Tako Gaijin WTF!

Howdy yall! I know, it has been a while since my last post. I have been busy doing other things. My life moves pretty fast at times. So fast in fact that it can be hard sometimes to sit down and write it all down. Fuck it! The Ghost has returned to writing. Actually, I have still being doing something creative. I have been making Youtube videos recently. It is easy to do and has been a hell of a lot of fun for me. I find the creative process of making videos to be damn interesting. Yall can check it out by clicking here.

So, the title of this post relates to some vile shit which has been going on in my hood for a while. Starting around spring of this year one of my neighbors decided he wanted to be a racist bastard. Over the past months I have been subject to his almost daily verbal insults and general bullshit. I have tried my best to not go ape shit crazy on this mother fucker. Last night I finally had enough.

I was coming from Paul`s bar, Vega wine bar, and sure enough that racist fuck across the street started with his shit. He puked out some hate from his mouth and I simple went off. Maybe it was the wine which inspired me but something snapped from within my being. I started shouting every profane word I knew in English and Japanese. I was damn close to breaking down that assholes door and kicking the shit out of him. Lucky for me I have a good support group of loving and caring people in my life. My buddy Akio was hanging at my house and he came outside to chill me the fuck out. My gal stuck her head out the window with a look of shock and fear on her face. Yeah, the situation was pretty fucked up.

Pretty quickly a whole gang of cops were crawling around in the hood. It has been a long time since that many pig cops had been in the hood at one time. I think the total number of cops was 12. Yeah, 12 fucking cops just to handle one pissed off foreigner! Crazy shit goes down in my hood all the time and they never send out 12 cops. I guess hearing angry English around midnight gets their attention more than normal.

The cops had Akio and me at the far end of the street while another gang of cops had my gal and that racist asshole on the street in front my house. Akio was more angry than me. He was giving those cops pure shit in Japanese. He went on a epic rant about how fucked up and lazy the local police patrol is. We must have dealt with those cops for over an hour. After all the shit talk the local patrol refuse to anything but tell me to `watch myself.` That was not going to be good enough for us at all.

We spend the rest of the night wondering around the hood getting drunk. We needed to purge ourselves of the negative energy before we took things to the next level. We yes...we took things to the next level.

After we slept off our massive hang over, we all decided to attempt to get justice though official channels. I really hate dealing with officials of any part of the system. I would prefer to just write off and avoid the system as much as I can. Although, dealing with street punks and dealing with racist neighbors are two totally different things. Considering that I not a citizen, and this is not something I can deal with on my own, off to the police station I went.

When the three of us(gal, Akio and me) arrived at Kita-Ayase police station no one wanted to deal with us. The police reacted to our request to file a complaint as if we were crazy. They all looked like a gang of deer in head lights. I am sure that it is not often that someone rolls up into the station demanding to file a complaint. It took a bit to show them that we were serious. They sent us to the third floor and we waited for about 20 minutes while the cops decided what they were going to do. Akio started knocking on doors until someone met with us. He disturbed three meetings and one shake down in order to get the cops attention. Akio really knows how to fuck with police. He might even be more anti-authority than me. Anyway...

Finally this older cop leads us into a room. He looked to be a detective of some sort. He was bald, wore a suit and had a slight twitch in his left eye. As soon as he sat down with us we started laying into him. We came at him with rapid fire questions and demands for over an hour and a half. He struggled to keep up with us. He did a lot of head nodding and note taking. After a while is actually started talking about what he was going to do. To my surprise, he claimed that he was going to visit my neighbor in the morning and tell him to chill the fuck out.

I have no idea how this will work out. In fact, I feel just a little sorry for that asshole across the street. I don`t want to see anymore have a hard time, even if they give me one daily. The bastard is still human after all. The thing is this shit needs to end. It puts unneeded stress on me. The natural stress of living in a big city is enough to deal with already; I don`t need this stupid shit from a small minded person. I am sure my neighbors are now officially scare shit less of me. That sucks but there are worse things in life then having your neighbors not like you. Besides, life is too short to worry about people who have made no effort to know me. I just want all of this crap to be over.

*If you want to watch my youtube video about this just click here.

Rumble In The Hood

There are times when you really have to throw off the chains of society and simply do the right thing. You should know by now that one of the main goals of any society is to control the population, for the purpose of, allowing the slime of the earth to get away with clearly oppressive and abusive actions. Few people will do anything about this sad fact because, in the back of their minds, they also want to do the exact same things. It is a vicious cycle.

I am here to say that: This shit is going to end..one way or the other.

