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Ho-ly shit. Ok, so this is the latest in my series of blogs about moving to Japan. You can find the main part here, and the parts related to getting hit by a car here and here.
I just walked down to the convenience store by the nearby train station to pick up a beer to help me get to sleep gently. Walking past the bus stop connected to the station's parking area I ran into three Japanese gentlemen who were rather intoxicated. They said hi and introduced themselves in rudimentary English and I we had a short introduction in broken English on their part and broken Japanese on mine. They were three guys, a bigger one in a T shirt and nice trousers, a smaller one in similar clothing, and a third one with Japanese pop-star hair and a suit jacket over a T shirt. They seemed cheery and friendly enough that I was willing to have that conversation. The bigger guy took the opportunity to pull up the back of his T shirt to show me his tattoo. I don't know what it exactly was of, snakes on a tree and patterns I think. He showed me about a foot of his back and the tat stretched above and below the revealed area. I know enough about the Japanese mob to be scared at this point so I disengaged and went to the convenience store.
Coming back with the beer in the front pocket of my hoodie, the gents were still there. They said hi when I walked up and the big dude got in my way. This was mildly imposing, but I knew far better than to show fear in any way. They chatted with me in the barely intelligible mix of languages for a moment, and then the bigger dude started shaking me down for money. The guy with the jacket kept saying 'Japanese joke, Japanese joke' but I was pretty unable to get away. If I wanted to get out of there I would have had to run and I wanted to keep up a confident facade. I kept saying 'no money, no money' and I kept hearing 'money, money' and 'Japanese joke, Japanese joke'.
Whenever anyone passed coming from the station the conversation, such as it was, turned off, but I didn't want to just book it. There was a point where the tough threatened to smash me with a bike parked right behind the bus stop, lifting it up like a feather and swinging it gently back and forth towards me. I kept confident and kept laughing and talking until finally the tough guy was swept aside by the guy in the jacket. He asked if I wanted to go drink my beer at his place. I said I just wanted to drink it and go to bed. I'm not an idiot.
He broke me away from the trio, finally getting me away from the big dude who was stifling my progress, and walked me down the block telling me to go home. I told him I'd go home and we separated. As soon as I was out of sight of them, about a hundred meters away, I ran like crazy. The path to my apartment is a bit twisty so I looked back at every corner and made sure to evade any dudes chasing me, which they weren't as far as I can tell.
I'm now home safe. This was a pretty crazy ordeal. I've got some luck, eh? Hope you all have enjoyed the latest installment of my exceedingly eventful blog about Japan.
(If you know me personally, don't tell anyone I know about this unless you contact me. I don't want to scare folks close to me, especially after the hit by a car incident.)
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Holy shit man, you have the worst luck. This must mean something of an unseen awesome will happen to you in the near future.
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Wow i really really hope they didn't follow you home....
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Really impressive reaction, I've been in that situation before and it's especially daunting in a foreign country. At least it's a story, eh? 
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I've had a yakuza incident too! When I lived in Tokyo I saw a taxi driver cut into the path of another car and scratch it or something. Turns out the car belonged to someone very important as a younger guy in a suite came out, forced the elderly cab driver to repeatedly bow and apologize to some woman in the car.
Anyway... enjoy your time in Japan! I miss that country so much and I want to visit so baaad. Thankfully I think I'm taking leave around Christmas to go back for a week :D
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I thought the yakuza were more 'high-class' gangsters? This sounds more like street thugs. I have to say I'm surprised that it happened in Japan as I thought it was a pretty safe country.
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On October 05 2010 00:11 tomatriedes wrote:
I thought the yakuza were more 'high-class' gangsters? This sounds more like street thugs. I have to say I'm surprised that it happened in Japan as I thought it was a pretty safe country.
even the most high class of organizations like that have their lower thug like members
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On October 05 2010 00:11 tomatriedes wrote:
I thought the yakuza were more 'high-class' gangsters? This sounds more like street thugs. I have to say I'm surprised that it happened in Japan as I thought it was a pretty safe country.
Just like what you would expect in say... the mafia, while the higher ups might be super classy, the 'lower' street thugs are still just thugs.
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So you knew they were mobsters by that tattoo? I missed that part.
Crazy story though, I'd stay away from that alley... Or make friends with them.
