Hoppy-Japanese Beer Flavored Beer?

Hoppy. What the hell is Hoppy? Is hoppy beer? Is hoppy a beer alternative? Is Hoppy really beer flavored beer? The answer would be a little bit of all the above.

Hoppy is a beer that is not a beer. If that makes any sense. Introduced in 1948 in Japan by the Kokuka Beverage Company as a beer alternative. At the time when was first released the common person in Japan could not afford to buy beer.

Hoppy is a combination of two beverages. The hoppy itself is mixed with shochu(Japanese distilled alcoholic beverage) to create a mild and refreshing beer like drink. It looks like beer but the taste is totally different. It lacks the bit of actual beer. If a person wants to have more of that bite that only beer can offer Hoppy comes on a black version providing a more bitter flavor.

Shochu has been around in Japan for about as long as there has been a Japan. It is made everywhere in Japan but Kyushu is the center of production. It is 25 percent alcohol which makes it slightly stronger than sake. When mixed with hoppy it becomes much weaker; although many bars but more shochu than hoppy to make the drink stronger.


So how does it REALLY taste?

I have tried hoppy and it really tasted like bland water. I could not even tell that there was any alcohol in it at all. I drank four of the hoppy/shochu mix and did not feel anything. I was tuned off by it but I would not ordered it if I wanted to get really drunk. It was almost like drinking stale tea.

Hoppy is not extremely popular anymore but many people still drink it in Tokyo. There days you are much more likely to see Japanese going for a Budweiser before choosing hoppy. Although due to the hardcore work schedule that many people in Tokyo have Hoppy is a nice drink to have when you cannot get hammered because work starts early the next morning.

From Wave Street to Nameless Street

It all started with a simple invite, `meet me in Shibuya to have drinks with some friends.` An invite to have some drinks sound harmless enough, but as I have learned over and over again in Tokyo that no invite is harmless and no night of drinking is boring.

My nameless friend, who is no longer nameless, Achio invited me and my main squeeze Makiko to meet up with him in Shibuya for drinks with a few friends of his. The original plan was to have a house party at Achio`s place but those plans did not work out; I don`t know why and I decided it best not to ask why. None the less Achio wanted to hang and considering my past experiences hanging with him I knew the night would be interesting. All week long he sent e-mail via cell phone to my girl giving updates on the plans and directions on where to meet. In total I think he ended up sending ten e-mails. He proved beyond any doubt that he likes to keep his peeps up to date on his plans for them.

When this past Saturday finally rolled around Makiko was very excited about meeting new people. She has plenty of friends but oddly enough they do not make plans to hang out very often. The chance to go out and meet new people was a joyful idea in her mind. Although, she did express her nervousness to me several times. She spent around two hours getting ready to go out. She usually only needs around 45 minutes to doll herself up. I wrote off her extra care in attending to herself to the fact she wanted to look her best for people she is meeting for the first time. Most guys would grow sick of waiting around for a gal to get ready but it did not brother me much because she ended up looking stunning. It is always cool to have a great looking gal on your arm.

After Makiko was finally all dolled up and ready to go we left our apartment in Adachi-Ku to venture into central Tokyo. There are two ways to get to central Tokyo from Aoi. You can get on Tsukuba Express and go to Kita-Senju. From Kita-Senju you get on the subway and travel all the way to central and get off at one of the main districts. The other, and much more simple, way is to get on Tsukuba Express and ride it all the way to Akiba. From Akiba you get on the central JR line which stops at all the districts on central Tokyo. Wanting to keep things simple we decided to ride Tsukuba into Akiba and then get on the central JR line to Shibuya. Tsukuba Express was dead. Almost no one on the train. The central JR line was a different matter all together. Saturday is a big night out for most people in Tokyo. The JR line was packed with people all looking for some cheap thrills. I felt the usual sensation of feeling like a can of sardines about to burst open on the JR line.

