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Review
"A frantic, very funny, urban quest." -- -- Simon Garfield, Mail on Sunday
Book Description
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.
Adrift in Tokyo, "thirtynothing" Robert Twigger came to a revelation about himself: He had never been fit or brave. Guided by his roommates, he set out to cleanse his body and mind. Not knowing his fist from his elbow, the author is sucked into the world of Japanese martial arts and joins the Tokyo Riot Police on their year-long, brutally demanding course of budo training, where any ascetic motivation soon comes up against blood-stained "white pyjamas" and fractured collarbones. In this entertaining book, 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 contemporary Japan.Adrift in Tokyo, "thirtynothing" Robert Twigger came to a revelation about himself: He had never been fit or brave. Guided by his roommates, he set out to cleanse his body and mind. Not knowing his fist from his elbow, the author is sucked into the world of Japanese martial arts and joins the Tokyo Riot Police on their year-long, brutally demanding course of budo training, where any ascetic motivation soon comes up against blood-stained "white pyjamas" and fractured collarbones. In this entertaining book, 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 contemporary Japan.'I've been sacked' Chris announced, 'for being bald.' Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Poetically licentious,
By "agwhee" (Yokohama, Japan) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Angry White Pyjamas (Paperback)
The most poetic thing about this 'scrawny Oxford poet's' travalogue is the license he takes with the truth. Everyone is entitled to his own experiences, thoughts, reflections, and even a few misunderstandings, but as a long-time resident of Japan and a 5th dan in Aikido I found Angry White Pyjamas to be a litany of skewed truths, half truths, rank generalizations based on isolated events, and so-called 'facts' that Twigger could only have drawn from the exit hole of a horse. Japan is not always an easy place to live in for foreigners, but Twigger's unrelentingly negative portrayal, which starts off as mildly humorous, begins to take on the aspect of a supercilious sneer that really grated on my nerves. I won't even begin to take him to task for his myopic portrayal of Aikido as an art peopled by sadistic thugs, except to say that it betrays his lack of maturity as a martial artist and his wilful blindness to the higher aspirations of Aikido, which he didn't even deign to touch on. Even if taken lightly as a 'jolly little bit of fiction,' this book left me flat, as the main character showed zero growth or insight as the story progressed. I only gave it two stars because it is stylistically quite well-written--its one saving grace.
4.0 out of 5 stars
a fascinating account,
By Woodge (Newburyport, MA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Angry White Pyjamas (Paperback)
Approaching thirty years old, Robert Twigger was teaching English in Japan and came to the realization that he has never been fit nor brave. Not only does he decide to rectify this by learning some martial arts, he seeks out the toughest course available: the year-long Riot Police course in aikido. My own idle thoughts about how tough a course like this might be were dwarfed by the brutal reality. This fascinating account details many of the hardships the Riot Police students (senshusei) endure if they are to make it through the course. Never mind the broken bones, strains, and constant bruises, when Twigger got to the part about wearing all the skin off his knees repeatedly, I thought that only a masochist would willingly sign up for this course. (Personally, I'm going to stick to racquet sports.) I started reading this book one late night after 11pm (on a work night) and read 30 pages before forcing myself to put it down and go to bed. Angry White Pyjamas was a gripping read. I suppose the author did feel braver after the Riot Police course because a year later he began training as a bullfighter in Spain.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Funny and appallingly honest,
By A Customer
This review is from: Angry White Pyjamas (Paperback)
Caveat: I don't practice aikido nor do I live in Japan.Overall, I found the book amusing. I enjoyed the game he played with his Iranian friend as well as the discussion of his friend's missing drawers. Tho' I've one minor quibble, to a one, everyone I know who does Shorinji Kempo are all on the same page in assuring me its not a cult. On a more serious note, I especially enjoyed his description of the training. ... it seems people are offended for three over-arching reasons--they/their instructor/their colleagues are portrayed less than ideally, aikido isn't portrayed as a land of Ki Society milk and honey, or the Japanese aren't portrayed as a group of hyper-rational, hyper-polite salarymen. ... ... In my subject, I used the term appallingly honest because I doubt Twigger realized the gravity of his sins--airing his, the Yoshinkan's, and Japanese society's dirty drawers in public. After all, only a gauche foreigner who never made the effort would bring this up publicly. He forgot he was supposed to write about the glory of his adversity, the glorious mythology of his teachers, and the grandeur of Japan. Anything else would be unacceptable. Looking back, I suspect the story over his roommate's missing undies is symbolic. In my experience in another Japanese system, instructors and training compadres often were a tad loopy and sometimes borderline mean and sometimes, well, just plain old fashioned mean. Likewise, in my experience training with aikidoka, they're the ones who come the closest to actually injuring me. For a while, I thought I was alone in noticing this, but I've heard others, including my aiki friends, say the same thing.
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