It’s 1986, a warm day in Costa Brava, Spain. Prof. Bo F. Munthe (first European to be welcomed in a ninja dojo in Japan) is doing a weekend seminar. I was close with Bo Sensei, and was also friend to the guy who organized the course. I was helping with the organization and translation.
There were several kids, Bo Sensei decided to separate the kids’ group from the adults. I was chosen to direct the kids’ training. At the end of the day Bo was very surprised at how gentle and relaxed I was with the kids; back then, I was in a red-hot PTSD momentum. At that time, some people did not want to train with me because I went on too strong. I would attack anyone who woke me up from a siesta or sleep, thinking it was an attempt on my life - on another post will describe a couple of cases, now I laugh, but the recipients were not thrilled!
I didn’t initially start doing Ninjutsu or any other MA, to become a teacher / instructor. I had death threats from dangerous people due to my past employment. Legal guns are very hard to get by in Spain, had just moved here and all the martial arts studios I’d visited and trained so far did not include any serious weapon or counter-knife training. Hatsumi Sensei’s Ninpo is weapon based.
In 1988 I went to Japan, (my second time there) with a group of wannabe Ninjutsu instructors, who were already teachers in Kenpo, Taekwondo, Karate and other disciplines (I was not). I was included because I was translating and also served as a guide. At that time, I met Hatsumi Sensei. I became aware that he was the person I needed to find as well as that he had the knowledge, experience I had longed to study since I was a kid.
Hatsumi Sensei embraced me, I was awarded a 3rd Dan Black Belt and a Junior teaching licence. During that trip, I was invited (2 times) to see Ninja Kids lessons in Japan - Ishizuka Sensei’s wife along with one of his instructors taught their sons, daughters and a group of kids. I went to those lessons not knowing how important they would be in my future. At the end of that 9 day trip to Japan (one of 22), Hatsumi Sensei motivated me to start teaching and start walking a serious path of Budo.
I started my martial arts instructor path in 1988, worked in Barcelona but spent weekends in the Costa Brava; I taught Saturday morning, afternoon and Sundays, sometimes for up to 4 hours a lesson.
In 1998, I started doing a Ninja Kids lesson in Barcelona. My focus was on teaching Japanese Budo principles to children. Small groups of kids from a Catholic school would attend my lessons, I tried to transmit discipline, values and positive qualities I had observed in Japan and of course the ones that go with Ninpo.
It wasn’t until 2012, in Japan, where I started to really focus and take the kids’ lesson in a dedicated and serious matter. From 2012 till 2014 I taught a group of kids and parents in a Kindergarten in Koshigaya, Japan. There were very few kids, promotion was not so good and modern societies aren’t really attracted to traditional stuff. Most moms and pops in Japan’s, main concern is the financial future of their kids. Therefore will send kids to English lessons, study enforcement, … but not to new ideas like mine.
I was teaching English in the afternoons, while doing a Budo Mastership study / train period in Japan with a cultural visa. Had several groups of children, at one point decided to combine Ninpo and English; gave the kids some plastic swords, rubber shuriken and started teaching them basics, first in Japanese and then in English. The system became such a success that almost 38 students from all over the region joined a 6 month course at the Omiya Budokan.
Unfortunately I was never able to finish the 5 levels (only 2 are now in a curricula) since I had to come back to Spain for 2 surgical interventions and was unable to return to teach & live in Japan. I tried teaching this system in Barcelona, but had to stop since I was constantly travelling to Japan to teach the system to instructors in Japan.
Because of certain policies and because I’ve had some health issues have not opened a new dojo here. Am planning to open one, here, in the near future. Woke policies regarding religion, ‘gender’ and race can get someone like me in trouble and even end up in jail. You can get in serious trouble for not using lunatic pronouns, talking about your vision of God when there are Muslims, do something that may offend a ‘minority’ member.
I’ve been teaching online since 2021 and have developed Ninja Kids Dojo Homeschool, which I’ll cover next post.
I am now working on doing level 3 of Ninja Kids Dojo in English and adapt the 1st 3 levels to teaching tourist’s kids in hotels, campings and other tourist facilities as well as in a dojo. I now live in a Summer tourism area, people come from the UK, Germany, France.
Also, i want to share this system with pastors & priests on mission in Asia, South America or Africa. I also work on teaching simple, fun basic things to anyone who wants to teach it to their kids, students, neighbors …
— to be continued next post —