Samurai Screams

TOKYO - “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

A loud scream is vital just before you are about to have your belly sliced open.

With your sword raised above your head, you then attack. Your opponent, legs slightly bent at the knees, brings his sword horizontally across your gut as you lunge at him. He is careful to slide the sword along your midsection and not swing it. After all, this is not baseball.

“You are being killed. You need to scream!” booms instructor Ryuji Kikuchi of the Tate-Do school of sword-fight choreography. Read the story »

Adult video broadcaster holds 24-hour AIDS telethon

TOKYO - It is a recent Sunday afternoon inside the offices of adult video broadcaster Paradise TV. Two enthusiastic female voices can be heard counting from behind a pair of covered booths: “Ichi, ni, san, shi, go!”

The entry flap of one booth is labeled with the kanji character pronounced ushiro (behind) and colored pink, the other is yellow and marked oppai (breast). Outside is a line of five men, each of whom is eagerly awaiting his turn to grab (with both hands) the bare buttocks and breasts of two adult video (AV) actresses five times for 1,000 yen - with all the proceeds being used for research to prevent the spread of the HIV virus and AIDS. Read the story »

Site of notorious gangster playpen in Roppongi now vacant

TOKYO - Given Tokyo’s well-earned reputation as a metropolis of concrete, vacant lots typically do not stay empty for long. But the 3,800-square-meter site in Roppongi, halfway between Roppongi Hills and Tokyo Midtown, might remain fenced off and covered with dirt for some time.

The infamous TSK.CCC Terminal building formerly occupied the property until its demolition was complete in April - just one chapter in a bizarre case involving gangsters, property rights, and fraud whose roots can be traced back to Korean mobster Hisayuki Machii (“the Ginza Tiger”), who made his fortune in real estate and operated a ferry service between Japan and South Korea. Read the story »

High brow trumps ‘High Touch’ in Roppongi

TOKYO - The date is March 6, 1989. The Yomiuri Giants are gearing up for what will be a championship season, the Nikkei index is holding steady at 32,000, the introduction of the nation’s first consumption tax of three percent is less than one month away, and Roppongi is now officially known as “High Touch Town.”

Among the dignitaries seated in chairs at Roppongi crossing with bouquets of flowers over their laps are the Minato Ward mayor and the Azabu Police Station chief. They are guests for the unveiling ceremony of a pair of red arch-shaped signs that have been affixed onto either side of the Shuto Expressway Route 3 rolling high above. The writing on both placards will eventually come to give the entertainment district its moniker. High. Touch. Town.

But in the two decades since there has been one problem. Read the story »

Pachinko parlor owner sticks to his nails

TOKYO - Yoshimasa Ono puts the compilation cassette into the stereo underneath his counter. It is a mix of oldies (”I’ve Got Rhythm”) and new artists (Mariah Carey). Just behind him in a glass cabinet are packages of soap and corned beef. It is mid-morning and his regulars are just now beginning to take their seats in one of the four rows of machines at Kamome, his small pachinko parlor near Tokyo’s Yurakucho Station.

Ono’s machines, all roughly 20 years old, are quite a bit different from the typical machines found today in Japan’s parlors. They are relative antiques.

“Inside the machines, the parts are old. I feel like they are my children,” says Ono, manager of the shop for the last 10 years. Read the story »