Adrift in Tokyo, Robert Twigger came to a revelation about himself: he had never been fit. Guided by his flatmates, he set out to cleanse his body and mind, getting involved in Japanese martial arts, and undertaking a course of "budo" training normally taken by the Tokyo Riot Police. In this book, he 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 1990s - to provide an entertaining glimpse of contemporary Japan.