awesome. Once you find your passion in life, you have nowhere to go, but forward with it and to share. And so what you're doing is amazing. And I wish you all the luck there on your new journey. Thank you. You actually worked for a Japanese company, which I'm not going to get into, but so you made a huge change in your life recently. And as we just spoke of you, you are now a Reiki master there in Sendai, Japan. Yes. We're going to take a look at some of the photos that you have for us and go through a little bit of your journey here. So it all started off with the first photo. Oh my God. You look gorgeous in the kimono. How many years ago was this taken? Yeah. You can see it's 2004. It's something like 16 years ago. Okay. I was going to Japanese wedding. So just as an attendant, yeah. Awesome. Yes. Because you did mention that you are originally from the Ukraine. Yes. You've gone very far away from your roots and have found a beautiful life in Japan. I know how wonderful it is to live in Japan. And the 30 years I was there really just unforgettable and very grateful to have spent that time there. Let's look at the next one, Lena. Okay. Now this, I'm guessing, well, it's obvious that this is one of the, this is the technique that you use, the healing or hands on healing. Yes. Yes. This is just to show people briefly like how it can be done. Usually you would be just laying on the table and just relaxing and reiki practitioner would place their hands or hover, you know, however you're comfortable. And it's promotes whatever you need for that moment. So you can also be sitting like this and just have a quick reiki, like to recharge you. We usually do it often to, you know, when you're just busy during the day or you just suddenly, you're just stressing out and just like, okay, for five minutes, let me just pause and you can do it for yourself. Once you've gone through some basic classes or you can have, you know, somebody do it for you. Okay. That's why I put this picture. Yeah. That's interesting. That actually was one of my questions, whether you can actually do leiki alone. Yes. Yes. Yeah. One of the things that I also like was drawn to eat because like usually you have to have somebody to have like any, like therapy or something, but with Reiki, you also can have your like self healing. You can just like place your hands, whatever you feel tension or pain. And then Reiki start to flow and will make you relax or whatever you need at that moment. So that's a great to have, not just for others is like really like mainly is for you first. Absolutely. Awesome. Let's take a look at the next photo. Okay. These are the important people in the leiki world. Yes. Yes. So to answer your question, how long I've been Reiki master is like I first trained with my yoga teacher who is like half Japanese half Hawaiian. He was in Tokyo. So I started my training with him. And then as I was going through my training, I made this two wonderful people. This is William Rand and Colleen Binelli. And they were going to Kyoto, Mount Krama, Mount Krama is the first place of Reiki. And they were just going to make some like videos or just to visit place. And that was the time when I met them. And they got idea that, hey, why don't we have, you know, Reiki class on Mount Krama. So I were asked to help to organize the class. And yeah, the picture underneath is the, the real colleagues, some Japanese style in that we have our training and it's on the mountains. So yeah, I got my like level up training with William Rand and Colleen Binelli. So I had so far like few teachers and continuously like expanding my knowledge about Reiki. That's excellent. And I'm looking at this next photo here with a little four legged friend. This is your gorgeous cat. How adorable. She's helping promote your leiki classes in Japan. Yes. Leina, we actually have just a minute before our break. Okay. Then when we get back after the break, I do want to talk about how people can get in contact with you. How we can come to your classes and get into more details about reaching out to you and finding a way to do some Reiki with you. Okay. Thank you. Do stay tuned. We're going for a quick break and we'll be back right after with more of Billions Vegan World. Aloha. I'm Keisha King, host of Crossroads in Learning on Think Tech Hawaii. On Crossroads in Learning, our guests and I discuss all aspects of education here in Hawaii and throughout the country. You can join us for stimulating conversations to enrich and liven and educate. We are streamed live on Think Tech bi-weekly at 4 p.m. on Mondays. Thanks so much for watching our show. We look forward to seeing you then. Aloha. Hi. I am Yukari Kunisue, host of Konnichiwa Hawaii, Think Tech Hawaii's Japanese program. Broadcasting every Monday from 2 p.m. I usually invite a guest in Japanese language community who does interesting things and I'd like to share stories with you guys. Please tune in and listen to Konnichiwa Hawaii. Aloha and welcome back to Lilions Vegan World where we talk about the plant-based diet and anything vegan. I'm so excited to have my guest, Lena Takahashi from Sendai, Japan. She's the co-founder of Healing Land Reiki. Welcome back again, Lena. So lovely to have you on and learn about this awesome Reiki that is obviously fantastic for you and more people should definitely delve into it. Thank you. Happy to have you. Thank you. Lena, tonight actually here in my pleasure, tonight here in Honolulu, I am going to be part of a vegan festival tonight at the Good Vibe Center from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. There's going to be four or five vegan vendors selling lots of awesome plant-based food, food games, raffles, massage, haircuts, lots of fun and games to be had. So anyone who is in the area, in the downtown sort of area, do stop by. I think it's going to be a really great night and I would love to meet some of you and have you taste some awesome plant-based food. So that's what I'm doing. Back to you, Lena and Reiki. How does someone get in touch with you if they want to learn more about it and attend one of your classes? Okay. You need to go to healinglandreiki.com. That's our website. So you can get class schedules or you can have contact information below. So you can either give me a call or you can send me an email in case the dates that's on the classes we have on the website is not convenient for you. You can also organize with me private training. Private training can be in northern Japan, Miyagi Prefecture, Sendai City, or if you would like to have, let's say, one-on-one training on Mount Krama, which is Kyoto, we can also arrange classes in different locations in Japan. I was going to ask, can you work with someone who is not living in Japan? Yes. So for the classes, you have to come to Japan or attend any classes in the world that we may have. We don't do classes online, but what you can have is Reiki also, you can also have Reiki Session being