Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2022-03-28 23:53:19 Bookplateleaf 0002 Boxid IA40413316 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier Ocr tesseract 5.0.0-1-g862e Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_detected_script_conf 0.9659 Ocr_module_version 0.0.15 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA-WL-2000087 Openlibrary_edition Adrift in Tokyo, translating obscene rap lyrics for giggling Japanese high school girls,, "thirtynothing" Robert Twigger comes to a revelation about himself: He has never been fit nor brave. Guided by his roommates, Fat Frank and Chris, he sets out to cleanse his body and mind. Not knowing his fist from his elbow, the author is drawn into the world of Japanese martial arts, joining the Tokyo Riot Police on their yearlong, brutally demanding course of budotraining, where any ascetic motivation soon comes up against bloodstained "white pyjamas" and fractured collarbones. In Angry White Pyjamas, Twigger blends, the ancient with the modern--the ultratraditionalism, ritual, and violence of the dojo (training academy) with the shopping malls, nightclubs, and scenes of everyday Tokyo life in the 1990s--to provide a brilliant, bizarre glimpse of life in contemporary Japan. Other experiences on the course include "hajime" sessions where one technique is performed repeatedly, without a break, sometimes for up to half-an-hour or more. During these sessions, trainees sometimes pass out or vomit, especially in the summer months. Instructors sometimes dish out punishments to trainees if they feel they are not pushing themselves enough, including rounds of push-ups, sit-ups and bunny hops.

Robert has published Real Men Eat Puffer Fish (2008), a humorous but comprehensive guide to frequently overlooked but not exclusively masculine pastimes, while his latest novel Dr. Ragab's Universal Language, was published to acclaim in July 2009. Robert now lives in Cairo, a move chronicled in his book Lost Oasis. He has lead several desert expeditions with 'The Explorer School'. This is a splendidly written adventure, something sane at last on the craziness of martial arts ( Independent on Sunday) I want to re-read and make some notes on a few different things they practiced or teaching techniques, some quotes from the senseis and bits of wisdom. I'm curious about Kancho's book and to learn more about O'Sensei's life. I love that the author used the real names of people, so you can look up Robert Mustard or Chida Sensei and learn about them.

Recommended

I was recommended to read this book when I started Yoshinkan Aikido last year. Regardless of how interested in aikido you might be, this is an amusing, at times fascinating, depiction of Japanese martial arts culture from the perspective of an outsider. Yoshinkan Aikido is a pretty small world it seems, and some of the characters in this book, although sometimes given a kind of fear/awe-filled celebrity by Twigger, are likely to cross your path if you take up the art. Robert Mustard in particular tours quite a lot and attends seminars internationally. I finally had a chance to sit down and re-read this. The first time I'd read it, I'd done some Aikido in college, but it had mostly faded in my memory other than I remember how clearly-out-of-shape I was at the time, and feeling like such a badass whenever I "got" a technique right. I especially loved this piece of wisdom from one sensei (I need to revisit the text to remind myself who said it - Paul, maybe?) (paraphrased) - he points out there is a triangle of things that work together that are the secret to aikido: Balance, Center, and Confidence. They each feed each other. The writing is fine, and in an unobtrusive style which depicts events and observations clearly without becoming distracting - quite a feat in a book which could just as easily have become a hubristic memoir as a play-it-for-laughs. Quotations from Tesshu, Mr Twigger's 19-th Century samurai-poet-swordsman hero are interesting, and are nicely interwoven with the text.

Adrift in Tokyo, translating obscene rap lyrics for giggling Japanese high school girls, and “thirtynothing and ” Robert Twigger comes to a revelation about himself: He has never been fit nor brave. Guided by his roommates, Fat Frank and Chris, he sets out to cleanse his body and mind. Not knowing his fist from his elbow, the author is drawn into the world of Japanese martial arts, joining the Tokyo Riot Police on their yearlong, brutally demanding course of budo training, where any ascetic motivation soon comes up against bloodstained and “white pyjamas and ” and fractured collarbones. In Angry White Pyjamas, Twigger blends, the ancient with the modern–the ultratraditionalism, ritual, and violence of the dojo (training academy) with the shopping malls, nightclubs, and scenes of everyday Tokyo life in the 1990s–to provide a brilliant, bizarre glimpse of life in contemporary Japan. Angry White Pyjamas: A Scrawny Oxford Poet Takes Lessons from the Tokyo Riot Police by Robert Twigger – eBook Details

Customer Reviews

At this point, I've been practicing Aikido for a few years and related to what I was reading about. I could make comparisons to my own experience. I could appreciate the insight into Japanese perspective that Twigger offers, as well as some of what he learned about himself and Aikido. I sussed out more of what I liked about my current practice (Shimbokukai), and what would not appeal to me in Yoshinkan. It made me think about my Aikido, and the blend of what I'm learning with what I want to carry forward in my own practice and philosophy. Full Book Name: Angry White Pyjamas: A Scrawny Oxford Poet Takes Lessons from the Tokyo Riot Police In 1997, whilst on an expedition in Northern Borneo, he discovered a line of menhirs crossing into Kalimantan. In 1998 He was part of the team that caught the world's longest snake- documented in the Channel 4/National Geographic film and book Big Snake; later he was the leader of the expedition that was the first to cross Western Canada in a birchbark canoe since 1793. Most recently, in 2009-2010, he led an expedition that was the first to cross the 700 km Great Sand Sea of the Egyptian Sahara solely on foot. urn:lcp:angrywhitepyjama0000twig_z8i8:epub:582853b5-9627-4f82-99de-dfe018419222 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier angrywhitepyjama0000twig_z8i8 Identifier-ark ark:/13960/s2wbgcq13sm Invoice 1652 Isbn 0753808587

At more than one point throughout the year-long course that would change him from pondering intellectual to "bodyguard" for two elderly Japanese women, Twigger thought of quitting. So what kept him going--his friends in Fuji heights, Chris and Fat Frank? Sara, his Japanese girlfriend? A Zen belief in overcoming the will of the self? It was more to do with sheer grit and determination-- a refusal to be beaten. Overall really enjoyed it. Bought a copy to lend out to friends at the dojo so I don't have to give mine up.Angry White Pyjamas is a book written by Robert Twigger about his time in a one-year intensive program of studying Yoshinkan aikido. Soon after beginning regular training, Twigger decides that the only way to truly experience aikido is to do the Yoshinkan Senshusei course, [1] a gruelling 11-month program to train up instructors of Yoshinkan aikido. The course consists of four hours of training, five days a week, in addition to dojo-cleaning duties, special training weekends and demonstrations.

Communicates the existential purity of his elective regime with irrepressible passion ... it also has the unmistakable stamp of authentic experience ( Daily Telegraph) The author, and Englishman working in Tokyo, took up the martial art of Aikido. His dojo ran an intensive and brutal aikido course which is used to train the Japanese riot police. He signed up, and this is the account of what happened. Robert Twigger is a British author who has been described as, 'a 19th Century adventurer trapped in the body of a 21st Century writer'. He attended Oxford University and later spent a year training at Martial Arts with the Tokyo Riot Police. He has won the Newdigate prize for poetry, the Somerset Maugham award for literature and the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award.But once he joined Japan's most famous Aikido "dojo", (academy) he came up against all the challenges a life of tough physical action had to throw at him: Sadistic teachers, even more sadistic friends, repetitive training, broken limbs and the ominous "nobbies".