When we arrived in Shibuya the place was already teaming with people. Shibuya usually turns into chaos on a Saturday night. There was so many people that there is no point to look at anyones face. All the people seem to blend into a mass of crazed humanity. At times it feels like some strange acid trip from hell. All the noise and people mix into a haze of maddness that only Tokyo can create. We fight our way though the crowd and make it to a side street known as Wave Street. Wave street is actually one of the places in Shibuya that pleases a person like myself. While the hordes of masses flock to the three main streets which spring out from Shibuya station, Wave street offers a nice diversion from the madness. I first came to know Wave Street when my friend since college, Fumika, invited Makiko and I to meet her at a bar known as the Hobglobbin. Wave street has plenty of bars and restaurants which cater to people looking for a good time without all the madness which goes along with a night in Shibuya. As luck would have it the place Achio choose to meet up at was in the same building as the Hobglobbin.

We went up to the seventh floor using a small elevator. I long ago lost confidence in the elevators in Tokyo after the incident with the elevator closing too fast killing some kid on a bike over two years ago. I try my best to avoid using elevators in Tokyo when I can. In this situation I did not have much choice. When we made it to the seventh floor we were greeted by a bright faced gal all too happy to inform us that we must take off our shoes. The only reason this brothered me was because I was wearing a pair of white leather shoes which were hard to get on and off. No one likes to wait around on the one person who cannot get their damn shoes on and off quickly. I managed to get my white leather shoes off faster than normal due to not wanting to look like a total fool. The bright face gal took my shoes, put them in a shoe locker and handed me a wooden card with a number on it. Only in Japan have I been given a wooden card as a key for a shoe locker. Although I call Tokyo my home the oddness of it all still gives me a little culture shock sometimes.

We were taken to the area in which Achio was seated. I like the seating style the place was using. There are tables for group seating, which is always a plus. You sit on little cushions which are surprising comfortable. Sitting low to the floor is common in Japan although in America it is often not enjoyed by most people. I remember when I picked up the habit of setting on the floor in college from the many Japanese students I was friends with. They loved the idea of bring able to come to my place and being able to sit in the floor and be comfortable but when my American friends came over they hated having to sit on the floor; and having to take their shoes off. Anyway, Achio was more than happy see us. A few of his friends had already shown up. They had drank a few drinks but put off ordering any food until I had arrived. We ordered some food; including my favorite Japanese dumplings. Also, it was Achio who suggested that I try something called hoppy.

I had never heard of Hoppy, but everyone seem to enjoy it. What is Hoppy? Well, apparently it is a mild beer alternative. The stuff comes in two parts, a bottle of Hoppy and a mug of something called shochu. The Hoppy itself has non-alcoholic, yet when mixed with the shochu is can have a five percent alcoholic content. It was actually not too bad. It had a mild bitter taste but still very smooth compared to normal beer. It is also very cheap. We were ordering it for 400 yen(4.00USD) a bottle when normal mug of beer can cost between 500-1,000 yen(5.00-10.00USD). To our credit we did not stick to just the hoppy. There was also a few rounds of sake thrown in the mix. By the time it became time to move on into the more deeper parts of Tokyo the table was full of happy and some what drunk people.

A table full of fun loving drunks!

After leaving the drinking restaurant it was decided a quick stop at an oyaji bar was in order. Along the way another friend of Achio joined us. She was a crazy fun loving working girl. I did not get her name but she had just gotten off work, as evidence by her freshmen all black dress, and her genki(energy) was very high. Like the rest of us she was a punk. She had a anything goes attitude and enough bite on her personality to scare away most Japanese business men, but she fit right in with us. You might be asking yourself what the hell is a oyaji bar? An oyaji bar is a drinking bar for old men and usually run by old men. They are small little places for old men go to unwind. The old men working the place really did not want us there and they tried, and failed, to turn us away. There was about ten of us at that point all half drunk, loud, and full of piss and fire. We also had money to burn so the guys at the Oyaji bar let sit down with the understanding that we would behave ourselves. We sat and ate for a little while. The great thing about an Oyaji bar is they always have the best chicken on a stick. You can get almost any part of the chicken served up tasty and on a stick for your eating pleasure. As we eat and chat and old men running the place just kind of stare at us with watchful eyes. We were a motely bunch for sure and one hell of a sight for a bunch of old guys running a little bar.

