The Shintaro Higashi Show - Tokyo Judo Tour Recap | The Shintaro Higashi Show

Episode Date: December 22, 2025

Follow for more footage of the trip:Instagram: @midjitsuYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@midjitsuGunji YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UCMoJ0AislQLTaA7jbBB_Ufw Happy Holidays! The year is wrapping up so join David Kim as he recaps a unique Japan Judo Tour led by Kensuke Gunji, a former elite Asahi Kasei judoka and current New York-based coach. From training at prestigious universities to sparring with Japanese middle schoolers and witnessing the intensity of the Tokyo Grand Slam, this episode offers a behind-the-scenes look at Japan’s judo culture, world-class athletes, and unforgettable mat experiences.Whether you're considering your own Japan training trip or just want an inside view into elite judo environments, this episode is packed with insight, stories, and travel tips.⏱️ Episode Breakdown:00:00 Trip Intro & Arrival in Tokyo01:20 Mizuno Store & Kodokan Practice02:33 Keio University Training & Dinner with Students04:00 Asahi Dojo in Yokohama – Youth Judo & Culture Shock06:20 Tokyo Grand Slam – Matches, Upsets & Hifumi Abe's Comebacks07:30 Training at Waseda University & Surprise Randori with an Olympic Gold Medalist09:00 Final Day – Jiu-Jitsu at Arta Mita & Omakase Dinner10:15 Reflections on the Trip – Lessons, Highlights & Advice for Future Travelers🚨 LIMITED-TIME OFFER: 40% OFF 🚨The All-in-One Instructional Bundle just got even better.Every major instructional. One complete system. Now at our biggest discount yet.Grab yours now at 40% off : https://higashibrand.com/products/all-instructionalsThis won’t last. Build your game today.🔥 Get 20% OFF FUJI Gear! 🔥Looking to level up your judo training with the best gear? FUJI Sports has you covered. Use my exclusive link to grab 20% OFF high-quality gis, belts, bags, and more.👉 https://www.fujisports.com/JUDOSHINTARO 👈No code needed – just click and save!Links:🇯🇵 Kokushi Budo Institute (The Dojo) Class Schedule in New York, NY 🗽: https://www.kokushibudo.com/schedule🇯🇵 Higashi Brand Merch & Instructionals: https://www.higashibrand.com📚 Shintari Higashi x BJJ Fanatics Judo Courses & Instructionals Collection: https://bjjfanatics.com/collections/shintaro-higashi/

All right, all right, my name is David Kim, and I just got back from our Japan Judo tour with Kinskei Gunji. This is just going to be a little recap for those of you who may be thinking about heading out there to train or visit or what have you. But yes, we made it back to Cold New York. So as I mentioned, Kinske Gunji put the tour together. He's a former Asai Kase team member currently teaching in New York. And because, you know, he was a Japanese judoka at a very high level, he had a lot of access to getting people into places where normally it would be difficult to get access to. And so It was a one-week trip. First day, obviously, you're just traveling to Tokyo,

getting into your hotel, but the first full day was pretty chill. We went to the Mizuno store. They've got all sorts of sports there, but judo as well. So a lot of the guys that went on the trip wanted to get some custom-fitted judo geese. Good, you. Come in the frame.

How does that say made in China? Why does that say made in China? We don't understand. We don't understand. We don't understand it. Are you sure? These are the mysteries that we are uncovering in Japan. Let's look.

Can you find it? So the thing here is that if it says made in China on the label, my man Kenny is not getting it. After going to Mizuno, we went to the Kodokan. Look at all these dummies. Where we basically observed Wednesday practice and Wednesday practices are generally attended by international athletes, college athletes, pros, because Japan does have like a pro league for judo. So we're able to watch that and get a feeling for what those training sessions are like. And it was pretty well attended also just because the Tokyo Grand Slam was coming up. And the Tokyo Grand Slam is basically what this whole trip was structured around.

After that, the next day was really pretty free. Some of them just went to Tokyo Tower. Check that out like normal tourists. And then we went to train at Keo University. It's one of the, I think it has the oldest judo club in Japan. If I remember correctly, among universities. and it's generally considered a prestigious university. And so we trained with the judo team.

Super nice kids. I mean, the facility was great. I would say in general, you know, you're in Japan, you're at a college, obviously the level of judo is going to be much higher than your average club in the US. But it was great, and then we had dinner with all the, not all of them, but a lot of the kids afterwards. afterwards. So that guy went to high school in white planes. This guy, Dongguan, is

Korean, somehow going to college in Japan. And these two are the business guys. The pair, the business, the business partners. And this is some kind of Japanese plum liquor that we are gonna go to town. Okay, let's go. Let's go. Let's just this. Yes, come back. Oh, not bad. The day after that, what did we do? We went to Asahi Dojo in Yokohama. This was on Friday, I believe.

