It was a cool evening of May 8th 1993, when old faces gathered in Shinbashi Station.

Including those arrived late, nearly 20 people gathered at Taromaru (izakaya,-Japanese pub). Each person must have felt a little bit awkward of the rare occasion, to meet each other in Japan. While spending several years in HongKong as corporate expatriates, teachers of Japanese school, staff at Consulate General, etc., they were active members of Hong Kong Japanese Dragon or Yappun-Long in short.

The team is widely acknowledged by the Japanese society in HongKong, even now. Quite naturally, their conversation swang from the memories of their days in Hong Kong, Dragon Boat paddling, then to starting up a team in Japan. After several drinks, everyone was quite excited that no one really doubted the practicality of their ideas.

Despite the excitement, nothing really happened until they participated in Japan Dragon Boat Championship held in Osaka on the 24th of July. They placed 5th in the mixed category. It was the first activity for Tokyo Dragon as a team. They were happy to see each other again and enjoyed the day out and more importantly, they were overjoyed by paddling. Naturally, their desire to paddle hiked, moving more and more towards setting up a training site, obtaining some boats, etc.

It was October of that year when Japan Dragon Boat Association (JDBA) basedin Osaka agreed on leasing two half size boats to Tokyo Dragon. JDBA's aim was to promote the sport in Kanto area through supporting the teams. Tokyo Dragon's struggle went on for more than a year as they did not have a proper training site nor a storage space for the boats. While using the boat house of Waseda University Rowing Team, Tokyo Dragon continued their negotiation with Edogawa-ku for a training site/storage.

Owing much to the generosity of Edogawa-ku that actively support water/marine sports, Tokyo Dragon was officially allowed to set-up its base in Shin-Sakon Marina, near Nishikasai. On the 13th of May, 1995. with Mr.Toshio Kawaguchi, a city councilman from Edogawa-ku, as the honorable guest, the team celebrated its memorable day of their first training session with eye-dotting ceremony.

It did not take a long time for Tokyo Dragon to expand. Now, the team has more than 100 members with varied background as athletes, students, young at heart, homemakers, et al. with several nationalities.