After the oyaji bar looses it charm it is time to head out into the deeper reaches of Tokyo for some after hours fun. Several of the people decide to catch the last train home; including Makiko. Her stomach was feeling a little funny which is code for `I just want to go home but I do not want to offend anybody.` I say a few kind words to her give her a kiss and off she goes back to our apartment in Adachi-ku. At this point there are only three of us left Achio, a guy wearing a Tibet t-shit, and me. I have no idea where we were going but I was sure it was going to be interesting. Achio says `come with me` and off we go. We get on the subway off to god knows where. On the Subway train there was this cute gal laughing at me goofing off a little bit in a very passive manner. She got a cheap laugh and I got a little meaningless attention.

We arrived at a section of Tokyo I do not know; which happens often to me seeing that Tokyo is a very big place. The area has that run down underground feel to it which leans perfectly to my personality. The area was much like Aoi (the section of Adachi-ku in which I live). Lots of after hours bars, small dance halls, and live houses lined the streets. I felt very comfortable in our surroundings. About half way down the street of Achio`s choosing we meet up with Mini and her friend Nobu. I met Mini once before. She hung out with Achio and I during an all night drinking binge recently. She is from North Korea of all places. Mini is tough yet a very nice person. Her friend Nobu is a very open and friendly fun loving gal. Nobu took up with me very quickly which I had no problem with at all.

For some reason Achio got it in his head that he wanted to go to a near by super market to get a cheap little bottle of wine to freshen up his buzz. We all follow him to the local super market and wait outside. Achio went inside while Mini, Nobu and I wait outside and smoke some cigs. Mini and I got into a conversation about Free Masons while Nobu hugged on me like I was a new play thing. About 15 minutes go by and we noticed that the super market had closed and Achio was still inside. We look inside and see him and some kid who works at the super market struggling trying to open the wine bottle. Achio motions for us to come inside to help. Once inside I quickly realized their problem. They had been trying to open the bottle with a cork screw and somehow manage to break off the cork midway out of the bottle. Nobu sees what has happened and laughs while Mini just rolls her eyes. I take the cork screw and try to pull the cork out for bottle but only end up making the situation worse. Finally, I suggest that Achio just exchange the bottle for one that has a cap instead of a cork. The the manager agrees and Achio finally gets his bottle of wine. Achio drinks the entire bottle of wine in about two or three drinks. I was surprised at how fast this man can drink when he wants is in a hurry. It was actually kind of funny to see him drink the whole damn bottle so fast. The reason for this hast was that he wanted us to get into the a after hours bar called Dune.

This place called Dune was very different from most bars in Tokyo. It is referred to as a Japanese soul bar. It the kind of place that Gaijin are rarely seen. Nobu puts her arm around me and urges me up the stairs into the bar. As a walk into the place I noticed very quickly that the place carried with it a very underground environment. There was a DJ spinning at the front entrance. He was into this work and seem not to care what was going on around him. There was a few girls dancing around his little work area, but he did not pay any attention to them. Nobu takes me to the bar and I order a beer. The girl at the bar had a very relaxed attitude and did not seem to care what was going on around her. Nobu hung onto to me for a while and finally wondered off to talk to a friend. Finding myself left to my own devices I decided to go and set down at the couch located behind the DJ area.

Several people were setting down on and around the couch. Some of them drunk, a few high, and others(mostly girls) setting around looking for something or someone. Before long Achio came to sit with me. He starts pointing out all the girls and attempting to tell me what kind of personality each one of them had. I knew that most of the girls did not give a shit about anything but themselves. I could look into their eyes and tell almost none of them could not be trusted. For the most part most of them only cared about staring at the DJ, getting drunk, and trying to score some free drugs from one of the guys. The kind of girls who are nothing but trouble. Despite this fact, Achio still tried to point out the different girls to me. He introduced one of the girls to me. She was sitting on front of me and had a kind of `fuck you` expression on her face. I made no effort to try and remember her name. I did try to at least talk to her but she I could tell that she was waiting for some preplanned action to go down soon and had no interest in talking to anyone. Good for me because I was not there to meet girls. Achio and I drank for a while. He likes to talk to me but his English is not good at all. His limited English skills does not stop him from making conversation with me.

