Relegation is never an achievement to celebrate, but FC Tokyo winger Naohiro Ishikawa believes his side's perfect start to the J. League season would not have been possible without spending 2011 in the second division.
Tokyo heads into Saturday's match against Sanfrecce Hiroshima second in the top-flight table having won its opening three games, but at the same juncture last season the story was radically different. The capital city side found itself 13th in J2 after mutating from championship contender to relegation victim the year before, but after going on to win the division with room to spare, Tokyo has never looked back.
With quality players like Ishikawa in the ranks, it is little surprise. The 30-year-old scorched the league's best defenses during a career-standout 2009 before narrowly missing out on a place in Japan's 2010 World Cup squad, but even he was powerless to prevent the unthinkable six months later.