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RANMAGAZINE.COM
December ‘09 / January ‘10
| ISSUE 3 |

CognitiveDissonance

Are You Crazy?

Culture Shock Takes Its Toll

Sex With A Stranger

Probing A Sex Worker

Shooting Blanka
Nagoya’s Dance Machine

Down And Logged Out

The Economic Crisis In Japan

Japanese Cops
Let’s Be Careful Out There..

PLUS:
Greenspot
Fashion
Deadly’s Tips
and
RANZOO!
Forward
初
め
に

2 |RAN|
Romance
and Diplomacy
Three issues in, and the seams are
starting to show. People are getting
ornery and deadlines are being missed,
ignored, or openly ridiculed. Like
any romantic relationship, ours has
reached the critical six month mark, that
moment where you’ve tried every sexual
position there is more than a few times,
talked until dawn about your dreams
and your childhood and your dashed
hopes and plans, you’ve even taken
showers together and sadly it seems the
infatuation is starting to wear off, and
you’re realizing the other person isn’t
some Gift from God with superpowers,
he/she is just another flawed human with
issues and baggage and emphatically
NO, they’re not going to save you from
yourself, that monumental task is still in
your own hands.
Which is a good thing.
Who knows you better than you know
yourself? That’s why I gave the foreword
the title “Romance and Diplomacy”, and
yes it does have the slightest allusion to
Prez Obama cruising through these parts
recently to make sure the Japanese and
Chinese still believe in The American
Dream, even if no one in America
believes in it anymore. Point being,
you’ve got to sell yourself on some
dream, romance, wealth, fame, beauty,
importance, invention, immortality, a
nice bowl of soup, Viagra, something
has to get you out of your bed in the
morning, and then it’s up to you to make
it happen.
I’ve had this idea for a film in
my head since I arrived here. It goes
something like this; A frazzled and more-
than-slightly bereft dude from Brooklyn
with a shady background arrives in a
medium-sized city in present-day Japan.
He immediately falls in love with a
beautiful and traditional Japanese girl
whose family, naturally, doesn’t approve
of the young couple’s budding Forbidden
Romance. This is in no small part due
to the Brooklyn dude’s non-Japanese-
ness, as well as the pervading sense of
conservative-ness and overall closed-
mindedness of the local city they live in.
They go underground.
Their passion stirs up trouble in the
community where they live, and an all
out race war bubbles to the surface,
throwing age-old prejudices out into the
open. The young couple is torn apart
in the ensuing chaos, and the Brooklyn
dude spends lots of time in this old ramen
restaurant wondering how to get, keep,
and maintain The Woman He Loves.
Her friends and family, meanwhile,
employ every tactic and means at their
disposal to destroy and otherwise create
mayhem for her, all the while trying to
convince her that they are acting in her
best interest. Yeah, right, so why doesn’t
it feel that way? Innocence is lost.
Exactly like our fair city of Nagoya,
the location of the film’s setting has an
international cast of characters, Russians,
Americans, Aussies, Brits, Brazilians,
Africans, Persians, Filipinos, etc. The
gang’s all here..
At film’s end, everyone learns some
kind of vague lesson about tolerance
and acceptance and the importance of
community and creativity and there’s
even some silly “love conquers all”
theme running throughout the story.
J7 calls it “Romeo and Juliet meets
Crash”, I can buy that, throw in a little
“Lost In Translation” and maybe “The
Wanderers” and that’s the flick. (I also call
it “What if Beat Takeshi was American,
But Still Made Yakuza Movies.”--Ed.)
Can’t divulge the ending but I swear, it’s
coming soon to a theater near you, killer
soundtrack and all. Submit songs if you
have any.
Know any producers? Directors?
Anyone with a camera? Let’s make this
movie and we can all become famous
millionaires and then we can buy a
big house with a two-car garage out in
Owariasahi and live happily ever after..
Future Trippin’
Yo-- Did you also notice, its 20- TEN?
No more sayin’ “it’s the year 2K__”
or “two-thousand___ “ for the year...
Wow... Twenty-Ten... So where the hell
are the flying cars, why can’t I vacation
on the moon, why isn’t my best friend
an alien from Jupiter... When can I hop
aboard the Discovery and argue with
HAL about opening the damn pod-bay
doors, and when can I jump on a speeder
bike on the third moon of Endor and
party with those fuzzy, lovable Ewoks?
Hell this is Japan, so I’d guess we’re one
step closer than the rest of the world
in doing any of that... After all, they’re
goin’ ahead with plans to build the Su-
per-Shinkansen-- Nagoya to Tokyo in 1
hour flat. Coming in Twenty Twenty-Five
or so...
Hell, ain’t we supposed to be there
already though? Where’s the money for
that supposed to come from, and wait...
Can’t we already get to Tokyo pretty fast
on the regular Shink? What do we need
to get to TOKYO that quick for anyway?
I’d rather have Meitetsu build something
where I can get to Utsumi in 15 minutes
from Mei-eki during summertime...
You would too if you saw some of the
Goodness that is summer at Utsumi
beach. What are they gonna do with
the Tokaido Shinkansen when the Chuo
Super-MagLev-Fast-O-Matic Shinkansen
opens? Replace it with a moving
sidewalk?
This is Japan... It’s gonna get replaced
with the transporter off the Enterprise
from Star Trek.
Beam me the F up, Scottie, there’s
no sign of intelligent life ‘round these
parts...
In this issue, we’ve got Japanese
Cops, sex workers, insane people, a
dude who lives in a Denny’s, RAN ZOO
and Blanka (no-- not from StreetFighter).
What more do you want really?
Romance? Diplomacy? (No! I want a
damn speeder-bike!)
Welcome to Issue Number 3 of Ran
Magazine.
Peace and Blessings.
tdh & jlg
Publisher: TD Houchen
Chief Editor: Jason L. Gatewood
Art Director: Adrien Sanborn
Photography Editor:
Achim Runnebaum
Illustrator/Writer: Adam Pasion
Send story ideas to:
editor@ranmagazine.com
Send photography and illustration
to: asanborn@ranmagazine.com
To advertise, contact:
ad-sales@ranmagazine.com
Promotional Events/Co-Promotion:
trevlove1@ranmagazine.com
www.ranmagazine.com
|RAN| 3
4 |RAN|
 CONTENTS December 2009 / January 2010 - ISSUE NO. 3

14 The Pursuit of Jappiness

Features
Take a walk on the wild side with your
favorite J girl personalities

26 Sex With A Stranger

Interview with a health club worker

28 Know Your Rights

When Japanese cops stop foreign residents

30 Down And Logged Out

A look at net-cafe refugees

3 Foreword
20 Listen
Departments

Shooting Blanka

6 Profiles
Gaijin Superstar 24 Should I Stay
or Should I Go
Memories for Ray Charles
10 The Green Spot
Cancer By The Carton

33 RAN Recommends
12 When In Rome
A guide to Adaptability
If we eat it, see it, listen to it,
buy it, go to it, and we love it,
then we think you will too.

