Wrestler and Diva Dirt contributor, Mia Yim is currently in Japan where she is set to debut for the REINA promotion. Mia will be sending us exclusive blogs and pictures from her trip. Check back for regular updates!
I finally land at the Narita airport May 12 (Thurs here) after a 16 hour flight. The flight itself wasn’t that bad, No crying babies or smelly old people. Decent, enjoyable trip. Once I land, it is already raining here, but I met up with the promoter and wait in the car. About 15 mins later, the promoter brings Roxie Cotton, and we both are just jumping in the back seat, excited as can be. We drive about an hour into the outskirts of the city of Tokyo called Chiba. We stop at the dojo to meet with the joshi girls and lucha girls. After ten mins there, we head to our apartment. Super cute little place. We both have our own bedrooms. Comfortable place, hard to understand how to work the stove and toilet. They are built completely different with different buttons. After settling in for about an hour, we both go out and meet up with Hailey Hatred. I haven’t seen her in about a year or two after she left America to live in Tokyo. It was great seeing her! She takes us into the city and shows us around. We later meet up with Kellie Skater and eat at a Denny’s. This Denny’s is totally different than the American Denny’s. Pancakes here are considered a dessert, and they barely serve any breakfast foods, more Japanese soups and meats. Once we finish eating, it’s about 10pm and both me and Roxie are exhausted. Still jetlagged. We finally take the train back to the apartment and pass out.
The next day, we both head to the dojo at 12:20pm for training. I really enjoyed today’s training session as it was a mixture of the Joshi girls and the CMLL Lucha girls. We did a few drills, bumped around, and the CMLL girls taught me how to take different moves I never took before, and taught me how to do lucha flips I’ve never done before. I learned so much in the three hours of training, even learned how to speak a little Japanese AND Spanish! Today was truly an experience. After training, me and Roxie go back to the apartment, shower, then head to the train to go into Tokyo once again. We went to the Ribera steakhouse, sooooo delicious. Probably the best steak I ever tasted. We will be making another trip down there before we leave. After a great meal, we head back to the apartment, once again exhausted although it is only midnight.
Saturday, me and Roxie wake up at 8-9am. Because we had some time to spare before heading to the dojo, we venture into Chiba, walking around to see what was close to us. We found a nice supermarket that had just about everything. Peanut butter is rare to find in Japan, but we found a small jar in this market. All the food and sauces are so much smaller than in America. We bought a bottle of maple syrup, and it is literally only like 10oz. A jar of strawberry jelly is the size of a plum. We head back to the Dojo around the same time. Another training session, but more so to go over everything for the REINA show Sunday. That was about 5 hours, then after that was over, the promoter took us and the lucha girls to get some authentic Japanese take out. It was fried pig, and it was super good. I could eat that everyday! We then go back to our apartment at around 8pm, No plans tonight since the next day is a BIG day. I just spent the night on the net and washing my frizzed out hair.
Today its our first wrestling day at REINA. I will be taking on Hiroyo Matsumoto. I have met her times before but never wrestled her. It willtruly be a great learning experience. It is currently 8am, and I am wide awake, preparing for my match mentally. Me and Roxie will probably go into town again just to walk around as the show doesn’t start til 6pm.
I will write you about my match tomorrow. Stay tuned!
– Mia Yim
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Follow Mia on Twitter at @MiaYim and visit her official website MiaYim.com.
