I was contacted in the end of 1996 by Hiragana Times. They were planning on writing some articles about foreigners who had come to japan to study some japanese art, or the like. The editor of Hiragana Times was the friend of my girl friend, and I guess that is how they found out about me. I didn't see any reason why not to help them, so I agreed. On the other hand, I thought it could be quite funny to be in a japanese magazine, if for nothing else, I could send the article back to my friends in Denmark proclaiming that I had become famous in Japan.
I met with the younger brother of the editor, who was both the journalist and the photographer, and we went to the dojo. It was an ordinary Tuesday night, and the photographer was taking his photos while we were all training. On the way up to the dojo and the on the way back I had told him a little about our training, and why I had come all the way to Japan to do this thing. He had taken a few notes, and that had been the interview.
A few months went by, and the article was finally out. Big was my surprise when I read the article.
Photo in upper left corner: Me doing ganseki-nage on Homma-san.
Photo in lower left corner: Photo from our ninja-seminar in Imaichi in the summer of 1996. In the middle Ishizuka-sensei, to his right, Jonathan Berman, and to the right of him, myself. All other people on the photo are people who joined the seminar to find out what ninjutsu is all about. Miyagawa-san in the lower left corner of the photo later joined our dojo and is still having lot's of fun practising with us.
Photo in lower middle: Me drawing a ninja sword behind my back.