18 Deadly’s Tips
A man’s house is her castle
35 RAN ZOOWe couldn’t get away

19 Create
Nagoya transformed through
with saying shit like this,
but animals can.
the eyes of Matteo Giachetti

34 Taste Shinkiro will take care of your

warrior’s appetite and give you
an outfit to match!
PHOTO: ACHIM RUNNEBAUM

COVER ART: ADRIEN SANBORN & ADAM PASION

|RAN| 5
Profiles
生
き
方
W
e, the staff of RAN Magazine,
in order to form a more
perfect ex-pat community, do
humbly take up the burden of airing out
both yours and our DIRTY LAUNDRY, in
our own rag no less. We’d like to think
we all are thinking like this, about our
lives in Japan, our existence in a society
that is in most ways a total 180º from the
societies and cultures we were raised
in. So what is it about this exotic place
that beckoned to us in the first place?
And once here in the bosom of Lady
Japan, did the wild romp in the hay turn
to wedded bliss or did she decide we
were more trouble than we’re worth and
turn us out into some back alley... Or
maybe WE are the ones that eventually
grow tired of her quirks, and in finally
acknowledging them, are looking for an
exit faster than Neo did in the Matrix.
Hmmm... We wanted to interview
random passers-by but you guys turned
out to be a bunch of chicken-hearts so
we decided to turn the gun on ourselves
for a change....
Trevor: What is your reason for being
in Japan?
Achim: I came over because I was really
interested in the Japanese culture. Then
I went to bed one day and I woke up
about four years later and I am still here.
Adrien: Well basically I met my wife in
America, and that is more or less the end
of the story. And I also always wanted to
learn another language, and I’ve always
been interested in Japanese, so that’s it.
Adam: I got married in America, and
when my wife got pregnant and wanted
to have a baby, we came out here to
have the baby close to her family and I
haven’t found a good enough reason to
go home yet.
Jason: Escape is part of it. I’ve always
been interested in Japanese culture
and as a kid, when we moved to Los
Angeles, it was my form of escaping
6 |RAN|
family problems and escaping teenage
angst in general, throwing all of my con-
centration into this completely different
culture that was so very opposite to my
kind of ghetto-fabulous, West Coast,
Los Angeles upbringing. I just knew I
wanted to try living in Japan, because
I associated, everything that was happy
and nice, rainbows and ponies, with
being over here.
Trevor: I came over here because I was
looking for a job. I found a job teaching
English in a newspaper in LA, applied
for the job, got the job and I was on
an airplane a month later. No special
interest in Japan, didn’t know a damn
thing about it.
Trevor: What do you think are the
best characteristics of living in Japan or
Nagoya.
Achim: Safety. I think Japan is still
one of those countries where you can
go shopping, and you can leave your
groceries on your bike and go into a
store and when you come out of that
store they’re still gonna’ be on your bike.
Jason: Where do you live? Once when
I lived in Osaka, my buddy went into a
Family Mart for about twenty seconds,
just long enough to buy an onigiri or
something. And we had gone used CD
shopping earlier... When we came out
the bike was still there, even the plastic
bag was there, but the CDs were gone.
G-A-W-N.
Achim: I’ve never heard anything like
that in Nagoya
Adrien: One time I had my french toast
stolen out of my bike.
Achim: I guess they were hungry.
Adrien: I was biking around and I had
a bite of some crappy french toast, and
I left it in my basket. When I came back
it was gone.
Adam: I had my dignity stolen once.
Jason: You didn’t have any dignity to
take.
| By the RAN staff |
Achim: The other thing I like about Japan
is that at least on the surface, people here
still really respect each other. I mean in
the sense that the customer service is
unmatched in the world.
Trevor: I completely disagree. I think
the customer service here sort of sucks.
I mean after we order our food here,
count how many times she comes over
and asks us if everything is okay. That is
part of customer service?
Adam: That might be cultural though.
Trevor. But that’s what we are talking
about, culture.
Adrien: In my area [in America] if you
go to a grocery store, they treat you like
a pariah at the counter, if they even
make eye contact you’re impressed.
But here they at least say something.
My convenience store they are always
smiling and bubbly, even if its three
o’clock at night. Its like “irashaimase!”
Jason: I have to agree with the customer
service thing, that impressed me. In the
States you go to McDonald’s or Kentucky
Fried Chicken and they might run out of
hamburgers or chicken. Its happened to
me many times. It’s on the menu and I
say “yes, I’d like a quarter pounder with
cheese,” and they say “well, we don’t
have any quarter pounders.” “Okay, well
can I just get a double cheeseburger?”
and they are like “well we don’t do that
either.” and its like, “well why is it on the
damn menu?”
Trevor: That’s in the states?
Jason: That’s in the states.
Trevor: Y’all are living in different
states. That has never, ever happened
to me, but it happens constantly to me
here. Convenience stores, restaurants,
McDonald’s, I have never been to any
place in America where they ran out of
anything.
Jason: You’ve never been to Popeye’s
Chicken where they were like “I’m sorry,
we don’t have anymore chicken.”?
Trevor: No dude. What?! What are
you talking about? *truth is, I never ate
Popeye’s much back home --pub. *that’s
‘cause you ain’t really black.--ed.
Jason: Wow.....Just wow!
Adrien: I was realizing something the
other day when I was in the convenience
store. I’m always super nice to the folks,
you know I try to talk to them, but no one
will ever talk to you in a convenience
store.
Adam: They keep an appearance of
having good service and stuff but they
don’t actually, probably give a shit.
Trevor: I don’t think its good service at
all
Achim: I disagree with that
Adrien: No one is ever genuinely nice
Achim: I think they are if you get
to know them. If you go to the same
convenience store over and over again
they are super nice.
Trevor: Do you guys think its easy to
assimilate in Japan?
Adam: I think its impossible.
Jason: It’s totally impossible.
Achim: You can become comfortable
in the culture, but you will never be
accepted as a complete equal.
Adam: You will always be considered
a foreigner. There are good and bad
aspects to being a foreigner but that will
never go away.
Trevor: What’s different about Nagoya
now than when you first arrived here?
Achim: Before the Expo you would walk
down the street in Sakae and maybe
once a week you would see another
foreigner like yourself. Now you walk
down the street and everyday you see
ten or twenty.
Trevor: What do you think is
accountable for so many more foreigners
coming to Nagoya?
Achim: I think specifically Nagoya was
exposed to the international scene more
after the expo.
Adrien: Another thing about Nagoya is
that the center of Toyota’s international
business is now Midland Square.
Trevor: If you had to say Nagoya has a
certain characteristic, for example Tokyo
is cosmopolitan, busy, crowded, what
adjectives would you use to describe
Nagoya?
Adam: I think Nagoya is like that youth
pastor that everyone knew that tried to
act really cool and hip, but actually had
really old conservative ideas in his head.
Jason: I think so too.
Adrien: If I were to use an analogy I
might say rusty gears. They move slowly.
Jason: I would say ‘perpetrator-ville.’ or
‘faker-ton’ or ‘pseudo-town.’
Trevor: Nobody said anything positive.
What makes you stay?
Jason: It’s where my job is.
Adam: Actually I really like Nagoya.
Achim: I think Nagoya is one of the
easiest places for foreigners to live. Its
not too big, its not to small, its centrally
located
Adam: Nagoya is calm compared to
other places.
Jason: Well I have had the experience of
living in both Tokyo and Osaka, and now
Nagoya. I will say Nagoya is certainly the
easiest city to live in in terms of getting
around and saving money. When you
live in a metropolis like Tokyo, you may
get lost in the shuffle. You spend a lot of
time and money just trying to go from
one place to the next. Here in Nagoya,
its big enough so that it is more than just
a bump in the road for concerts to stop
at. Secondly, there are actually enough
gaijin here doing something to make a
difference and have an active nightlife or
put some cultural diversity on the map.
And third, if you get pissed-off, you can
jump on the train and be in either Tokyo
or Osaka in two or three hours.
Trevor: What would you consider to
be the pinnacle of your success here in
Japan?
Everyone: RAN Magazine.
Trevor: What would you like to see
RAN develop into?
Achim: Its a positive force to try and
bring the art community in Nagoya
together.
Adam: I want it to be something that
gets people’s asses in gear, I want RAN
Magazine to be the magazine that makes
people realize that there are things to do
in this city other than just going to The
Hub every fucking weekend. We all
have different skills, almost nobody who
is in Japan decided “I want to come here
and be an English teacher.” You know
we all trained in school to do something
different. I want us to find ways to use
our skills and abilities and things we like
to do, and not be pigeon-holed.
Adrien: RAN needs to send the message
that you can be a foreigner in this country
and not just a teacher.
Adam: There is a glass ceiling here that
we don’t have to obey. We can create
opportunities for ourselves. Nagoya
is knowable and its doable. If you say
“yeah I know Tokyo,” that’s like saying
“yeah I know the internet.” There is too
much to process. But with Nagoya, you
can carve a niche for yourself and say
this is where I belong and this is what
I do.
Trevor: Where do you see Nagoya in
five years? Ten years from now?
Jason: I’ve only been here [in Nagoya]
for one year, but I have seen Nagoya
seem to struggle to be bigger than it is. Its
gonna take change on both sides. I see
the universities for example, trying to get
their stuff in gear. Aichi University and
Meijo University have their international
programs, and I also see the companies
that are based here like Toyota, even
some of the smaller companies are
trying to put some diversity and interna-
tional programs on the list. What’s gonna
have to change is the random, everyday,
Nagoya person that was born here and
lives somewhere like Midori-ku and
rarely sees anybody foreign.
Achim: If you take Nagoya four years
ago and compare it to Nagoya now, you
see more change.
Trevor: What does the term Gaijin
Superstar mean to you? Does it sound
positive or negative?
Adam: It doesn’t sound positive to
me. I think of somebody like Mr. Big or
something like that. I think of somebody
who made it here and didn’t make it at
home.
Achim: I think gaijin superstar to me has
a positive meaning. A Gaijin Superstar
is somebody who comes over here,
who creates a niche for themselves and
who does what they do without making
apologies, without trying to fit-in. I
mean they fit-in enough that they don’t
offend anybody or anything like that, but
the point where they are comfortable
with who they are living in this place.
Jason: When we first brought-up the
title gaijin superstar the first image that
popped into my mind was Jero. This is
somebody who came over here, and
obviously he wanted to sing ever since
he was a kid and he decided, “my
grandmother taught me these enka
songs, I am gonna see if I can do that
over in Japan.” and maybe it was a
novelty at first but now he’s respected.
Adrien: I gotta tell you something that
occurred to me. I came to Japan and
I started learning the language and I
thought I should adapt to the ideas and
to the way people understand things, and
after a while I found, using the language
is fine but I found these cultural, social
|RAN| 7
hindrances that they have themselves
locked-into. I found it so oppressive, so
one day I just said “fuck it. I’m American,
I’m just gonna be American, but I will
use the language. Even in the language
though, there are little things meant to
tie you in and lock you down.
Achim: I would say Japanese society
is very compartmentalized even in
it’s language. The first part to learning
a culture is learning their language
because the very mechanics of that
language were forged by the social
issues of that time while that culture was
being born.
Adam: Modern Japan is a really new
country.
Trevor: Would you say Japan is
experiencing a kind of identity crisis?
Adam: They were in isolation for
hundreds of years, and even now it’s
slow going.
Trevor: Would you say there are any
countries that have an easier time
assimilating to Japanese culture?
Achim: Being German I have to say, I
know the cultures are very similar as far
as punctuality is concerned, and they
way they think about things.
Trevor: I am still having a really hard
time acclimating myself to Japanese
culture. Coming from New York City
with the ridiculous diversity there and
everyone screaming at the top of their
lungs to make their place in the world.
You know, it’s a stifling society and some
people don’t want to be stifled forever
and I am one of those people.
Adam: But Japan is safe, and the fact
that Japan is safe has absolutely nothing
to do police, or the legal system. It has
to do with that whole mentality of never
going against the flow. There are no
rubbish bins on the street but there is
also no litter on the street, for example.
Trevor: The stuff that I don’t dig is the
stuff that on a broader basis is what
keeps us here.
Jason: What do you think you should
work on to make life easier in Japan?
Achim: Learn the language.
Trevor: I am still learning and trying
my best to be more Japanese I guess.
One of the reasons I got divorced is
because I was so tied to the person that
New York city created, that my wife
didn’t want to fuck with that dude after
a while. Learning the language is more
mechanical, but the other stuff is more
8 |RAN|
internal, spiritual and psychological,
and that is what I am trying to do.
Achim: That is one of the great points
about living here is you can really find
out who you are inside.
Jason: You know, this is the part of the
world where I found out exactly who
I really am. Some people get here and
right away they are like, “aww man, ‘F’
this place.” but I was the exact opposite.
People kept telling me, “you’re just in
your honeymoon period. After about
two or three months you’re gonna crash.”
It took me like two years to crash, and
the thing that finally made me crash was
something so simple. It was the fact that
I couldn’t get any Taco Bell. I walked
into a place that had tacos and there
was mayonnaise on my taco, and I lost
it. Don’t get so ingrained in this culture
that you forget what it is that you liked
about your own culture and always have
something that you can take with you
that’s a little bit of home.
Achim: I think my advice for somebody
coming over here is don’t get trapped
into the negativity. Go out of your
comfort zone and really try to explore
the country, explore the people and
really try to find yourself and your
own opinions instead of having those
opinions forced on you by others.
Jason: You are here to get away from
whatever kept you complacent at home
right? You’ve got this explorer mentality
and the explorer’s life is tough. You’re
over here so you need to toughen up a
little bit.
Adam: It’s really frustrating to hang-out
with Japanese people who don’t speak
any English but that is the best thing you
can do. You work with what you’ve got
– you’ve got a little bit of Japanese, they
have a little bit of English, you get drunk
and start saying what you know how
to say, and you start communicating as
human to human without worrying
about anything else.
Trevor: If you could go back in your
history and do something differently
since your arrival in Japan, what would
you do differently?
Adam: I would have gone and checked
out all the clubs and live houses I wanted
to go to.
Trevor: I would go back and learn the
language. I’d start learning the language
upon first arrival, and I would travel
more.
Achim: If you force yourself to step-out,
on your day off or something, just force
yourself to get on the train, it changes
your whole perspective on Japan.
Jason: What I would do differently is
not concentrate so much on the small
stuff. I would like to just go back in time
and tell myself to lighten-up.
Trevor: Do you think Nagoya is a
romantic city?
Jason: Huh?!...No!
Achim: Not really. There are romantic
places but you have to look hard to find
them.
Adam: Every once in a while, and
nobody knows why it happens, but every
once in a while out of the blue, a scene
occurs. Like a scene forms itself and
nobody can explain it. It becomes a focal
point, and for some reason everybody
there just turns on, and connects to
that even though nobody knows why.
Potentially Nagoya could do that.
Achim: There is so much potential here.
Trevor: Abso-fucking-lutely.
Jason: Nagoya doesn’t have any
identity yet.
Adam: Nagoya hasn’t been put on the
map yet.
Trevor: There are so many people who
can do so many diverse things who want
something to happen.
Achim: I think that is our mission. We
are at the forefront of Nagoya. I think
we can really bring people together here
and make them realize what you are
talking about.
Adam: There is no formula, it’s different
every time. There is no saying who or
what the catalyst will be, but it could be
a magazine.
Jason: Just hyping it up, eh?
Trevor: Final comments?
Adam: Get off your ass Nagoya. Get off
your ass and go out and do something
cool.
Achim: Find your identity. Find out
who you are and make your voice heard.
Jason: Don’t hate, innovate. As far as
RAN is concerned if you think you can
do something better don’t hate on it or
us, but put out your own thing and make
it better than us.
Trevor: Do something interesting and
think “community.”
Adrien: Don’t be afraid to ask.
Jason: Use your own brain.
Achim: Stop separating and start uniting.
Jason: Everyone get in gear, get
coordinated, lets synchronize our
thoughts and our minds and lets go in
the same direction.
|RAN| 9
The G reen
環
境
UP IN SMOKE :
CANCER
Y
ou see them everywhere in Japan
- In restaurants, in bars, on the
street, and even on top of Mt.
Fuji. No, I’m not talking about beautiful
Japanese women wearing high heels;
I’m talking about smokers. Japan is a
smoker’s heaven and a non-smoker’s
hell.
Whereas in most other developed
countries around the world, smoking
has been banned in all public places,
especially in restaurants, it seems that in
Japan it’s still as much part of the culture
as sushi and manga. It’s actually so
socially accepted in Japan that nobody
(it seems) thinks twice about the impact
it has on their lives and those around
them.
Please note that I’m not trying to stop
you from smoking or tell you that it’s bad
for you - you know that already. These
are some facts that no matter which
way you slice them, they are still true.
I know most smokers think that either
they can stop before they get cancer or
10 |RAN|
SPOT | Story and photo by Achim Runnebaum |
BY THE
that somehow miraculously they will be
spared the horrors of having to live with
cancer; not to mention the harm they
cause to others. It really boggles my
mind that a smoker asked me if it was OK
to light up right next to me, and seemed
shocked when I replied with “Is it OK
to fart in your face?” Seriously, what’s
the difference? Oh yeah, passing gas
doesn’t release nearly as many harmful
chemicals.....
Even if smokers don’t want to
acknowledge the negative effects they
know these facts in the back of their
minds but perhaps feel it is impossible to
change. It is this suppression and denial
of the truth that keeps most people
smoking. Well, if you must smoke then
here are the true unchangeable facts
about smoking and how it affects the
environment you should know:
1
It takes approximately 12 years
for a cigarette butt to disintegrate,
releasing harmful chemicals into
the ground. They are not (as so many
CARTON
people falsely believe) biodegradable.
The filters are made of a type of acetate
that never fully breaks down.
2
Smoking contributes to global
warming by releasing 22
million net tons of CO2 in
the atmosphere directly and indirectly
through the tobacco manufacturing
process. 600 million trees are felled and
burned annually to dry and cure tobacco
leaves.
3
If you continue to smoke,
there’s a very high probability
that you will die from a smok-
ing-related illness.
4
Smoking causes premature
aging of the skin, particularly in
women, and has been linked to
a decreased sperm count in men.
So the question then becomes, why do
people choose to be slaves to their own
addiction? When asked “Why do you
smoke?” some common answers are
“because it’s cool” (so that means that
the old guy sitting by himself in a bar
smoking up a storm and coughing his
lungs out is cool ?)
“It relieves stress” (so does chewing gum by releasing
a chemical which relaxes your body. It is also much
healthier for you, those around you, the environment, and
not to mention your teeth),
“I just can’t stop” (it’s all about mental strength; are you
admitting you’re a mental wimp?),
Everybody is doing it, and it’s the cool thing to do (with
the widespread use of tobacco nowadays, wouldn’t it be
cooler to really do something unique instead of just being
a follower?)
“all my friends are doing it and they won’t accept me
if I don’t smoke” (This excuse hasn’t worked since
Kindergarten. You’re an adult now, you can make your
own decisions; you gonna let your friends live your life
for you?)

