Toyakan Higashi Karate Club

Both of my children attend karate lessons here and they are super excited and happy. Steve is the best sensei, he's born to work with kids!

My 4 year old son loves the karate classes. I can get him to do anything if it follows by the karate class. Sensei Steve doesn't just teach the karate moves, he trains the kids to be disciplined and hard-working in a very kind manner. These classes are just perfect for kids.

Great dojo. Everyone is friendly, welcoming and willing to teach, no matter your skill level. Highly recommend!

My 4yo Son has been attending karate lessons for the past month and I am so happy with his progress. After trying other local karate schools we have found Toyakan the best. They are so welcoming and really supportive to the little ones. We couldn’t be happier.

I love this place, very authentic. And my son really loves it. Everyone is very helpful and the teachers fun, and firm with safety:)

I heard about this from a friend and thought it might be good for my daughter (10). We went for the advertised FREE trial just before they broke up for the holidays in December. My daughter was there for 1 lesson which was given by a young girl no older than 16 I’m guessing. Then in January I start getting texts saying my automatic payment hasn’t gone through of $45 then $66 then $88. Bear in mind my daughter still had only attended 1 intro lesson conducted by a child. When I called Paul the owner to question this I was told it must be either an error on my part with details given or with the bank. When I questioned the extra charges I was told that’s not his fault. And when I questioned the fact that she hasn’t even been there since the initial FREE trial again I was told that’s not his fault and that the business has been open. I instantly instructed him we wouldn’t be returning to which I was told. No problem but you will still have to pay the outstanding and a 30 day cancellation notice period. WOW! I ask for final invoice to rid myself of any connection to this business and could not believe the balance. $155.76. I have paid this in full but feel I should warn anyone else considering dealing with business to be aware. Paul was very nice and polite initially but quick to be argumentative when questioned.

We are very impressed with the way these Senseis cater to different age groups, personalities and ability levels. We have one super outgoing 8 year old who couldn’t get onto the mats of the dojo fast enough, needs focus and calming and one super shy 4 year old that cried, not wanting to go onto the mats, needed motivation and was holding back doing the moves. They both fell in love with the sport, advanced quickly, are growing in confidence, still loving the sport, the dojo and all the amazing leaders. Highly recommend!

My daughter and I have been attending Toyakan over 3 years now and have enjoyed every experience and professionalism. Very traditional karate, fun, friendly family atmosphere. Totally recommended

Very professional but fun karate club.
Hubby and my daughter have been attending for 3 years now and have loved every moment of it. My daughter has grown confidence and made many life long friends over the past 3 year.
Highly recommended

Our son Josiah loves this place and is growing all the time
he's made some nice friends
and everyone is so encouraging
love watching him grow

We have been coming to this club for the year and our boys love it. Instructors are professional and fun. Grading is our kids favourite experience. They’ve grown so much in their ability and confidence. Thank you!

After a long hiatus in my personal karate experience, its good to step back in a studio with great sensei who have a sense of humor and the discipline to keep us training.

Great club for any beginners (boys and girls), they have been very attentive with my son, he loves it and we would highly recommend them!

Just started with myself and two daughters (8 and 11). The club has been really great. Excellent instruction. Good class times and terrific knowledge and skill shown by the instructors.

These guys have been fantastic with my little man who is 5 and new to karate and to group settings his growing confidence and his love for karate by the day. Glad i made the choice to start him at toyakan. Paul and the crew are great with the kids.

Everything we were promised has played out. My daughter is more focussed, has more self confidence, is fitter and has become part of the Toyakan family. Well paced training and learning in a good environment. Thanks for everything so far.

A wonderful club. Kancho Paul is a great leader. Each Sensei (many of whom trained in-house) is fantastic with the young students. There's plenty of fun and learning every lesson. My son is now in the more serious level and he is loving it; building a strong sense of commitment, perseverance and resilience. My daughter has been observing, and can't wait until she starts.

Our kids were introduced to karate by watching the original Karate Kid movies and wanting to learn for themselves.

We were looking for a more traditional (not super westernized) dojo and found Toyakan to fit our expectations by what we read online, so we decided to give their trial a go. Both of our kids loved it! We have one very outgoing 7yo boy who went right for it, no shyness, no fear, just straight GO! We also have a very shy and mommy needing 4 yo girl who cried the first time she stepped on the mats (maybe also the second and third time) but the senseis were incredible at trying to calm her, talk to her, give her time and trying different approaches. They were unbelievably accommodating. We have since finished our two week trial and have joined the school with two very excited kids (yes, she eventually stopped crying and is very much looking forward to her two classes a week).
We look forward to our journey with the toyakan family.

Our girls really enjoy the class, learning something new every lesson.
The Sensei's are very helpful and we would highly recommend to anyone wanting to learn Karate to come here.

We’d previously been to Taekwando which my son really enjoyed had a lot of fun at but the classes were a bit late and went for an hour and he got tired being only five. So we tried Toyakan Karate, and for whatever reason on our first trial evening, my son kind of froze.new environment, heaps of people, noisy. The lady who was teaching him was lovely and patient but instead of getting him to stand aside and observe the owner, Paul, came over and decided it would be a good idea to try and teach him one on one, no problem, son still didn’t want to participate so Paul grabs him by the arm to take him off the mat and seems surprised when my son objects to being dragged by resisting and pulling away. Paul seems flustered comes over and loudly asks ‘is he on the spectrum? ’ Meaning ‘autistic’. No mate. He just doesn’t like you. First of all, dont grab a kid by the arm that you don’t know from a bar of soap, Second don’t make assumptions and loudly query in front of every other parent just cos a kid isn’t behaving how you’d like him to on his very first night there. And third, if he did happen to be on he spectrum, you have an absolutely horrible way of dealing with things. The other thing that I found unpleasant was, they had an offer on their website which theyd forgotten to take down and weren’t prepared to honour. Went along anyway and took two friends and their kids, the introductory offer was five sessions for x amount of dollars and a free uniform. Didn’t clarify when I’d initially phoned that the five sessions had to be used in a two week period, the uniform was only free when you’d completed the five sessions and signed up for a subscription to continue on, they’d quoted me something like $15 per session on then phone ongoing then I got there and they said oh only if you were doing more than two sessions per week at that rate.just weird about money and membership the whole way through no clarity or proper disclosure. Anyways one of my friends continued on with them with her son for a while. He missed a month or so due to illness but still received automated emails saying things along the lines of ‘we’ve been watching how well you’ve been going keep it up! ’ All seemed very cookie cutter to us.

Follow up response: there are no discrepancies. The hour long session I referred to was the previous taekwando lessons we attended so yes 45 minutes that your sessions ran were preferable for us. Second.your special offer was NOT 5 lessons and a free uniform as stated. It is in fact a free uniform upon signing up for ongoing lessons so your advert is miselading, and a reflection of the rest of your financial clarity around membership. Third: I didnt mind my son being removed from the mat (although he was not being 'seriously disrupting OR violent' I did however mind HOW you did it. As for coming back for further lessons.after being witness to how you handled the whole situation.no way in heck. And thankyou yes we did find somewhere more sutiable.