Angry White Pyjamas: An Oxford Poet Trains with the Tokyo Riot Police (Paperback)

by Robert Twigger (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Adrift in Tokyo, teaching giggling Japanese highschool girls how to pronounce Tennyson correctly, Robert Twigger came to a revelation about himself: he'd never been fit. In a bid to escape the cockroach infestation and sweaty squalor of a cramped apartment in Fuji Heights, Twigger sets out to cleanse his body and his mind. Not knowing his fist from his elbow the author is sucked into the world of Japanese martial arts, and the brutally demanding course of budo training taken by the Tokyo Riot Police, where any ascetic motivation soon comes up against blood-stained dogis and fractured collarbones. In Angry White Pyjamas Robert Twigger skilfully blends the ancient with the modern - the ultra-traditionalism, ritual and violence of the dojo (training academy) with the shopping malls, nightclubs and scenes of everyday Tokyo life in the twenty-first century - to provide an entertaining and captivating glimpse of contemporary Japan.

About the Author
Robert Twigger won the Newdigate prize for poetry in 1985. He is the author of Angry White Pyjamas, winner of the Somerset Maugham Award and the William Hill Sports Book of the Year Award, Big Snake, The Extinction Club, Being a Man and Voyageur.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd ) (December 30, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0753808587
• ISBN-13: 978-0753808580
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #224,606 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Confusing, but interesting, May 16, 2009

By	Marc Colbeck - See all my reviews

I thought this was an interesting enough book, I finished it quickly, but I found the story a bit confusing. The names of the different students muddled together as I read it. By the end I was left with a bit of a 'so what' feeling. So, the author went through some stupidly harsh training in an organization that seemed rather sad. OK. So what? What did he get out of it? What did he learn?

His description of the Aikido organization he was involved with was pretty sad too. All the senior teachers sounded rather pathetic. Like (pathologically sadistic) businessmen putting in time until retirement. As someone with an interest in Aikido, it kind of turned me off the whole thing.

I think a bit less reporting and a bit more introspection, as well as a more careful control of the narrative to avoid confusion in the reader, would have made it a better book. It's a bit dated now too, being from the mid 90's.

5.0 out of 5 stars A very good read, April 27, 2008

By	Desert Rat (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews

I can't speak for Twigger's references to Japanese culture, but this is a really interesting book about some extremely tough aikido training and his life while going through the training. I recommend it for all aikido students in particular.

2.0 out of 5 stars Not the Japan I know, April 23, 2008

By	UltraBob "UltraBob" (Zushi, Kanagawa, JAPAN) - See all my reviews

An interesting story to be sure, but the author is often condescending about Japanese culture in areas where he completely misunderstands it. As I moved through the book I got increasingly frustrated with his characterizations of the Japanese people and the motivations for their actions. If you can get over Twigger's need to feel superior to the Japanese and a healthy smattering of details that he clearly made up to fill in the story (Japanese people calling someone who kisses to much Kissama doesn't make sense given Japanese pronunciation), I suppose the book is ok. It moves along fairly well, though the narrative is a bit choppy at times. I couldn't get over the skewed portrayal of Japan and that ruined the book for me.