The problem is fear and not thinking about your actions

and taking responsibility not only for your own life, but
also for the lives of people around you. It’s easy to make
excuses; anybody can do that. That’s right, the fear of
change, of doing something new is greater than the instinct
for survival and preservation. Now, some of you might
immediately argue that certain smokers have enjoyed a
long, fulfilled life. While that may or may not be true,
take the number of people who were, or still are affected
either directly or indirectly by the effects of smoking and
compare. I think you’ll soon see the staggering difference
in number.

If all this factual information has made you think and

maybe you’re considering quitting, then you’ll face one
of the toughest challenges in your life - quitting for good.
Here’s some food for thought: While it’s easy to give up
(quitting) and fall back on old habits, there are also many
negative feelings that accompany such a fallback. The
feeling of failure, or the feeling of not being able to follow
through on your plans (to quit). Personally, I think the
benefits of quitting and knowing that you really made it,
far outweigh the feelings you get when you smoke. So to
help you, here are some websites with more information
about smoking and how to quit.

General Information: http://www.ashtraybreath.com/why-

do-people-smoke-cigarettes
Statistics: http://www.ashtraybreath.com/overall-stats-
and-youth-smoking-facts
Quitting: http://whyquit.com/

If you continue to smoke and think all this is just a bunch

of hogwash, just ask yourself this question: How is
smoking improving your life and the lives of those around
you? Write down some positive and negative points (be
brutally honest). If the negatives outweigh the positives,
then be strong, face up, and vow to make a change in
yourself for the better. With the new year coming up, this
is as good a time as any to make a change for the better in
the coming year....
When In Rome
郷
に
入
れ
ば

adaptability
| By Andrew Sekeres III |

H
aving problems at
your workplace or at
home?  Dealing with
non-responsive or confrontational
relationships? Do you have a hard time
fitting in?  If you are currently dealing
with any of these problems, you are
not alone. Whether you are at work or
drinking with friends at a bar or going
shopping, you will find these situations
everywhere. This is especially true when
you are living abroad. Whether you are
newbie or a lifer, this
article is for you. 
Living in a foreign land
as foreigners, we are told that
can be difficult at times,
but you will find out that
we can never fully be accepted
the various experiences
and people that you meet
into Japanese society
on everyday basis will help you in the
long run. If we work on self-realization
and being adaptable to new situations,
we can begin to persevere through these
rough situations and then begin to enjoy
life abroad.   living in your native country.  Family
When individuals begin to live in a
foreign country, they will come across
many situations that can be daunting for
14 |RAN|
12 |RAN|
them due to many issues, for instance
gaping language barriers and differences
in social norms and mannerisms. This
is especially true when living in
Japan. Japanese customs and norms can
be completely foreign from what you
are used to in your home country. Also,
the Japanese language can be a barrier
when dealing with everyday situations
that you may come across. Furthermore,
we are always confronted with the notion
that we are foreigners living here, and
as foreigners, we are told that we can
never fully be accepted into Japanese
society.  Plus when living abroad, you
are away from your established social
networks that you had when you were
and friends are farther away then you
realize. Even with  the internet and tools
like Facebook, Myspace, Skype and more,
you do not have the immediate access and
the comfort level that you once had when
they were closer. The language barriers,
the new social norms and mannerisms
that you come across, and the long
distance between you and your family
and friends can be overwhelming at first
and will eventually lead to some sort of
culture shock. 
Culture shock can happen to anybody
from a newbie who just landed and started
his or her new job, to that of a lifer who
may even have a spouse and children in
tow. Even though the lifer
might be here longer,
they, also, can and will
deal with some type of
culture shock. How do
we overcome it? There
are many ways to
confront culture shock, from simply
acknowledging that you are living in a
foreign country. However the peril can
come when one wonders if they’re going
to be here for just a short time or possibly
for the rest of their life and accepting the
new culture as their own. This is the one of
the hardest choices that you must decide
in your life. Plus it’s magnified when living
in a culture that stresses a group identity
over the individual; most western customs
stress the individual.
Overcoming this obstacle successfully
takes time, patience, and most
importantly, an understanding of who we
are as a person. We must go through the
process of self-realization and finally,
adaptability.
What is self-realization
and how is different from
self-awareness?  Self-
awareness is
defined as one’s
awareness of
psychological
and physical
needs.  Being
aware of one’s
self is an
important step
in our lives, but first we must
realize who we are. Realizing is stronger
and more visceral then just simply being
aware. Self-realization can be daunting adaptable in order to find room in our life
task because it doesn’t  happen overnight.  for these individuals and their ideas. How
It comes by having and learning through do we achieve adaptability in our lives? 
one’s experiences. Through experiencing Adaptability comes from being open-
many new things like living in a foreign minded and being willing to listen and
country, learning new ideas and discuss ideas with people. This can be
languages, seeing and hearing many new very hard when you are living abroad. 
points of view, and talking with different When living in foreign country like
individuals, we begin to see who we really Japan, we must become more open-
are.  minded and be ready to listen to many
To go further into the process of self- different people and their ideas. If you
realization, we must contemplate and are a closed-minded individual, life here
think about what we are doing right can be more difficult. However if you’re
now.  We must ask ourselves: are we able to listen to many people, then the
really living our own lives? We must think situation becomes easier to more clearly
about our endgame: What do we want, find a solution to the problem.
and how do we get it. We must decide   Mastering adaptability takes time,
what is important in our own life. Are we patience, and effort. We must first realize
accomplishing the goals that we set out who we are and what kind of person we
for ourselves?   truly are. We have to decide how open-
After realizing and seeing what is minded and diverse we are in our ways
important in our own life, we must of thinking. After that, become opened-
then find some way to include other minded and be ready to listen. Only then
individuals in our lives.  We must be can our true selves be heard.
|RAN| 13
THE PURSUITOF J A P P I NE S S | By TD Houchen |

“
B
ack on the dating scene again, and it still sucks. A lot of these Japanese
girls need a serious attitude adjustment, or at least a firm talking to. Too
many foreign guys are acting like wet paper towels by letting these girls
get away with too much nonsense, and I know you know what I am talking
about. Social conventions and cultural characteristics aside, these chicks are
pissing me off.. Single exactly 3 months, I am fed up.
Hey boy
‘Sumimasen’ your damn self. Act right. Male/female relationships are hard
enough as it is. We’re from Mars, they’re from Venus, or who knows really
where women are from. It’s hard to get together, like my man Deadly says,

take a walk
throw in the different cultures and different expectations and look out she’s
about to blow!! No, I don’t mean it like that. Get your head out of the gutter.
Look. I am no Prince Charming. In fact, some of my exes want me
dead. But at least they want me. Japanese women seem to feel they have
no obligation whatsoever to stick to plans, call when they say they will, be
where they said they’d be, explain why they came on so strong upon first
meeting you, and then suddenly vanishing into the mist, be clear about their

”
wild side..
intentions even remotely, or explain any of their actions or non-actions or on
anything they’ve said, nor, any of their hints, guesses or behavior. I had one the
girl tell me there was a cockroach in her room, this was a cue for me to come
over and be romantic with her, I should have known, would you have? This
was after she had broken it off with me. Ne. Mind reading in Japanese? Come
on man. I’m learning, but I blew that one. JUST TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT. -Lou Reed
So, I’ve compiled a short list of certain “characters” in order for
you to identify who it is you’re dealing with at any given time. I’m sure
there are a thousand others, this is my list, if you’ve got more, send them
in and we’ll print them up, or at least, throw them up on the website.
For the record, I’m not saying us foreign guys are perfect. Far from
it, most of us are juvenile delinquents posing as English teachers,
there, I said it, but for the most part, we’re simple, we’re just not smart
enough to come up with all the games and oddball tactics it seems
these J-Girls display, we want hot ramen and that’s about it. Capiche?

The English-Champion Hamster

Come on, you’ve met her. She approaches you eagerly, “…hi, I’m Tomoko/Atsuko/Yuko/
Junko/Pluto…”, whatever, (ever notice no Japanese girls’ names start with “B”? or “Q”? or
“X”? What’s with that?)—“..nice to meet you..”, she says. She’s all bright and bubbly, like a
glass of Nihonjin pink champale, genki beyond belief. She speaks English, or so you think.
You chat her up a bit, exchange info, and set a date to meet again. You hook up with The
English Champion, only to discover that on your FIRST MEETING, she exhausted her supply
ILLUSTRATIONS: ADAM PASION

of limited English, and YOU’RE HER NEW TEACHER. You spend the entire evening explaining
your every word and gesturing like a madman and asking and answering questions like, “what
food do you like “ over and over again. You realize you’re just teaching elementary school, and
wonder why you aren’t getting paid for it. Sure, she’s cute, but then again, so are hamsters, and you don’t
date hamsters do you? It’s frustrating, and you fell for it. Next time, upon first meeting, find out her English level
by bringing along a game of Scrabble wherever you go, sure it’s bulky, but it works.

Grade C minus. (Or C plus, if you’ve got the patience.)

14 |RAN|
The Keitai Queen
You hate her, but you like her. Maybe, you can’t remember. You met her like, 3 months ago.
Sparks, or something akin to sparks, flew at that first meeting. You excitedly exchanged
info. You’ve been emailing back and forth now for what seems like eternity. You can barely
remember what she looks like anymore. Your fingers hurt. You’ve asked her to meet you
out in person 3 hundred and forty eight times already. She doesn’t acknowledge your
requests, or always cancels that same day. You know you’re acting like a complete moron,
but you don’t care. You simultaneously cringe and get excited every time your phone alerts
you that she’s mailed you yet again. She won’t stop, and, like P Diddy, you can’t stop/won’t
stop yourself.. It’s driving you crazy, but she seems to relish the whole drawn out, useless,
empty, maddening and brain-frying cyber-romance you’re having. You mail her immediately after
receiving her mails, but she takes hours, sometimes days to mail you back. You crave those mails, and
as much as you hate them, you know it’s all you’ll ever get from her, and you need them. Just when you think she
won’t ever mail you again, your stupid phone lights up, letting you know she’s hooked you back into it one more
time. You hate her, but you need her.

Grade D minus. Face it, she’ll never meet you, or she would have already, give it up man.
Get a new keitai email address.

The Unexamined Soul

Look, I’m no genius, but at least I know what I like. I’ve been out with
too many women here who, upon you asking, “..what food do you
like..”, which itself is a silly question, or, “..what music do you like..”,
or, “..what do you like doing..”, I get that infamously annoying,
“..ehhhhhhhhhhh?”, as if the thought never entered their minds. I
mean, it leaves me wondering what exactly to Japanese dudes talk
about with Japanese women? I know they aren’t discussing politics or
philosophy. Come on J-girls, you don’t know what food you like? Are you
serious? What tastes good in your mouth? What do you find yourself eating
often? JUST ANSWER THE QUESTION, is it really so hard? Please, let’s not even get
into more difficult questions like, “..what are your dreams..”, I can see bubbles coming out of
their ears for questions like this.