Nobu shows up again, sits down on my lap, puts her arms around me, and forces a shot of Jack Daniels on me. After making me drink the Jack she demands that I get up and hang out with her. We end up standing and in a very sloppy manner dance to the music. It was not really dancing so much as it was grooving to the music. She puts herself in my arms and relaxes against me. Nobu is a very open girl by Japanese standards. In a place like Dune the girls are nothing like what is normal Japanese girl`s attitude. The kind of people who go to places like Dune are people with very strong independent personalities who don`t fit in with the rest of the people in Tokyo.

After enjoying the attention that Nobu seemed to love giving me Achio tells me that he wants to go outside for a little bit and get smoke a cig. Nobu follows us outside. While we where outside I see the girl that Achio had introduced me to walk by with several guys. This group walks quickly past without looking at anyone and acting like they are coolest people in the whole world. I know this attitude very well. They just did some drugs. If you have never been around people who think that because they have drugs they are somehow cooler than everybody else then you know how they act....like assholes. I just write them off and an glad I did not get involved with them. Those kind of people are nothing but trouble. Doing some drugs now and again is ok but to act as if you are cool shit just because you do drugs turns people into assholes who will make trouble for you.

Finally at six in the morning it became time to leave Dune. Achio, Mini, Nobu and I left to eat at a noodle house. I usually do not like Japanese noodles but this time was different. I don`t know if was the fact that I was a little drunk or just very hungry but I ate the entire bowl like a starved rat.

After eating it was time to drink a little more. At this point it was 6:30 am and these people still wanted to drink. Well, as usual I just go with the flow. We go into a convenience store and buy some cans of beer; the big cans of course. Instead of finding a decent place to sit down and drink we simply across the street and sit down at a very small parking lot and start drinking. Achio takes a seat on a concrete parking marker while Mini sits on the ground. I lay back and Nobu lay besides me. For some reason she just wanted to be near me all the time and I just met her. I did not mind although I did find it odd. It made the night more enjoyable all the same. The three of us talked while finishing off the beer. After the beer was gone we headed over the to subway to go home. Nobu has a different train from the rest of us so I said good by to her and she left; she gave me her number but I don`t know if I will call her. On the train Achio, Mini and I ended up sleeping on each other. I guess we had finally got tired. Overall, the night was fun but odd at times. Just another night in Tokyo in the books!

The night took me and then left me for dead!

An Unexpected Tokyo Funeral

I have learned from experience that Tokyo will always provide an strange twist to the human experience. The strangest twist Tokyo can throw at a person come in the late hours of the night. After hours in Tokyo is a brave and odd world. Case and point is how I spent this past Friday night.

Recently, I have made a nameless friend. I call him nameless because I am still as of yet unsure of his name. I met him at a bar late at night recently. He is a night crawler like me. He is odd for sure but he is also harmless enough and nice to me. He speaks very little English but that does not stop him from wanting to be friends with me. He likes to drink, hang-out, and wonder around Tokyo late at night looking for something to get into. He is my kind of friend for sure.

My nameless friend calls me at 10:30 pm wanting to meet and hang-out for a while. He is able to tell me that his uncle just died and he wants to hangout. He seems not too upset about the death of his uncle. His main concern seemed to be a desire to hangout with me. We are able to communicate and agree to meet at the Asakusa station; which is about a 20 minute walk from my apartment. When I actually get to the station he is not there yet. I hang around for about 5 minutes before my cell phone rings. My nameless friend is on the other line and he struggles to tell me that he will be at the station soon. I tell him to meet me at the Denny`s in front of the station. Ten minutes later he shows up half drunk and with a big smile on his face. He then tells me that we are going to a `heart warming party` at a funeral home.

