So had to go do a shake down on a branch school heading from Shibuya half way to Yokohama. Not the kind of place I really wanted to go, but it was for my job. The area was actually not bad; except it was kind of far from where I live. I could tell it was not the kind of place which has a high gaijin population. I had one old man bark gaijin at me in a rude manner. I simply laughed at him and that was that. Although, is not the area which is important to this blog post; it is what happened at the branch itself.
This branch has a rather low student number. This fact is not so surprising considering that it is a small branch in the first place. None the less, there are enough students for our company to take a vested interest in it. After doing a little work on the place, the teacher arrives and classes begin. The day was going by as normal until this one rather unique student shows up. A 16 year old gal, horny as hell, very loud, and almost bouncing off the walls like a bunny turns up ready for English. I have no idea why she even comes for lessons. She made no effort to learn anything. She raised hell and messed with the teacher during the entire lesson. The chick was addicted to trouble. Her skirt was hiked up around her ass and she had slightly modified her uniform. The teacher tried to maintain his composure but it was obvious he was struggling.
After the lesson she decides to hangout for a while. As I was talking to the teacher she interrupts and starts asking questions about me. Again, making no effort to practice her English. After a few question/answer go around with her she says, `You are Yanki.` Not knowing what the hell she meant, I headed to a table in the back where I had my paperwork set up. She keeps talking to the staff, at the same time, trying to sneak a peak of me working. After a while she comes to the back and sits down besides me; as if she owns the place. She kept trying to touch my arms get my attention. Getting any work done was impossible, so I had to have staff attend to the young lady.
After catching up with work, I took the time to look up the meaning of Yanki. It seems that Yanki is a subculture which got its start in the 1980`s. Their look is greased up hair, leather, customizing school uniforms, and causing general trouble. In short Yanki is nothing more than a damn greaser! I had been trying to find the correct Japanese word to describe greaser to the general public in Japan. Yanki appears is their word to no good, drinking, fighting, fucking greaser lifestyle.
The only difference I really see between `Yanki` and `Greaser` is most people drop the Yanki habit when they enter the work force. There are not so many lifelong Yanki`s in Japan. Of course, you can still see the Rock a` Billy dancers at Yoyogi park on the weekends. There are also still plenty of Rock a` Billy bands performing nightly in Tokyo.
6 comments:
You'll come across these guys more often in Aichi Prefecture and Osaka. A lot of them look like rejects from the Michael Jackson Beat It video.
I guess not everyone can pull the look off very well.
You didn't know what Yankee meant?
You knew what she meant, right? And then the pic and the hair and cig and the jacket you were sporting...You knew she didn't mean
yanki. You do have a sense of humor.
Go away Tony.
Just to add,
Yanki are typically just bored high school grads, and they often (not generally) get recruited for the "seedy gigs" in Japan, like pachinko parlor operations and "yakuza business". Some of the more legit ones end up in construction work. (But you could argue that's part of the yakuza world, too!)
You pull off the yanki-look very well. A lot of actual yankis can't even pull off the look.
Yeah, Alex has them pegged perfectly. You know those kids that are always wearing track suits or sweat pants with like gold lettering and other junk on them? The ones with the orange hair and shaved eye brows trying to look tough? Yeah, that's them. They make me laugh.
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