I: For those who don’t already know, can you just give us a quick rundown of who you are and what you do in Nagoya?
T: I’m the general manager of two clubs, ID and Abime. I teach martial arts and I train a couple of pro fighters.
I: Okay, so how did this all get started?
T: I was in the entertainment and security business in Los Angeles and a headhunter showed up from an agency in Japan. They asked me to do some modeling and a bunch of different things. At one point while I was here, there was a violent situation that I neutralized. At the time there were so many dangerous foreigners coming into the country. The company knew that they needed somebody who could handle them so they introduced me to some of the top people. That’s how everything took off.
I: What were your initial impressions of the country when you arrived?
T: The people were, at the time, so excited to see foreigners. Everyone was extra nice to me. That was nice, to be special. But you’ve got to be honest with yourself and not get caught up in the Japanese paint, the “oh… you’re so cute, you’re so good looking you’re so sexy” or the flattery. If you can get through all that and really stick with the morals that you grew up with, you can get ahead in this country. You’ll be given a chance. A lot of people think the Japanese are racist, but they aren’t. They’re just trying to survive like everybody else. Japan is not in a good economic situation. They’re not having enough children to produce a younger generation. So, I worry a little about this country. But, they’re strong people and they’re gonna be able to work it all out, to fight it out.
I: You mentioned your interest in martial arts. How did that get started?
T: Growing up in Los Angeles and having spent most of my life there, I was surrounded by an extreme amount of violence as a child. It was dangerous, everyone knew it. The people around my neighborhood were tough guys so I was brought up around self-defense. When I was eleven years old, my father brought me into a Judo dojo because I was a hyperactive child. I was also so impressed with Bruce Lee’s movies and I used to go to this little martial arts shop and look at all his books and catalogues. When I came to Japan, a girl took me to K1 and it was one of Musashi’s first fights. I watched them pound on each other so hard that… that was just my dream. I knew right then and there that was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
I: Would you mind listing some of your accomplishments as a martial artist?
T: I got into Tae Kwon Do while I was still in the US so when I came here to Japan and got into full contact Karate, I was also getting my TKD black belt and certifications from South Korea. The Karate was very hard for me. Japanese Karate is their culture; it’s like their samurai sword. I went to the hardest dojo in Japan and I was the only foreigner there. You know, you break a foot and they expect you to walk on it and keep fighting with it. That’s just the way they are. People get their legs broken, their shins broken, their ankles broken, their ribs broken and they’re gone in one year. I understood that and I broke some bones and kept it up. I did a lot of damage to my body but finally got through the tournaments and got my black belt. At that point, I was in the corner of Peter Aerts the world Muay Thai heavyweight and four-time K1 champion. I was working with him and he was a very good friend of mine. I wanted to work on my boxing so I left my dojo and went to Matseda Boxing gym. That was about 6 years ago, and I left there about a year ago.
I: Tell me about the toughest fight of your career.
T: I’d have to say my toughest fight was against Lee Cham Pong, the M-1 world champion. That fight was vale tudo rules, in a cage with elbows and stomps. He was 20 kilos heavier than me and I got tumbled by him. It wasn’t that I was scared of the tumble, or of the damage that he was going to do to me, it was that I had not believed in myself. I kept questioning my heart because he was heavier, he was more experienced, he was famous. I kept watching him on the net in Russia, in Holland at all the M-1s just pounding on these big, tattoo white guys. I made the mistake of looking at a paper tiger. You make yourself your own enemy; you make enemies inside of your head. I let the paper tiger scare me. I let it get to me, the pressure from the crowd, from the cameras, from the lights, from the mafia that’s involved in all this business. That’s why I lost that fight.
I: If you had to name a few key elements to the successes that you’ve had, what would they be?
T: The guidance I got from my family and my experiences growing up led me to realize that, when I have a chance in life, if I am honest and straight with people, I will be successful
I: You seem to value honesty yet Japan is a country known for being dishonest. What’s your take on that?