I live in a part of Tokyo that the city has long given up on. Adachi-ku is not the bright happy image of Tokyo plastered on travel blogs, mass media and exported to the west. Yeah, Adachi-ku is a bad part of town. A lot of folks will say that Shinjuku is so `hard core.` There is money in Shinjuku. Also the central government of Tokyo and of the entire nation is in Shinjuku. It is yet another image the rulers of Tokyo like to promote. The Yakuza make money from the image of Shinjuku and the government saves face. The J-gov. can always say, `We are cracking down on the crime center!` when ever they needs votes. The places in Tokyo which really are in need of change get swept under the rug; Adachi-ku is one of those places.

So, after living in Adachi for several years I have come to realize that no one is going to even try to help these people. They have shitty education, very low economic growth, low housing standards and a police force which would rather arrest these people than actually help them. Most of the people living here are either blue collar or working under the table. The youth have no hope of escaping the shit which surrounds them,  It is going to take one ass whooping at a time to wake some folks up.

One ass whooping at a time...sounds like a good idea. It all started in early July 2011.

It was a hot day in Tokyo. So hot that the paint was peeling off the walls. Not even my fucked up neighbor across the street had the energy to shout out some cold blooded racist comments at me. Most folks were held up in their coffin sized apartments attempting to beat the heat with air conditioning raging full blast. The little side streets were mostly dead silent. Suddenly the artificial peace was broken by sounds of a fight. I stepped onto the balcony and was greeted by a good old fashion shake down. Three young thug looking guys were putting the squeeze on some scared skinny J-kid. They were smacking him around and trying to take whatever they could from him.

My blood begin to boil. Something snapped inside of me. I decided to do something.

I went down on the street and started some shit with those assholes. They saw me coming and really did not know what to do. I am sure they thought that I was just passing by. I grabbed one of them and pushed him to the ground. The other two froze like deer in headlights. I simply said,`get the fuck out of here` in English. They understood well enough and took off like scared rats.The skinny J-kid just stared at me like I was the second coming of Jesus fucking Christ. I brushed him off, got him a coca-cola and walked him to his shit apartment. He told his mother what happened. She is a single mother and damn near offered me sex as a thank you. I shrugged off her polite advances. All I wanted was that J-kid not to be fucked with.

Yall would think that those damn fuckers would have learned their lesson; but sadly they didn`t.

The next day all was well in the hood until....

I was rolling around the hood making my rounds. I try to do that about once a week. You know, just checking with all the local businesses that are cool with me and saying hello to the folks who are cool in general. When I walked out of the local tobacco shop I spotted those little bastards from the day before. They had the same vicious smiles slapped on their faces. Although I was hungry as a starved hound, I decided to keep my eye on those little shits. I found me a spot at the local McDonald`s with a cup of cheap ass coffee. I could see my little friends across the street near Gotanno station. As expected, it did not take long for them start some shit. A high school gal turned down to side street beside the station. They went right for her.
Those little bastards starting following her like rats jumping on a piece of stale cheese. I knew some shit was about to go down. I also knew that no Japanese would do anything about it.

I was the only person who was willing to do anything.

I dumped the rest of my coffee down my stomach and prepared to get raw. 

I left the McDonald`s and stated to crawl toward the action. I wanted to go for a surprise attack so I was careful to avoid them seeing me. By the time I was in range, they had her cornered and were putting their hands on her.. As I come up from behind them, the gal noticed me. She gave me a look that screamed, `Please help me.` Something boiled up from deep inside of me. I smacked one of them in the back of the head. He turns around and gets in my face. The look of shock he expressed realizing it was me, again, was a pure Kodak moment. He backed off into the protection of his thugish friends. I said to them in straight English, `Get the fuck out of here assholes!` They stared at me with a ghoulish passionate hate. At that point I again spoke in straight English, `Go on. Get the fuck out of here.` They slowly walked away giving me a hard ass thugish stare down. I just smiled and said, `Baka!`

The poor gal was in tears. She had rolled herself into a ball on the street. At first she was shy towards me. I tried to ask her if she was okay but she put her hand in my face and shook her head. I was unable to say the right thing in Japanese so I had to choice but to use English. I said,`Look. I just helped you. Be cool. It is over now. I will take you home, okay?` Shockingly enough she somehow understood. The gal made it to her feet and held out her hand wanting my protection. I was not going to walk down the damn street holding a school gal`s hand. I am much too old for that shit. I told her I would buy her a coke and walk with her to her house. She accepted that. Turns out she was another of the many poor young gals who live in the local housing projects. Another youthful Adachi-ku gal who will most likely go no where in life. At least for one day she was safe.