Grade C plus or B. They can be opened up and taught, there’s hope for these women.

The Klingon
She’s there when you need her, and she’s there when you don’t. She calls you incessantly,
and will-not –leave-you-alone. Your friends are wondering if you’ve grown a new body-part,
but no, it’s just your girlfriend. You wonder how she ever had a life without you, she seems
to live, breathe, eat, think, speak and dream you and only you. She is crowding out your
hobbies, friends, and your oxygen. She gives new meaning to the song “Don’t Stand So
Close To Me”. She shows up at the most inopportune times and is a bit like a rash. She’s
up under you 24-7 and it’s KILLING YOU. She stands so close to you that sometimes you
step on her, or accidentally elbow her in her nose or neck, which of course, she doesn’t
mind. She’s reading this over your shoulder right now, you couldn’t get rid of her if you were
a murderer, but you’re thinking about it..

Grade C minus or D. Some guys like this kind of thing..go figure.

|RAN| 15
The Superflake
The following is a true story.
A friend of mine was seeing a J-girl for a short while. Things were going smoothly, or sort
of smoothly anyway. One day, they’re having a phone conversation, J-girls English wasn’t
great, and so, Our Hero asked politely, “..excuse me, can you speak up a bit? I can’t really
hear you…”, to which, J-girl responded, “..what? You know what, I don’t think this is
working out, I think we should stop seeing each other..”, and promptly hung up and never
called Our Hero again.
Huh?
How about this one; another friend recently told me about a girl who absolutely freaked out
because he didn’t like hot sauce. I kid you not. Fickle much?
Then there are the women who, in the beginning, find you attractive because you are foreign, but, 3
or 4 months into the relationship, they’re imploring you to “..be more Japanese..”, “..learn more Japanese..”, or
openly insulting your home country and culture, those very things that brought you together in the first place.
In the immortal words of Ralph Kramden, “..to the moon Alice, to the moon..”

Grade F. You can do nothing right with these women. Run. Fast. Far. Now.

The Disappearing Act

You know her, or at least you thought you did. Things were going great, or at least, again,
you thought they were. It’s happened too many times to count since I’ve been here. Meet a
woman, share some (what you think and what seems to be) great times. Everything you’ve
done together, she’s been a willing and eager participant. She’s never registered one iota
of reservation about anything you’ve suggested, never uttered a word of discontent or dis-
satisfaction, never even frowned. You’ve been having a great time with her, so why has she
suddenly vanished? Won’t return my calls, won’t return my mails, she’s disappeared into the
mist. What. The. Hell.
This, alas, is a typical J-girl move which could mean one of any number of things. It could mean
she liked you, but didn’t like you that much. It could mean she liked you too much, and got scared
of her own feelings, and so instead of dealing with it, she decided to just let it go, it would never fit
with the neatly prescribed life that her society has ordained her to have (!). It could mean she noticed a piece of
spinach in your teeth one day after dinner, and just couldn’t handle it. It could mean she was only spending time
with you to get back at her husband/family/boyfriend/job/friends/etc, and now, she’s sufficiently done her duty and
it’s time for her to move on. It could mean she was recalled back to the factory for upgrades and improvements.
Who knows really. But one thing is clear, she is GONE AND NOT COMING BACK.

Grade F. How can you have a relationship with an invisible person?

The Decepticon
Damn, she’s fine! Or better spoken, she appears to be fine. In all my years I have never met
a woman better at self-improvement with make up, clothes, accessories and curling irons
than The Japanese Woman. These women sure know how to work with what they have,
and, what they don’t have. False eyelashes, smothered on foundation, hair attachments,
fake nails and painted on eyebrows, man, everyday is Halloween here! She’s painted,
padded, plucked, polished, packaged and prepared.
Case in point: You get her home, and you’re rounding the bases. First base! Nice kiss, the
lipstick comes off, but it’s all good, all women wear lipstick, but why is her skin suddenly
two different tones? –and where did that other eyelash go? Weird.. Second base, uh, well, a
padded bra? Hm. Well, I guess it’s okay, but damn, I didn’t know they made padded bras this
padded. Third base, hm, the plot thickens-she seemed like she weighed at least a little more than a 9
year old boy when she had clothes on, didn’t she? This is becoming interesting, headed home, and you realize,
wait a minute, is this the same person I was with a few hours ago? It’s like unwrapping a mummy, she’s almost not
even there anymore! The deed is done, and you wake up the next morning wondering who is this person laying
next to me and how did she get into my house?

Grade B. You can make it work, as long as you’re flexible, and, many times, these women have great
personalities to make up for their, uh, lack in other departments. Plus, she looks great out in public.

16 |RAN|
The Bi
It seemed like a really good idea. She liked beautiful women and so do you. She had an
insatiable sex drive and so do you. She wanted to have an open relationship and so do
you. She was adventurous and outdoorsy and liberated and sensual and so infuriatingly
annoying you wanted to kill her with your bare hands.
What were you thinking man? A bi-sexual Japanese girl? Really? Take all the hang-ups
and issues a straight J-girl has, and multiply them by a thousand. Thought your straight
girlfriend was flaky, finicky, weird, and more than a little touched? Man, you ain’t seen
nothing yet. Imagine a woman taking a few dozen extra estrogen pills everyday. What might
be the outcome? We can only imagine, better yet, don’t.
A bi J-girl?
HA.

Grade D. The first few months are exhilarating, followed by another few months of pure emotional
and mental hell. Imagine a relationship with a cat, or 12 cats.

The Forever-An-Adolescent-But-She’s-
Also-Completely-Unavailable
She loves Disney a little too much. She’s got Goofy and Mickey and half a dozen other
small furry things dangling from her keitai. She makes funny faces and uses baby talk and
all her clothes are some shade of pink. She giggles every time you touch her and she still
lives at home with her parents, her grandparents, her cute dog, (whom she shows you a
picture of every single time you get together), and she shares a bedroom with her 12 year
old brother. She has an 11 o’clock curfew, and she works 7 days a week, plus she volunteers
at the local animal shelter. She lives in Gifu, but has no car. Her best friend is her friend from
first grade and they go EVERYWHERE together, and, they dress exactly alike. She likes anime,
but not the good kind, she’s into Cinderella and Lilo and Stitch. She celebrates Mickey Mouse’s
birthday. She’s cuter than a cupcake, but she won’t let you eat her.

Grade C plus. Again, you can make it work, you just have to dumb down a bit, well, more than a bit actually.

The Schizophrenic
This one is dangerous. When you met, you ignored the warning signs, such as the fact that
you did it in the bathroom while her boyfriend was at the bar, on the first night you met
her. You should have noticed something when you spotted her in the bushes outside your
apartment at 4 am. You didn’t really think much of the fact that she told you she was
going to take a trip abroad, but you saw her that same week in the grocery store wearing
a disguise. You convinced yourself it was normal that she always carries a hunting knife.
Well, maybe she hunts…something.
It sort of made you think twice when you heard her change her voice while you heard her
talking on the phone, and wasn’t she saying something about her “medication”? She’s really
nice to you when you are alone with her, but in front of your friends, why is she suddenly so sullen
and withdrawn? Wait, is she wearing a holster? I swore I saw her picture at the Post Office the other
day, and how come she won’t tell me where she lives?

Grade F. Run. Fast. Now. Far.

Not all J-girls fit into these categories,

but some do.
Know the signs.
Be careful out there people.
Carry on.

|RAN| 17
 Giachetti
Matteo

Deadly’s Tips
恋
愛
関
A Man’s House Is Her Castle
係
| By Deadly D |

T
his can be stated simply and directly.
In most cultures, the man is the king
at home. He always knows that no
matter how degrading it is to get ordered
around by the boss’s nephew all day at
work, when he comes home at night,

he will be greeted as provider, hero, and
handed the remote control to the TV in
open acknowledgment that he is paying the
cost to be the boss. In Japanese culture, the
wife makes every, and I mean EVERY, major
decision about the house, the kids, the
furniture and the family dog. The husband
is not expected to be a player in the daily
family drama except as a money-making
machine that delivers pay checks and then
doesn’t hang around much. A couple in an
international relationship needs to work
this one out from the very beginning or
they’re headed for a mine field that not
even Angelina Jolie can clear out.
*
Relevant fact:
Pachinko first became really
popular in Japan when housewives
in big cities like Osaka and Tokyo
told their husbands not to come
home until after 11:00 at night and
they had put the kids to bed. The
wives literally would not allow their
husbands in the door before they
were done dealing with the kids. No
wonder those salary men look so
tired and stressed.

18 |RAN|
 | By Nuova Erudita |
Create
創
Matteo Giachetti 造
is a photographer, who uses pictures to create his
own personal universe of people, events and places.
He proceeds as an author behaves with any story
and he uses, with extreme boldness, the traditional
ingredients of the painting which has an ancient
mediterranean root. He could be compared to an
old fresconist painter, who compose spectacular
sceneries in which the bible stories are conveyed to
the audience.
But his visionary form is often pervading by
the urban and post modern culture because he is
mainly a photographer who starts to tell his stories
from reality surrounding himself. He is an artist
fascinated by the anecdotal datum hidden in the
daily nature. The Giachetti’s narration does not
need magnificent subjects or extraordinary events
to construct its epic; he looks through the things
as a dreamer and every things could become
spectacular, depending only by his own feeling.
In the “Multilayers” artwork all the memories
are still superimposed: lights, shapes, colors and
signs are going through several steps to express an
emotional experience of the world, where every
pieces become the author’s intention to built the
story. It is like a free jazz concert, where the possibility
of narration seems endless and unforeseeable.
So what does he want to tell us?
Maybe an aspect of a story, that you can remember
or that you do not know, but Matteo Giachetti
makes you an imagine and sows it inside your soul.

From top-left to bottom-right: Akamon Night View; Who is that man?; Adrift; Osukannon; The Spirit of Shibuya

