Chapter 35 - Martial Arts Tour

This weekend was going to be hectic for me.

Last summer when I had been working out how moving might affect my ability to train in Ninjutsu, I had come up with a plan to get some one on one tuition with a senior instructor.

As I had told my baseball coach, it had taken some money to make it work, because I wasn’t satisfied with just any instructor, I had arranged to have an instructor come over from Japan just to satisfy my needs.

The instructor hadn’t been happy with my initial plan, to fly over, teach me for a weekend, and then fly home. The pay would be good, but the travelling time was too much for such a short place of time. In order for him to agree, he would come for two weeks, with my learning skills I wouldn’t need that much time, so I had got in contact with a number of local clubs. I had suggested that this senior Japanese instructor do visits over the two weeks to a number of clubs to unify the teaching methods from Japan to the USA. I had a number of favorable responses, the Japanese instructor also liked the idea.

That was a big problem with martial arts, it got bastardised when a different culture took it up, and had sensei who hadn’t been taught the traditional way, teaching students in a different country.

I was paying for everything, flights, accommodation and meals, and providing transport when required.

It might seem extreme, seeing how other clubs would also benefit, but I had the money to spend, this was something I personally wanted, so why should I try and get the clubs to subsidize the trip, it would be very beneficial to the smaller clubs, who would not normally have a VIP of the art visit them.

Master Saito arrived on Friday night, which was the reason I was missing this week’s game. It would have been discourteous for anyone else to collect him from the airport, even worse to just send a driver to bring him to his hotel.

I had arranged a four star hotel in Albany for him to stay at during his two week stay.

I was glad about missing this week’s game in some ways, the media had really gone to town on our last win, beating a powerhouse team like the Lions was very unusual, it might only be the freshmen team, the weakest they fielded, but it had been the first defeat they had suffered in a couple of years.

I had gotten some grief from the players over the media attention, it wasn’t just the local paper anymore, the Atlanta Journal Constitution had also done a write up on the game, stating that it was the surprise of the season, of any division.

Having a week away would take the spotlight off of me, initially our coach had been ecstatic about the win, but once the papers came out, he became a little stern towards me, telling me to not to do any interviews, let the school handle any media response to be given out for the school.

It had made a difference to my visibility to the rest of the school students also, although my age was still an issue with some, my playing for the school and getting good publicity for it, raised my profile and popularity with many, raising my jock compared to nerd status for some of them.

The first weekend of Master Saito visit was for me specifically, I had hired a car to take me to the airport for the meeting, since my parents had decided to go to the game even though I wasn’t playing. They didn’t speak Japanese and didn’t want to insult my visitor before the weekend had even started.

The flight arrived on time, which was always a bonus. I greeted Master Saito, helping him with a trolley full of his luggage, out to the car which was waiting for us.

We talked a little as we headed to his hotel, but he was tired after his flight, so any serious conversations could wait till the morning. After his night to settle in, to get used to the time change and jet lag, we went to a studio I had rented out. This training was for something completely different for me. Master Tanaka had agreed for me to take the first stages of weapons training, learning to use swords, daggers, throwing stars and cudgel (staff).

Master Saito had a couple of surprises for me, one he kept as a surprise for later, but the first one he sprung on me before we started his teaching in weapons training.

(All the speech ““ in this section is in Japanese)

“White Tiger, I have been told it would be good for me to see you do your current black belt work.” I was surprised, but did as requested.

Once I had done all I had been taught of the lower levels, I rested taking a moment to regain my strength and equilibrium before doing the next set of current training forms.

“All Master Tanaka told me was correct, with his approval, I agree that you have mastered enough moves, and with your winning of your state title against older, bigger fighters, we wish to present to you this certificate awarding you your third dan in Ninjutsu.” Master Saito told me, then gave me a bow, which I returned before accepting my new dan certificate.

“OK now that we have completed the easy part, it is time for you to learn the necessary moves and weapon control for you to truly become a Ninja.” Master Saito stated.

So for the next six hours I spent time learning all that was required to be a Ninja, weapons was just part of it, learning to move without making noise was important. Knowing how to move through a video monitored area without being spotted was also explained and trained in. Picking locks and learning how to break into a safe was explained, but without one around couldn’t be practiced, plus there were many more skills a Ninja would know that I was trained in.