The How and Why
At first this trip looks like random, spontaneous vacation, but really it was a bunch of decisions and panning made in quick succession to fulfill a long thought dream of going to Tokyo. I'm sure many people reading this have Tokyo on their list places to go see, and I fully agree that you should go, it was so much fun! So, exactly how did I end up on a Tuesday night deciding I'm going to Tokyo Saturday? It actually goes back a few weeks before, maybe even a month or more. Originally I was planning a trip to the East coast, St. John's Newfoundland, as I was aiming to go on a course out I Halifax so I figured using up some of my annual leave time to go see friends for a week. As it happens I never made it on the course I was hoping for but still decided to use up my leave time anyways, since I hadn't been out to see friends that way in quite some time. When I checked flights online the price had shoot up from went I last checked, making the visit quite expensive. I've been using Google Flights to check around for cheap flights and it's actually really helpful, see you put in the to and from destinations and it'll automatically generates whens the best (cheapest) times to go visit. you can go through and modify your search for different flight companies, the times, number of stops, etc. One feature I really like, and the one that actually is the reason for my sudden trip to Tokyo, is the map it generates, showing your starting and ending point. you click on the map and then it'll show you the lowest prices for any city around the world from your starting point for the dates you picked. This got my interested so I started looking around, Europe was a bit more expensive than Newfoundland, I wasn't too interested in doing another USA trip, Australia was way more expensive and then...Tokyo is on cheap right now! I couldn't believe it, Tokyo was cheaper than any of the other destinations! But before I jumped to conclusions I did a quick check for hostels and their proximity to jiu-jitsu clubs, that's when I found Ace Inn Shinjuku, a decent looking hostel for a rather cheap price! The last piece to the puzzle before I could book anything was checking with work about leaving for Japan (There's usually extra paperwork leaving the Country, or continent, for vacation leave, National Security and all) and once that was a go, it was time to start booking things and sending out e-mails to different clubs!
 |
| My tiny locker and cubical bed I had at the hostel. For $40-50 a night I was worth it! |
Packing
I found packing for this trip so much easier, having already sorted everything out for the Mini-Odyssey I had a few months before. This time I think I took even less, it felt like less anyways, although that could be due to more experience in packing for efficiency. One thing I did bring this time was an extra duffle bag I had rolled up and stored in my back pack, I planned on going shopping during my visit and that duffle bag got put to good use. I brought 4 shirts, all except for my brother's band shirt, Phantom, were club or jiu-jitsu shirts and just as I suspected they caught the eye of people and I made a friend in passing just by wearing a jiu-jitsu shirt. I was walking back to the hostel one evening and a gentleman leaving the hostel stopped to ask me about my shirt, as it ends up he was also in town to train and teach jiu-jitsu. we ran into each other a few times, chatting about our adventures in Tokyo, he never got him name but he was a big muscular, British or Australian (hard to tell, he had a cold) who apparently has commentated on a fight network and been around training and teaching for quite some time, he's probably still in Tokyo teaching now as he had a 6 month work visa and no plans to go anywhere else yet. I wish I ran into him one more time before leaving to get his name and a picture with him so this story sounds better than "I ran into a random guy who also like jiu-jitsu" but you can't win them all. On top on bring only a few days worth or clothes, I brought 3 gis and again I can't stress enough how awesome having BJJ Globetrotters light weight travel gis are and how much they help with packing light as well as cut down on time, drying faster than regular gis. they're a great gi to have, I even had someone from one of the classes I attended teling me how he really liked the gi and wanted to get one. I brought two travel gis and a regular gi and training twice a day I never had to pull out the third all week, but I more brought the regular gi just for visiting Kodokan in case I was able to train in some Judo. Of course I also brought my yoga strap and massage ball to keep me in proper condition to train the whole time; they're both great to have and take very little room to pack.
Contacting Clubs
Before every trip I always look up places to train at and send them a polite e-mail telling them of my training experience and the dates I'll be in town, asking them permission to come train at their club. Sometimes the clubs don't get back but usually they do and they are always welcoming. I always look to drop by the clubs that replied and invited me out, even if its just for one class, over clubs are overlook my e-mail, even if they have an open door, unless I meet someone who's offering to bring me out. I looked up and sent out e-mails to over half a dozen clubs, including two judo clubs, and got replies from most of them, all except for one actually. The very first response I got was probably the one I least expected, an e-mail from shoot fighting and BJJ legend Yuki Nakai himself! Let's rewind a bit to explain how I got this e-mail, because Yuki is a hard person to find unless someone points him out to you. So as soon as I decided I was doing this trip I left a post on both Reddit BJJ group and the BJJ Globetrotters facebook group asking where's good to go train. I got lots of places recommended on Reddit and one individual on the Globetrotters group (Aaron Ross, he's a great guy, thanks for the help Aaron!) sent me Yuki's site and info. You see Yuki's place doesn't show up on Google maps for some reason, and the only English site he has is nothing but the schedule for the next day's classes that he updates every day. There's an e-mail address on there as well but in order for it to work, as I found out with some amazing detective work, is to remove all the hyphens in the address. After finally breaking the code I sent Yuki and same e-mail as I did the other clubs, and by the morning I had my first response:
"Hello. This is from YUKI NAKAI. Monday 1 o'clock and Thursday morning and nighttime class will be so nice. Thank you."