|RAN| 19
 聴
Listen
く
SHOOTING BLANKA
T
he fans and friends have already
gathered around waiting for the
band to finish setting up. They
have thrown off their jackets, done-up
their hair and put on their dancing
shoes. As the bassist warms up the
smiles already break across their faces,
which is mirrored on the band members
themselves. Everyone seems to be
prepared to have a good time, and they
wait in anxious anticipation. By the
end of the set the floor is slippery from
condensed sweat, the exhausted fans
look ready to topple over and yet they
are crying for more as Blanka exits the
stage.
20 |RAN|
Blanka is a band that defies clas-
sification. They bend genre, wrap it
around themselves and tie it in knots.
Within the framework of a single song
they switch seamlessly between heavy
bass-driven funk jams, catchy electronic
pop riffs and ethereal progressive rock
guitar solos, and all this without losing
the audiences attention for a moment.
More than anything else though,
Blankais a live experience. If their
CD is a great porno, their live show is
that hot sticky sex with a stranger in
the back of a Volkswagen. The bass
thumps so perfectly in synch with the
drum falls that you might swear they
were linked by the borg, and the guitar
flawlessly resonates jams that are
so danceable even Steven Hawking
would jump out of his motorized chair
and bust a move. The catchy vocals
will grab your attention and hold it in
a choke-hold while the nearly manic
spurts of vocals are interspersed with
strange space-age sounds. Not your
thing? Then go take a nap you boring
fucking zombie.
Blanka rocks all the usual Nagoya
haunts as well as playing shows all
over the Mikawa area. A four piece
comprised of both Japanese and (a)
foreign members the band has the
unique ability to run the Japanese and
gaijin circuits, and bridge a gap in much
need of mending. After a exhaustingly
energetic show and several beers, RAN
magazine peered in to get a better look
| By Adam Pasion |
at this exciting band.
RAN: Alright start off with some
self introduction. Please give us your
name, instrument and your favorite
member of SMAP.
A: My name is Angus. Angus
Maxwell Fulton Rofe. I play bass. I like
Kimu Taku because I think he carries
the Japanese yankee style well. He’s
like the idol, the leader so he is very
powerful man. He’s unique to Japan.
T: Vocalist, Arakawa Taichi, or just
Taichi. Since Angus already said Kimu
Taku I guess I will go with Nakai. He is
good at talking so he is interesting to
watch.
P: I play guitar, my name is Perra.
As for me, I like Kusanagi because he
loves drinking and so do I.
I: Izza, I am the drummer, and I like
Katori Shingo because he likes beer.
RAN: What is the origin of the name
Blanka, and does it have anything to do
with Street Fighter?
T: It means many things. Before we
were playing with a completely different
band name, just a sort of throw-away
name, and we were like “let’s change
it.”
I: We wanted something with
more impact
T: So we thought about it for a
long time, we thought about it really
really hard and came up with about a
hundred different patterns for names,
so much we didn’t even know what
we were talking about anymore. Then
by chance the word “blanka” came up
once or twice, and we thought it had a
nice rhythm to it. It had a good feeling,
so we decided to go with Blanka.
P: We ruled it down to about
three names.
T: So there isn’t really any real
meaning to it. Then after people asked
us about it we started coming up with
something to make it cool. You know its
sort of close to the English word “blank”
which has a nice image to it, like pure
white where our sound comes from.
Afterward we started to add meaning to
it, but the truth is there isn’t really one.
I: So basically its not from
Street Fighter.
RAN: But now when you do play
Street Fighter, of course you choose
Blanka, right?
A: For me first is Chun-Li. I like the
way she says “yada, yada.”
P: If somebody offers it to one of
us at least one of the four of us has
to say okay.
A: Blanka is kind of a crazy, lion...or
what is he, is he a lion man?
T: I guess if you think about it that
way that is part of our image too.
A: We are also planning to
coordinate the blanka dance moves
(makes blanka noises and swipes
at the air) with like a pyrotechnics-
electric show.
RAN: Your influences seem to be all
over the board, and the music doesn’t
really fit into any particular genre, so
who are you most often compared to?
T: We aren’t really compared
to anyone. Recently we have our
own original thing, there isn’t much
else like it.
RAN: Is there any band you want to
be compared with?
T: I don’t really want to be compared
to anyone. I want have an original
Blanka style.
A: We’ve gone through many
stages of evolution like most bands,
but we started out being compared to
the more standard, funk/jam bands.
Like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but we
didn’t really like that. But those were
the really early days and since then we
haven’t really gotten that.
RAN: So what band do you
absolutely not want to be compared
with?
T: I am not sure if there is such
a band either, but I guess its more
interesting if I mention somebody.
I: Red Hot Chili Peppers
A: If you do funk music and punk
music or rock music, people automati-
cally associate you with the red hot chili
peppers. And we are sick of that.
I: It’s sort of broad, but J-pop bands.
T: As far as genre, for example with
“house” music, that sparkly mainstream
“house” scene is no good, but the
deeper, underground house sound is
really cool, so even in our same genre
we don’t want to be associated with
that really simple and obvious stuff. In
Japan even with pop music there is a
huge underground world and the major
world and some artists are really catchy,
but they’re also still really cool. I’d like
our band to go into that sort of category.
I: Dancing and a good atmosphere
with a little bit of the punk spirit.
A: The basis is a community rather
than four people trying to sell a product.
These are our friends and we try to
respond to them, so its like a two-way
thing rather than us trying to force our
own egos. But of course we are very
egotistical and pretentious.
RAN: How does having foreigners
and Japanese together in the band
affect the band dynamic? Does it
present any particular problems?
T: Naturally in the beginning it was
language. Angus speaks English and
we all speak Japanese, so it was really
hard. Using dictionaries, the Japanese
brand of dictionaries called “Genius.”
All of us had one, and Angus was
studying Japanese.
A: But mainly in the early stage it
was the music language...its a bit of a
stereotype but...
T: When we are talking at a jam
session, somebody will say for example
“play a D chord” or “play a C chord” or
maybe say “I think this part from such
and such a song on Gang of Four’s
album Entertainment is good,” and we
can have a conversation like that. So
in the beginning we were able to talk
about music, from that we started being
able to say more and more, we became
really close started to understand each
others’ language. But early on it was
much easier to just talk about music.
I: At Taichi’s studio we would talk
about music and we liked a lot of the
same bands. In the beginning our
music was a lot more similar to punk.
T: That first place we practiced was
at my house in my tiny little attic with no
air conditioning.
A: Yeah it was like 35 degrees in
there, and I thought that was normal.
I thought Japanese bands always
practice in that kind of heat. But
generally because we have a strong
|RAN| 21
 musical understanding and we have
similar interests in music, we don’t
usually have a problem. We instinc-
tively connect with the jam sessions
which is really good. So in that respect
I think other foreign musicians living in
Japan who can’t speak Japanese really
should go out and just jam with other
bands. Its really easy to just pick-up
an instrument and just play and don’t
worry about talking.
RAN: Are there any good points
about it?
T: At first when people see one of
the members is a foreigner they think
“wow, this is something out of the
ordinary.” It definitely makes a strong
impression. But all of us have really
strong characters so when the show
is over it’s no longer about him being a
foreigner, he’s just another member of
Blanka. I think Japanese people really
like foreigners so at first when Angus
was with us people would always ask
if we were really going to play together.
A: And they thought I would be really
good because I am a foreigner. They
were expecting me to be some sort of
genius. But it’s interesting slowly going
through the layers of being seen as a
foreigner. I think sometimes people get
22 |RAN|
a bit confused. There is one reaction
where they treat you like a rockstar,
“oh he’s like a foreigner coming from
England.” Then there is another
instinct where you’re just treated as a
Japanese person, which is not true as
well because you can’t speak perfectly
and there are cultural differences. When
interacting with the audience I think that
is the main difference. As a band I think
we are fine. But when I emcee the show
there is a really interesting atmosphere.
They are all wondering if I am gonna
speak in English or Japanese.
RAN: How did you all come together
as a band?
P: Before Angus joined the band,
we all went to the same junior high
school. When our bassist left we really
wanted a new bassist so we put up
fliers at clubs and live houses. Angus
saw one of the fliers that we had put-up
at the Apollo Theater in Shinsakae, in
Nagoya. Before Angus joined we had
two or three people do support-bass
for us but it wasn’t a good match. So
we wrote down a bunch of our favorite
bands on the flier, even bands that were
really minor bands in Japan at the time.
We wrote bands like Minor Threat and
stuff. So Angus saw that and liked a lot
of the same bands so he contacted us.
T: But his first contact was by
e-mail, and when a Japanese person
writes an email all in English its almost
always a scammer or some adult site or
something. So I was going to erase it,
but as I was about to erase it I noticed the
word “bass.” So I got out the dictionary,
my “genius” dictionary and read the
words “let’s play together” or something
and I thought, “why is this gaijin asking
to join the band?” So I called him and
we met for the first time at my house.
We couldn’t hold a conversation at all
so I said, “okay lets start jamming,” and
after our first jam session we were like,
okay, this will work.
P: In Japan there are a lot of people
who are good listeners but they only
listen. They listen to a lot of good music
but what they play is totally different.
But with Angus, he listened to good
music and could play lots of styles so
we really wanted him to join the band.
I: We basically wrote every single
band we liked, like an unbelievable
amount of bands. Normal recruitment
fliers would never write that much.
Honestly we put too many bands.
P: Usually they will just write “rock”
or something.
RAN: Was it anything like your
myspace? As I looked at that I saw
so many influences and thought some
of them were complete opposites, but
somehow after watching your live show
I can feel those influences come-out.
I: There are a lot of people in Japan
who only go to live houses and other
people who only go to clubs. As for us
we go to all of them, we like all of them.
P: Its not about number one, but
being only one. For example a lot
people want to be the number one
reggae group, or the number one rock
group, but we want to be the only group
of our kind. There is only one Blanka.
I: It might be difficult for people
who listen to pop music to listen to our
music, people who listen to pop only.
P: But the melody and the vocals
are really simple and catchy so I think it
can be received by pop listeners.
T: I believe its possible to make a
song that appeals to both audiophiles
and people who listen to only J-pop.
There is music that both music nerds
and J-pop fans think is cool. I think that
is probably the hardest thing to do, but
it is absolutely possible.
I: Between underground and
mainstream
P: Like a gate artist. If you listen to
Blanka and say, “hey I like this kind of
music.” and then start listening to other
kinds of music. For example even with
the Red Hot Chili Peppers, if somebody
listens to it and says “wow funk music
is really cool,” and then they start to
discover other, more real types of funk
like New Orleans Funk or something. I
think Blanka could be like that.
RAN: Do you want to be major?
T: More than a sense of wanting
to be major or not, I think we want to
be able to eat by playing the music we
like. So yeah I wish this was my main
job, but if we became mainstream and
then we were told to make more love
songs or something I would hate that.
If it was like that I wouldn’t want to be
mainstream.
I: I would still do it though.
A: Yeah he is just gonna do a solo
drum album of love songs.
RAN: Once and for all, is Michael
Jackson really dead?
T: Its really interesting, this huge
star instead of fading out...its like fiction,
like some movie or something. I wish I
could do that too. But yeah, he’s dead.
Totally dead.
I: As for me I think he is alive
at Neverland Ranch and he has
completely changed his face again.
A: We could list our favorite dead
people, like James Brown, Michael
Jackson is great, Elvis, Hiroshiro, that
guy who played tiger mask.
I: I like Paul McCartney
A: He’s not dead!
I: Really?! Wrong story
RAN: You guys have a new CD
coming out, do you want to talk about
it?
T: This one is really for people who
are new to the band. Its more for first
time listeners than it is for our long time
listeners. For people who have been
listening to us for a long time they are
used to our jam sessions and our live
groove but this one is more catchy and
easy to listen to for people who don’t
know what we are about.
P: For people who are close, like
in Aichi they can always come to our
shows, but now we want to reach
people far away. People who can only
listen to us by CD or on Myspace, so
we chose songs that are a really good
representation of our style.
A: We’ve got myspace, youtube,
facebook, mixi. If people are interested
in us, check our myspace, come to
our live shows. Feel free to write to
us and criticize us. That is one of the
big differences between Australia and
Japan, the critical reply. People aren’t
as critical, and people have critical
thoughts but they dont really say them
straight up. They are very polite, so we
would like to hear that.
RAN: Is there anything else you
want to say?
T: Just to express our appreciation
to the people who who have supported
and connected with us. We’ve been
lucky enough to play the music we
love and really enjoy doing it, and the
only reason we have gotten this far is
because of all the them.
I: From now on please dance to
Blanka’s songs. Let’s dance!
P: We want to keep making better
and better songs for our fans.
A: As one last thing can I list some
other bands and venues that we like?
Cafe Domina, Ragslow Cafe, Bob and
Keisuke’s, Cafe Nation, Plastic Factory,
One love studio, Fever, Stereophon-
ics, DJ Dij, Dj Babur, Dj Kachiwari, Dj
Ura, Dj Inaji, Tomo Shagger, Soulskye,
Sonicland Peacemakers, Cactus,
Konton and A-funk. They are our
Universe. Its not a sentence but...Oh
and RAN MAGAZINE!
For those interested in
checking out more of Blanka
you can listen to their music at
myspace.com/theblanka. You
can also connect with them by
searching for “blanka japan”
in facebook groups, or watch
live videos on their youtube
channel. Be sure you don’t miss
Blanka’s upcoming gigs:
December 18th at Cafe
Ragslow in Okazaki. 10pm-5am,
1500 door entry
December 19th at Vio
Lounge, no cover charge.
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
行
く
か
行
Memories for Ray Charles,
か a fellow Georgian
な
い
| By Milo Omana |
S
uddenly, walking down a street, be
it real or be it a dream, one realizes
for the first time that the years have
flown; that all this has passed forever &
will live on only in memory.*
I’m in a dream & she’s there, sitting at
the other end of the table at this nomikai
(“the let’s get drunk & meet party”),
maybe five couples separating us. I shout
hi & yell my first words to her in Japanese:
Do you want to get married?!
It was supposed to be a joke, yeah,
but it still made an impression & that joke
led to another & yet another, a little of this
& that, then this, that & the other. What
was meant to be a one-year adventure
in this land of rising sun had become
something like a safari to nowhere. And
somehow our blood, sweat & tears lasted
longer than five years, up until this latest
Feb 14th, when in place of a gift she told
me on the phone: It was indeed finished.
Our dreams finished, my dream
deferred.
I had a woman, way over town (in
Komaki), that was good to me, oh yeah.
She saved her loving, for early in
the morning, (Ooh la la) just for me.**
24 |RAN|
(Thanks, Ray. These memories
are a bitch.)
But hold on. This here that I’m writing
is not about her. This is not about her.
Not about her at all. It’s about me. This is
about me. I’m writing all of this for me. So,
Should I stay or should I go?
I don’t know. I look back at my six
years here, & remember when BabyFace
told me he was leaving. I couldn’t believe
it. I thought we were both lifers. I said,
