When I was in high school, I wanted to do something – some type of martial art and my cousins did judo. My brother did karate and I wanted to do something else. So at my church, they taught kendo. So I saw that and the teacher was an old friend of my family’s. He was from Akita and the story goes he was at his dojo. My great-grandfather was his teacher. So I started kendo there and my father said, “Once you start, you can’t quit.” So I’m still practicing today. So at least, he said…so eventually, because of my involvement in kendo, I became very interested in Japanese culture. I wanted to train in kendo for one year. So I came to Japan and studied Japanese first. And then I started studying kendo, actually while I was studying Japanese. For a long time, I stayed in Japan on a cultural visa, studying kendo and studying Japanese.
Date: November 11, 2003
Location: Kyoto, Japan
Interviewer: Art Nomura
Contributed by: Art Nomura, Finding Home.
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