`This crazy bastard is taking me to a fucking funeral home in the middle of the night to drink!` I think to myself. I hold back my culture shock to simply smile and agree. It seems to make him real happy that I agree to go with him to a funeral home for drinking. He say to me with much glee, `We get free drinks no pay.`

Due to his drunkenness the walk to the funeral home was a eventful one. He had a half empty bottle of sake with him. He found it very funny to be drinking on his way to the funeral home. I found it a little odd to be drinking while walking to a funeral but I have learned from experience to just go with the flow in Tokyo and everything will be ok. Sake can get a person drunk real fast. The stuff taste like backwash but the effect is well worth the less than pleasant taste. We quickly found ourselves wondering onto the road and avoiding traffic. Every time a car almost hit us we burst out into laughter. It did not take long for my nameless friend to become lost. We came onto a Koban station. My friend has very little respect for the police. He laughs at the police as we come up to the Koban station. He says, `Japanese Cop weak. He will tell me where funeral.` My first reaction is to hide the bottle of sake in my jacket pocket but my friend grabs the bottle from me. He walks into the little Koban station with the bottle of sake, puts his arms around the cop and demands directions. To my surprise the cop does not try to arrest us and offers to tell us where we need to go. He proved to me that Japanese Cops really are weak. In America we would have been arrested and got a free night in the drunk tank.

After harassing the cop we walk a little more until we get lost again. We stumble into a noodle bar and ask for directions. The guys at the noodle bar are even more drunk than we are so they could not be of much help. We then cross the street, and almost get hit by two cars, to the 7-11. People who work at the many 7-11`s around Tokyo are some of the most helpful people in Tokyo. The guy working at the counter is more than happy to give up detailed directions to the funeral home. I buy a couple of cokes and say thank you for the help.

As we make our final descent to the funeral home we get lost again. It is late at night and there is almost no one on the streets. As luck would have it some random cute gal in a business suite comes walking towards us. My nameless friend tries to talk to her but it scares her very much. I calm her down my bowing and offering her a drink of my coke. She accepts and my friend asks her for directions. After thanking her several times we finally find the funeral home.

We find ourselves in front of the building across from a low down dirty looking bar. We try to enter the building but it is locked. My friend to force the door open but it will not give. He says to me, `Wait. We will get in this fucking place.` He makes four phones calls. No one answers. He becomes a little pissed and considers calling the whole thing off and going to the bar across the street. Before he totally gives up he makes one more phone call and talks to someone. After the short conversation he turns to me and says, `We good now. Office man come.` After a few minutes this old man opens up the door and starts talking shit to my friend. They have a short heated conversation before we are allowed inside. As we stand in an elevator my friend says to me, `No problem. Fucking mean old man.` The strangest had only just begun.

When we arrive on the second floor I am told to wait. At this point I become a little worried. I hate funerals. Even worse I don`t even know the person who died and have no connection to the family other than my drunk nameless friend. My friend goes down to the end of the hall and enters into a room. I am left alone with the mean ass old man staring at me like I am the devil. He looks at me like me wants to kill me. A sudden feeling raises up in me to haul ass and get the fuck out of there; but I stay put just to see what is going to happen. Eventually the old man smiles at me and invites me to enter a large room which is set up to look like a some kind of shrine. There it is! A dead body in a wooden box!

There is a table with candles and a good smelling sticks for lighting. The old man lights one of the candles and points to the sticks and motions for me to light one using the candle. I have no idea what I have just gotten myself into. In the spirit of going with the flow I light a stick and place it up right in a holding tray. At this point I assume that I am to pray or something. I do not know how to pray for a dead body in Japan so I fake it. I put my hands together and bow for a few minutes. That must worked because the old man seemed to be pleased with me. I stay at the table for a little bit to check out the morbid scene in front of me. In front of the table there are lots of flowers of various colors and types. The flowers are very pretty. Most of the flowers are purple and white but a few are red and yellow. What I noticed to be very odd was the offering of food. There are reef with many different kinds of strange little packs of food attached. I guess the Japanese figure that the dead might want a little snack in the after life. The guy in the box looked very peaceful for a dead guy. The photo in the center of all the flowers was of him with his beloved flute. If he liked to play the flute then he must have been an ok person.

Suddenly my nameless friend returned and takes moment to pray. After he is finished he motions for me to follow him. He says, `Come. Free Drink.` I follow him to the end of the hall and into the room he want into earlier. I am greeted by a host of smiling Japanese faces. They seem just a little surprised to see me but they are happy with my company all the same. I really did not know how to react. I felt like a fish out of water. I greet everyone and take a seat on the floor. I do not know any of these people and do not know me. I very position to me indeed. I am attending the funeral of a man I do not know and having drinks with a family I have never met.

