Japan-based Wan Wah misses nasi lemak, nasi kandar and curry

“Nasi lemak, nasi kandar, basically any dish that has curry in it,” said Lee with a smile when asked about which food he misses back home at the recent All-England tournament.

The 49-year-old was given a promotion from Japan's junior to senior coach last year, and has a challenging task to revive the flagging fortunes of their men’s doubles unit.

At present, Kenya Mitsuhashi-Hiroki Okamura is Japan’s highest ranked men’s pair at 24.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lee Wan Wah (@leewanwah)

The Ipoh-born Lee explained how he ended up coaching in Japan after receiving an offer from acclaimed South Korean coach Park Joo-bong.

“It was a different challenge for me, because I was always based in Malaysia. This was a chance to work overseas, and I wanted to give it a shot.

“The pool of players in Japan is big. The junior players all come as a result of their school programme, different from Malaysia where its state based. Most schools in Japan have their own badminton programme.

“Which is why the pool of players are huge. As for the pro players, they are all club based. So the cooperation between the clubs and association must be good in order for us to raise the standard of badminton here,” explained Lee, who now commands a decent grip of the local language.

“I can speak in an informal way. The official language is beyond me!,” he laughed.

The former world number one, who formed a lethal partnership with partner Choong Tan Fook in the late 90s to early 2000s, said he had to learn the Japanese language as the students did not have a good grasp of English.

The two-time Thomas Cup silver medalist said it took him up to two years to learn basic Japanese.

Lee also added he tries to come back to Malaysia when he has an extended break.

“When I started with the junior team, I used to come home more often. The price of flight tickets were not as expensive as they are now!”.