May 9, 20080
Apr 30, 20080
Tokyo Underworld | Book Review
# Title: Tokyo Underwold: The Fast Times and Hard Life of an American Gangster in Japan
# Author: Robert Whiting
# Publisher: Vintage (September 26, 2000)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0375724893
# ISBN-13: 978-0375724893
No, Tokyo Underwold isn’t an announcment for yet another visit by British electroheads Underwold tour to Japan to play yet another version of Hello Slippy to all their Japanese fans, rather it is a fascinating look at the seedier side of Japanese life and business.
In 1945 when the Allied forces began their occupation following the surrender of Japan, the country was in a right and utter mess. This left the field wide open to all sorts of dodgy entrepreneurs to set up shop. Tokyo was in ruins after heavy bombing by the allies, and food supplies were very short. The black markets which sprung up within days of the surrender being announced served in many ways to keep the population of Tokyo alive during those very difficult times. Tokyo Underworld starts from this point, and develops by recounting the mindboggling corruption and nefarious goings on in the post war period, including tales of both Japanse gangsters as well as the GI’s of the occupying force who stood to make a great deal of money at this time.
Two characters from Tokyo’s colourful past stood out in particular. First was Rikidozan, a former sumo wrestler who was almost at the top of the sumo ladder when the end of the war brought the sport to a crashing holt. He became a professional wrestler and for many Japanese an icon of the rebuilding as he fought and won against many much larger and stronger American opponents. Little did the populus know, or want to know, that both these fights were fixed, and also of his Korean parentage. Such are the machinations of a defeated nation.
The other character who provides much of the backbone of Robert Whiting’s well-written book, was an American from New York’s Italian East Harlem, Nick Zappeti. An amazing character who was once known as “the King of Roppongi and the Mafia Boss of Harlem” he seems almost to have stepped out of a Martin Scorsese film. Involved heavily in black market trading during the occupation, and then later moving out into more legitimate business Zappeti’s risa and fall, mirrored in an oblique way much of what has befallen Japan in the post-war era.
I particularly enjoyed reading this book and learning a lot about what went on back then, as well as picking a great deal of information about our local areas history. That this is non-fiction, and not fiction, makes it all the more worth reading.
Apr 27, 20080
Freakdance Records T-Shirts
Well spring is sprung, the rat is out of the hat, and no amount of platitudes could really fail to convince you that you need:
a freakdance records t-shirt
They only have a 100 of these, so get in quick.
Here is what they have to say about all this it glows in the dark goodness:
NEW FREAKDANCE RECORDS SKULL CRACKER T-SHIRTS ARE HERE!
The good-ole Freakdance skull logo has been revamped, reborn and brutally sodomized by label hustler Jere Häkkinen (Luomuhappo) - he has handpainted & re-sketched our company logo by hand and transformed it into a brand new level of fartistical approach!
These brand new Freakdance Records (TM)(C)(R) skull-cracker t-shirts are now internationally available from our webshop in colours such as … well, as Glenn Danzig would put it: “Black, black, The black is back, I am the blackest of the black of time!” - But don’t you worry, in the midst of all this blackness, the beautiful white print on these babies does not only glow in UV light alone, but THESE SHIRTS GLOW IN THE DARK AS WELL! Now how cool is that, you can spook out your acidhead friends in dark rave caves?? HUH ??
Take a look at the shirt here: http://www.freakdancerecords.net/images/fdpaita2_large.jpg
The price is 15 euros a piece and the total print has been limited to 100 copies, so get yours before they disappear from the face of the earth. The shirts are only available for men for the time being, but we will get some models for the ladies very soon!
Be patient, o’ titted ones! <3
For our Finnish customers / HUOMIO SUOMALAASET PEOPLE!!!: order two CD’s, get the shirt for 10 euros. It doesn’t get any cheaper than that, and if any of you hippie bums still have the nerve to complain about the prices, we’ll hit you in the face with a hammer. Offer valid inside Finland only, sorry.
Our international web shop is at http://www.freakdancerecords.net -> mailorder
If you don’t want one, you can always order one for me for my birthday. It is only 6 months away you know!
Apr 23, 20080
Is this the most expensive doll ever!!!!
Found this Japanese doll set for sale on the Japanese shopping site Rakuten.
