Brooklyn Friends School in NY hosted a puzzle event during its annual Winter Festival. Maki taught the audience of children and adults how Nikoli authors actually create Sudoku. The audience learned the difference in computer-generated Sudoku and handcrafted Nikoli Sudoku.
Among the audience, a retired teacher who taught 30 years at the school, Mr. Martin Norregaard, listened to Maki with great joy. “Being here was important. An experience of being with him is very moving. Maki is so relaxed with us, cheerful, and I had an enjoyable time. As soon as I heard about this event, I knew I had to be here to meet Maki,” said Mr. Norregaard.

In partnership with Japan Society of Northern California, Nikoli joined the effort of supporting cultural programs at public schools in San Francisco. Maki, godfather of Sudoku, visited Herbert Hoover Middle School and Clarendon Alternative Elementary School and taught not only the logic puzzles such as Sudoku and Shikaku but also how students can apply the skills of solving puzzles in a real world.
Maki said, “Time you spend in solving puzzles is the most important and beautiful part. Once you find out the answer, it becomes your knowledge.” He emphasized that being frustrated and feeling stressful of not knowing the answer is a good process. Students actively participated in the discussion with Maki on finding solutions on some mechanical puzzles.

Maki joined the American puzzle masters, Nick Baxter, Wei-Hwa Huang and Thomas Snyder in San Francisco and shared their vision. Nick has been leading the US puzzle team in the World Puzzle Championship for a number of years, and Wei-Hwa is known not only as a logic puzzle solver/maker but also the designer of many innovative mechanical puzzles. Thomas who is the champion at the World Sudoku Championship this year is a leading expert in the field of bio-engineering in the U.S. Each unique puzzle master shared his vision of the puzzle world in the next 10 years.

Nick Baxter’s Vision:
There will be some surprises, like the Rubik Cube or Sudoku, but no one knows what that secret will be until it happens. We know that puzzles will continue to thrive--video games and other modern recreations are popular but have not killed the classic puzzles and games; instead they have incorporated puzzles into their world. We will continue to see such cross-fertilization.

Wei-Hwa Huang’s Vision:
I hope that the different branches of puzzles can come together more. Right
now the puzzle community has many different groups, the big ones being
crosswords, mechanical puzzles, twisty puzzles, sudoku, brainteasers,
puzzle hunts. I would like to see more crossover between the groups.

Thomas Snyder’s Vision:
I expect sudoku will still be a major puzzle in the US, but I hope that there are many more logic puzzles in newspapers and magazines and not just sudoku. I also hope that there is a greater focus on quality instead of quantity when it comes to puzzles like sudoku. Right now there are thousands of books with millions of puzzles that lack the elegance and beauty of what I consider a sudoku to be. There were many changed made to the US puzzle "Number Place" to become the puzzle "Sudoku" published by Nikoli and while the name has been used in the US, I'm not sure the quality has always matched.