T: Yea, I was surprised by that. You know, how the Japanese will sweep the real problems underneath the mat and then paint a pretty picture for the public. I didn’t understand that right away. Everyone has their own ways. The Japanese are extremely sensitive. They don’t want to cause turmoil. The reason I’m staying honest is because there was a culture here hundreds of years ago, samurai… honest soldiers. And that’s all I want to be is an honest soldier. I’m 47 now and I can’t say I’m perfect, but I’m trying to get better every day. You’ve gotta stick with honesty, you know, with yourself. It doesn’t matter if it’s Japan or not.
I: You’re a pretty big personality in Nagoya. What’s that like?
T: My club is extremely popular. It gives me a lot of popularity, but at the same time it takes away my privacy. Wherever I go, whatever I do I’m being watched. And, besides that, my job is so serious that the cops and government watch everything that I do. There’s good and bad, but for some reason it has worked for me.
I: Any advice specifically for those who plan on staying in Japan for a long time?
T: The only advice I can give them is if they’re leaving anything at home, their mother, their father, their brother or sister, their child is that… that time won’t come back. Once those people die, once you start losing your family you will pay a price for spending so much time here. I can’t tell everybody what to do, but if your destiny is here, if your dream is in Japan, just believe in it and work towards it every day and it will come true. I think that’s true anywhere.
I: What’s your opinion of all the English teachers that you’ve seen come and go?
T: I’ve seen some good English teachers and some bad ones. I’ve seen some go to jail. I’ve seen some get beaten up badly. I’ve seen some simply disappear. They probably have a lot of stress when they come here and they don’t speak the language. They come to my club and they’re drunk out of their minds and looking for Japanese women most of them. Japan is a man’s country. The women are so nice; it’s like a candy store here. Then again, the women that are teaching English are really nice too and the guys don’t even look at them. And they should.
I: What is the next mountain for you to climb?
T: I’d like to open another club in a different part of Japan. The clubs that we have now are so busy that I can’t get off the door. I’d also like to open my own martial arts school and maybe meet the right woman, get married.
I: The way you run security, you seem to be friends with everyone. How do you balance being a nice, friendly guy with the ability to get down to business when it’s necessary?
T: I was kind of born with a chameleon kind of character, a gift for talking bullshit. The way I grew up, I survived by using that ability to cope with a lot of different situations, with different types of people. I was in a lot of dangerous areas, so I have a sense of danger. I can feel it coming. I can sense whether a customer is dangerous. They’ll be drunk and crazy and I have to deal with that, but at the same time there may be somebody waiting to stick a knife in me so I have to prepare my staff to watch my back. I grew up knowing how to work with drunks and druggies, violent people and sick people. It takes a certain kind of person to deal with them. You can’t take somebody that grew up with their mother and father till they were 18, went to college, been taken care of and they’re 25, 26 years old and put them in front of my club and tell them to run it. The first day they would shit their pants.
I: You run a crew of scary guys. What is it that makes them respect you as their leader?
T: The reason they respect me is because I respect them. And, I have to have respect for them at every level. I can’t look over them. I have to look with them. So when I deal with Africans and Brazilians and Peruvians and Iranians and all those people that are working for me, and they’re all over 100 kilos and they’re pro fighters, they’re not working for what little money I give them. They’re working because of respect for me and my respect for them. And that takes time. You know that didn’t come yesterday. That came with a lot of incredible experiences. A lot of bloodshed. A lot of bloodshed. If a man’s brother is going down, if they’re in trouble, they know that I’ll be there. And they give me that respect… that honor.
I: What are those situations like?
T: You’ve actually got to be real ugly, to know that this is not the ring, it’s not the dojo. This is bottles, glasses, guns, pistols, knives, everything and anything. It moves in slow motion. It’s strange. You do what you have to do. That’s a man’s world. We’re a bunch of dogs, ya know. Every person, there’s an animal in that person. It just depends on what animal possessed you. I don’t like violence. I’m not a violent person. Going down the street, beating up innocent people and thinking I’m bad… boy I definitely ain’t going to be doing that because I know that God will definitely hit me with a bigger fist. What goes around comes around. It always happens, so I am really careful of hurting people in my club and of hurting people who don’t deserve it. That’s the thing that has kept me so long in the club business, is making sure that innocent people don’t get hurt as much as I can. It’s very important to me.
I: Thanks for talking with me and for protecting the innocent people of Nagoya. Did I mention you’re my hero?
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