若くして旅をせず老いて何を語らん
If you don't adventure when you're young, what stories will you tell when you're old?

合宿や試合も旅の一つだと思っている。

柔道のおかげで、日本中に合宿や試合に行って、たくさんの友達が出来た。また海外に行く時も柔道衣を持って行き、その国で柔道や柔術をすると一気にその国の人達と距離が縮まって、さらに友達が出来た。

でも柔道衣だけではなく、ボクシンググローブやマウンテンバイク・ロードバイクを海外に持っていっても同じことだ。

ありふれた言葉だが、武道やスポーツは言葉や国境をなくしてくれる素敵なものだと実感する。

お金のない２０代前半に、寝る間も惜しんでお金を貯めて言葉も全く分からないブラジルに武者修行に行った経験は、忘れられない最高の思い出だ。

これからも、たくさんの友達と出会うために柔道衣やスポーツ道具を持って旅を重ねていきたい。

I think of training camp and competition as a kind of journey.

Thanks to judo, I’ve been able to travel to camps and competitions all over Japan, and have made many friends. When I traveled overseas, I brought my judo-gi with me. Training in judo and ju-jutsu with the people of other countries, I felt the distances between us shrink, and I made even more friends.

But it wasn’t just my judo-gi that connected me with others. I also brought boxing gloves, mountain bikes, and my road bike.

It’s a well-worn phrase, but I’ve seen that martial arts and sports really can break down barriers between people.

In the first half of my twenties when I had little money, I scraped together enough of it to take a trip to Brazil. I didn’t know a single word of Portuguese, but the time I spent training there is one of my most precious memories.

Going forward, I plan to take my judo-gi and sports equipment to many other places in hopes of making more new friends.