They must have noticed that I felt really out of place because they start feeding me drinks. Within two hours I have drank at least 12 beers and attempted to explain a little about myself several times. Oddly enough these people take a special interest in me. They enjoy my company and thank me for coming to pay respect to the dead guy in the other room. Before I left all of us went into the room with the dead guy. They showed me how to pray for the dead. We all put our hands in the praying position bow and chant some words which proved very hard for me to repeat. I did this the best I could.

This had to be one of the strangest night I have never experienced in Tokyo. I seem to run into things like this all the time in Adachi-ku(the section of Tokyo I live in). I never expected in a million years to be running around with a friend with no name getting drunk at a funeral. Gaijin life in Tokyo is one hell of a trip sometimes.

Man Gets Busted Fucking his Patio Table WTF!!!

I was wondering around digg when I come across an article about a man who has been arrested for fucking his patio table. Now, my first reaction was to laugh my ass off; which I did of course. Just reading the title of the article makes me laugh because it is a really stupid thing to get arrested for in the first place. Second, who fucks their patio table!?

The guy is married with three kids and he would come outside totally naked between the hours of 10:00 and 11:00 am and have his way with the patio table. The worst part of all this is that his patio is in direct eye sight of a school for little kids and a playground. I know that we all have a some kink in us but this guy takes it way too far.

What was this guy thinking!? Did it feel THAT good? He told the police in detail how he would screw the table repeated times totally in the nude.

This makes me wonder about the state of American culture. Have we Americans gone off the deep end. What else are people into in America these days. What can`t we fuck up!? Is everything a sex object these days? I just can`t look at another patio table the same ever again. The mug shot of the guy looks like one of those guys who spends way too much time reading comic books and watching Japanese cartoons.

This is the article about the man who likes to fuck tables.

The Easy Way Out is to be a Mean Ass Jaded Motherfucker all the Time

The internet is full to the brim with people who spend hours upon hours referring to everything as crap and lame. Life has somehow made them jaded to the point of no return. They have seen and done everything in their opinion. They have typed `you suck` or `this sucks` so many times that they have melted the key stroke memory into their hands. The needle in their brain just keeps skipping on the `I hate everything` mood swing like a broken record. They are the mean ass jaded motherfuckers of the internet; and they are not going away.

The society of the internet is as complex and diverse as the real world. There are communities for every kind of lifestyle and interest on the net. Even the clown porn crowd has its own little dark places on the net. Everyone one the net spend a lot of time switching from site to another commenting and blogging on anything and everything. Any one person will be in a heated debate over a news articles that brings up the question of Mrs. Clinton might be guy and the next minute laughing their ass off over a picture of a can of pig brains which contains enough fat to make your heart stop in two minutes. Yet despite all the diverse topics and subject matter, there is still of large section of the net that will not be phased by even the sight of a fat women falling off a bicycle while eating a Twinkie.

The demented jaded motherfuckers of the net really have no community in which they last very long. They end up floating from one site to another pissing off everyone in their way. Sometimes it seems as of the same motherfuckers show up on the same site time and time again. After a good dick whipping they roll back under from the rock they where came only to surface a few days or weeks later.

Their mind and soul seem to be full of pure hate for human kind. Digg can be full of jaded asses at times. You post something and then you wait for someone to give it a digg or a comment. You check some other articles and then you come back to one you submitted. There is the comment; `you fucking suck. This fucking sucks. That fucking sucked. What would you put something up that suck so fucking sucks so fucking much etc.` They don`t actually comment on anything that you posted or said. All they care about is the fact that you submitted something and in their opinion it fucking sucked. This same person then proceeds to take the time to read several other articles just to say it all of them fucking sucked. It is not good enough to just say that it fucking sucked; they also have to debate with other people about how it is there right to say something fucking sucked and how everyone commenting on the article also fucking sucks. Before long they are ran out of digg.com town for a while.

