Russia: The 2nd AkihoFest weekend
2013 saw the second edition of the Russian AkihoFest. This is a weekend of Akita Inu shows and seminars hosted by the Russian Akiho club and with the experienced Japanese Judges Mr Hidechika Yamagami, Mr Masami Hamada and Mr Akira Saito
This year there was a Russian FCI Championship show on the Saturday, with an Akita Inu speciality show at the same venue and same day. On the Saturday evening were seminars on handling and the Brindle Akita Inu followed by a dinner with the Japanese Judges. Sunday was the Akiho show. This meant a fairly full program of Akita Inu activities all weekend.
JAIC Newsletter
Issue 16
6
The Speciality show judging started late morning in a separate ring. There were a lot of recent imports from Japan among the entries, and quite a few new Russian bred puppies. It was nice to see some of the same dogs that I had seen last year, and also to see the youngsters bred in Russia from the dogs imported previously.
After the show ended we headed back out to the Akiho venue, and a reminder of how gridlocked Moscow traffic can be. It really makes the M25 around London seem fast moving! Moscow traffic has to be seen to be believed. After a late lunch we headed off to the conference centre for the evening seminars.
On Saturday morning I met up with the lady who had kindly offered a lift to the show. After some intense cuddles from her dog we were all loaded up and ready to go. The journey took us through the outskirts of Moscow, through some interesting areas with huge individual houses all designed differently. Eventually we turned off the road onto a dirt track ... interesting I thought! As we bumped our way through the forest I did think this was an interesting venue for a show and then the track opened up onto a clearing in the forest. In this clearing were loads of people with dogs and show rings. I have never been to such a beautiful show venue, while I'm not sure what I was expecting this certainly wasn't it.
As I wasn't exhibiting I had plenty of time to look around at all the dogs, there were some quite unusual breeds such as the Czech Wolfdog and Mexican hairless. There were a couple of native Russian breeds that I didn't recognise. As there was both classes for the Russian FCI show and the Akita Inu speciality show I think the Akita was the most popular breed there with a total entry for Mr Yamagami of 76 dogs. First to be judged were the dogs entered in the FCI show.
Last year I was working for a Russian client so had a visa but this year I had to apply for a visitors visa for myself in order to go. The process was pretty smooth thanks to assistance from Katja in Russia who took care of the Russian paperwork that I needed to submit. The actual visa process at the Visa office in London was amazingly quick and I was in and out in about 15 minutes! Anyone who has had to deal with visa applications would be impressed with this efficiency!
On Thursday evening I set off for Heathrow to catch the overnight flight to Moscow. It's a 4 hour flight, with a 4 hour time difference, so not counting the jet-lag you can have dinner at Heathrow and then be in Moscow for breakfast.
I spent Friday sight-seeing in Moscow, on previous trips I had not had the opportunity to actually do the 'tourist thing' and so it was nice to have the leisure of just wandering around and seeing the sights in the centre of Moscow. I visited the Kremlin and St Basilica church and walked around the shopping centre Gum. In the afternoon I took a taxi to the venue, which was a different venue than the previous year but in the same area. Here I was met by Galina, who kindly helped me to check into my room at the venue and get sorted out with the arrangements for the weekend. Apparently I was the first British person to have stayed there and this caused a little excitement :-)