And this was probably one of the highlights of the trip. I would say Keo and Asai Dojo were the two main highlights of the trip. But Asai Dojo specializes in training youth, you know, basically kids that are below high school age. And it was fascinating. I mean, as an older person, you know, watching how the instructor, his name is Dai Asahi. He's the owner of the dojo. And it almost felt like he was teaching one continuous like three-hour class. I mean, we got there and he was already teaching.

And then by the time we left, which we probably three hours later, He was still teaching. The interesting thing was that kids would kind of cycle in and off the mat, on and off the mat. I mean, yes, there was kind of a formal release of kids when they were done with class, but he didn't really stop. The class never really stopped. And the average age of the kids got older as the train went on, but kids would come off, kids would come on, and it was just fascinating to watch how he controlled the room. I'm here with Kenny Batista, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt.

So what impressed you about that class? What did you like about that class when we were watching? Oh man, just the fact that the kids were having so much fun and they were learning so many essential skills and it just, it was play, so they're not, it didn't feel forced in any way, shape or form. And these things are just going to be automatic for them. for them. The night I'm going to think about it in the future is just going to happen. And some of them were pretty slick. I did great against like those eight and unders.

Yes. Oh yeah, they couldn't pass my guard. No way. No way. Even the Randori with these middle schoolers, I mean, we did the university yesterday. They destroyed us, granted. But then getting destroyed by the middle schoolers. At least they had, at least they had the good taste to at least breathe hard. After that, you're hitting the weekend, so basically we are there to watch the Tokyo Grand Slam,

basically the Japanese judoka show. If you look at like the flags for all the medal ceremonies, the winner was typically Japanese and many of the second and third place winners were also Japanese. So it almost seemed like some kind of like Japanese national team trials or something like that. You have muscle? Is that a question? A lot of drama. Hifumi Abbe won a couple matches, like, in the last seconds of the match, which is pretty dramatic.

I don't know how he pulled it off because he did not look particularly good in those matches, but somehow got the Ipe on at the end. So, you know, a pretty good two days of judo. It was a lot of judo. We're sitting there for a long time and the chairs were very uncomfortable. I felt bad for the bigger guys because they were just kind of sardined into those chairs. But nevertheless, it was a very good time. Beautiful bento.

Bento. Wagyu bento. Oh, is it Wagyu Bento? Wagyu Bento. Wagyu. Wobu Bento. Uh-oh, here come the animals. After the weekend on Monday, we had another college training session.

We went to Waseda University, Keo University's arrival. This was a little bit more arm's length. Kinske Gunji, who organized the trip is a Keo University alum. So he knows that program, he knows that university very well. Obviously, he went there, was it not the same thing. And there were a lot of international athletes there as well. One of the members of our group got to do some randori with Iliadis, the Greek gold medalists from several years back.

He had no idea who he was when he was sparring with him, which we all thought was very funny. You just, you just did Mandurie with a gold medalist. Really? Yeah. Gold medalist. Okay. That makes me feel a little bit better.

The last day was really more of a free day. There was another Kodokan visit because there was this training camp that all the international athletes go to after the Grand Slam is over. I skipped. I did not go. I instead went to train Jiu-Jitsu at Arta Mita, which is in kind of the Tamachi area near the Mita train station. and got to meet Diego Enrique, who is, I believe, part Japanese, part Brazilian. And he runs a program there.

He's the head coach there. And, you know, it's very much like other jiu-jitsu schools that you, you know, you've been to great, a lot of good instruction and good sparring. I would I recommend visiting there if you get a chance to go. And then we finally had a dinner, a final dinner at a private Omokaze situation. Food was great. The food was great in Japan, just generally. It's a lot cheaper in Japan now than it was, you know, the last time I was there many, many years ago. And a lot of the guys went shopping in Chibuya, you know, all the normal touristy things that you do.

I just went shopping for my kids to get some things from Japan that they wouldn't normally be able to get here in the U.S. But all in all, I would say it was a great trip. The guys were good. you know, we all managed to get along and have a good time, and I think, you know, we were all impressed by the, you know, certainly the kids at Asahi Dojo, which, you know, you wouldn't expect, you know, that was kind of like an odd thing on the schedule, you know, going to a class with a bunch of kids, but in the end, I would say that's the most unique experience that we had while in Japan and probably one of the more rewarding things. Because, you know, you can get thrown

by you know better judoka anytime really and it's not like you know we were all high-level judoka you know far from it whether you get thrown by someone in Japan or someone in the US it's the same but I would say the the quality of the Randori and just I would say one of the things that was nice about being in Japan is I was never concerned about getting injured one the level the difference at level is just so high you know there's nothing I can do that's going to make them nervous. And too, they just took very good care of us, so I appreciate it.

Anyone who's looking to do a trip like this, whether it's with Kenske-Gunji or someone else, I know that Chintaro Nakano does a similar trip. He's out of San Jose. So if you're on the West Coast, that might be something to look out for. But if you're ever looking to go to Japan to do this kind of training, I'll recommend it.