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Worlds 2026 Himeji

Well well, it’s been a while. Almost a full year, but here we are. I just got back from Worlds + extended Holiday around 3 days ago? And I’m still tired and sore. However, one thing is for sure: it was a great trip. It was my second Worlds – but was it better than Prague last year? I guess you gotta read on to find out!

11th August 2026 - Day before wildcard

My flight to Worlds was from Kuala Lumpur (where I reside) directly to Osaka. It was a red-eye flight at 10:25pm → 05:55am, where I was fortunate enough to get a good deal for Business Class with Malaysia Airlines. 

Coincidentally, I was also on the same flight as Ewin Ee (Owner of Kedaiyoyo; our local Malaysian yo-yo store), who was also flying to Worlds with his family. It was a long trip, and we had good conversations on the future of Malaysian yo-yoing and perspectives on how different things are now compared to the earlier days. For context, I was an active competitor from 2012–2015, and Ewin was a generation before me. Ewin is very optimistic about the future of Malaysian yo-yoing and is as motivated as ever to push the scene ahead. I told him to organize more contests, and he asked me when the next Stronger was. Uhhhh…..

Pictured: Business class seats on Malaysian Airlines! Lucky me!

Similar to last year, I was unable to fa;; sleep on the plane, so I just stayed awake and watched Season 10 & 11 of F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

We landed in Osaka, but had to wait till 8am+ to board the bus to Himeji. It was possible for us to take a train to the main station and another train to Himeji, but waiting for the bus seemed a lot easier with the amount of luggage we had. We also bumped into a couple of Taiwanese players who sat on the same bus as us.

Pictured: Bus seats - wasn't a full bus, but somebody decided to move in front of me and fully recline his seat :(..

The bus ride was about an hour to Himeji – and it was an hour of doom-scrolling for me. I accidentally watched an Avengers short, and the algorithm decided that it should only show me Avengers videos from then on. Apparently, there were 10 things I did notice about Tony Stark in Endgame. Wow!

We eventually reached Himeji Station and I parted ways with Ewin. Although check-in was at 3pm, I wanted to try my luck to see if there was early check-in (Spoiler: there wasn’t). As I prepared my Google Maps and stepped out of the shade, the sun was hot. Really hot. Omalord, Himeji was hot. I left my luggage at the lobby and went to a nearby store to have lunch. For some reason that day, I was craving an ice-cold beer and proceeded to down a pint. It was refreshing and wonderful. Unfortunately, I do not speak/read Japanese and had trouble communicating and translating the menu, hence I just pointed to random things on the menu. I also wanted to order water, but somehow ended up ordering another pint of beer. It was also refreshing and wonderful – so I ordered another.

Pictured: My random orders, accidentally ordered too many fried chicken..

At this point, I was about 24 hours without sleep and was on an empty stomach, so I was pretty tipsy after the 3rd beer. Funny how fast time passes when mildly intoxicated. I was as red as a lobster when I then saw my Vietnamese friends walk by haha.

It was close to 2:30PM and I ran into Chris Lee (Singapore’s 2026 2A Champion). We hung out for a bit, complained about the weather, and discussed how to protein-max and hit macros while in Japan (which turned out to be pretty easy). We shortly parted ways, and I caught up with Welly and Karthik, who were on the train from Osaka to check in to our hotel. Welly had already been in Japan for a week, and Karthik had arrived the day earlier after his Duncan gig in the USA. We checked in to our rooms, and I managed to finally get some sleep.

At around 7pm+, I woke up and asked Karthik where he was. Turns out he rented a practice room and was practicing a few blocks down. Chris Lee and I went over to link up with Karthik, which was about 8 minutes away, and the weather was actually pretty good at night! We ran into Tae Uk, Dong Young, and the other Ultimate members, but they were exhausted and wanted to get some rest/practice. We continued on our walk and headed over to meet with Andy Kim and others. Karthik provided the navigation, and we just followed. We proceeded to walk down multiple long streets full of empty stores, and I kept asking Karthik if we were going the right way. Eventually, amongst all the closed stores, was a tiny store/hotel(?) and Karthik said we arrived.

Karthik slid open the doors, and we were greeted by Petr Kavka, Jakub Dolejš, Kryštof Nosek, Andy Kim, Archie Harrison, and maybe more I might have missed out, sorry!

It was my first time meeting Petr Kavka, and I was glad to meet him as I had always watched his 1A videos back in the days (2012–2015). I told him I saw him in traditional Japanese clothing doing trick circles earlier on Instagram. Turns out it was rentable from the hotel they stayed in. 

It was also my first time meeting Archie, and he said he heard I was a casino lover. He was right. I said I heard he was a model, and he said I was somewhat right. It was also great seeing Jakub and Kristoff again, as they were the guys who showed us around Prague last year at Worlds. I asked Jakub if this year’s Worlds was serious for him, and he said yes.

Pictured: Karthik..

A bunch of us headed out for a smoke afterwards and caught up more. It was also my first time meeting Andy, and turns out he is the designer for Stardust, who make really good ‘UNC’ yo-yos (in Andy’s words). Turns out I’m an UNC, as I enjoyed their yo-yos.

We then proceeded to find food; it was close to 9pm, so we thought it was best if we just ate anything which was still open and could accommodate a group. Along the search for food, we ran into many groups of yo-yoers. Somehow, it ended up with us recruiting more folks who hadn’t had dinner or wanted supper. There was a lot "VOW BUDDY" exchanged.

Along the way, we also ran into Brandon Vu and Xavier Ng. I last met them at Singapore Nationals a month prior, so it wasn’t too long since our last chat. I told Brandon that it was his year to get 5th, as Allon got 5th in 2024 and Xavier got 5th in 2025; and that it was all part of the script. Brandon said he would love for that to happen, but the script always throws in curveballs every year. Yikes.

Brandon had also dropped the ‘Limitless Technology’ video earlier that day, and most of the yo-yoers I met were talking about it. I was fortunate enough to try the Xenon Supreme at Singapore Nationals, and was very impressed by the concept of endless horizontals and that it actually works. Although some players might say that this is old tech by Chen Jia Lin, I think it’s a fresh take to do it on a modern bimetal/tri-material. It’s pretty heavy, but I like it.

Chris eventually found a Yakitori store that could accommodate us, and our final dinner/supper roster consisted of myself, Chris, Karthik, Andy, Jake, Archie, Rojas, and Heshgod. I told Rojas he is a goated yo-yoer and needs to make a comeback. Rojas told me “no”. Dinner was fun, there was a lot of yapping, and I was overstimulated. But the food was yummy, and I was in the presence of a lot of good yo-yoers and Karthik.

Pictured: Very serious conversations

And that was Day 1 of Himeji! See you at Day 2!