in your home. So it's called Distance Reiki Session. So right now we have a subscription plan that you can have to Reiki Session for very affordable price. You can also check that on our website on the Session section. And yeah, you can get your appointment with me or it shouldn't be subscription, you can just get one session and see how it feels for you over the distance or of course in person appointment available too. Great. Well, another excuse to go and visit Japan if you're watching the show. You're not there. This is a great opportunity and maybe get a Reiki Session in with you at the same time. Yes, definitely. A lot of information about Reiki online, Lena has come to these eight things that I'm seeing on most website about what Reiki is believed to be able to do. If you don't mind, I'd like to read something. I think it makes it very clear that Reiki is absolutely something you should consider bringing into your lifestyle. So Reiki is believed to be able to promote deep relaxation, relieve stress and anxiety, promote pain relief, ease muscle tension, give peace of mind and body, increase rate of recovery from injury, energize and balance the whole body and strengthen the immune system. Yes, yes, yes. I'm pretty full on and yeah, if it can help with all of those things then definitely something to think about. Practicing. Yes. First, what people can do is go with their beginning level. We teach Reiki level one and two. You need two full days to attend the class or you can also split to have only Reiki level one or after that when you feel guided to go to the level two but if you have time and you feel guided go and just have two days of class and it will give you great foundation to use Reiki in your life as a life management tool and after you feel guided to go further maybe after six months when you get used to the energy when you practice on yourself or your family then if you want to go further then you can go for three days class to be a Reiki master. Wow, interesting. Yes. When you practice on Reiki, do you and your husband do it or do you go and see your master or your mentor or someone that you work with? How do you do it out of curiosity? Yeah, I work on myself always pretty much just use Reiki everywhere and when I really want this human touch I would say I ask my husband to give me full Reiki session but sometimes when it's our family sometimes we're like, no, I think for this one I want to go to my Reiki master so I would have a Reiki session with my teacher and the mistake that I had when I had my own training I was like, okay, now I don't need to see a Reiki practitioner I can do it on my own but once you move further on your healing journey or whatever you are in your life you sometimes need to have someone who would look at your energy field who would kind of give you a opinion from the outside so I pretty much continuously doing the sessions with someone done for me. That's awesome, Lena. I wish that people do contact you especially the people that are nearby because when I first met you I felt a really strong energy from you I must say and I'm very aware of the energy around me I always have been and I can tell when I'm either going to be comfortable with the person I'm just meeting or it's just not going to work for me but I remember the first time that I met you we were having lunch with some girls and you asked me if I had a pain on the right side of my back and I had been suffering for months with this pinched nerve that was running up the right hand side of my back just right up the spine to my neck so I thought that was very interesting yes, very observant of you so I do hope that people contact you and definitely try it out something new Lena, when you are talking about energy and energy that just makes you feel good do you, for example after a Reiki session do you think about what you eat? Yes, of course it's important what you eat and like where you go for example if possible I advise people just to go to the quiet place like try not to go to the party or in Japan we have izakaya some type of Japanese style bar and have drinks with their friends and eating everything of course you still need some because Reiki not just working during the sessions once you leave it's continuing working on you so of course you need to have some light food if possible drink more warm water and not to feel too heavy because each person reacts to the session differently so they may have or they may sometimes just keep the meal and just go to sleep and rest but ever they feel their body need for them Good advice, excellent advice here's something that might interest people here so I love tea I'm actually not a coffee drinker I drink a lot of tea and obviously I'm vegan but after I meditate or I do meditate and I do power yoga and I am that what you said resonates with me because I also like to be quiet and put something nice into my body a nice hot cup of tea or something like that I'm actually the only chef here not only in Honolulu or Oahu in the whole of Hawaii that does seven course full seven course vegan menus so this is my latest one that I'm doing once a month I'm going to show you a picture here of my high tea this is a seven course high tea this is only the first three courses oh my god this is so beautiful yeah that's the three courses and then there's four more courses after that here are some there's a full tea selection the tea's excellent there's about 30 different teas that I provide and everybody chooses their own tea throughout the three hour dining experience everything is homemade the pastries, the bread the cheese, everything and here's another closer look I'll show you another photo or maybe that was the last one so the other photo I think was yeah okay back to that one thank you Melissa so that's my seven courses I do once a month and all of my information is on my website liliandvegan.com my social media, youtube liliandvegan and facebook all liliandvegan you can find out more information see what I'm getting up to on the island so Lena we are getting close to closing time as we before we say goodbye to the viewers I would love for you to give a final message before we close the show okay thank you for having me here and if you're interested in learning Reiki we have upcoming group class on Mount Krama which will be in the end of April and also when you stay on Mount Krama they'll come the Japanese in there will be able to provide food for according to your needs it can be vegan and whatever gluten free whatever you need can be provided and liliand you know it's difficult in Japan to be providing that kind of services but I'm also working on having that to be arranged for our students awesome that's great well thank you Lena for joining us and pleasure talking to you good luck with everything and I hope that people do contact you thank you everyone for watching another episode of liliand's vegan world see you in 2 weeks time for more vegan fun Aloha