The price quoted is 100,000,000.00 JPY which converts to roughly $970,718.970 USD. Is this for real????
You can check it out for yourself here: 闇市（特定客様用ã®ç‰¹è¨ãƒšãƒ¼ã‚¸ã§ã™ï¼‰.
The first 2 characters mean black market…
Apr 22, 20082
Japanese Trains are Crazy
This video of Japanese commuters on the Chuo Line which runs into Tokyo’s busiest station Shinjuku. Not sure which station this is but it looks like a feeder into Shinjuku which was used by an average of 3.52 million people per day in 2006. Watching it makes me feel really glad I live in central Tokyo, not out in the sprawling bed towns.
How to Load People on Trains in Japan - For more funny videos, click here
I have only ridden on trains that packed a couple of times, and yes, while the video is a bit old, people are still employed in the mornings to push people onto the trains. They make a little over $10 an hour for the pleasure.
Imagine if all these people decided to drive to work - wouldn’t that be even crazier. Not that there would be enough places for them to park. Japan’s public transport system is really great for the environment, especially if you don’t have to use it.
Pickpocketing isn’t a problem that I have heard of, although groping is, and a number of lines now have women only cars at the front of the train to give Japanese women a bit of a break from the marauding hands of Japanese salarymen.
Interestingly there have been recent calls for mens only cars - this to stop men being accused of sexually harassing female passengers - here is an article from the Mainichi newspaper about this: Train companies close doors on men’s only carriages, giving free pass to groping scams. There have been quite a few cases of people being questionably arrested for groping. Some people will do anything for money!
And another news story I saw today that looked interesting: President of IT firm arrested for stripping on bullet train.
I don’t think stripping would be an option on the train shown in the video!
Mar 28, 20080
Cherry Blossoms over Meguro River
Snapped this photo with my mobile phone on the way back from the office yesterday morning.
If you head down the hill from Meguro Station, you will come to a river bank with some wonderful cherry blossoms in bloom. They should be in bloom for another week or so, and further along other trees will come into bloom soon.
It is the season for cherry blossom drinking parties, with many Japanese people heading off to their local park to wine and dine - or mostly just wine under the pretty pink petals.
We are heading to Yokohama on the weekend to partake. Looking forward to it!
Mar 24, 20080
Shamaim - Israeli Restaurant in Tokyo
Chooch had her exam for Level 4 of the Chinese Proficiency Test yesterday. She has been studying pretty hard recently for it so we thought we might go out for dinner last night. After a bit of a search around on the internet for good vegetarian restaurants we ended up choosing Shamaim - an Israeli / Middle Eastern restaurant located about half an hour from central Tokyo in Nerima ward.
In New Zealand we don’t have much in the way of Israeli restaurants (at least not that I am aware of), but we do have a lot of food from that area, particularly Lebanese restaurants - and these have long been a favourite of mine. It wasn’t until we moved to the Kansai area in 2001 and discovered a great little Israeli felafel place in Nara (which I have heard has since moved to Kyoto) and I was very happy to discover that they served wonderful food much like I was used to in New Zealand. I suppose it should have been obvious that Israeli food would be very similar to Lebanese food, but my image was more of New York deli style grub.
So we rode the Oedo line from Azabujuban station out to ShinEgota station which took a bit under half an hour. After getting out of the station we had a nice stroll through the streets of Nerima ward. That area is very Haruki Murakami - peaceful semi-urban Tokyo and it wouldn’t seem so strange to stumble upon a character from The Wind-up Bird Chronicle.
After a bit of a walk we found the restaurant. The area it is in has a pachinko parlour, a book store, and even what looked suspiciously like a bia hoi (sp?). From the outside Shamaim didn’t look like much, still we were hungry, hungry as polar bears as we went up the stairs. Once inside we were pleasantly surprised - the decour was nice and homely and would have been fine in any half decent cafe in New Zealand.
We ordered the all you can eat 2100 yen vegetarian special and dug in. It was damn good. Nice veggie soup to kick things off and then a great selection of dishes to dip our pita bread in. The all you can eat special lasts 2 hours - but we didn’t. After an hour or so, and a couple of extra orders we were as full as could be and very sleepy! Too much food 
A mighty fine repast.
