[Esinem]

Haha! Now I understand. You can add kinbakushi to the list of those whose "years of hard work and study is swept under the rug because they have a passion for the subject they have dedicated their lives to", at least in the west, so I empathise as one who makes his living that way. I doubt that I'll make minimum wage from the hundreds of hours I have put in as one of the organisers of this event.

Fortunately, our volunteer interpreters, so far, are fully bi-lingual enthusiasts, so unlike a disinterested pro, won't need a list of specialist terms. To be fair, most of the teaching will be visual rather than verbal, anyway. When I had lessons from Arisue Go, I found that in spite of the limited possibilities for verbal communication, we were able to speak the universal language of kinbaku when I saw him demonstrate.

I feel the opportunity offered to genuine enthusiasts is one that is extremely valuable. It's not every day that one gets to meet a rope master of Kinoko's calibre and to benefit from his teaching, unless one is prepared to take a trip to Japan with its associated expenses and pay 10,000 JPY per hour for the privilege. It's a chance to learn in the traditional way of 'stealing knowledge' from a master.