J-Girl Kickboxing

We have some appreciation for fighting, so we were happy to get a chance to see a J-Girls Kickboxing event in Shinjuku. We opted for standing tickets instead of seats and kind of expected to have a poor view of the ring and the action.

Surprisingly, the area is on the sixth floor of a building (above an arcade, below a bowling alley) and big enough to hold the audience but small enough that we had a great view.

Random fight from somewhere in the middle of the night. I love that both contestants are wearing pink:

At the end of the fight, the contestants bumped gloves in acknowledgement, then went to the opponent's corner for a drink of water. Kind of a nice touch, I thought. Then the winner posed for pictures and left the ring.



I hadn't thought about it, but even women's kickboxing events have bikini-clad ring girls. Several of them, in fact.

See the guy in green in the back? His only job seemed to be stretching the ropes to allow the bikini girls in and out of the ring.

Evidently the bikini girls were auditioning at this event to be part of some permanent Bikini Girl talent pool or something. Just before intermission, they each got into the ring and made a little speech, and everyone had a voting sheet that had been handed to them with the admission ticket. On the way out, we passed by a ballot box.

Another random fight from the middle of the night, a little closer to the end. The fighters were a little more skilled than in the previous video.

The last couple matches were evidently for something important. Both the winners and the losers shed tears (for different reasons, of course). The winners got a trophy and a case of some drink, but I'm not sure if that was it or if it's representative of an endorsement deal. Either way, good for them!