Ebisu is one stop from Shibuya. It's a big town. I hated going there because I thought that there were no good places to eat or drink. Oh, sure, there are lots of expensive places (and expensive places are supposed to taste good, right?) but I didn't know any good, cheap, old fashioned Japanese style, places to eat and drink in Ebisu until last night.
Finally! I found one. It's called "Ebisu Yokocho" and it's actually, not just one shop. There's several all in one place! "Ebisu Yokocho" (Ebisu Street) and it's only 1.5 minutes walk from the station! Sapporo in Hokkaido has it's own Ramen Yokocho and there's Okonomi-mura in Osaka. Now, thank the lord, I've found a great and cheap place to eat and drink in Ebisu.
Ebisu Yokocho opened in 2008 and it really looks the part of an old, out of the 1950's or 1960's Japanese style drinking and eating establishment. Here's their webpage (sorry only in Japanese): http://www.ebisu-yokocho.com/access.html
There is now a reason to look forward to going to Ebisu!
I was only there for 30 minutes so I didn't have time to get all the details, but here's a load of photos for you and, as they say, a picture speaks a thousand words. Here, have a quick and fun vacation to Japan (and a location map):
View from outside
Kampai!
There's at least ten shops down this aisle. Lots of women too so that means the food is good!
My best friend, Michio
Everywhere was full of customers
All sorts of tastes
The atmosphere of Japan from a long time ago
Like garlic? They got garlic!
Hoppy and Haippi
I love this yakitori place!
Did I say ten shops? Nope. Nineteen shops shown!
I highly recommend this Yakitori shop. Easy to find too! It's called Kappa chan and it's the first shop when you step into the door on the right side!
My best friend, Ken, just went to a birthday party at Yoshiwara. Lucky guy. Yoshiwara is the traditional "Red light district" in Tokyo that is full of the, er, "prostitution parlors" No! I mean, the "health massage" parlors. Yeah. "Health massage" that's it.
Ukiyoe print of Japanese prostitute preparing for a client (circa 1765).
This is a blog post about prostitution in Japan. I've wanted to write about this subject for a very long time. I don't mean "prostitution in Japan" I mean prostitution in general.
Folks, in Japan or any other place on earth, the utter notion that prostitution should be illegal is complete and total nonsense. The idea that prostitution is illegal is ridiculous. What two consenting adults want to do is none of your business or mine. If some guy wants to pay some woman for consensual sex, then what do you or I care? It's none of our business. I certainly don't want to pay taxes to stop some guy (who I don't even know) from meeting with some other guy or girl (that I don't even know) and having sex. Who cares what they do? In Japan, prostitution is illegal on the books, but it is going on, everywhere, even as I write this post. In fact, right after the big March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster of 2011, sex-services were some of the first to get back into business and get the economy back on track. Sex-services provide a much needed service to society. Please refer to Sex Services in Japan First to get Back to Business After Earthquake: Well, hats off to the world's oldest profession. It seems that right after the Tohoku disaster, sex- related service industries were the first back to business.
Even the horrifying death and devastation that struck northeastern Japan on March 11 could not suppress the human sex drive for long. Friday (June 10) reports that sex businesses were among the first to recover, many as soon as one week after the disaster.