Why in the hell are you leaving,
BabyFace? And you’re leaving your
beautiful girlfriend behind! Can’t you see
the love in her eyes? She loves you man.
BabyFace looked into the distance,
then smiled his blue eyes at me. He
said, “I don’t know, I don’t know what
I’m going to do. I’m just going to go
back to Indy & see what happens.”
That was over a year ago. BabyFace
is now in law school. I heard his
beautiful girl is coming to live with him.
Huh?
(I mean, BabyFace was a rolling
stone, man. I guess we all eventually
gather moss.)
And I remember how Zee did it. I’ll
never forget him, his long Osama beard
that summer, his infatuation with 70’s
music & killing zombies on Xbox. Zee
bought a one-way ticket then went into
hiding three months prior to departure.
He didn’t want anybody talking him
out of it. That was over two years ago.
I saw him when he came back to visit
last spring. He had shaved his beard &
joined the Marines. He had become
a real Officer straight out of Platoon.
Huh?
And there was that blonde from
Ohayo who liked poetry & water.
She lasted five years on this rock. She
said the party’s over. It has been over
three years since that day we recited,
Some say the world will end in fire,
some say in ice.***
ILLUSTRATION: ADAM PASION
I heard she’s living underwater
somewhere in the Pacific, wearing a mask,
strapped to an oxygen tank, chasing fish.
From what I’ve tasted of desire,
I hold with those who favor fire.***
 Yeah.
There are more. There are too
many memories of people leaving, of
farewell parties, of me getting their stuff,
like blenders, kotatsu (“the heated &
blanketed table”), desks, beds, kitchen
utensils, even barbells & squat racks,
& cramming all of it into my tiny
apartment with paper walls. I would
then see my friends off to the station,
us saying sayonaras & sharing hugs.
This has happened way too many times.
Where are they, the departed ones?
Some are back home living in houses
with harder walls, some working at
insurance companies with weekly
staff meetings, staring at computers,
etc etc. It sounds so boring. But some
are in Uni, others rampaging through
the jungles of Southeast Asia, some
living lives as expats elsewhere, writing
books, learning how to write books.
But all of them pursuing dreams.
What about those who
didn’t leave? Why did they stay?
I remember the sax player from
California. We met on the Meitetsu
line to Utsumi, the beach. Both drinking
Asahi’s on the train, naturally we
gravitated toward one other. He was
telling me about his beach pub crawl,
how he did it every summer Sunday. I
asked him how long he’d been at it.
“Twenty years,” he said. “I came
here on vacation & got stuck.”
Huh?
And then there are the multitudes
of us who come here & get stuck
living with Japanese in-laws. My
friend SpaceMan found himself in this
predicament, but he eventually escaped.
And of course there are those
Japanophiles who love everything manga,
everything Japanese drama, everything
kanji, katakana & hiragana, they love
everything Tokyo & Roppongi & Fukuoka
ramen & Nagoya Yama-chan, tebasaki
(“the chicken wing”) & & ad infinitum.
Those Japanophiles want to be
stuck. I know cause I used to be one.
Yet I’m thinking I’m not one now.
I had a woman, way over town, who
was good to me (she left me). Oh yeah.**
(Thanks again, Ray. I think I just
became unstuck.)
Sure, I like Japan. I like the food. I
love the chicken wing! I like the sexy
clothes, the J-girl thing. I even like the
kanji & the terrible singing at karaoke.
But this ain’t my home. These are
not my people. This is not my country.
And she’s no longer my woman, Ray.
I want to go home. And I want
to go home now. Back to Georgia,
where moonlight shines through
the pines. This road leads back
to you. (And the party’s over.)
... suddenly, these memories
intrude, rise up like ghosts &
permeate every fiber of one’s being.*
It’s all just a dream. Wake up.
*Henry Miller, from Black Spring
**Ray Charles, from I Got a Woman
***Robert Frost, from Fire and Ice
Miló Omaña
milomana@ymail.com
http://vandelay-japan.blogspot.com
|RAN| 25
 SEX WITH A
INTERVIEW WITH A HEALTH CLUB WORKER
C
ome on. Admit it. You’ve
wondered what exactly goes on
in those “Health Clubs” that you
can’t get into, and that are sprinkled all
over town. You’ve seen them, almost
fully-nude pictures of luscious-looking
Japanese women brazenly displayed
on the buildings’ exterior, places called
“Mothers” or “Ecstacee” or “Bus Stop” or
whatever.
Well, leave it to ya boy, me, big
TD, to dig up the dirt so you don’t have
to. I hustled up a real sex worker and
sat honey down and chatted her up
over toast, coffee, and French fries at
a local Denny’s for a few hours about
her life, her work, her thoughts and
her feelings about her job, which is,
to pleasure Japanese men for dough 8
to 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. The
things we do for yen, everyone is a
prostitute at some level, someone once
said that I think, and if not, I just did.
She was very “normal”, very
forthcoming, and very attractive.
Peep Game.
TD: So, what’s your name?
SW: “Mie”.
TD: Okay Mie, how old are you?
M: I’m 27.
TD: You’re very cute.
M: Thank you, you too.
TD: Go easy Mie, I’m a professional.
M; Sorry..
26 |RAN|
STRANGER:
TD: Where do you live?
M: Nagoya, but I’m from Gifu
TD: Enough with the tiny talk, how long
have you been doing this work Mie?
M: One year or so..
TD: How did you get into this line of
business?
M: I was approached by the guys who
stand on the street, you know, with the
funny hair and pointed shoes, they are
“scouts”, they asked me if I was looking
for a job..
TD: Were you?
M: Yes, but I wasn’t looking for this
kind of job. I was looking for a job as
a cabaret girl, or a “regular” job to do
during the day….
TD: What did the scout say to you to
make you interested in doing this work?
M: He asked me to get into the
sex/Health Club industry right off. I
wasn’t sure, but he was very kind. I was
surprised. I was told that people in that
industry are all mafia-related, but the
guy who approached me wasn’t. He was
kind and so I felt I could trust him, so I
decided to try it.
TD: What is the hardest thing about
doing this job?
M: Getting the customers hearts.
TD: Why do you want their hearts?
M: Because if I can get their heart, then
they will become regulars, you know,
repeat customers. I want to have the
same customers for myself because if I
| By TD Houchen |
can get repeats, then I can get a steady
income. This job is very unstable..
TD: What do you do to get their hearts?
M: Well, I try to keep a smile on my face
always, and I try to put myself in their
shoes. I try to communicate with them
from their perspective, and I try hard to
make sure they enjoy their time with me,
but it is difficult to catch their hearts….
(She sighs heavily).
TD: Describe a session with a customer,
how does it all go down? (Pun kind of
intended..)
M: They come into the room. We greet
each other. Then we speak a little, small
talk. Then maybe we have a hug, then we
take off our clothes and take a shower,
then we have ‘mat play’, then we have
‘bed play’. After that we take another
shower, touch our bodies together, then
we talk again a little, maybe smoke a
cigarette, then we say goodbye.
TD: Sounds almost quaint. How long is
one session usually?
M; They can pay for one hour or two
hours, 60 minutes or 120 minutes.
TD: Is there any part of the session that
you especially like?
M: I like the talking when it’s all over,
because then I can know it’s over.
TD: Which part(s) do you not like?
M; The hardest part is kissing the
PHOTOS: MT
customers, and doing the sexual
things, because the customer is not my
boyfriend, he’s just a customer…
TD: How can you prepare your mind
and body to do these intimate things
with perfect strangers?
M: What’s perfect about them?
TD: It’s a term we use in English to
describe..nevermind, I mean, how can
you do these things with people you
don’t know at all?
M: It’s just work. I tell myself over and
over, “…this is my job, this is my job..”,
so that is what I think, it’s just a job i’m
doing now.
TD: Have you ever found yourself turned
on by any of your customers? Sexually or
otherwise?
M: I have been sexually turned on, and, I
fell in love with one of my customers, but
usually, anytime I find myself thinking,
“this feels good”, I’m surprised.
TD: Are you turned on by me right now?
M: Relax. You should relax.
TD: You’re right. So what made you fall
in love with that particular customer?
M: First, I thought he was handsome,
he was my type. Then after we were
together, we began exchanging emails. I
came to find out he was really, genuinely
kind, but eventually, I found it wasn’t
real love, just infatuation…
TD: So, it is possible for the workers to
find love in these places..
M: Yes.
TD: Fascinating.
Do you like being I am not ashamed of my work.
sexually
on while you are
turned
I think it is important to
keep sexual desire in order
working? Or do you
prefer to just think
‘it’s a job’ and get it
over with? to feel alive and vigorous
M: The best way is
for me to be naturally turned on by my
customers, but most times, it isn’t like
that, so, I close my eyes and imagine he
is my boyfriend.
TD: Do you think this work degrades
women?
M: At first, I wondered if men thought
the women who do this kind of work are
unclean, but I do think it gives women a
bad image-inside of myself, I am always
fighting with my own feelings..
TD: Are you and any of the other workers
very close friends?
M: No, we have shallow friendships
only.
TD: So you have a boyfriend..
M: Yes.
TD: Does he know about your job?
M; No, he doesn’t.
TD: What’s his number? Just joking,
ah, what does he think you do for your
money?
M: He thinks I work at a cabaret club.
TD: If he knew about your real job, what
do you think he would do? How would
he take it?
M: I think he’d break up with me.
TD: So you’ll never tell him about what
you do?
M: I don’t think so.
TD: Is it easy for you to become sexually
aroused with your boyfriend after a day
of doing this work?
M: For a while, after work, I didn’t feel
anything with my boyfriend, so I decided
that on the day that I know I will meet
my boyfriend, I take that day off.
TD: Nice of you…do you ever feel that
you are cheating on him?
M: In the beginning I did, but now I just
tell myself “it’s just work, it’s business”,
and I’m okay with it.
TD: How much longer do you plan to
do this?
M: Maybe one more year..
TD: How long to most women do this
type of work?
M: The longest I’ve heard is 10 years, but
women who are doing this move around
from club to club, the average length of
time I think is like 2 to 3 years. Women
don’t stay at the same place though, they
move around.
TD: What is your opinion of the men
who are your customers?
M: They want a sexual experience
they can’t get from their wives or their
girlfriends, simple really. I have no
special opinion of them.
TD: Do you think the men who come
to Health Clubs are cheating on their
partners?
M: I don’t think it’s cheating, I think it’s
a way these men can enjoy their lives.
TD: If you were married and discovered
your husband had been going to a place
like where you work, how do you think
you would feel?
M: I would be okay with it, but really, I
wouldn’t want to know about it, it’s his
business what he is doing, I don’t want
to know.
TD: If you were the boss of one of these
establishments, what would be different?
M: I would be more caring to the girls.
Many of the women working in this
industry have lots of problems personally
and at the job. I would listen to the girls
more and talk to them and care for them.
The bosses insist we work even when we
are menstruating, so, I would care more
about the girls.
TD: Foreigners are not allowed at 98
percent of these places, why is that?
M: Communication is difficult. Words
and gestures aren’t the same. Plus,
foreigners have more disease than
Japanese, Japanese think foreign women
have many sexually transmitted diseases,
so naturally, foreign men do too.
TD: Really? Wow. Would you let
foreigners come in if you were boss?
M: Maybe, it depends on what he looks
like, if he can speak any Japanese..
TD: Would you let me in?…nevermind..
how many customers do you see in any
average day?
M: 3 or 4, the most was 14 in one day.
TD: Wow. That beats my one day record
by about 13, no, 12, no, 11, well, no,
she didn’t count, so 12. Wow. 14. You
must have felt really tired.
M: Yes, it was a long day.
TD: What was the strangest request you
ever received?
M: A man brought rope and tied me up,
it was fun for him but
not for me, another
customer asked me
to punch him in his
stomach as hard as
I could…he almost
vomited but that’s
what he liked, that al-
most-vomiting feeling.
TD: Yeah, I used to
like that too, but I sorta grew out of it.
Last question, do you have any coupons
or anything, I mean like a free pass, or
is there like a back door or something…
M: (Nervous laughter, followed by
nervous silence.) No, I don’t.
TD: Anything else you’d like to add? ( A
little pissed.)
M: I am not ashamed of my work. I think
it is important to keep sexual desire in
order to feel alive and vigorous. My
older customers are very “genki” and
alive and it is because they have kept
their sexual desire.
TD: Thank you for your time, can I eat
your french fries?
M: I gotta go..
..and then, just like that, she got up
and bounced off, leaving me and my
translator eating cold fries and feeling….
frisky.
|RAN| 27
 know
your
rights
| By TN |
M
ost people who know me
might say I'm pretty calm,
and don't get offended or
angry too often.  True.  If I think about
it there aren't too many things that get
under my skin.  Things that do however,
are racial intolerance, ignorance, and
discrimination.  Growing up in one of
the most multicultural places on the
handcuff image: Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
planet, I couldn't imagine people not
of my own race as being more or less
human than I, and deserving of more or
less rights.  me! Fortunately I managed to live in
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
In my neighborhood, kids from various
ethnic groups were all thrown together
in the proverbial melting pot at public
school, spawning groups of friends
that were sometimes dubbed “United
Nations.”  Unfortunately, not everybody
is as comfortable with people different
from themselves, and sadly this can
spawn prejudice, intolerance, and
ultimately injustice.  Being a white guy
(Caucasian if you need me to be P.C.), I
was never a target for racial profiling by
the police, and was somewhat oblivious
of it in my own city until some of my non-
white friends recounted their appalling
28 |RAN|
experiences. Though the police officially
deny employing racial profiling tactics,
the reality is if you aren't white you get
treated differently.  That must be a bitter
pill to swallow for those that fit into that
category, I thought.
  Transport me to a land on the opposite
end of the multicultural spectrum, and
suddenly I am in a similar category:
different from the majority.  However,
this time the majority is 99% them, 1%
Japan for about four years before I was
ever a victim of racial profiling.  When
it happened I was in a good mood and
didn't cause a scene (luckily for all
involved), though the replays in my mind
paint a different picture.  lot of foreigners around today”.  Yeah,
It went down like this: I was walking in
Nagoya station with two friends, both
of whom were visiting from Canada
and happened to be of Philippine
background, when we were stopped by
three police officers who asked for our
Alien Registration cards and passports.  I
hesitated and asked my friends if they had
their passports on them and when one of
them didn't, I decided it would not be
a good idea to be defiant.  I unwillingly
showed them my Alien Registration card
and mumbled short answers to their
inane questions while my blood began
to boil.  I mean seriously, is it necessary
to stop foreigners in the middle of
Nagoya station for no reason whatsoever
other than being foreigners? There were
thousands more mostly Japanese people
walking, standing, waiting, and loitering
around this station, and here this cop
was messing with us like we committed
a crime.  It's quite possible that they were
targeting my friends because of their
ethnicity, but when I asked the officers
why they had stopped us, they offered
up some irrational excuse: “there's a
no kidding jackass.  It's the weekend
of Nagoya Matsuri, and this is a large
TRAIN STATION!!  Although these
PHOTOS: ACHIM RUNNEBAUM
officers were not unpleasant, I walked
away from that still chewing the remains
of that bitter pill. 
  A more recent episode had me zig-
zagging through a residential area after
I noticed a police car following me
 from the main road for, again,  no reason.  The fact that they will go
far out of their way to pursue somebody just because they are not
Japanese has me wondering, are they that bored?  Do they not have
anything better to do?  And more importantly, what am I going to do
about this?  What can I do? After all, I think it's safe to say that one's
standard of living has decreased when they are constantly looking
over their shoulders, wary of gaijin-hunting cops, especially after
stories of police coercion and forced confessions pervade the news. 

