The Pyjama Game

[J-Sho]

I enjoyed it. As mentioned, good coverage of judo history, written by an experienced journalist. Lots of entertaining anecdotes too, covering a broad period. I also like that he devoted a fair bit of space to top female judoka. My full review here.

Angry White Pyjamas (reviewed that here) is also good, though he does make some very bizarre errors about the UFC and BJJ, saying that the Gracie family went to Japan in order to learn jiu jitsu, and that UFC 3 was held in Tokyo.

i see you have hopped onto wikipedia to lay that down

the first UFC in japan was 29 and that was several years after he was in Japan, but maybe he confused it with a Pancrase or Shooto event?

-UFC 3 was on september 9th 1994
-Pride wasn't even founded until 1997
-Pancrase RTTC 4 was in September 1994
-Rings didn't start until 1995
-Shooto VTA 1 was also in September 1994.

[slideyfoot]

but maybe he confused it with a Pancrase or Shooto event?

Possible: it is a very minor criticism of Angry White Pyjamas given it is just one page (and in general, I'd recommend the book as an entertaining, well-written piece of travel writing crossed with a martial arts memoir), but it stood out for me because it seemed like such a strange thing for him to say. If he got the UFC mixed up with Pancrase, that would go some way towards explaining it.

[J-Sho]

i assume re the gracies in japan comment he was just misinformed by someone, there was no internet to speak of back then.

ahh hang on, i forgot the Shooto hosted event Vale Tudo Japan - they had the card in 1994 in Japan with Rickson, Levicki, Smith etc.