So after dealing with those assholes for two days in a row, I wanted to relax. I decided to grab some cheap beer and chill by the river. That ended up being good for me. I took time to reflect on the recent events which had happened over the past two days. Free flowing water always clears my mind.

Yet, the peace was short lived.

As I was riding my bike down the bike ramp leading to the highway, I huge rock smacked me in the head. I went flying head first over the handle bars. My face hit the pavement at full force. My hole body went tumbling down the ramp. I did not realize what was happening until I heard the marching of boots. The first kick in the ribs snapped me out of my daze. Those three little fuckers had set me up. I did my best to get to my feet as they kicked me. Funny thing was they were not kicking me all that hard. When I got to my feet I started throwing punches like wild. It was all I could do considering that I was knocked stupid from the fall. They caught on pretty quick that the only way to get me to stop fighting would be to knock me out so after a few minutes they fled.

So there I stood...bloodied...beaten...and pissed the fuck off.

Yeah, if you do the right thing people will come at you like a pack of wild animals. In Japan it seems that standing up for those who are helpless is bad. This society has become very cold blooded. No one in my hood would do what I did because they are just too fucking spineless.

Did I get revenge....you bet I fucking did! But that is a post for another day.  

A Good Man is Hard to Find

If you know whats good for you, then you better know that a good man is hard to find. If you are not aware then please allow me to inform you that we live in a very dark twisted world. As America is waging war in six different nations, as international bankers are ruining the notion of nation states, as many societies find themselves in a condition of revolution or near revolution...the band plays on in Japan. No...the kids are not alright.

You know, Japan has given me many things. I can be thankful to Japan for the life I enjoy today. I can be honest, and human enough, to admit that. Will I bow down to Japan and pretend this is the greatest nation on the planet? Fuck no! Japan is no better than America. The same vile N.W.O. control grid bullshit which is so common in the U.S.A. is going on in Japan. Any fool who refuses to see and admit the truth is a fucking dumb ass. I could sit here and cite example after example of what is really going on in our modern world, but I spend enough time doing that else where on the web. Wake the fuck up and research this shit for yourself. I am not your fucking mother. 

Yet...there is hope for our twisted world. And it may come from the most unlikely of places...Tokyo Japan.

As hard as it may be to believe, there are a few shining lights in the center of greed, lust and social sickness that is Tokyo. I have met one of those shining lights.

His name is Paul.

By day is works damn hard in the Japanese corp. world. He deals with the systematic outdated business models which have left Japan in a state of motionless progress for the last 20 plus years. He out performs his co-workers daily. In fact, he dances circles around them. Yet, in the evening he does something totally different. He becomes the owner and head bar tender of Vega.The bar is really nice. It has got the prefect atmosphere. Plus you can remote connect to a huge play list songs via your iphone. I had a lot of fun digging though Vega`s play list.

It is Paul and his Vega bar which offers a glimmer of hope in the dark twisted city of Tokyo. Paul treated me in a way I am not used to. He actually treated me like a human. He was very warm and welcoming to me. An actual real human. He made me feel like I belong in Tokyo. It had been so damn long since I had met someone who was real and kind that I damn near cried right there at the bar. I held it back and played it cool(I teared up a bit on the train ride home. Yes I can admit it) His general nature is so rare in Tokyo. In my experience, most folks in Tokyo are stubborn assholes who would rather spit on you than look you in the eye. I am sure Paul would never do that to anyone unless they really deserved it.

I know a few decent folks in Tokyo. They are funny and I think they at least care somewhat about other people. For the most part this hand full of folks are alright. Although they do tend to have a chip on their shoulder due to misplaced pride and ego. Hell, I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder as well. After you live in Tokyo for a few years, the shit of the city gets into your soul and fucks your head up to a certain degree. It happens to a lot of people and I have not been spared.

Yet, after meeting Paul I can see that some people are able to retain a high amount of goodness in their heart. Paul is still real and kind to his fellow humans. Such a man gives me hope. A hope that there is still a chance for humans to turn things around. Maybe...just maybe we have not completely screwed ourselves.

Working Class Hero is Something to Be

From the day you are born `they` make you feel small. You know, a working class hero is something to be.
 The money is enough to keep me going but hardly enough to keep me alive. The life I live is not for most. The ideas and beliefs which drive me are kicked in the dirt and considered to be wrong. That is okay because my will is still strong. When life gets too dark I think of the coal fields which created me. I saw many strong men go underground deep in the mountain, risking their lives, just to put food on the table. They knew the company was grinding them down to nothing but everyday those strong proud men went into the mountain. Slowly they died from depression and loneliness. Their women hated them because they could never bring in enough money. Despite the daily dose of emotional abuse and whiskey, these man still went into the mountain everyday. Now I realize why they did this....