“I was back at my job on March 18,” says Kitty-san, a 21-year-old employee of a delivery health (out-call sex service) service named Ainori in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture. “From the day we reopened demand was even higher than it was before the disaster. Many customers had suffered from the catastrophe, and had even lost family members. They justified their urges, saying they ‘sought psychological relief’ or ‘wanted to be consoled.’ Prostitution is one of the oldest professions on earth. No amount of legislation is going to change that. Like I wrote, when two consenting adults want to meet and have sex, then that is none of anyone else's business. Whether money changes hands is also not important. Ask any guy if they've ever spent big money on a date in the hopes of getting a girl in the sack! Ask any employee if they trade their time for money at work. Who is it to judge what is morally correct or not. Hell, Jesus hung around with prostitutes and drunks... Sounds like a fun crowd to me! And why can't a person sell what is theirs? Be it time or their body (I do not subscribe to the idea that prostitution is selling one's body. Prostitution is selling one's time). The only things that any one of us truly own, without any argument, is our bodies and our time. Those are two things which we, as free adults, have the inalienable right to do with as we please as long as we don't bother, burden or interfere with others. If a person can sell, say, a car they own, then a person can surely sell their time (or, "body" as some claim)* The idea that this sort of legislation of morality can and should be controlled is madness. And how can we be sure that a money exchange is occurring? By police entrapment? Oh, yes, I'm sure that's what we are paying taxes for. So that the police can go undercover as prostitutes to entrap guys who need some kicks. Nonsense. I didn't always think this way. I used to think that prostitution should be illegal. But a good Japanese friend of mine once pointed out to me, "Prostitution in Japan is illegal, but if two people fall in love for fifteen minutes, what's to stop them from falling in love?" When he first told me this, I thought it was completely crazy nonsense, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the nanny-state morality that most people have up their arses is what the really complete nonsense is here. Prostitution should be legalized. Period. (Let me also give a disclaimer here that I have never paid for prostitution services and have no interest in them. But I am certainly not interested in paying taxes so that the police can spend hundreds of millions of yen running sting operations to bust prostitution parlors!) The biggest place in Japan where prostitution is traditionally going on, and everyone knows it, yet the police look the other way is Yoshiwara, near Asakusa. Like I said, prostitution in Japan is "illegal" but, well, like I also said, "if two people meet for 15 minutes and fall in love, what's to stop them?" Wikipedia says about Yoshiwara:
In the early 17th century, there was widespread male and female prostitution throughout the cities of Kyoto, Edo, and Osaka. To counter this, an order ofTokugawa Hidetada of the Tokugawa shogunate restricted prostitution to designated city districts. These districts were Shimabara for Kyōto (1640), Shinmachifor Ōsaka (1624–1644) and Yoshiwara for Edo (1617). The main reason for establishing these nightless cities was the Tokugawa shogunate's trying to prevent the nouveau riche chōnin (townsmen) from political intrigue.
The 1923 Tokyo Earthquake fires destroyed this town. Then, the US air force bombed the hell out of it during the war (what for?) so it is a shadow of what it used to be. And, you won't find it on any maps. But, I've found it for you so that when you visit Japan so can go see it for, er, "research purposes"... Or, who knows, it might even be "healthy."
Prostitution is illegal, but the police often look the other way. Especially in Yoshiwara. These places are not called "prostitution parlors" they are called "Soapland"... Sounds like good, clean fun, no? Isn't that hilarious? And so Japanese. I love this place.
HOW TO GET THERE: To go to Yoshiwara, go to Minowa Station on the subway Hibiya Line (two stops past Ueno station heading away from Akihabara) and take Exit #3. Walk left (south-east) on Meiji Dori until you come to a big fork in the road. Take the right fork (not Meiji Dori) and continue on for 13 short blocks. That intersection is called Yoshiwara Daimon, and is where the old gate used to be. Turn right and you’ll be in the district. If you need directions, ask for Senzoku 4-chome.
*Prostitution is not selling one's body. Slave trading is selling human bodies or trading human body parts. Those are a different subject for a later time.
It's over. The biggest, most famous and oldest newspaper in Japan has printed a story about my wife and me and talks about my randy times as a drug addict.
I'm ruined. What ever will I tell the Bridge Club members?
.... Mike: I went to drug rehabilitation after getting married.
Jeez! I have to kill myself now. Yeah? Well at least I have the balls to admit my human shortcomings. Far too many people in today's society want to hide their faults and problems.
If we were all perfect, we'd be god. I'm not perfect... Oh, what a happier day we'd have if everyone would just tell the truth.
You might wonder what Fukushima has to do with butter... Hopefully, not a lot, and I hope we can keep it that way...
They say in the hey-days of epitome of the old command and control economy, the Soviet Union, the citizens were often in despair because of a wide and common shortage of basic foodstuffs and everyday goods. Whenever meats or bread would be delivered to any store, people would line up to buy whatever it was on hand and, soon, once again the store shelves would be bare.
Ronald Reagan used to make fun of his Russian counterparts with a story that went something like this:
"They say that production is so bad and so slow that it takes ten years to buy a car in the Soviet Union. Once the papers are filled out and the forms all stamped and signed, one still had to pay off the loan for the car before they could take delivery.
