There are a huge variety of clubs in Japan. Table-tennis clubs and social dance clubs, hostess clubs and clubs where you can polish up your karaoke. But there is only one club devoted to the art of bullfighting.
Once a month the members of the Tauro Tokyo Club get together to spill their shared passion for blood and sand. Out come the bullfighting videos recorded from satellite TV, the waving of the red capes and the explanations of the differences between a natural pass and a derechazo.
Yuji Saito leads the charge among an international group of 90 that includes a veterinarian, an ex-cowboy and a French language professor. One of the club's founders and creator of its Web site, Saito used to follow a humdrum routine working as a branch manager for a gyudon-ya (beef bowl shop) in Tokyo.