A few death threats and a love of ramen. Japan part two
.So for the last month and a half I have been on winter break in Japan. My break is rather long seeing as it stretches out for the span of 3.5 months. As of now, I am extremely pleased with my choice to stay this year in Japan as opposed to the semester. Out of fifty people only ten chose to stay in Japan and of those 10 only three have stayed here for the break. If I only stayed here for the semester I think nothing would have changed with me. Most people I talked to said it felt like just an extended vacation. What was it that they really took away from this place? I don't know if it was much. There was a week in November were everyone was gone from Tokyo to see different parts of Japan but I was stuck in the city due to finical issues that arose. That was the week that my feelings mirrored those of this mans. 
Or this man
They look the same to me Everything in Lost in Translation is so spot on what it is like to be utterly alone Japan and as an outsider. For instance Charlotte's husband says "Mushi mushi" for hello on the phone when he is supposed to say Moshi Moshi, or Charlotte standing on the right hand side of the escalator instead of left(The Japanese are very orderly and if you want to stand you must do it on the left). And there is part of the dialouge that really just stuck with me
LAUREN (O.S.) Charlotte?! How's Tokyo?
CHARLOTTE It's cool... but,I don't know... I went to a shrine today and all these little monk's were chanting... and, I didn't feel anything... I even tried ikebana, ... and John's using hair products... I don't know who I-.
Lauren's Call-waiting beeps, cutting off her sentence.
LAUREN Oh, wait, can you hold on one sec?
CHARLOTTE Sure.
Charlotte waits.
That week felt like three months to me. Back home if I wanted to I could choose to isolate myself from people. That week I was forced to be isolated. It was the first time I ever felt really alone in this world. I can survive with the Japanese I know but I can't talk about anything of substance. All I did was i walked around the city. I just wandered around without any real purpose and thoughts of isolation consumed me. However, by the end of that week I started to become settled with my situation. I bought paint and color pencils and tried make some art for the first time in six years. I also tried my hand at poetry after reading my Bukowski poem book. Each one of my creations was hurled into this world with my drunken hand. I . It was a necessary week of my life. I have had share of my Joys and misfortune here. Let me go over the two Death Threats I am going to talk about the second death threat because It was made by me last night ( not serious of course just mad ) and I am still rather pissed about the whole situation Last evening I was invited by this girl that I didn't see for two months to a club in azuba juban. I only agreed to go to this place because I repeatedly bailed on her so many times in the past that I felt somewhat guilty. However when I met up with her at the train station she told me AZUBA JUBAN is part of Roppongi. My heart quickened and my face lost all its color. I swore 2 months ago I would never ever go back to that cancer of a place.
To date in Roppongi I have
-Slept on the streets four times
-Lost a vest
-Lost a camera
-Had a friend roofied
-Had my friends backpack lost or stolen
-hundreds of times had men have try and hustle me
-Lost my dignity
So you see I have had a good reason to avoid that place. But I was already on the last train by the time she told me that so I was stuck I thought " . Not a big deal, Its just bad luck in the past and even though I am paranoid, everything should be just fine."
WRONG ... SO VERY WRONG
I was the only foreigner in the club out of maybe 150 people which immediately made me the most popular person there. Everyone was coming to flail their bodies around with me and random people kept giving me their drinks. That was fun in itself but the girl I went with started to get jealous and tell people that I was her boy friend so I would pay attention to her. Unlucky for her I knew the word girlfriend in Japanese. I told her she was not my girl friend and bounced around 4 35 am.
I got to the train station and sat down on a bench because the train did not arrive for another thirty minutes. I started to nod off when I noticed Two typical Japanese shibuya guys plop down right next to me. I didn't give it to much attention so I just closed my eyes. After about 15 minutes though i felt something brush lightly against me so I opened my eyes to see the two men walking away and then touched my wallet only to find it missing
. I Yelled at the two men and they just booked it. I chased them off the platform up the station stairwell and one man ran through the left corridor at the top the stairs and the other through the right. I chased the left one and he had made it through the ticket gate so I hurtled over the gate and tackled the fucker. I then flung him against the wall and held him up by the collar of his shirt and screamed at him
" Give me My wallet or I will END YOU".
Just then I felt someone pull at my shoulder so I span around to see the train guard trying to peel me of the piece of shit that I had my fist buried in.
"NO NO NO" the train man said
"Don't Hurt me Don't hurt me" the thief cried
"HE STOLE MY WALLET" I screeched.