Well, one day, after signing the forms and getting everything stamped and approved, a young fella asked when he'd get the car after the 10 years payment was finished and the government official said, 'On Dec. 12 of 2021.' The young fella then asked the government official at what time on that day would the car would come? The surprised government official replied, 'You have to wait ten years! What difference does it make morning, day or evening?' To which the young fella replied, 'Because the plumber is coming that day!'"
History proves that government control of the economy is a proven failure, yet people will often demand that the government take control of some industry in distress or come to the aid of the public.
When will people ever learn that the government can't even fix a hole in the road on time and under budget (witness Japan's debt at 225% of GDP for evidence of that) certainly they cannot or could not, nor would we even want them too, take over a disaster or public nuisance like the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plants... Just to name one such example.
It never ceases to amaze me how, even in what is ostensibly one of the world's most capitalist societies, Japan, the people will ask for more government control or approve of centralized government control and tinkering with the economy... Especially when it comes to Japan's food supply.
At the end of World War Two, the Japanese government vowed that Japan would never again run out of food. They swore to the Japanese people that they'd never go hungry again. Ever. The solutions to Japan's food problems, the government wonks insisted, called for centralized control of several areas of food production.
Odd thing is that, before and during the war, Japan's government had centralized control of the food production then too and Japan went hungry.
You'd have thought that someone would have pointed this out. But no.
Fast forward to 2011. Yesterday, I went to the grocery store. There, where the butter always is, the shelves were bare. I asked a clerk and he said that there is a shortage so only one per customer and that you had to ask for it at the checkout counter.
Government idiots!
We just had a butter shortage a few years ago due to government meddling.
The butter shortage results from a chain of events. When the country suffered an overproduction of milk in 2006, the government ordered about 1,000 tons of raw milk poured down the drain and dairy cows slaughtered to prop up prices and defend local milk farmers. Dairy prices were then managed to retain their advantage to imported milk and butter, whose prices were inflated by tariffs. (To protect domestic butter, the tax on imported butter went up twice last year. There is a nearly 30% tariff on butter imports.)
But now grain-feed prices have risen as a result of a drought in Australia as well as the accompanying use of corn for ethanol, which has reduced the amount available for feed for Japan's cows. The drought has also cut back on milk that would have been imported to supplement the Japanese market. Combined with competing demand for milk and milk products from emerging markets in China and Russia, the result is a collapse of the local butter production in Japan.
In 2008, when this became a big row, the government said they'd take care of it and that it would never happen again. Here it is 2011 and we have another butter shortage...
Think about this, folks... These clowns in government cannot even take care of our butter production, is there anyone who is still in favor of the Japanese government nationalizing a serious priority problem like Fukushima?
One would hope that even 2 seconds of consideration of this question most people would say, "Absolutely not!"
We need much less government control of our lives and the economy if we are going to get out of our current malaise.
This post is for tourists to Japan.... Especially those who are in need of a restroom...
At Christmas taken from the JR platform
There is something weird about Japan, if you haven't already noticed. But I'm not talking about the usual stuff you see on Youtube or read about in tech geek magazines.... I'm talking about statues of little boys peeing in the train stations around Japan.
Not only are there statues of little boys peeing in public, the Japanese dress up these statues to fit the tastes of the seasons and for promotional campaigns. Fact of the matter is that, even though I see this guy often, I've never seen him naked and without clothes!
The closest one I know about is at Hamamatsucho station on the JR line here in Tokyo. He doesn't really have a name like "Mike" or "Tony" or "Junji" or "Ken," He is merely called "Shouben Kousho" (The Peeing Boy).
The ancient Japanese story about this boy is that he had drank so much water and he had to pee so bad that he had the longest pee in the history of the universe and so, as the gods would have it, he peed so long that he became petrified in stone.... Nah. Not really. I just made that up. Don't really know what the story is here. Maybe I'll ask the wife.
There are several legends behind this statue, but the most famous is the one about Duke Godfrey III of Leuven. In 1142, the troops of this two-year-old lord were battling against the troops of the Berthouts, the lords of Grimbergen, in Ransbeke (now Neder-over-Heembeek). The troops put the infant lord in a basket and hung the basket in a tree to encourage them. From there, the boy urinated on the troops of the Berthouts, who eventually lost the battle.
OK. That explains absolutely nothing about why there is this statue at Hamamatsucho station in Tokyo... Excepting the USA bombed the hell out of this station during the war... Maybe that's what all the peeing is about. I know that if I were trying to just get home after work and planes were dropping bombs on us as I waited for the 5:15, I'd probably pee my pants too... Why bother going to the restroom when bombs are dropping all around you?
