We decided to start heading back, as it already was about 945am, to my class with Tri-Force Jiu Jitsu Academy...
Before talking about my experience with Tri-Force Jiu Jitsu Academy, Lets talk about what got me into Jiu Jitsu.
What got me into Jiu Jitsu was my love for UFC and the fact that Michelle and I had a Physical/Occupational Therapy clinic. I told Michelle,"What perfect time to do the sport than now? We can probably treat people with their injuries!" I was only thinking about going to it once a week with the thought of just being there as a marketing thing. And so I went, and the first 2 weeks of BJJ was absolutely brutal. Nothing could have prepared me for the soreness that came from the 2 weeks of training! I ended up going once a week because I was so sore! My whole body was sore!!! I stuck with it knowing that I was in it for the long haul due to marketing. I gotta to tell you if it wasn't for the business, I would have probably quit because it was so physically demanding! Fast forward the 2nd month, I had my first submission... from then on I became hooked! Suddenly I started to really like it, then I started to day dream about it. Day by day I was falling in love with the sport, then I noticed that all I talked about was Jiu Jitsu. Inevitably, since we travel so much, I wanted to train with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu every where we went! So now we're back to where we started...
We decided to start heading back, as it already was about 945am, to my class with Tri-Force Jiu Jitsu Academy. We went back to Hyatt to freshen up and gather my Gi to head back down to Shinjuku Train Station. The Academy was short 8-10 min walk from the station. When we got to the area, we couldn't find the Academy! So we bothered a young couple and asked them, via pointing at our map, where it was, so the four of us spent 10 mins walking around a 4 block radius! The funny thing was the guy found it not too far away where we asked them for help, a 100 feet away to be exact!!! We bowed and thanked them as best we could for wasting their time. The Academy is located oddly in a basement of a comercial building but had its own stairs and entrance. At this point I didn't know what to expect, I knew that most places in the basement spaces/offices in buildings had no windows, for obvious reasons, due to us looking for office space for our clinic. I had a feeling that it was gonna be dirty and dark.... like the movie Fight Club where they were all fighting inside the basement of a bar. So we took the stairs down from the outside and entered the Academy.
http://www.triforce-bjj.com/en/
As we entered Tri-Force Jiu Jitsu Academy, I immediately noticed that it didn't smell like the mens locker room in the gym, in fact it didn't smell at all! The Academy was so well lit that it felt like we were outside and almost didn't notice that there were no windows. The Academy was so clean that I think we could have ate food off of the floors!
http://www.triforce-bjj.com/en/
We were greeted warmly by Coach Koji Shibamoto, who later, I found out that he is a highly decorated elite-level Jiu Jitsu, à la World Champion, Tokyo International open Champion and many others.
Check out Coach Shibamoto here at http://www.bjjheroes.com/bjj-fighters/koji-shibamoto
He asked us to remove our shoes right at the door, and had me sign the proper paperworks. He then led me to the Mens Locker room which had showers.... THEY HAD SHOWERS!!!! After changing into my Kimono/Gi, I couldn't believe that I was about to experience my dream! I was in Japan, where Jiu Jitsu came from in a Academy highly regarded one of the best about to roll!!! This is UNBELIEVABLE!!!! Coach Shibamoto taught the class with flawless technique instructions that I unfortunately screwed up from the get go, being a white belt and all. Then it was sparring time, my favorite part of the class! I was absolutely murdered by them.... They were sooo high level!!! One of the classmate I had the pleasure of rolling with was my friend Mr. Yoshijima, who later told me that he was a Doctor, as I told him I was Nurse while I blused... I felt really blessed to have an opportunity to roll with all kinds of people being part of this sport. Tri-Force Academy made me feel welcome and was gracious to us in every way possible. If you're ever around the area, Pop into Tri-Force Academy in Japan!
Stay tuned for the next one!
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