Somethings are more important than money and serving the corporate machine.There are certain ideas and beliefs which every man must decide to stand by to the end. Everyday I am usually surrounded by folks who would rather kick me in the face than give me a chance. They spend their time playing political games and using everyone to achieve their agenda. They don`t care about morals or doing something bigger than themselves. When they talk to me they are usually stunned that someone could actually desire things other than money. Yeah, I want to earn a decent living but not at the cost of certain ideas. Sadly, I am a dying breed of man. I know few man who place any limits on themselves. Just soulless men and women who will smile at me, while at the same time stab me in the back. Honor and pride are in short supply. It`s all about money and fucking everyone over to get what they want. The more people know I have strong ideas of honor, the more they want to kick me down.

It beats on me daily...but still I carry on. A working class hero is something to be...

Not Evil But Darker

Something has changed about me. A recent post by Loco at Loco in Yokohama got me thinking about the dark soul I have become since I first started living in Tokyo several years ago.

There is something about this city which twist the hearts of men. Tokyo is not like other cities in the world. There is a very dark force which infects the once jewel city of Asia. A certain madness grips your soul and changes you into something else...something stranger than before.

Yes...something stranger...

I used to be more friendly with folks. I used to trust most people. I would rarely think ill of folks I met for the first time. I was out going and generally happy. These days I am a different animal all together. I am keen and mean way too often. I am like a dragon breathing fire and aggressive as a Tom Cat in heat. Every fucking time I trust someone and I get fucked over big time. I do not see or experience much pure goodness. I deal with raging assholes daily. I have learned to be an even bigger asshole in order to survive.

While I have not gone pure fucking evil, I am a much darker person than I was before. While I was wild as hell in the Mountains of West Virginia, I was not like I am now. It took me a while to realize that I am stranger than before. It has been little things which has made me realize just how different I am these days.

For example:

I used to have a concern for the dull and depressing nature of the trains in Tokyo. I used to make myself smile on the train in the hope that someone would smile back. Now, I am just as much a brutal rib knocking asshole as most of the sorry fucks on the train.

When I first moved to Adachi-ku years ago, I made daily attempts to at least say hello to my down stairs neighbor in the morning. After years of those pricks treating me like I am the fucking devil, I just give them the same dirty looks they give me.

I used to really give a damn about being a `nice guy` at work. I tried to be cool with the J-staff and always liked working with a new teacher. Now, I might very well be the hardest fucker to work with in the history of foreign English teachers in Japan. I am quick to demand answers to fucked up shit and tend to treat any teacher, who have not shed blood for the company with me, like a treasonous  bastard.

I used to make a decent effort to by polite to folks. These days, all too often, I will speak the raw truth any time and any where without any concern for others feelings. The more sensitive a person is the more I tend to try to piss them off on purpose at times. I used to never to do that but now I have reached the point in which such people just make me sick.

In general I have lost a lot of faith in humanity. I have seen and experienced so much shit in Tokyo that this twisted city has make me a bit more dark than I ever thought. It may get the best of me. Yet, there are times when I am guided by goodness. It is rare but it still happens. I am not evil just much darker than before. 

Helping a Drunken Tokyo Fool

Recently, I did a post about a drunken bastard with his face beat in for doing something fucked up at a hostess bar(according to his drunken Japanese). While I did not have much mercy for him, there are others I do feel sorry for, enough so that from time to time I help them out a bit.

Case in point was my arrival at my home station of Aoi earlier tonight. The work day had been good enough. No major problems to report other than feeling like a man on an island; which I have experienced before with the company I work for. I was feeling in a odd mood on my train ride home. My recent wave of self-awareness has heightened my understanding of just about everything around me. I am usually very self-aware but recently it has gone into overdrive. I feel myself transforming so far beyond the stomach zombies which surround me daily that I am shocked by just how much most people miss around them.

Anyway, after fighting to step off the train at Aoi station I noticed this fella sitting on a bench in what appeared to be a drunken coma. Judging from his plain cheaply produced business attire, he was not a rich man by any means. I was pulled toward him as if something had taken control of my mind and body. I was not acting on my own accord. As I woke him up it was as if I was watching the actions of someone else from a first person perspective. I said to the man in Japanese,`Hay. You okay. You live in Aoi? Stop sleeping! Last train is coming.` When I touched this man he was suddenly filled with energy and sprung back to life. I could not tell if he was speaking to me in Japanese or if I was having one of those moments when I understood Japanese so well that it seemed like he was speaking in English(remember I am not the master of Japanese by no means). He said,`Aoi is not my home. Aoi is your home?` I pointed to the train arrive sign and said,`Go home okay. Your wife is waiting.` I don`t know how I knew he was married but he agreed that his wife must be missing him. I hold him to take the next train and I left. He tried to follow me but I had gotten on the elevator before he could catch up with me.

