The players also say they were at a physical disadvantage because while strength training is common in the United States, they had never seen a weight room before arriving in Rockville.
"I only knew bench press," Ito said.
Montrose Christian's K.J. Matsui, left, and Taishi Ito form the starting back court for the No. 1-ranked team in the area. "I emphasize to everybody, they're not good Japanese basketball players; they're simply good basketball players," said Coach Stu Vetter, whose Mustangs are 6-0. "Some people stereotype things. I don't take offense," Matsui said.
(Photos Preston Keres -- The Washington Post)
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Since then, Ito and Matsui have spent plenty of hours in the gym and weight room, and their work has paid off. Matsui, who is the more muscular of the two, said he likes to show off his muscles when he goes home each August. "People are always watching my arms and chest," Matsui said.
Learning a new language has been the most difficult adjustment, they said. Matsui had attended an English-speaking school for two years in Japan to prepare for coming to the United States, but said his toughest class remains English. Ito's older brother, Takuma, also went to Montrose, but that didn't mean Taishi knew the language. Shortly after arriving in the United States, Ito said he would reply to most English conversation by simply smiling.
"I couldn't speak any English," he said.
Matsui and Ito return home once a year in August, and they said they miss their families and Japanese food. They occasionally go to Japanese restaurants here, but Ito said that he always returns from trips to Japan with a large box of sushi. He said he cooks rice dishes several times a week and both players look forward to visits from their parents, who always come with care packages.
American sushi "is good, but it's different," Ito said. "Japanese is much better."
While the players move around the Washington area in anonymity, in Japan they are well known. Vetter has a series of Japanese basketball magazines with stories about the two.
And Matsui has the proof of one of the best tales of all. When he was 10, Nike brought several NBA players to Japan to stage exhibitions. At one event, Nike wanted a Japanese boy to play one-on-one against the greatest player of all time, Michael Jordan. Matsui got the call.
"It was real quick," said Matsui, who keeps a videotape of the game in his room. "He let me win, 5-2."
While Matsui owns a collection of Jordan and Nike apparel and shoes, it is another NBA player that has drawn the attention of Ito and Matsui.
Earlier this season, Yuta Tabuse became the first Japanese player to make an NBA roster when the Phoenix Suns kept the 5-9 point guard. He played in four games, averaging just over four minutes a game, and was cut Saturday.
"A lot of American people think we can't play basketball," said Takuma Ito, now a sophomore at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he is a manager for the men's basketball team coached by former Vetter player Jeff Capel.
"They look at us as Asian dudes and think we can't play. But they can play."
