Book Review: Angry White Pyjamas

A poet by nature, an English teacher in a foreign land by trade; Twigger takes the bit between his teeth and enrols on Tokyo’s infamous riot police course – a gruelling year long course at the local Yoshikan Aikido dojo, with a hard reputation for breaking people.  Very quickly we get to know the other ‘foreigners’ on the course, men from all over the world who have earned their black belts and come to test their metal.  But there’s just one problem...  The closest Twigger has come to learning a martial art is reading a seventeenth century samurai manual.

Twigger takes us on a wildly entertaining journey through the fascinating nuances of modern Japan and the fierce traditionalism of the Yoshinkan Dojo.  This amazing man manages to cram as much into a year as we do in five.  This book will make you laugh out loud, boggle at the outrageous cultural foibles he encounters and feel his pain.  Whether you like martial arts or not, you will love this book.

Every aspiring and experienced Jitsuka alike should have this book on their shelf.  I won’t tell you whether Twigger passes the course or not but, regardless of his martial arts skill, this man certainly knows how to live and write a fantastic true story.

For readers who loved Angry White Pyjamas, I strongly recommend another of Twigger’s books: Big Snake.