The World Outside

My first memory of swimming in nature is of getting into trouble in a river and my father rescuing me. I also remember that whenever I tried a new sport, he was always my first training partner.

Now I am a father of four and a football coach. I spend much of my time giving children opportunities to try something unfamiliar, while leaving them enough space to learn for themselves.

A Forest in the City

I grew up in central Nagoya. Although we lived in the city, there were still forests and open spaces around us, so nature was always close.

There was a temple near our home with a large forest. My friends and I ran through it, played hide-and-seek, and spent a lot of time there together. I rode bicycles with my school friends and football teammates, raced along the bumpy trails on a bicycle that was not a proper mountain bike, and played football every day.

My father played football through university and continued as an adult. I remember going to watch his matches, and we played together often. I have an older brother who is three years older than me, and our father took the whole family camping. We went to the river in summer and skiing in winter.

I also attended swimming school, but the river gave me my first experience of swimming outside. Later, running followed a similar path. Running had always been part of my football training, but when I went alone, I preferred the mountains to the city. When I moved to Kobe for university, I often ran in the mountains nearby.

There is also a place in Miyazaki Prefecture that I especially enjoy for swimming, cycling, and running. It is my wife’s hometown, with a beautiful sea, good cycling routes, fewer people, warm weather, and especially good food.

Football Was Already There

I do not really remember starting football. My father loved the game, and I began when I was about three years old, before I was old enough to remember the moment clearly. Football was simply part of my life.

I loved the feeling of scoring a goal, and that made me want to play more. Eventually, I became completely absorbed in the game. Football gave me opportunities, but playing alongside some of the best players in Japan also showed me my own limitations. It helped me understand where I stood and gave me more motivation.

One of the people who changed my outlook was a teammate I played with in Spain. He was about 35 at the time, but he still had dreams that made you forget his age. He approached every training session seriously, and watching the way he continued to pursue his goals changed my own attitude toward football and training.

At first, my reason for traveling was simple. I wanted to visit countries where football was strong, so I went to different places and always carried a ball with me.

Brazil made a particularly strong impression. Older men and women played football, and small children played too. Everyone was involved, and I realized that football was part of the culture there.

Until then, I had approached football mainly as a competitive sport. Brazil reminded me that sport should first be enjoyed. It also showed me how different the sporting environment could be outside Japan.

From Football to Triathlon

After I retired as a football player, a former teammate and I talked about using the fitness we had developed through football to try another sport. We made a promise to enter a triathlon together one year later, and that was how I began.

I liked having three disciplines. I could swim one day and ride the bike the next, with a different kind of training to enjoy each day. Football needs very little equipment, so I was also interested in learning a sport that depended on equipment, especially the bicycle.

My former teammate and I entered Ironman Centrair together. Around the same period, I had an opportunity to enter XTERRA through an entry lottery. I wanted to see what that world was like, so I accepted the challenge. I am still in contact with friends and athletes I met through those races.

After I married and had children, I moved away from triathlon for a while. My eldest daughter, Tsubasa, is now 12. About three years ago, we began entering triathlons together, and racing with her brought back my own motivation for the sport.

I still do not follow a highly structured training program. Most of my training happens while I kick a ball with the children, ride bicycles with them, and join the activities we do together.

A Place for Every Child

I work as a football coach and also run a group focused on outdoor activities. Although Renato is a football club, my aim is wider than introducing the children to other sports. I want them to see what exists outside the football environment altogether.

In football, only 11 players can start a match. Children can quickly become ranked by who is good and who is not, and that is something I do not want.

When we spend time in nature, different abilities become visible. A child who is not good at football may be good at making something. Another may be skillful with their hands, while someone else may be able to tell an interesting story. Children begin to find different reasons to value themselves and one another, and I believe that creates a better environment for them.

There were many things I wanted to teach that football alone could not provide. That was why I wanted to create a community where children could try many kinds of challenges. We climb mountains, cycle hundreds of kilometers, camp, enter triathlons, and take part in other sports.

“The children may laugh or cry depending on whether they win or lose, but they are usually happy to accept the challenge. More than anything, they teach me how to enjoy the challenge itself.”

From the outside, our activities may look as though we are simply playing. There is educational meaning behind them, and much of what we do is intentional. Children need room to learn things for themselves instead of having everything given to them. I want more people to understand this way of working with children and giving them room to discover things independently.

Eight Children on the Road

In the summer of 2026, my wife and I traveled through Europe with eight children. Four are our own: Tsubasa, our 12-year-old daughter; our second daughter, Misaki, who is 10; Hyuga, our seven-year-old son; and Genzo, our two-year-old son. The other four take part in both Renato and our Adventure Club.

The children play football and take part in triathlons, although the two-year-old mainly just kicks a ball around for now. My wife traveled as a staff member and handled much of daily life, including cooking, looking after the children, and getting them where they needed to be.

We had been in the Netherlands for about a week before traveling in rental vehicles toward Prachatice for XTERRA Czech Republic. We planned to camp and see parts of Germany along the way. The Czech Republic was far from Japan, but the summer holiday gave us fewer football practices and matches, and I wanted everyone to have the opportunity to try a triathlon.

Organizing activities overseas with children is difficult, but we do similar things together in Japan. Everyone on the trip had already joined our camps and group activities, so they understood how we worked. The location had changed, but from the children’s point of view, what we were doing was not so different.

The budget was one of the hardest parts. One day, I realized we did not have enough pots for cooking. A nearby HEMA was selling one for €44, which felt far too expensive, so I traveled for more than an hour to another IKEA and bought one for €10. The round trip took about three hours, but I was happy because I had saved €34.

Tsubasa and Aki

Tsubasa is very serious and can train toward a goal every day. She especially likes endurance sports. When she prepares for a race, she goes running alone each morning. She enjoys deciding on a goal and then doing what she needs to reach it.

Aki is a member of both Renato and the Adventure Club, and she joins almost every activity. Sometimes her fitness does not quite keep up. I have watched her continue climbing a mountain while crying, and I have seen her keep pedaling her bicycle through tears too. She does not give up before the end, and she always has a wonderful smile that shows she is enjoying the experience.

The Connections We Find

Smartphones and the internet have made travel much more convenient, but I feel we have lost something at the same time. When I traveled abroad in the past, I did not have a mobile phone. I would arrive in an unfamiliar place and have no choice but to ask local people for help.

Because that was the only way to find information, conversations began and personal connections developed. I had many good experiences through those interactions, and I want to pass those experiences on to the children.

Football showed me that people can become friends even when they do not share a language. Triathlon later brought me friendships that have lasted for years. I want children to see the world outside football and understand that sport can expand their world and connect them with people they might otherwise never meet.

I want to be the kind of coach who can show them that.

This October, I will travel to the 2026 XTERRA World Championship in Ruidoso, New Mexico, with my whole family and as many children we can possibly bring with us.