Shamaim is highly recommended. If you click here, you can get a map to the restaurant as well as a coupon you can print out to get free Shamaim special dessert “Marabi”, or free Arabian spicy coffee, or free mint tea - the choice is yours.
One thing that stood out was the music. A lot of restaurants like this try to play traditional local / ethnic music. Shamaim didnt - some great beats to keep the dining kicking along. Gotta appreciate that!
Mar 9, 20080
Chinpo Stick and the Virgin Mary
Ah Pink Tentacle. One of Japan’s more interesting blogs. Hot pink on black like a racy 80’s Cyndi Lauper video hacked up by a Harajuku fashion freak. All good. Just having a read of that blog, and saw a couple of posts about Akita. There was once a crying Virgin Mary statue in Akita City. Carved from a Judas tree. Is that ironic or just a coincidence? It stopped crying in 1981. Metallica was formed in 1981. Is there a connection? Just another conspiracy theory… And they say Jesus is buried in Aomori.
And also Kirichimpo: Phallic promotional mascot. I remember kiritanpo was a regional delicacy from Akita, I only tried it once because it normally has chicken stock in it. But I never saw anything like Kirichimpo when I was there.
Nice to see Akita news getting out there.
Mar 8, 20082
Tokyo Worst Five Date Spots
If I had a thousand yen for every free paper out there, I think I could almost make the taxi fare to Narita airport. These giveaway magazines showcasing restaurants and massage parlours (of the kind ones mother might go to, not the kind you find down Manchester Street or in Shin-Okubo) can be found all over Tokyo in places like railway stations and supermarkets. We got another one in our letterbox yesterday - this one was called Gyutto (Japanese only) and covered our local Azabu / Tamachi area.
While I am not really that interested in getting a sunbed tan, or yet another Asian-fusion-noodle-barbecued-meat-and-sushi restaurant with stylish decour and soft mood lighting, I was interested to read an article about differences in love between guys and gals in Japan. They asked 50 men and women a range of questions about what they looked for in the opposite sex, what sort of language they liked and didn’t like as well as their favourite foods.
They had a listing for the places they dont want to go on a date:
For Japanese Women, the worst places were:
1. Akihabara
2. Shopping
3. Horse Racing
4. Pachinko (Horizontal pinball like gambling)
5. Manga Cafes
with chain pubs, haunted places and forests also listed.
The places Japanese guys most don’t want to go on dates to were:
1. Tokyo Disneyland
2. Shopping
3. Shibuya
4. The womans parents’ house
5. Sanrio Puroland (Kitty Chan theme park)
as well as Matsuya Department Store in Ginza and other places, dessert buffets and mountain climbing.
So there you go - it is perfectly safe to take your date to a strip club. Or even better - train spotting!
Mar 3, 20082
Kangaroo Notebook by Kobo Abe | A book review
Can you imagine a Kangaroo Notebook? The errant product of a Japanese stationary supplier, endlessly folding in on its marsupial pouchiness? Bounding across a written landscape all the way to hell?
Somewhere between the darkness of Kafka and and the magical lightness of Italo Calvino floats Kobo Abe’s Kangaroo Notebook. A novel about an unnamed salary man who wakes one morning to find radish sprouts repulsively growing on his legs and who has miraculous adventures whilst travelling on a psychically controllable hospital bed.
His companions on his adventures are likewise surreal. A hot as hell nurse bent on collecting a record amount of blood in order to (jokingly) win the Dracula’s Daughter medal, an American Karate expert (fluent in Japanese of course) by the name of Hammer Killer, and even a pair of horny as can be squid.
Kobo Abe passed away in 1993, and Kangaroo Notebook was his final novel. The theme of death hovers over the novel, but never darkly. There is a joy here in the horror of the living undead. Calvino wrote about the necessity of lightness in writing, meaning that the story should flow lightly - the translation at times here is heavy and clumsy, but the underlying story shines through. There aren’t many translators of Japanese who come close to Murakami’s translator translators, and it is in this regard that the only weak point of Kangaroo Notebook arises. To translate, one must also be able to write elegantly!
Abe isn’t terribly well known outside of Japan, but within the country he was known as being one of the most creative novelists that came out of Japan in the twentieth century. Adroitly humourous, Kangaroo Notebook is almost impossible to place as a novel - it is difficult to say what happened, or even to say where it happened. But it is a highly enjoyable journey nonetheless!