Cleveland Browns defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi recently fulfilled his childhood dream of visiting Japan-he described the city as the cleanest he’s ever seen. He accompanied a friend on a birthday trip to Tokyo and got an up-close look at a country he’s admired for most of his life. Listen to some of Larry’s impressions about Japan, its culture, its people and its nightlife.

>> Billie Eilish Coming to Japan<<

Thank you very much for taking the time today. So first of all, what brings you to Tokyo?

I always wanted to come here as a kid, and then had an opportunity to come here with Michael Fukunaga (a good friend from the States), you know, celebrate his birthday, and really just come out and just enjoy the city. I will go to Guam tomorrow hosting the football camp with another guy from the NFL, his name is Zac Benner. It was an opportunity for me to come out here and still handle my business on the back end.

What places have you enjoyed so far?

Yeah, Kyoto is probably my favorite part of the trip, you know, we got to see Mike’s family compound and just really learn the history and ancestry of, you know, everything that was going on.

I mean we saw paintings that were 200 years old and it was just really a surreal experience.

A lot of times you come to Tokyo and you see all the lights and the glamour but all Tokyo, you know, the things I used to see in the animes and things I really used to enjoy as a child, I still enjoy them these days, is really dope to actually be in that environment and see those kinds of things you know.

200 years old is a very long time you know what I’m saying? And to still have that ancestry and those artifacts is just amazing me.

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How about the food? What food did you really enjoy here?

Definitely various tempura. The sushi was amazing, even though I can only eat shrimp sushi, but it was definitely good to try different kinds of shrimp.

The bean sprout was very good. The restaurant we went to the other night, I can’t actually remember the name of it, but the food was amazing.

We actually had some ramen, I think it was called Funagi, and it was very, very good. The chef there was just amazing and just the way they had everything so seamlessly.

You put your ticket in or you get your ticket, you pick what you want and you give it to them. They make it right in front of you and it was just very seamless so it was very cool

A more serious topic. You have seen a lot of people wearing masks, recently, right?

Yes, I mean I knew coming to Tokyo, that the coronavirus was kind of running rapid in different areas especially in China, but I wasn’t really worried about it.

Me and Michael talked about it before we came out here and, once again, this is- Tokyo is somewhere I wanted to go my entire life.

I told my mom when I was probably four or five that I was coming here and I knew that It wasn’t even in the universe for me to even have a problem with the virus because that’s not what I came here for.

I came here to, you know, enjoy and to see and just enjoy the sights and it’s been an amazing time We’ve always got just so used to just walking there and running that we’re not even, you know, that’s not even in the universe for us.  

We’re trying to just really enjoy the time, and we’ve had an amazing time just being able to really embrace the culture and just to just take it al...