The station guard then said no no he doesn't have your wallet. The inexplicit message here was ( he is Japaneses so he doesn't have your wallet)
"How the fuck do you know! He ran away from me when yelled hey at him"
"I ran because you scared me"
"SURE YOU FUCKER WELL YOU BETTER BE SHITTING YOUR PANTS RIGHT NOW, If you don't have my wallet let me search you"
" NOOOO NO LOOK DON'T LOOK NO LOOK"
"You cant look at him"
"What do you mean I can't look, him and his friend stole my wallet , call the police then"
"No I cannot my boss will get mad"
"What the fuck its your job to ensure peace ya dick"
During this exchange with the staff my back was turned for about 3 minutes to the thief.
"Okay now you can look at me"
He patted his pockets very lightly to show there was nothing there
"See he has nothing... you can go"
"Like hell he can!"
at this point he tries to run away again but i rip his bag out of his hand and spill its contents on the floor the staff holds me back and then the fucker leaves.
"Will you call the police now?"
Sure" .....
I spent six hours in the police station trying to talk to men who spoke no English what happened to me at the station. When 10 am hit I was so hungry because the last meal I had was the day before at 4pm but they would not get me a 1 dollar burger from the wendy's next to the station. Needless to say I didn't pay for any train ride home and just hoped all the gates... Here is a video of japanese police running from a naked man.
So now here is Death threat number two made against me
All this ties in with my placement at Good Crew , which is a branch of TV TOKYO , during the day of the food festival shoot at Yokohama. The task of the day was simple enough, go to the food festival and film a few booths making barbeque. However, the events that went on that day almost cost me my internship with Good Crew. What had occurred was that after we arrived in Yokohama we spent the evening filming. Once we were done with the shoot, my boss took us out to eat at one of the restaurants we filmed that day. Even though I had school the following day, I agreed to go out with him. He order several glasses of wine for both of us, which I felt obligated to drink. This was because in the past when I hinted that I have other obligations, Yamamoto ignored my request and insisted that I stay. The mentally that company comes first not only in a work setting but in a social setting was really prevalent with him. Therefore, I kept on drinking with Yamamoto until the restaurant closed. After the restaurant closed I asked if I should getting going once again, but Yamamoto insisted that I stay with him because we were invited by the head chief of the restaurant to eat with him and his crew in the back room. The drinks continued to come and the conversation started to follow. At this point, I believe everyone was getting somewhat drunk, because Yamamoto started to make comments that I perceived as somewhat offensive. Thinking that what he was saying was just playful teasing I made a comment back of similar content. However, by doing this I committed a grave faux pas. “There is no situation as awkward in Japan as when the appropriate order is ignored or broken” (Hall 44). Because I was my bosses subordinate, it was highly inappropriate to act as though we were on the same level. My boss lost face in front of his friends because they deemed my comment as disrespect for the hierarchy. “The Japanese do not understand people who criticize their own country or their company. They consider this extremely disloyal”(Hall 54). So after dinner he threaten to kill me and I had to sleep two hours away from my home on the streets of Yokohama.
Balls.... Break time
Or this man
They look the same to me Everything in Lost in Translation is so spot on what it is like to be utterly alone Japan and as an outsider. For instance Charlotte's husband says "Mushi mushi" for hello on the phone when he is supposed to say Moshi Moshi, or Charlotte standing on the right hand side of the escalator instead of left(The Japanese are very orderly and if you want to stand you must do it on the left). And there is part of the dialouge that really just stuck with me
LAUREN (O.S.) Charlotte?! How's Tokyo?
CHARLOTTE It's cool... but,I don't know... I went to a shrine today and all these little monk's were chanting... and, I didn't feel anything... I even tried ikebana, ... and John's using hair products... I don't know who I-.
Lauren's Call-waiting beeps, cutting off her sentence.
LAUREN Oh, wait, can you hold on one sec?
CHARLOTTE Sure.
Charlotte waits.
That week felt like three months to me. Back home if I wanted to I could choose to isolate myself from people. That week I was forced to be isolated. It was the first time I ever felt really alone in this world. I can survive with the Japanese I know but I can't talk about anything of substance. All I did was i walked around the city. I just wandered around without any real purpose and thoughts of isolation consumed me. However, by the end of that week I started to become settled with my situation. I bought paint and color pencils and tried make some art for the first time in six years. I also tried my hand at poetry after reading my Bukowski poem book. Each one of my creations was hurled into this world with my drunken hand. I . It was a necessary week of my life. I have had share of my Joys and misfortune here. Let me go over the two Death Threats I am going to talk about the second death threat because It was made by me last night ( not serious of course just mad ) and I am still rather pissed about the whole situation Last evening I was invited by this girl that I didn't see for two months to a club in azuba juban. I only agreed to go to this place because I repeatedly bailed on her so many times in the past that I felt somewhat guilty. However when I met up with her at the train station she told me AZUBA JUBAN is part of Roppongi. My heart quickened and my face lost all its color. I swore 2 months ago I would never ever go back to that cancer of a place.
