Yes, back in Tokyo after 6 months away!

Well, I’ve been back a few weeks now and of course I’m pumped to be back in the honbu dojo, as well as back to work with my Tokyo team and back to seeing – when time permits – the other misfits and fugitives that I call my friends in Tokyo. But right now, after a good and sweaty 2 hours in the JKS Honbu Dojo, I’m most pleased to be back at my favourite sushi bar! It’s also a great place to whip out my phone and have another go at this blog I’ve been promising for so long…

I eat here often enough after training, that I suppose it’s become as much my ‘local’ as anywhere else is, and anything that makes you feel at home here is precious indeed. As anyone who’s lived in Japan can attest, you quickly get recognised as that foreigner who speaks a little Japanese and can use chopsticks without injuring anyone, so not only am I happy to get some delicious and healthy fast food straight after training, it also feels great to get the warm welcome of good hosts recognising their favourite (or only?) regular white guy back in town. As someone coming and going from so many dojos and eateries in and out of Japan, it’s a perennial pleasure to walk into some place for the first time in ages, and enjoy the warm welcome I (usually) receive. Naturally here I’m greeted with the customary chorus of “irrashaimase” from all the staff, and an “ohisashiburi“ from Umajima San who recognises me and quickly offers a nama biiru (draft beer) with a wry smile as soon as I’m seated at the counter. He listens patiently as I order in Japanese (stumbling only occasionally these days) and asks if I’m still doing karate around the corner, while he attends to the important business of serving up perfect little bites of raw fish on rice – yum! He smiles indulgently, and acts impressed that I’m brave enough to eat sea urchin gonads on my sticky white rice. I smile indulgently as he tells me he wants his kid to start karate.

Most people around here are quite oblivious to the fact that they live a few minutes walk from one of the best karate dojos in the world, but Umajima San happened to spot me jogging around the block at 7am last year with a pyjama-clad crowd of international karateka, chanting unintelligibly during the annual kangeiko winter training course that always brings masochistic visitors from around the world to the honbu. Not a great many foreigners are drawn to this part of Tokyo which is best known for Jizo Dori, also known as the “Old Ladies’ Harajuku”,  a shopping destination for the elderly of Edo where the escalators famously move slower than anywhere else in the city. That and the local mascot, a giant stuffed duck called Sugamon which is said to bring good luck to anyone who rubs its backside… But that’s another story.

Speaking of foreign interlopers in Sugamo – and avoiding any mention of the board game club that meets locally, because it would make me look very uncool if word got out – this particular evening was a little more interesting than usual because despite me quite clearly being not Japanese and therefore unsuitable for sitting next to so long as there are any other free seats at the counter, this asian-looking young lady came in and sat right there in seat number 8, which is strange enough already, but it soon became apparent from her proficient use of the illustrated menu as a communication prop that she was in fact another foreigner, only disguised as a local! She turned out to be a student from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok visiting her Japanese professor who lives in Sugamo.

The girl admitted to having been walking around the block for a good fifteen minutes looking for a nice place to eat where she felt confident to order, when she spotted a conveniently placed white guy sitting at the counter of a sushi place. Perfect! The staff here must surely speak English, right? Hmm ok maybe not, but hey the menu has photos of each item! Now we’re talking! Or gesturing at least. And, most importantly, eating sushi. Well, I could always put off this blog a little longer (I can write on the train right?) and it’s not that often I get the chance to practice my English over dinner (I’m still trying to perfect it), so this seemed a perfect excuse to order a few more pieces of tamago sushi, get another beer to the apparent wonderment of Umajima San, and find out what could possibly bring a gaijin to Sugamo besides shotokan karate, or Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game. Naturally I always enjoy the reaction locals have when seeing someone drink more than 1 beer and not turn red or fall over, but more than that it is of course gratifying – and especially so any time one starts feels like a lost traveller again – to be able to offer help to somebody new to Japan. Most of us international folks will never stop finding new ways to trip up and fall foul of an unknown rule here, so it’s nice from time to time to be reminded that I am at least not fresh off the Boeing anymore.

As if anyone needs an excuse to eat more sushi.