In June of 1974 I traveled to the U. S. touring different dojo, with Setsu Morimoto( called Setsu in the U. S.), who was practicing at the Butoku-kan in Kobe at the same time as me, and was 6 years older than me.
It was at the time when I was a 2nd dan, and she was a 1st dan. We packed our aikido outfits and hakama, and first went to San Francisco. However, when we arrived at the airport, our aikido acquaintance, Yohei, hadn’ t arrived to pick us up. I don’ t know whether it was because I was foolish or brave, but I didn’ t feel concerned in the least.
At that time there were several large buses waiting at the airport, revving their engines.“ What shall we do?” Setsu said, and then I saw people one after the other quickly getting on the buses, even though they were struggling with heavy luggage.
“ Lets take one of these buses,” I said.
“ Which one should we take?” Setsu asked.
“ That one,” I replied, pointing at a nearby bus.“ Just a minute, where’ s it going?”“ I don’ t know. It doesn’ t matter, it’ ll end up somewhere, we’ re not going to die …”
“ You can’ t just get on one without knowing where it’ s going!” While we were debating this, suddenly a tall, fast-talking, young guy in his twenties came up to us and, blocking our path, started rattling away in English at high speed. I just stood there saying nothing, thinking,“ What’ s going on?” but beside me Setsu said in broken English, [ We are Japanese girl.] Hearing this, he quickly switched to Japanese, saying,“ Well, if you’ re Japanese, then …,” and started talking to me, saying,“ Was there a Japanese girl travelling alone who looked like you? What plane were you on? What flight? From Tokyo?…,” without giving us a chance to answer.
Then he asked,“ What are you doing? Where are you going?”
Setsu replied,“ The person who was supposed to pick us up hasn’ t arrived, and we don’ t know what to do.”
So he said,“ I know an old hotel run by a Japanese person, so I’ ll take you there. But we’ ll go to my house first because I want to show you a photo of my girlfriend.”
Maybe he wanted to show us that he wasn’ t lying, and thought that we’ d believe him if we saw her photo and she did look just like me. I didn’ t care, I just wanted to get to a hotel and rest. We had no idea what kind of person he was, but judging from his appearance he didn’ t look so bad, so we got in his car and went to his place.
When I think about it now, I realize it was a dangerous and reckless thing to do, but at the time maybe because we felt somewhat desperate about getting to a hotel, and the fact that we were learning aikido too, u n c o n s c i o u s l y made us bold.
We arrived at his apartment and were shown the photos, but I thought she didn’ t look anything like me.“ You look just like her!” he declared, but Setsu and I both denied it. Perhaps he guessed what we were thinking, so he said,“ Well, maybe in this one you don’ t look so much alike,” and showed us others, but got the same reaction. He seemed to give up then and took us to the hotel in his car.
From the hotel, we telephoned Yohei, and he said“ I got your letter, but I didn’ t know when exactly you’ d arrive, whether it was today or another day,” so then we arranged for him to pick us up the next day.
We went first to a dojo in San Francisco, and there Yohei introduced us to a school teacher, Marie, who kindly let us stay at her place for the two months. Yohei and Marie eventually got married and now have children. Even now I really appreciate their help.
We spent a week in San Francisco. We were then invited to an aikido seminar to be held in Los Angeles, and decided to go by car. The fee to participate was $ 100 for the week. At that time, the exchange rate was 283 yen for one dollar, so the fee was nearly equivalent to the starting monthly salary for a woman in Japan( at about 30,000 yen).
After taking several rest-stops during the long trip to Los Angeles, we finally arrived at the place where I was to meet my destiny. The people who came from far away stayed at a university apartment. After completing the formalities of registering and paying for the seminar and accommodation, it was decided that everyone would go to the airport to welcome Fujihira sensei, a direct disciple of the founder of aikido, so we drove out to Los Angeles airport also. While Setsu and I were sitting in the airport lobby waiting for the teacher’ s arrival, a tall, lanky guy( over 190 cm) who was also at the aikido seminar, approached me. He was wearing an‘ aloha’ Hawaiian shirt, and had long, curly hair. He sat next to Setsu and asked in English,“ Is she your friend?” Setsu said“ Yes,” and he started to say things like“ She’ s cute, isn’ t she?” Yohei turned to me and said,“ I’ ve heard that he’ s a bit of a ladies’ man, so watch out.” This other man couldn’ t understand Japanese, and maybe he thought we were saying bad things about him, so after talking a little bit more, we thought he was going to leave, but then he came over and sat down next to me and started talking. I was a little bit scared, and not being very good at English, I didn’ t understand very much of what he was saying, but I did understand when he said“ You’ re cute.”
This was my first encounter with Steven Seagal.
When Setsu and I went to the bathroom, he was standing nearby, leaning against the wall, with his arms and legs crossed. I think he must have realized that I was a bit wary of him, and this time he didn’ t say anything. He was an aikido acquaintance though, and I had been a bit rude to him, so to make up for it, I glanced at him and nodded slightly. Then he said to Setsu,“ Your friend thinks I’ m dangerous, and is being careful, isn’ t she?” and I replied“ No, no,” shaking my head.
Fujihira-sensei arrived, and we all went to the welcome reception. I felt apologetic for my attitude to Seagal,
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