To date in Roppongi I have
-Slept on the streets four times
-Lost a vest
-Lost a camera
-Had a friend roofied
-Had my friends backpack lost or stolen
-hundreds of times had men have try and hustle me
-Lost my dignity
So you see I have had a good reason to avoid that place. But I was already on the last train by the time she told me that so I was stuck I thought " . Not a big deal, Its just bad luck in the past and even though I am paranoid, everything should be just fine."
WRONG ... SO VERY WRONG
I was the only foreigner in the club out of maybe 150 people which immediately made me the most popular person there. Everyone was coming to flail their bodies around with me and random people kept giving me their drinks. That was fun in itself but the girl I went with started to get jealous and tell people that I was her boy friend so I would pay attention to her. Unlucky for her I knew the word girlfriend in Japanese. I told her she was not my girl friend and bounced around 4 35 am.
I got to the train station and sat down on a bench because the train did not arrive for another thirty minutes. I started to nod off when I noticed Two typical Japanese shibuya guys plop down right next to me. I didn't give it to much attention so I just closed my eyes. After about 15 minutes though i felt something brush lightly against me so I opened my eyes to see the two men walking away and then touched my wallet only to find it missing
. I Yelled at the two men and they just booked it. I chased them off the platform up the station stairwell and one man ran through the left corridor at the top the stairs and the other through the right. I chased the left one and he had made it through the ticket gate so I hurtled over the gate and tackled the fucker. I then flung him against the wall and held him up by the collar of his shirt and screamed at him
" Give me My wallet or I will END YOU".
Just then I felt someone pull at my shoulder so I span around to see the train guard trying to peel me of the piece of shit that I had my fist buried in.
"NO NO NO" the train man said
"Don't Hurt me Don't hurt me" the thief cried
"HE STOLE MY WALLET" I screeched.
The station guard then said no no he doesn't have your wallet. The inexplicit message here was ( he is Japaneses so he doesn't have your wallet)
"How the fuck do you know! He ran away from me when yelled hey at him"
"I ran because you scared me"
"SURE YOU FUCKER WELL YOU BETTER BE SHITTING YOUR PANTS RIGHT NOW, If you don't have my wallet let me search you"
" NOOOO NO LOOK DON'T LOOK NO LOOK"
"You cant look at him"
"What do you mean I can't look, him and his friend stole my wallet , call the police then"
"No I cannot my boss will get mad"
"What the fuck its your job to ensure peace ya dick"
During this exchange with the staff my back was turned for about 3 minutes to the thief.
"Okay now you can look at me"
He patted his pockets very lightly to show there was nothing there
"See he has nothing... you can go"
"Like hell he can!"
at this point he tries to run away again but i rip his bag out of his hand and spill its contents on the floor the staff holds me back and then the fucker leaves.
"Will you call the police now?"
Sure" .....
I spent six hours in the police station trying to talk to men who spoke no English what happened to me at the station. When 10 am hit I was so hungry because the last meal I had was the day before at 4pm but they would not get me a 1 dollar burger from the wendy's next to the station. Needless to say I didn't pay for any train ride home and just hoped all the gates... Here is a video of japanese police running from a naked man.
So now here is Death threat number two made against me
Click to viewAll this ties in with my placement at Good Crew , which is a branch of TV TOKYO , during the day of the food festival shoot at Yokohama. The task of the day was simple enough, go to the food festival and film a few booths making barbeque. However, the events that went on that day almost cost me my internship with Good Crew. What had occurred was that after we arrived in Yokohama we spent the evening filming. Once we were done with the shoot, my boss took us out to eat at one of the restaurants we filmed that day. Even though I had school the following day, I agreed to go out with him. He order several glasses of wine for both of us, which I felt obligated to drink. This was because in the past when I hinted that I have other obligations, Yamamoto ignored my request and insisted that I stay. The mentally that company comes first not only in a work setting but in a social setting was really prevalent with him. Therefore, I kept on drinking with Yamamoto until the restaurant closed. After the restaurant closed I asked if I should getting going once again, but Yamamoto insisted that I stay with him because we were invited by the head chief of the restaurant to eat with him and his crew in the back room. The drinks continued to come and the conversation started to follow. At this point, I believe everyone was getting somewhat drunk, because Yamamoto started to make comments that I perceived as somewhat offensive. Thinking that what he was saying was just playful teasing I made a comment back of similar content. However, by doing this I committed a grave faux pas. “There is no situation as awkward in Japan as when the appropriate order is ignored or broken” (Hall 44). Because I was my bosses subordinate, it was highly inappropriate to act as though we were on the same level. My boss lost face in front of his friends because they deemed my comment as disrespect for the hierarchy. “The Japanese do not understand people who criticize their own country or their company. They consider this extremely disloyal”(Hall 54). So after dinner he threaten to kill me and I had to sleep two hours away from my home on the streets of Yokohama.
Balls.... Break time