Wondering if there even is a law regarding showing one's ID to

law enforcement, I decided to check out the website by naturalized
Japanese citizen and activist, Arduo Debito. His website deals with
these sorts of issues, and has done most of the hard research for you. 
Besides giving direct translations of Japanese laws on this and other
issues, they also go through possible situations that you may find
yourself in, complete with what you should do and say, how to react
to what's being said and done, and above all, inform you of all rights
and provisions of the law.

I can't tell you whether or not police should stop foreigners just
because, or why they do.  I would just like to help spread the
knowledge to other foreigners, who have or haven't been in similar
predicaments, so that they are aware of their rights, and hopefully
exercise those rights if the need occurs.  The police have a duty to
keep our streets safe, and we all have a duty to make sure we are
treated like human beings, and not possible criminals. 

  Some important points to know and remember

1. You must have your Alien Registration Card on your person at all times.  Being caught without
it can result in a hefty fine. 
2. The police may stop and ask you questions without any reason (probable cause, suspicion of a
crime).
3. You are legally obliged to show the police your Alien Registration Card if asked, BUT you also
have the right to ask to see the police officer's ID FIRST.  (except if in a police box)
4. Police cannot take you anywhere unless you are under arrest. 
5. Police need a warrant to search your person, possessions, or property.  This includes urine
samples.  Ask for a warrant if police try to search you, or demand a urine sample. 
6. Do NOT touch the officer, or raise your voice, or you may be arrested for Obstruction of Duty.
As angry as you may be, any violence or defiance will only land you in jail.

visit Debito Arudou’s helpful site

www.debito.org

|RAN| 29
 and
down
logged
out
a look at net-cafe refugees
W
hile the economy has
certainly affected a lot of
the world, Japan remains
relatively unscathed in
terms of severity, at least on the
surface. Unlike my home country of The
United States, I’m not turning on the TV
and seeing tons of people being tossed
out of their homes unable to pay their
housing loans, or having cars and other
large items repossessed by the
banks. Maybe it’s due to the “saving
mentality” that most Japanese have. The
bubble economy of the 1980s made it
easy for parents to throw money in the
bank and save it for a rainy day; The
average citizen has around ¥3,000,000
in their savings accounts by the time
they are twenty-five years old or so. Of
course this
has nothing to Denny’s and Gusto are good
do with
money that
because usually the staff
they may have just lets you sleep after you eat a meal.
personally
saved from wages at that point. Most
savings start out with a sizeable gift from
grandparents and parents when the
benefactors are still trotting off to
primary school in yellow bucket hats
and oversized old-school backpacks. Up
until recently, most would never
consider touching the money saved in
these accounts until it was time to start
thinking of marriage and starting their
own households.
30 |RAN|
| Story and photos by Jason Gatewood |
However due to the continuing
economic situation staring them
unblinkingly in the face, little money
saved for college, jobs either in short
supply or non-existant once graduated,
and wages and benefits cut from the
jobs that are available, young adults are
increasingly using their saved nest eggs
earlier in the game. What happens when
the well runs dry though? They could
move back in with their parents and try
again--but pride keeps most from
admitting failure. They could stay with
friends, but most of them are in the
same boat, living with family or in some
small 1LDK with barely enough room
for the rightful tenants themselves to fit
inside without an elbow or a knee
hanging out the window. So where can
a person go when they need a warm,
dry place to crash for the night? For
some the answer would be Manboo or
Popeye--Internet Cafés.  For others it
could be the all-night, come-as-you-
please eateries-Denny’s, Gusto,
Jonathan’s to name a few.
This is not a totally new phenomenon; I
too have spent many a night in an
internet cafe, usually because I couldn’t
get the last train home or was out
partying and ran out of gas way too
early to pull an all-nighter. Most internet
cafes have an all-night special price for
this very reason. Usually ¥1200~¥1500
will grant you access to an enclosed
booth with a computer, a desk lamp,
and sometimes a separate TV/DVD
player. The booth can be big enough for
just one person, or big enough to have a
small love seat/recliner
combination. The booths can be as
simple as to just have a small low
divider between the spaces, or be more
extravagant with oversized cubicles,
doors and tatami mats inside. Whatever
the accomodations, if you visit one
around 2am any given night, you can
always find almost half
the patrons are sleeping,
rather than doing any
late-night You-Tubing or
Mixi surfing. I personally
think they make a great
last resort sleep spot for when you’re
touring a different part of Japan, and
can’t seem to find lodging for the night
(because you refused to call and make
reservations on a three day holiday
weekend...)
Now there is a growing trend in Japan of
20-somethings wandering the landscape
without a yen to their name, but not
quite broke either. I recently was
introduced to two people who recently
became members of this new fragment
of society. Of course, they refused to use
their real names to keep their identities
anonymous.
Taro was an average student at his
university, but he had a talent for being
able to talk to anyone about anything. “I
guess I’m not like most Japanese with
that trait, right? I’ve always been curious
about a lot, and I never really had a fear
of asking so I just would.” So it shouldn’t
be a surprise to learn that once
graduated from university, he took a job
with a large company working in their
survey and consumer relations
section. “Our customers were mostly
older retirees, and I got to get out the
office three times a week and talk to
them. It was a good job because I could
meet some interesting people and be
outside making visits. The salary was
enough to start saving and still go out
some weekends too.” However Taro’s
success was short lived, because after
nearly three years of
employment,
the company
suddenly laid
off twenty
five people,
and Taro was
one of them.
“At first I thought its temporary, I’ll be
working again in a week or two. I guess
after a month, I started feeling like it’s
time to go find a new job.” But in the 8
months since being laid-off he’s had a
hard time looking for any work. “I had
to decide between paying rent or
eating.” So he let his lease expire and
decided to try to find work wherever he
could get it. “If I keep an apartment, I
won’t be able to get a job somewhere
else.” He currently works part time for a
company that sends him to other cities
to do surveys, but it’s only part time
work. “At least they pay the travel
costs. But the money is just enough to
keep me alive--They only have me
working three days a week mostly.” In
order to save money, he’s living ‘semi-
homeless’  “Oh, I sleep wherever I can.  three or four people that fit this trend I
Sometimes I sleep over at friend’s
houses--I have a lot of friends. They
think I’m a traveling sales man now. I
told them I moved from Nagoya but I
come here every week or so, that way
they offer to let me stay overnight in
their house. 'Its better than sleeping in
some strange hotel and we can hang out
a little’, they say. They have no idea I’m
homeless.”
However, Taro only does this a few
times a month though so as not to wear
out his welcome. “I like internet cafes
because no one questions why you’re
sleeping there; most people are there to
sleep a little in the middle of the
night.” He rotates between 5 or 6
different cafes in the city so he doesn’t
raise suspicion. “In this manner, I have a
routine. The staff just
thinks I’m a hard worker
and left work late. They
think maybe I live far
from here and I don’t
have enough
for a hotel.  aren’t inviting people
Whatever
they think, they only see
me maybe twice a month, so I’m
forgotten, and never questioned.” He
also catches some shut-eye at 24 hour
family restaurants too. “Denny’s and
Gusto are good because usually the staff
just lets you sleep after you eat a
meal. It’s 3am and no one is  really in
there, and I guess they think I’m going to
catch the first train or something, so they
leave me alone. I leave the money on
the table while I sleep; they can do their
job, and I can rest.”
Internet cafe workers here in Nagoya
have noticed a few late night “regulars”
on the rise as well.  “We have maybe
think... But I can’t tell you if they’re
homeless because they have money to
pay, and look like they have jobs,” says
one staff member of a large chain of
Internet cafes. “At any rate, these guys
are kinda computer otaku and I can’t tell
whether they’re just here to get away
from their family’s house or they have
no home at all.” Staff members usually
adopt an anonymity policy about their
guests in any case unless things get
totally out of hand. “Actually our biggest
problem is couples going into the
booths to fool around. Usually it’s
teenagers who can’t go to a love hotel
because they’re too young or
embarrassed. But the booths here offer a
little privacy, as long as you’re quiet I
guess...”  
Other places have started making
accommodations a little easier for
overnighters. “We
provide
those who
pay the
overnight
rate with a
blanket and a
sleeping
mask. We also
give them
complementary
toothbrushes and
small towels to
wash up with
before they leave.”
says an assistant
manager of an
internet cafe in
Kyoto. “Of course we
to live in the cafe
though.” Maybe not,
but with those
enticements along with the
complementary beverages, cup ramen,
and the most important thing- warm and
dry shelter- If I had no where else to go,
for ¥1300 a night, I’d try it.
“I don’t plan on doing this forever you
know... Just until I can get on my feet”
says Taro. “I want what anyone my age
wants I guess- a girlfriend, some pocket
money, my own room, and some
savings. I want to travel, maybe see
Hawaii, Guam, someplace like that. So I
hit the street everyday trying to find a
job.”
|RAN| 31
Fashion
流
行
Osu Style
| Story and photos by Achim Runnebaum |
J
apanese Society seems so collected,
so ordered on the surface. But dig
deeper below the surface and you’ll
find a fascinating world of immense con-
tradictions.....
The walls of conformity seem to
come crashing down when you wander
a bit off the beaten track. As you step
into the multifaceted streets of Osu, it
feels like you’ve stepped into a different
Nagoya.....a more open minded and
accepting Nagoya. While Sakae seems
conservative and conformist at times, the
eclectic mix of fashion styles in Osu is the
complete opposite with bright colours, a
parade of 2nd hand clothing stores, lots
of people with tattoos and piercings, and
many little off-the-wall shops ranging
from independent reggae stores to
second hand stores to alternative lifestyle
stores. Osu has something for everyone.
The people in Osu are also very
different from the people you’d meet in
Sakae.... It’s almost like they’re trying to
rebel against the oppressive mainstream,
which is reflected in their sometimes
outrageous fashion. It’s bold, free,
and ever-
changing. What
makes it so interesting is that on any given
day, you can see old ladies in traditional
Kimono walking right alongside gothic
lolitas, or guys with hair so big enough
to make any 80’s Metal band proud....
So I took to the streets and tried to
find out how true Osunians (just made
32 |RAN|
that up) would describe their style
compared to the mainstream.....
Two girls dressed in something
akin to Lolita Style said: “It’s
more open here in Osu....you
can be anyone you want to be.”
RAN: What three words
would describe your style?
“Trendy, Chic, and Carefree”
Just a short while after that, and
a rather difficult time trying to ask
people if it was okay to take their
picture (it’s amazing how even the
most outlandishly dressed people can
become very self-conscious and shy in
front of a camera), I noticed this guy with
a Mohawk and some huge glasses on.
“I feel like I can be more myself
when I come here because I feel like
I’m much more accepted for my style”
While talking to the Mohawk guy,
two girls gave me all kinds of curious
looks. They wore really tall platform
boots and after asking them a couple
of questions about what they think
about their style and the scene in
Osu, I noticed a stunning Japanese
woman. After talking to her, I saw
that some Bon Jovi looking dude
was giving me really dirty looks
for talking to her... Turns it it was
her boyfriend who, after being
offered to have his picture taken
for the magazine, changed his
attitude completely and was all
too happy to pose for a couple
of shots. Just goes to show...
appeal to people’s vanity and
you can change a frown into
a smile. He wore a really
eclectic mix of styles (Can you
guess which one he is?) To me
it seemed like he was trying a bit too
hard to be cool, but hey, that is also part
of the style in Osu. It seems like there’s
no middle ground here: no gray-zone.
It’s either one extreme, or the other.
On another occasion I talked to this
guy with dreadlocks and Cambodian-
looking “rags” on. We had a good, short
chat about the scene in Osu and how he
ended
up there...
“I just couldn’t imagine putting
on a suit, hiding my real self, and working
in an office all day. That’s just not me”
Now he works at one of the (eastern/
Indian/African/natural) stores and loves
it. “Here I can do what I like”. “You get
to meet so many interesting people every
day and they’re all really chilled out. It
feels much more like a young, trendy
community here than in corporate
and over-marketed Sakae or Meieki”
RAN: yeah, I hear you, man.
So how would you describe
your style in three words?
“Comfortable, cheap, mine”.
So there you go, folks. The next
time you’re in Osu, don’t just walk
through, but really try to soak in the
air of change, the traditional shaking
hands with the trendy, the atmosphere of
eclectic openness against the traditional
backdrop of one of the oldest places in
Nagoya. If I had to sum it all up in a
sentence, I would say it’s a part Miami
Art Deco, part Fort Green (Brooklyn),
part Shibuya, all mixed in a blender
and served in a traditional Sake cup.
So if you’re heading to Osu, leave
your Armani Suit at home, because
unlike in the rest of Nagoya here in
Osu you will stick out like a sore
thumb wearing it. That’s why I love
spending time here, grabbing a coffee
at my favourite Italian Coffee place, and
enjoying watching the people stroll by.
It’s really a different Nagoya. The people,
the place, the fashion, the attitudes, and
the atmosphere are polar opposites from
what’s just a short walk down the street....

