Does it make any difference that I'm Japanese, too?
Doing a quick search with the kanji for "inside apprentice" on
www.google.co.jp returns probably hundreds of links with that phrase (including
this one which talks about an account of a Japanese university student's experience as an "uchi deshi" at Iwama). Searching for "house apprentice" returns about 40 links, most of which have "house" and "apprentice" on different parts of the page (ie not as a compound). There are some instances where "house apprentice" is being used but, outside of one or two cases, it's being used in the context of being a deshi to a family (with "uchi" in that case being read like "ka" (as in aikidoka) like "Yamadaka deshi").
Is it common to call Saito sensei "Soke" over in Europe? I've heard Shioda sensei being referred to such, but I can't say I've ever heard Saito sensei being called that.
-- Jun