The roost of the internet, myspace, is full of so many jaded fucks that at times one cannot tell the difference between a person who actually has something to say and someone who things that everything fucking sucks. In myspace land the fuckers come out of no where and attack with brutal jadedness and a fuck you attitude. They combine their usual arrogance with the fact that because they have a myspace account they are somehow with in crowd and you just don`t get it.

The only real safe haven for the fuckers of the internet is yahoo chat. They hide there and bitch about all the sites on the internet where their attitude them ran out. It is always someone else who was the asshole and they are the nice person just trying to be friendly.

With all of this said there really are jaded fuckers who always take the easy way out when interacting with fellow humans no matter where you go in life. They are on the net and in real life.

The Ghost has finally appeared!--Lets talk about beating up the homeless.

I have noticed that the poor go very unnoticed by most people. I know that most people don`t want to read about the very poor. I am talking about those who eat out of trash cans and piss on the subway. The homeless are the real forgotten people in just about every major city in the world. Here in Tokyo the homeless try to stay unnoticed for fear of being beaten up or mess with by the police. All it take is one little Japanese chick to get grossed out my some guy trying to catch a few hours of sleep in a forgotten corner of the train station and the police come running to give the guy pure hell. If he does not get up and leave the station or at least move to a spot that most people to not venture a beating is in order.

Tokyo is the most advanced city in the world but the police still can dish a brutal beating on a helpless homeless guy at a moments notice. Even though everyone passing by can see the guy get the shit kick out of him they just keep on walking as if nothing is happening. As you walk down the walkway you can hear the moans and smell the blood and piss of a poor old Japanese guy get beat to a pulp by a small group of cops wielding billy sticks. Sometimes the homeless guy will cry out for help but it only makes the beating worse. The cops also like to take the wrap sack, a common item along the homeless in Tokyo, and toss everything in it all over the place. If they find anything that could be used as a weapon in the slightest way the cops drag the guy off for some time in the drunk tank. They might charge him with possession of a deadly weapon, as weapons of all kind are banned in Japan, just so they can hold him longer in the drunk tank. In the end the guy finally gets out of jail beat up and having lost all of this worldly possessions. It is sick stuff indeed.

The homeless women are the ones who really bring tears to ones eyes. Most of the homeless women are really old and in bad health. A lot of them are victims of a vastly changing thinking in the culture of Japan. Only in the past severals decades have women in Japan enjoyed total liberation and independence. It is common place to see the working girl in Japan go about her daily life free from the whims of an overbearing asshole. For many of the old homeless women on the streets of Tokyo never enjoyed such freedom. They lived under the hand of their husband. Always seen and almost never heard, was the live these women had for much of their lives. They end up on the streets due to having been disconnected from their family and their husband leaving nothing for them to live on after his death. Common among these homeless women is a broken down back and torn dirty brown dresses that once showed off their now long gone youthful beauty. If they are lucky they will have shoes. The shoes the few lucky ones have are full of holes. They dig though garbage cans for food that some spoiled Japanese teenager threw away after eating only a few bits. Sadly many of these women die every winter. Their old abused bodies just can`t take the harsh winter. A lot of them just curl up into a ball and fade away.
I wonder who these women where back in the day. Some of them must have been very beautiful and a prize by any man`s standard. They might have been some of the most gentle women in the world. They gave their total loyalty to one man for the rest of their days and for that they end up old, hungry, forgotten and dead on the street.

It really is a sad state of affairs for the homeless in Tokyo. Some of them do find safety in the few hidden shelters that take in the homeless. The shelters fill up quickly sometimes leaving most to wonder the streets in search of some place to sleep safely. The homeless men sometimes give their bad at a shelter for one of the women who are really bad off. Even in the lowest point in a persons life the Japanese sense of togetherness can be found.

So goes life on the streets for the homeless of Tokyo. Everyday they survive is yet another day of struggle and pain. I write about the older ones because they get the rougher end of the shit stick of homeless. The younger make it though all right most of the time except for the ones trapped by drug addiction or prostitution. Seeing these poor tortured soul reminds me that all of us are just a few wrong turns from ending in the streets besides them. It helps to drive you to get on the right path or else......