I heard that in Oslo they thought that shortening the seminar would attract more foreigners. I really can't tell, but at least for me that just might have been the case. Some of the seminars I have partook these last years have been cut short on my behalf for school or whatever reasons. This time the seminar started right next day after my last day in school before summer leave, which actually might have had the impact to draw me there. At least I was able to attend everything - all the training sessions and such - within the seminar.

There were some other foreigners as well, although just four of us - or five, if you include mr. Nanbu. So, foreigners didn't flood the tatami, but there were nevertheless quite decent amount of nanbudoka. Especially the number of low grades seemed to be higher than on some earlier seminars, even though there were no separated training sessions for low grades - all adults trained together.

The subjects of training sessions excluded the so called old randories. We focused on nanbu sotai radories and of course on shihotai and nanbu katas. One night we also practiced seienchin.

Although the seminar started "late" (on Thursday instead of Monday), we had also training sessions on Saturday. This made Saturday pretty busy day with all the trainings (kids and adults separatedly), grading exams and dinner party. Right before the grading exams there was Ove Guseviks shihan ceremony, before which Ove gave a demonstration which imitated a classic demonstration by Nanbu Doshu Soke decades ago.

Although my visit to Oslo was a lot shorter than on some previous years I still had time to look around and play tourist. I have to wonder were I found all that energy. When Sunday came - which was supposed to be my day of rest between Oslo and Skien seminars - I was still running around the city from morning to night. I felt great and there were interesting sights to be seen.

Kalle Lönnroth, 2 dan