"When I arrived here, I had a personal goal of doing judo in all of the 8 regions of Japan. Last time, I was about to enter Kansai, one of the strongest judo places in the country, with Osaka, Kyoto and the prestigious Tenri University.
On my way, I met one student who invited me to her dojo in a place called Tottori. It was far away from my place so we went by car. There I met high-school students of a very good level, even though the place was far from any big city. I also met the family of the judoka who took me to Tottori and they invited me for a party at their workplace.
In the morning we left late and rushed to the judo session. As I arrived, I could see immediately that the training would not be easy at all. Many people were present, not only high school players.
I managed to train but at some point my conditioning got the better of me. I was tired; I launched a drop tai-otoshi, my tokui waza, but injured my hips a little, where I had surgery a few years ago. When it happened the discomfort was bearable and I could even finish the session. The next day I couldn’t walk properly so this forced me to take a break of 2 weeks, slowing me down with my goal. So, I decided to go at an easier pace after that.
I met an old friend who I knew from Tokyo. He is now a doctor at Konan University which is in Kobe, where Jigoro Kano was born. He invited me to see the students and I could even train a bit while being very careful; lovely people again! It was good to catch up with someone familiar and I’m really thankful he invited me.
My goal was to train at Tenri but I knew I couldn’t go if I wasn’t 100% healed so I decided to meet another friend who I met on social media. Joichi Hirao invited me to his dojo and I stayed there for nearly a week. That was the first time since I arrived in Japan that I slept in a dojo. It was a nice experience. I could also live with his family and it always feels good to have those moments.
Joichi speaks perfect English and even some French since he used to be a sparring partner for Antoine Valois Fortier of Canada. Joichi learned judo a bit differently from others; he had a sensei who would do a private lesson with him once a week to work on ne-waza. He became really strong at it. He won the All Japan Championship at -81kg and the Lisbon Grand Prix. Most of his contests were won in ne-waza. He has the fastest transition and guard passing I’ve ever seen. When he was in Canada, Joichi decided to teach Kosen Judo which is much more focused on ne-waza but he had to leave because of Covid 19. Today he still continues teaching it and even made an online course. I’ve learned a lot from him and did an interview so he could explain all of that in more detail.
In the meantime, I was speaking with my contact at Tenri but sadly I didn’t get permission to film as they were preparing for an important competition. Because of my physical condition and the fact that I couldn’t film, I decided not to step on the mat, though I still went to see how it is and so I made some valuable contacts. I didn’t share much about it on social media but it was an interesting time, I promised I would do my best to be back after I finish my goal in Japan. The deal is that if I can film, I’ll be back and make a nice video about Tenri.
Later I was contacted by the Vanuatu team, which I coached for during the last Olympics. Their coach would not be coaching at the next competition and so they asked me to join, which I happilly accepted. This competition will be at the beginning of July in Palau, the 2025 Pacific Mini Games. It is a bit like a small Olympics for the countries of the Pacific region. I’ll be there with the team beforehand so we can do a training camp. I will have time to learn more about the athletes and it will give me a break from Japan and give me the opportunity to renew my visa.
Before that, I decided to go to one more region in Japan, the 5th region visited. I went to the Chubu area and headed to Nagoya where a Japanese friend I met in Australia was waiting for me. He took me to the high school he used to study at and we also went to visit a famous place nearby, a well-preserved old Japanese town called Magome. This city is on the route of the Nakasendo, which is the old path of Samurai. I was happy to visit the place before going to training. That was the first time since I was back to training that I felt good in my hips, I could do judo normally and I felt confident now to enter the Tokyo area and some of the strongest universities.
Now, I will stay two weeks with the team in Palau as a coach, which will give me time to train myself as well, at a manageable level. This offer helps me a lot because I’ll be there free of charge in a moment when my financial situation has become harder, though I’m now confident to say that I should be able to finish the Japan part in August.
Thank you for reading and I’m looking forward to meeting new judoka from all around the world soon!