Hostile Traveler

When I travel to another country, I’m always fascinated with what the local culture is like, from art to food to social interactions to how people view the rest of the world. I have a particular interest in Asian countries because they are so diverse, and in some ways, so alien to what I know. I don’t mean that in a bad way - for some reason I love to be in a situation where I don’t speak the language, can’t read a thing, and don’t identify culturally with most of what is around me. It’s a learning experience, and a bit of an adventure I guess.

Japan is one of those places that I find so interesting, yet so alien at the same time. While the youth seemingly embrace all things Western, much of the culture is still closed off to gaijin - foreigners. It’s not as common as it once was, but you will still see ‘No gaijin’ signs posted in front of bars, restaurants…and, more importantly, places that cater to more illicit activities. I think I mentioned in an old entry a section of Tokyo’s Shinjuku district called Kabukicho, which is perhaps the largest red light district in the world. As a foreigner, however, you’re not likely to gain entry into any of the various hostess bars, clubs, and so on….that is, unless you’re a Western woman working at one. The other thing is that while Kabukicho is fascinating in a lot of ways, it’s also a place where you don’t want to be carrying around a camera snapping photos. Most of the businesses there are run by Yakuza (aka The Japanese Mafia), who are not the sort of people you want to be messing with.

That leads me to what inspired this posting. I ran across an article in the Washington Post written by an American that worked as a crime reporter for Japan’s largest newspaper. From the article:

I came to Japan in 1988 at age 19, spent most of college living in a Zen Buddhist temple, and then became the first U.S. citizen hired as a regular staff writer for a Japanese newspaper in Japanese. If you know anything about Japan, you’ll realize how bizarre this is — a gaijin, or foreigner, covering Japanese cops. When I started the beat in the early 1990s, I knew nothing about the yakuza, a.k.a. the Japanese mafia. But following their prostitution rings and extortion rackets became my life.

He goes on to talk about how large the Yakuza is (80,000+ members) and some of the ways they make money, from the illicit (child pornography, prostitution) to investing in banks and financial institutions. The problem came when the writer got too close to the topic he was covering:

Three years ago, Goto got word that I was reporting an article about his liver transplant. A few days later, his underlings obliquely threatened me. Then came a formal meeting. The offer was straightforward. “Erase the story or be erased,” one of them said. “Your family too.”

The article itself is a short but very interesting read (you can find it here) and the author, Jake Adelstein, is coming out with a book on the topic called “Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on Japan’s Police Beat”. Now, how much is factual versus hype I can’t say, but it should be an interesting read nonetheless.

So, the moral of the story is: Dangerous things can be fascinating, but it’s wise to keep your distance.

It’s been 6 months now without an update, and while I’d like to say it’s because I’m busy bringing about world peace, the reality is that I just lost interest for awhile. This happens for me with most things because I have the attention span of a gerbil hopped up on Pixy Stix, so I tend to jump around to different interests like a moth drawn to whichever flame is currently burning brightest in my head.

Now, you may ask what brings me back here, and I have a simple answer: douchebag spammers. You see, while this site may have been flickering in and out of the edges of my attention for the past six months, lately it’s been coming into focus more and more often. Basically, every time someone posts a comment or links to the site, I get an email. When I’m not posting any new content, I don’t get many comments, which makes sense. That is, until Captain Douchebag Spammer of the day comes along and posts links to a bunch of shitty websites hoping to advance their page rank in search engines so that unwitting consumers searching for ways to make their penises bigger might stumble upon their page.

There are a couple of problems with this theory. One is that I don’t get a ton of traffic, especially when I’m not doing updates. The second is that spammers annoy the fuck out of me, so I do my best to delete every last trace of their existence as soon as they come in. So, to all spammers, I highly encourage you to go fuck yourselves with your newly-enlarged penises that are fully erect with bootleg Cialis. And I’m still waiting for my money from that Nigerian fellow.

OK..enough of that. Though it may be through sheer annoyance, I’m back. WordPress was in dire need of an upgrade, so I just suffered through that bit, and I’m mucking about with different themes. So, things may look different from time to time until I find something I’m happy with. We’ll see what happens.