I did not feel in full control of myself until I had gotten to street level. As two local young Adachi gals stared at me, I lit a smoke and took a deep breath. I hope that damn fool is thankful I woke his ass up.  

Stiffing A Bar in Shibuya

Sometimes you end up doing fucked up shit due to suddenly being caught in a fucked up situation. Now, yall should know that there will be people who get really pissed off after reading this post. What I ended up doing at a bar in Shibuya one night is considered `not cool` by most people`s standards. Hell, it is not cool by my standards! I should have kicked my own ass for doing this, but sometimes you got to do things in order to keep from getting totally fucked over. Case in point is one night in Shibuya when I choose to hang out with a Shibuya Gyaru.

These ladies known as `Shibuya Garu`are not to be trusted. Anyone keen to the street culture in Tokyo knows this to be very true. Partying with a Shibuya Gyaru is like drinking with the devil; your soul is targeted for suffering from the first hello. These unique brand of J-gals are keen and rough. Usually such a lady would be interesting to me. The problem is Gyaru`s in Shibuya is that they usually have no morals. If they think they can get away with something, you can bet your bottom dollar these ladies will try to pull it off. Yet, I fucked up and partied with some of them.

Anyway, it all started when I got a call from my buddy Akio.. He wanted to party in Shibuya all night. Akio is a good friend of mine so of course I was all game. When I met him in Shibuya, he took me to an odd live house with a huge bouncer at the door. The damn bouncer was so fucking big and mean looking that he could easily eat a man whole. We got past the bouncer and paid the 2,000 yen cover charge. The cover charge ended up being an entrance fee to see some psychedelic bands play. Fair enough I thought. Akio disappeared for about 30 minutes. When he showed up again he had three Gyaru`s with him looking to drink and be crazy. One of them started buying drinks for everyone. She kept saying, `I buy drinks. Who wants to drink?` Hell, I thought if this chick is going to buy drinks all night I will let her. What I did not know was that this chick had an underhanded plan to get drunk all night and put the bill on everyone else.

She seemed alright at the live house. She was throwing money around like water. There were four of us and she must have bought five rounds. The bar was C.O.D. as to prevent any monkey business. I like C.O.D. service actually. It keeps the bar from tossing in hidden charges. Anyway, after the bands stopped playing one of the Gyaru`s passed out from drinking too much. It must have taken over an hour to finally get her up and out of there. Once the four of us finally left the live house, things started to get weird. Akio said that the ladies wanted to go a bar and drink some more. No problem for me because I was stuck in Shibuya until the trains started running again. Again the Gyaru said, `I buy drinks lets go.` We go to one of those over priced bars in Shibuya which has a DJ playing hard rock music. Damn gal started ordering round after round and I did not have time to say no. I downed so many shots of Tequila that I am surprised that I was even able to think straight. As the night wore on it became clear that this chick was waiting for someone to show up. That person ended up being her boyfriend. I am married so no biggie for me. The problem came when everyone bailed the same time she did. She had attracted about seven people at that bar and they all bailed when she did. This left me and Akio alone at the bar and the fucking bar tap. That damn devil women left us with the fucking bill! It was her plan all along. She hooked up her `friends` up at the live house only to set up the gaijin and his buddy later so her and all her friends could drink for free. I was so pissed off I wanted to kill that chick!

I had enough money to pay for myself but not for seven goddamn people! Lucky for me, Akio is a keen motherfucker. As soon as I told him we had been set up, he started to carry out a plan to get us out of the situation. Akio simply said, `be cool. wait a minute.` So I had a smoke and tried to play it cool. After five minutes I get a text from Akio which said,`don`t talk to anyone. Come downstairs.` I went down stairs but staff noticed. I saw Akio out of the corner of my eye. He was hiding around the side of the building. Yeah, Akio was planning for us to stiff the bar and get the hell out of there. The staff came down stairs and I told them I was coming back. I needed to make a phone call. They left and I bailed. I know it was fucked up to do that but it was more fucked up that bitch tried to trick us into paying the tap for seven fucking people. No way in hell was I going to pay the tap for seven people I had just met and did not really know.

So yeah, I stiffed a bar in Shibuya once because of some fucked up Shibuya Gyaru. Lesson learned I guess.

Don`t party with fucked up people and you will not have to do fucked up things in order to save your own ass.