Not knowing how he ran his club I didn't think I'd get a response so fast, if at all, and by Yuki himself, usually there's someone working the front desk or deals with the on-line stuff and they respond. This single e-mail got me pretty excited, not that I needed anymore help, for this trip!
The other e-mails came in, telling me to come out anytime to their place, and even the Judo places got back to me. Kodokan, the world HQ to Judo, was very open to me coming by and watching but hesitant to allow me to train, not being a very strong judo player. The other Judo club, Embassy Judo, while informing me that they don't usually accept drop ins was more than helpful in directing me to who to talk to about attending a class at Kodokan, even being a referral for me. As it happens, I was unable to make it out to train at Kodokan but I'll cover that more later.
And so with everything booked, bought, packed and arranged, it was time to head to Tokyo!
 |
| The BJJ Globetrotters connection! Aaron and I after some training. So thankful for him helping me out! |
Transit In Tokyo
The flight there was long and uneventful, I passed the time by watching some movies and napping. Once I got into Japan there was the customs to go through, which I found wasn't near as bad as going through customs between Canada and USA, and then making my way to the hostel. As always, I planned out on Google maps routes using the local transit to go to and from the hostel to any of the clubs I planned on training at as well as the airport and screenshot the routes and directions and sent the pictures to my phone. It's a great way to get around without carrying a huge map or using any data on your phone and I've found quite a few people do it. Getting downtown from the airport was actually a lot easier than I expected. There is a transit pass I looked up that can only be bought by visitors at the airport or very few select stores in downtown Tokyo, depending on the pass it gives unlimited transit on (some) subway lines for 1, 2 or 3 days. I planned it all out to pick up the pas and take the transit into town, as it happens, the airport has a shuttle pass package, you pick up the transit pass and also get a shuttle to downtown, with a pass to arrange a shuttle back to the airport with at the end of your stay, this all costs about $60 CDN, which given that the transit to the airport from downtown is about $25-30 each way I got 3 days of unlimited subway transit for practically free. I was on a good start!
Then I made it downtown to Shinjuku station...wow that place is busy! Although I had my maps saved and routes planned it was bit disorienting getting my bearings at first. I was tired from the long flight, the street signs aren't in English (or even a western alphabet, which I new would be a problem), and also the roads aren't in any form of organization unless you're in the newer areas. I had a lot to get used to fast. It probably took me over half an hour to find the subway and proper direction to be going in, which was all right behind me and only took a matter of a few minutes to navigate through any other time I was at the station during the week. I laugh now because after that initial shock I was fine getting around on the subways. They're actually really simple to read, just a lot to take into at first, and I love the efficiency of their metro and how easy it is to get around the bustling city. Without going into too much detail there are several different transit companies that service Tokyo, Tokyo Metro and Toei Subway being the majority of the local and downtown lines. The buses are separate from the subways, and as I found out the pass doesn't work on the buses. There's also the Japan Rail which I believe the ultra fast rail line that can go across al of Japan, and from what I've been told a bunch of other smaller transit lines. Anyways, the pass works on the Tokyo Metro and Toei lines and that's more than enough to get around Tokyo. It's easy to get around using those lines so long as you really pay attention to which line need to use. Each subways line is illustrated with a letter and colour, and every station on that line is numbered, so if you can't read the Japanese that well you can just make sure you're on the right coloured line, heading in the right direction and make sure you get off on the right numbered stop. then you just have to make sure you use the right exit, which are all numbered as well. there's also arrows that direct you to everything so as long as you know the symbol for your subway line or the number for your exit, navigating around should be easy...although writing this all out does seem like a lot now...
 |
| Some pictures of the subway line maps, not complicated at all...haha. |
After having a crash course in learning to navigate through Tokyo transit I found the hostel, checked in and had a bit of a look around the neighborhood. There was a street near by that was full of stores and restaurants and there was a 7-11, which became my main store for the week. After picking up a few things and finding a something to eat I was dead tired, so I quickly unpacked the best I could in my tiny locker and went to bed in my cubical bed, that was very similar to my rack on ship, but bigger. After a good night's sleep it was tie for my first day in Tokyo, and my first day of training at a new place, adventures awaited!
 |
| The cool little street of stores by the hostel. |
That's it for now, adventures in shopping, site seeing and of course training still to come!
No comments:
Post a Comment