Heck, there's lots of legends. Check them at Wikipedia. I think mine is probably the most realistic.
The Peeing little boy statue is peeing on the #3 platform at Hamamatsucho station on the JR East line...
In other parts of Japan, they have their own Peeing Boy statues too. Threre's another one at Kita-Kyushu station near Fukuoka in Kyushu, southern Japan and in Belgium.
Anyway, you usually won't find stuff about the Peeing Boy in tourist magazines and books... But I recommend taking your picture next to him if you come here. Why not? After all, what's wrong with a little boy peeing in public? Unless you are some sort of pervert!
John Belushi and I have a long running, very old relationship. Seriously, we do. I first "met" John Belushi in 1975 on the set of Saturday Night Live. He wasn't famous then but John Belushi would go on to influence my life greatly since that time. Of course, when I say, "met," I don't mean in person. We only met on the TV screen..
Let me explain the intricate details of how John Belushi influenced my life and how his life and mine have intertwined repeatedly over all these years... Mostly through excessive drinking, humor and an unshaven, slovenly lifestyle... John Belushi made me see that, if you want to do something great, you just can't follow the rules. You have to break those rules... And you have to be decisive in doing so... No matter what the bosses or "authorities" say, you have to be wild and outrageous if you want to do something really special and unique.
If you want to be special and do something really different, then you can't do what everyone else is doing. You have to go for the "gusto!" Watching John Belushi taught me to do that... Sometimes, it got me in big trouble with bosses, but the results have always been good. Like Francis Ford Coppola once said, "The things you get fired for at 20-years-old, are the things you are celebrated for at 50-years-old." I want to be celebrated. Who doesn't? Life is short.
Because of my former job producing and co-hosting the highest rated and most popular FM radio morning drive time show in Tokyo, Good Morning Garage (GMG) from 2006 ~ 2009, I still, to this day, sometimes meet people who know who I am and ask for my autograph. No! Really! I do! I'm not making this up. Honest! Please believe me! Really! Would I lie to you?
Had I never "met" John Belushi, nor been so influenced by him, this situation would have never happened.
ANIMAL HOUSE (1978)
Animal House came out in 1978. I graduated from HS in 1975 then went to city college and worked for two years before seeing this movie. Because of this film, I decided that I just HAD to go to university. I did join a frat too... But they kicked me out after a few weeks... Losers!
It is proof that that morning FM radio show was hugely popular because people don't usually know what radio DJ's look like, but that show was so popular that we were sometimes on TV and in magazines too! So some people knew our faces and what we looked like.
But let me continue the story...
One time, about a year or two ago, I was riding the train home and, across from me sat a young, pretty housewife. She looked at me and smiled several times. She even said "Hi!" I figured she was a fan of the former show and so I said, "Hi!" back. She kept on smiling and acting embarrassed and shy. I smiled.
"Gee!" I thought... I wonder if she is the type for some "randy" action? You never know about these radio-show-fan women! I wondered what it would be like to "Get it on, bang a gong, get it on" with her?" I mused like Marc Bolan on a majestic white steed.
The train ride continued and she kept smiling shyly at me and I smiled back while imagining all sorts of "games." I kept fantasizing about me and her going on a whirlwind date and drinking and making wild love together... Even though she wasn't really my type, I supposed that she might be hot love in the sack.
When the train reached my stop I got up to get off. To my surprise, so did she. We both walked to the train door and, as we walked off the train she said, "You probably don't remember me..."
"Of course, I do..." I glanced her a impish grin. I figured she was a fan and, well, who knows where that could lead too? I leaned dangerously close to her like a lecherous cartoon fox so where we could have closer eye contact... My right eyebrow curled with menacing approval....
She bubbled, "I'm a good friend of Yuka, your wife. I'm in the neighborhood mothers association. I've even been to your house before. Remember?"
I immediately stood up straight and began rubbing my eyes. I sneezed. "Allergies, you know!... I, er, uh,..." One second I was within 1 foot of her, the next second I was six feet apart... Of course, I remember!" I gasped. "Your name is.... er...?"
She told me her first name (can't remember what it was) but I acted like I knew the first name. I asked her what her last name was! She told me that too, but I can't remember that either.... Oh well...
