Growing up in Japan, ice hockey is not a big commodity. The big sports there are Baseball, Sumo Wrestling and Football (SoCcEr). However Kawashima and his family would regularly spend their holidays in their second house in Hokkaido. Specifically during the winter when possible. This led to Kawashima growing up with winter sports. Besides skiiing, this meant he was also introduced to ice hockey. First it was on the frozen lakes with other kids, playing more for fun than anything else, however Kawashima quickly became good at the game, so much so that he was starting to catch eyes. Specifically from the Hokkaido based professional ice hockey teams. Where he would start training along and be able to keep developping his ice hockey skills. At first making it to the big time of the SHL was a dream for Kawashima. However he was dedicated to keep putting in the effort to grow as a player and one day make the big league.

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