Angry White Pyjamas

Angry White Pyjamas is a book authored by Robert Twigger book, subtitled A Scrawny Oxford Poet Takes Lessons From the Tokyo Riot Police, which is mainly from Senshusei course, an eleven-month training program of the Yoshinkan Honbu Dojo.

Summary

The book takes place in Tokyo in mid -1990s. Robert Twigger lives with two friends in a small apartment near the city center. They all decide to start Yoshinkan Aikido to be physically fit and break out of their monotonous life.

Soon after the beginning of normal training, Twigger decides that the only way Aikido really experience the Senshusei course is a grueling eleven-month program to train Yoshinkan Aikido instructors. The course consists of four hours of training, five days a week. In addition, there is a duty to clean the dojo and to participate in special weekend training and demonstration events.

Twigger mostly describes the severity and the agony of very intensive course. He refers to techniques that are performed on knees, also called Suwari Waza until your knees bleed just to the next day to train again and this is aufzuschürfen the half-healed wounds. He describes techniques that are executed with such power and intensity that it often happened that one's head was smashed on the mat.

Other experiences the course include so-called " Hajime " units in which a non-stop technique is performed repeatedly many times up to half an hour or more. During these training sessions, practitioners are often unconscious or vomiting - particularly in the summer months. The teachers give the practitioner sometimes penalties if they think that they are not trying hard enough, including push -ups, sit- ups and squat jumps.

Among the other mentioned in the Book of persons there are several top Yoshinkan teachers, including Tsutomu Chida, Yasuhisa Shioda and Susumu Chino, just as Robert Mustard, the presiding teacher for foreigners. The teachers are sometimes described as quite cold, sometimes brutal and unsympathetic to the students that they inspire ever greater efforts to develop their technique and their spirit.

Furthermore writable Twigger other aspects of Tokyo and his life there, including his relationship with his girlfriend and her family, his work at a Japanese university as an English teacher and life stories with his two roommates. He also writes down thoughts about Japan and observations of Japanese culture.

Criticism

Twigger is criticized by many martial artists of his tone and the content of his book. In a passage often very controversial, he mentioned that he was very pleased to hear that Shioda Gozo had died because it meant a one-week break from training for him and the other students. Especially from the Stoic point of view of many philosophers from Budō seen his constant complaints about the hardness of the course, accompanied by sincere embarrassment are untrustworthy. Twigger had clearly known to what he was doing when he signed up to participate in such an intensive course, argue critics, and was evidence of an unfair character that he write a book about his complaints.

Many people have also complained about the personal remarks and the negative portrayal of other Senshusei student and the teacher.

However, most people find the book funny, what it is without doubt. Those who criticize it are even criticized for having no sense of humor. One could also say that the author as a writer has a special setting. It is clear that the book does not claim for itself to be taken completely seriously.

Praise

Others have Twigger for his outspoken honesty praised, with which he describes the course and the people in the dojo. Instead of a "clean" version to write, which makes everyone happy, he really describe the course as he thought about it - for example, as a difficult, frustrating and demoralizing experience. Some also say that the book caused more interest in Yoshinkan Aikido and the Senshusei course and have encouraged some people, even to train Yoshinkan Aikido.

• Aikido
• Literature ( English )