A lot of people have reservations about starting martial arts and I would be a liar if I didn't say that I was the same way. "Lessons are too expensive" "I'm still recovering from a previous injury" "Maybe next year". Believe me. I know what it's like. I procrastinated taking MArtial Arts for the longest time. BUt its strange how fate sometimes decides to give us absolutely no choice in the path we must walk.

I moved to the tiny Mountain Town of Takefu last October 09. At first I was so euphoric to be in Japan that I gave little thought as to what was actually readily available to me in this town. I work from 12-9 Tuesday through Saturday. Most businesses are closed on Sundays and the small group of friends I have made work on Mondays. It didn't take me long to realize that I needed to travel to some larger cities to do anything fun. Within two weeks, I had travelled to Kanezawa, Osaka, and seen all of the major tourist spots near Takefu including Tojinbo, the knife village, and the international soba center. I was getting bored fast.

I decided to go to my local international center for a little guidance as to some Japanese traditional activites I could take part in. BAsically I was looking for a hobby. The people at the center were very nice and had a long list of local clubs from cooking clubs, to calligraphy classes, and pottery classes. All very interesting in their own way, but I had little or no interest in most of them or the lady helping me would tell me that the teacher of the class didn't speak any English. Yes I moved to Japan without learnign Japanese. The company that I wanted to work for wouldnt have hired me if I had learned. Anyway she turned the page and the word "Aikido" lept at my eyes like they were old friends embracing each other. "How about this?" I pointed out. She told me that she hadn't even thought about mentioning Aikido to me, that she had just forgotten about it. She told me that Nomura Sensei spoke very good English and Russian and that he was an excellent teacher. My first night of Aikido was that next Monday night.