RAN ’s staff and readers like these places / this stuff. You might, too...
Kurokawa Salon
Serious beer drinkers who crave a
more full-flavored range of ales, stouts,
pilsners and weizens need look no further
than Kurokawa Salon, a cozy restaurant
boasting an impressive menu of beers
and wines from around the world. The
menu includes great descriptions of each
type of beer, divided by type and region.
But this bottle-shop is so much more than
just a watering-hole, their food menu is
top-notch and perfectly complements
the beer. The menu is largely European,
including plump, flavorful sausages
and cheese fondue that will make your
mouth water. Just take another swig of
that rich, aromatic trappist ale and order
another round.
Antique Store
古民芸「茶々」　(Antique-chacha)
For some true Japanese antiques and
authentic Kimono/Yukata (for men and
women), look no further than this store.
Best part, you can do it all in English.
Usually it’s very difficult to find eng-
lish-speaking antique stores in Japan,
but you’re in luck, the owner, Shingo
(shingoahead1977@gmail.com), speaks
fluent English and will be more than
happy to talk to you (09056272698). If
you can’t make it to their storefront in
Gifu, you can shop online at their E-bay
store:
http://stores.shop.ebay.com/
antique-chacha
or their Yahoo Auctions store:
http://bit.ly/6K8Wjt
* Event Calander coming soon!
| Compiled by RAN staff |
recommends
Javan
Tired of the same old haunts?
Looking for something new? Months
of lukewarm kyushoku in a crowded
lunchroom is enough to make anybody
hungry for some variety. If you fall into
this category perhaps Javan is just the
place for you. Located in Shindeki-ma-
chi near the tourist trap of Tokugawa-en,
Javan is perhaps the only restaurant
serving Persian food in Nagoya. Even
for connoisseurs of Persian food Javan’s
menu is certain to leave some surprises.
Sample the cutlets or mixed kebab,
unlike any you are likely to find in the
local Turkish restaurants. Wash it down
with a variety of yogurt drinks. All
entrees come with a plate
Jasmine rice – a nice change of pace
for those eating white rice three times a
day. With the smell of authentic Persian
spices fresh in your nostrils and sounds
of Irani television up on the wall you
might feel like you’ve been transported
to a cafe in the heart of modern Tehran,
welcome respite from the daily grind of
life in the bustling city.
Jerk Chicken
If imitation is the sincerest form of
flattery, Jamaica – consider yourself
flattered. Imaike is not the most likely
location for taste of that island spirit,
but just try to resist walk by this place
without sticking your head in. You’ll be
lured in by the sound of reggae music
and the aroma of rotissery chicken which
more than makes up for the unimagina-
tive shop name. I am not enough of an
authority to vouch for the authenticity
but I will say the lunch menu can’t
be beat. Fresh handmade salsa and
succulent chicken roasted to perfection,
accompanied by rice, coleslaw and
soup all for a very reasonable price. The
shop also boasts a full menu of beers,
wines and shochus including Jamaica’s
own Red Stripe. I heard they recently
added tacos to their menu so don’t waste
anytime checking out this cozy bar just
behind the Imaike Piago.
Wasabi Distro
You can never get enough good
English reading material, especially if you
are into small press or indie publications.
Getting your hands on a good English
zine, chapbook or mini-comix is almost
impossible in this country, but luckily
for those hip readers out there Wasabi
Distro, the only English zine distro in
Japan has amassed a fine collection to
save you the footwork. The homepage
is easy to navigate in both English and
Japanese, and there is an ever growing
collection of zines in several languages
on a wide range of topics and genres.
Don’t settle for the latest Harry Potter
book or Obama’s speeches when you
could be feeding your brain on good
independent small press literature for a
fraction of the price. Don’t know what
zines, minicomix or chapbooks are? No
better place to learn than Wasabi Distro.
http://www.wasabi-distro.com/
Into the Wild
Winter is upon us. It’s cold and dark
and dreary. You need an escape, well, I
mean an escape from your escape. But
funds are low, what can you do? Head to
your nearest DVD rental shop and rent
INTO THE WILD, Sean Penn’s cinematic
homage to the Jon Krakauer penned au-
tobiography.
Detailing the nomadic cross-coun-
try adventures of free-spirited college
graduate Chris McCandless, INTO THE
WILD is beautiful, insightful, spiritual,
inspiring, and picturesque-this film will
remind you why you left home in the first
place.
“I now walk into the wild..”--who
hasn’t felt that sensation? Feel it again, in
your living room.
|RAN| 33
Taste
味
わ
う
Shinkiro
Mongolian Restaurant
| Review and photos by Adam Pasion |
Legend has it that Mongolian soldiers
of olde used to gather meats and cook
them using their shields and helmets
beginning the historic tradition known
today as Mongolian barbecue. Fact
check: this is almost one hundred
percent bullshit. What many westerners
have taken to calling “Mongolian
barbecue” has absolutely nothing to do
with Mongolia, and very little to do with
barbecue for that matter. It was actually
invented in Taiwan, and it was intended
to copy Japanese teppan-yaki. So much
for that glorious history.
That link severed, the only other
connection I had with Mongolian food
was a scene from the BBC series “Long
Way Round” in which Ewan McGregor
tries to gulp down an assortment of
animal testicles after some Mongol
nomad asks him, “do you like nuts?” I
suppose that is one way to get your
protein. Fortunately Shinkiro in Sakae
was neither the Taiwanese imitation nor
a bowl full of sheep balls, but rather
an eclectic variety of foods and liquors
guaranteed to satiate your palate.
Stepping into the entry way it was
already quite clear that I had wandered
into perhaps the most entertaining
34 |RAN|
dining experience Nagoya has to offer.
The dining area is made to look like
a traditional Mongolian hut with the
tables arranged along the perimeter,
lined with ornate oriental throw rugs.
After peering around the room to take in
the whole scene, I realized many of the
happy patrons were wearing traditional
Mongolian outfits. No sooner had I
made this astute observation than the
staff politely asked me to step into the
other room, where I was instructed to
remove my shirt and be covered in a
leather, bare-chested warrior’s tunic
and billowy pantaloons. The fun was
just beginning. Within a few moments
the owner was leading a Mongolian
drinking chant and making guests drink
vodka from a leather hip-flask.
With proper dinner attire well settled
and out of the way it was time to take
a look at the menu. Wanting to sample
everything I quickly opted for the
tabehodai + nomihodai look at the menu
made my jaw drop at three little words.
Fermented horse milk. I double and tri-
ple-checked it to ensure that what I was
about to order really included equine
lactations but there was no way around
it. Surprisingly it tasted like a very mild
yogurt beverage and soon enough I
had three bowls of mare’s milk in my
stomach. Then began the nearly endless
procession of food. First came Buuz, a
sort of dumpling made of minced mutton
with a savory broth that bursts into your
mouth when you bite into it. Next they
broought out khorkhog, diced beef and
onions, seared on a hot stone and spiced
to perfection. To tone it down a bit they
brought Khusshuur,a breaded and fried
pocket full of minced mutton and herbs.
The best item on the menu was chanasan
makh, boiled lamb that falls apart in
your mouth. Every one of these items
was good enough to order a second
helping, or even a third, but not before
I tried out a generous glass of their local
Mongolian vodka.
I get a strong sense that the menu is
tamed down for Japanese customers,
since I didn’t see anything on the menu
about marmot cooked with hot rocks in
its stomach, reported to be quite popular
in Mongolia. Nevertheless the food was
about as authentic as I think you can
find outside of Mongolia itself, and on
top of that its just plain delicious. More
than anything though, Shinkiro is an
experience best shared with good friends
and family. The delightful atmosphere
and central-Asian ambiance takes you
out of the pumping gears of the city and
places you on the vast steppes where
Ghengis Khan and Atilla the Hun once
roamed.
Shinkiro is located in Sakae just a few
blocks east of the Chunichi Building.
All-you-can-eat and drink for 3800 yen.
For more info or to make a reservation,
check their website at:
www.mongol-shinkiro.com
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