So, you see. I sort of have to be careful with what I am doing... For one, I can't have my wife's friend's gossiping about how I am having affairs with all sorts of women when I am not - excepting in my imagination... And for two, I'm so bad with names and faces that I think it might suck royally if I wake up in bed in some hotel with some woman only to realize it's my next door neighbor...
Now that might be bad for public relations and neighborhood tranquility...
Now, you might ask, "Mike! What does this have to do with John Belushi?" Not much on the surface, perhaps, but it does have very much to do with him if you dig down deep into the past...
Here's why...
About an hour ago, I was at a supermarket buying a couple of bottles of booze. (Disclaimer: I was already a tad bit drunk). There, a young housewife looked at me several times and smiled. I smiled back.
She looked at me and smiled again at me several times. "Wow! She's definitely my type! The old Rogers magic is still there!" I thought.
"Until we meet again!" I thought as I walked out the store. She smiled again as I walked out and looked back.
Then I came home and looked in the mirror. My eyes are bad. Maybe she wasn't smiling. Maybe she was laughing.
Or, since all gaijins looks alike, maybe that lady thought I was John Belushi.
(Left) John Belushi in Animal House: Unshaven. Hair fashionably a disaster. I've always liked that guy. (Right) Me: Unshaven. Hair fashionably a disaster.
This might seem like it has zero to do with Japan, but looks can be deceiving. This has a lot to do with me and Japan and here's why:
If I had never seen the movie Animal House, I'd have never gone to university. Had I never gone to university, I'd have never met all those hot Japanese girls at my dormitory. Had I not met them, I'd have never gotten interested in studying Japanese.
Had I not studied Japanese, I'd have never met my Japanese wife. Had I not met her, I'd have never gone to Japan. Had I not gone to Japan, I'd have never moved here.
Typical Japanese University Student
(Yukie Kawamura)
Had I not moved here, I'd have not had my rendezvous with fate tonight with that hot young housewife who smiled at me.
Had our hearts not met for a few moments tonight, I'd have not have thought about John Belushi. Had I not thought about John Belushi, I'd have not looked in the mirror.
Had I not looked in the mirror, I wouldn't have immediately had a shave and now, because of shaving and showering, I look "normal" (well, as normal as I can look!) I have to look normal because guests are coming over.
I hate being normal.
I love John Belushi.
And now you know about John Belushi and me. When was John Belushi ever "normal"? I don't want to be normal... So that's why he is my hero and my life's inspiration.... And that's how Animal House changed my life...
Oh, and Repo-Man reinforced those changes...
"Look at 'em, ordinary fucking people, I hate 'em." - Bud (from Repo-Man)
*NOTE: Of course the stories about the women being interested in me and vice versa are all a part of any writer's (or drunk's) vivid imagination and artistic license... These events are not to be confused with actual events....
It's a Sunday and I have friends coming over for massive drinking and a barbeque. That means I'm pretty booked with sheet to do.
Kinoko Hotel
Nevertheless, here's a blog post that I've wanted to write for quite a while. There are lots of people who think Japanese rock bands suck. Most of them do. But, strange as it may seem, there are lots of really good Japanese rock bands, it's just that they never get hugely popular in this country as Japan is obsessed with stupid crap like AKB48 and girls doing soft porn video.
AKB48 are terrible. Anyone who buys their CDs should be shot (to put them and the rest of us out of our misery).
But, like I said, there are many good Japanese rock bands. Especially sexy girls bands... And there's also a very cool Retro thang going on here that I really like... Oh, and by the way, the best Japanese bands don't sing in English because they don't give a sh*t about the American Top 40... You shouldn't either... I mean, why would any good band want to be like Lady Gaga or Madonna anyway?
For your Sunday viewing pleasure, here are several. First two up from my current favorite Japanese girl's band (I change favorites weekly)...Enjoy!
Kinoko Hotel - Fool
Kinoko Hotel - Midnight Angel Baby:
Molice - Ms. Panic
The Milkees - Lovelever:
Red Bacteria Vacuum - Roller Coaster:
Thee 50's Highteens - Surprise Sun:
The Let's Go's! - Rock & Roll Star:
Who the Bitch - Summer:
Hell, seriously, there's a lot more! I'll be posting about them too soon. Stay tuned!
