Dr. Strangelove

I first met the man I came to know as Strangelove at Charleston’s in Roppongi. It was early evening on January 20, 1986, a memorable day because it was the same day I enrolled in Japanese school. But more remarkable in that from that point on I could never stop wondering if the man I’d just met was sometime going to set the world on fire.

A Japanese fellow in his early 30s, he sat at the bar hitting on a shapely blonde Askew Agency model whom I vaguely knew. I took a seat next to him. Introductions followed shortly afterwards.

In the beginning of the bubble-era of the ’80s, Charleston’s was one of Roppongi’s hardcore meat markets for Japanese men with a taste for “foreign food.” (For I know it still is, but then again I don’t get out much anymore.) Its patio and open sliding glass doors faced south towards the parking lot across from the Hard Rock Cafe building with the three-meter plastic gorilla hanging off its exterior. Read more

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 more

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 more

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 more

The pachinko player

YOKOHAMA - His slender and tall frame quickly slips down one alleyway after another just outside the West Exit of Yokohama Station. He scans the names of the pachinko parlors seemingly situated on every corner.

The hunt is on.

He keeps moving, paying no mind to the milling crowds or the sticky pavement on this summer afternoon, and enters one of the gaudy establishments. But after a quick scan of the floor map he shakes his head and immediately darts out the back door. Read more

Jinsei Yokocho in Ikebukuro to close

TOKYO - The historic Jinsei Yokocho entertainment area, a block of restaurants and bars located outside the East Exit of Ikebukuro Station, will see its last remaining establishments shutter their doors later this month.

On Saturday evening, a few regulars bid the area goodbye at Genki, a standing bar with shelves containing bottles of shochu and a photograph of author Yukio Mishima, in a nearly naked pose, above the bathroom sink. Read more

Drumming up team spirit with Amanojaku

TOKYO - One hundred years of cross-cultural relations coming together in less than ten minutes. That is “Kizuna” (Bond), a song by Tokyo-based taiko drum group Amanojaku that was inspired by the first Japanese immigrants that moved to Brazil a century ago.

“The music symbolizes the bond between the first immigrants to Brazil and their descendants,” says the seven-member group’s burly founder, Yoichi Watanabe, who co-authored the piece. “It’s about the bond between Japan and Brazil, Japanese-Brazilian society and Brazilian society, and the bond between Japanese-Brazilians and their ancestors.” Read more

Sleazy stupidity at Paradise TV

TOKYO - The television studio is a sparse mix of a wall map and two green plants. As the weather anchor begins reading the next day’s forecast - snow in Niigata and sunny skies across Kanto - a gust of wind suddenly knocks her to one side.

Though giggling slightly, the journalist straightens her top-heavy frame and continues, fumbling a few lines but maintaining eye contact with the rolling camera while she firmly grips her notes.

The breeze increases, so much so that her black skirt and white long sleeves suddenly disappear in the rush, leaving the determined newswoman clad in only lace panties and an extremely loose-fitting black bra in which to announce the rain in Sendai.

Welcome to Paradise TV. Read more

The nonsense machines of Maywa Denki

TOKYO - A crowd has gathered around Nobumichi Tosa in the exhibition hall. Adorned in his trademark turquoise blue shop uniform and necktie, the 37-year-old president of Maywa Denki is demonstrating the use of one of his latest machines, titled “Planter,” by manipulating a joystick.

The piece contains a vertically mounted glass cylinder of oil. With each movement of the joystick, small needle-like feelers arranged intermittently around the tube’s circumference at the top stir the opaque liquid, sending individual streams tumbling down along its length.

“Planter” is one element in “Edelweiss Series,” Maywa Denki’s collection of machines that together tell the story of a mythic society so dominated by materialism that its females are willing to accept sterility in lieu of sacrificing the pursuit of cosmetic beauty. Read more

Fest nix yak pix

TOKYO - In days past, a film festival held within rough-and-tumble Kabukicho might be assumed to feature a sampling of the work from gangster-flick director Seijun Suzuki (”Tokyo Drifter,” “Branded to Kill”), or perhaps “Yojimbo,” the Akira Kurosawa classic where a samurai arrives in a village run by two groups of gambling mobsters.

But with its smiley tag line, “Let’s go to Kabukicho!” the Tokyo International CineCity Film Festival, which begins Nov. 23 at the Shinjuku Milano 1 theater, will be focusing on giving a more positive image of the district. Read more

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