After the extension works on my home were finished I felt free to leave for Reno (US) on September 29th.
I had a fairly uneventful flight with the exception of some turbulence. Conner, Patricia Hendricks’ son kindly waited for me at San Francisco Airport where we met to travel to Reno together. We arrived at our destination without any trouble and Vincent Salvatore was waiting for us. He took us directly to his lovely home, boasting a fine view. I unpacked my luggage in the room I was offered and then I could enjoy a whole day of rest, which I really appreciated.
Thursday: Training with the Reno students.
Friday: Friday’s seminar workshop started with tai-jutsu.
Saturday and Sunday: More than 250 people joined us on Saturday and Sunday. Many of them had already had an uchideshi experience in Iwama. Both Vincent and I were delighted by such a successful turnout.
I was pleased as well to notice the presence of Stefan Kurilla who had come to the US especially for this seminar; all the way from Slovakia.
While sharing with Stanley Pranin (Aikido-journal) and Gaku Homma-Sensei (Nippon kan) the great pleasure of seeing so many long term deshi mix with new comers I again felt the deep impact left by my father Morihiro.
I would like to take this opportunity to warmly thank Vincent’s (Japanese) wife, Fumie, for her gastronomic talents. I feel very happy to know him so well-married.
I had an enthusiastic conversation about next year’s Aiki Expo with Stanley Pranin and I promised to strongly support this event.
I left to come back to Japan on October 5th after a week that seemed to have flown. The first evening back, during the usual training, I told my Iwama students about the Reno Seminar. In the Tanrekan I prayed to the Fudomyo-O divinity to lead me in the way of spirit (Bushido) using the prayers left by the Aikido Founder, Morihei Ueshiba.
Hitohiro Saito.