Nikuraba's Japanese MMA Bible

Training, Living and Working in Japan: A resource guide by Nikuraba

Version 2.0 - completed 18th July 2002

Purpose

This guide is written specifically for SFUK to give advice to MMA fans coming to Japan from the UK. It covers: training MMA and BJJ; visas and jobhunting; MMA shows and shopping. Upon arriving you will immediately appreciate just what a martial arts Mecca Japan is. Pride and K-1 are part of popular culture here, and show on free TV a week after the live PPV. There's a professional mma show almost every weekend in Tokyo, and if you like kickboxing too then you could easily make 2 shows a week. There's a plethora of mma gyms dotted around the country, and because of the number of pro fighters in Japan, most of them have good seasoned teachers.

Making money is pretty easy too. If you are English you'll have no problem getting work for Y230,000+ pcm (exchange rate is between 160-190 yen per pound, so about 17,000 quid a year and up) thanks to the working holiday visa system and the massive market for English teaching. That way, you can easily come here for an mma training holiday for up to a year without having to worry about money (except for the first month or so)

Feel free to update this guide and pass it around, just give me the credit for what I wrote and identify which information you added yourself so I don’t get blamed for your mistakes! This guide is free, so if you paid for it you should choke out the seller. If you actually come to Japan and find that this guide helped you, please post up on www.sfuk.net forum and tell me. I've put alot of time and effort into this, so I'd be really pleased to know it's worth it.

Version 2.0 notes

This is the `definitive` version where I have completed all sections. I may add to it later such as more telephone numbers or even new sections, but for the time being this is complete. This version is about 50% bigger than version 1.0, mainly due to completing the last few sections on gyms, shops and promotions. Also the non-high school sections and immigration section are much bigger.

Although I don't plan to do a major re-write anytime soon, I'd appreciate any and all constructive feedback so I can slowly work towards a new version. In particular:

1. Which sections need to be bigger and how.

2. Is anything unclear or out of date.

3. Specific questions that I haven't already answered, or new topics that could be included.

4. Information you can give me, such as gyms not listed, better website urls etc.

Enough of the prelims, let's get it underway......

Index

1. How to enter Japan

2. Flight details

3. Jobhunting

4. Housing

5. Training in mma

6. Enjoying the mma lifestyle

7. Faking it and other topics