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I'm pretty sure it was a joke. They saw you had beer and wanted to have fun and being the rebellious teens that they are, they make the joke of asking you for money yeah its weird but kinda make sense to me :/
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On October 04 2010 23:37 AnodyneSea wrote:
Wow i really really hope they didn't follow you home....
Yeah, I'm pretty sure they didn't. When I got home I turned out my lights and kept all noise off in my apartment just to be sure. I figure it was just a drunk thug trying to make a few bucks and his low level manager getting me away from him. Still, it was scary as fuck.
On October 05 2010 00:11 tomatriedes wrote:
I thought the yakuza were more 'high-class' gangsters? This sounds more like street thugs. I have to say I'm surprised that it happened in Japan as I thought it was a pretty safe country.
Everyone knows Japan to be a safe country. I'm having a pretty insane experience here so far.
I don't think they were street thugs. The tats are a pretty big deal here. They're gaining some casual acceptance among young people, but they're still pretty taboo. Big tattoos like that leave absolutely no doubt in my mind. They just seemed like low level dudes headed home drunk looking for a quick buck.
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Man... you just can't get a break. I've got your blogs bookmarked, I love 'em... But dude, on the other hand I want them to stop, you've had one shitstorm after another. I think it's time for you to win a huge lottery or something.
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On October 05 2010 00:15 GreEny K wrote:
So you knew they were mobsters by that tattoo? I missed that part.
Crazy story though, I'd stay away from that alley... Or make friends with them.
Yukaza usually have tats on them but I'm surprised some one on the street can be so careless in demonstrating his status, Like I said it was probably just some punk gangster wannabe.
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United States4126 Posts
Good thing there was one sensible guy in the group! Lucky you.
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On October 05 2010 00:16 haduken wrote:Show nested quote +On October 05 2010 00:15 GreEny K wrote:
So you knew they were mobsters by that tattoo? I missed that part.
Crazy story though, I'd stay away from that alley... Or make friends with them. Yukaza usually have tats on them but I'm surprised some one on the street can be so careless in demonstrating his status, Like I said it was probably just some punk gangster wannabe.
I don't think so. This tat was enormous and tats are considered really bad here. If he were just a casual young criminal he would be throwing away most chances at a normal career and possibly risking himself with the real mob. I've only been here for a short time, a chunk of which I spent in the hospital, but that's what I've heard about tattoos here. If anyone is more experienced here and thinks he was just some thug kid then I certainly would defer to more knowledgeable judgment.
EDIT: Also, I wouldn't consider myself unlucky. I think I've been extremely lucky. Given my crises, things could be waaaaaay worse. I could have easily been killed by the car or actually mugged in this latest situation.
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On October 05 2010 00:23 thopol wrote:Show nested quote +On October 05 2010 00:16 haduken wrote:On October 05 2010 00:15 GreEny K wrote:
So you knew they were mobsters by that tattoo? I missed that part.
Crazy story though, I'd stay away from that alley... Or make friends with them. Yukaza usually have tats on them but I'm surprised some one on the street can be so careless in demonstrating his status, Like I said it was probably just some punk gangster wannabe. I don't think so. This tat was enormous and tats are considered really bad here. If he were just a casual young criminal he would be throwing away most chances at a normal career and possibly risking himself with the real mob. I've only been here for a short time, a chunk of which I spent in the hospital, but that's what I've heard about tattoos here. If anyone is more experienced here and thinks he was just some thug kid then I certainly would defer to more knowledgeable judgment.
Yeah tattoos are super related to gang activity. A lot of public facilities (probably the wrong word) such as onsens and gyms won't let you in if you have visible tattoos.
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I've had a few run ins with them. Don't know if anyone's ever been to the geon matsuri in Kyoto (mid July) but there's usually a big crowd of Yakuza there.
My best instance with one them was with my buddy (he was drunk)
my buddy: yo man are you really yakuza
yakuza guy (he looks around for a sec): I drive a lexus.
He then walks off
Although there's a much bigger yakuza influence than you might think - almost all of the gambling goes down with yakuza (sumo wrestlers eg) and a lot of the brothels (they are somewhat legal) are run by them.
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It seems more like a "near miss" than a "run in" unless you really had beer with him, but ... wow really lucky that the guy in jacket helped you. You have some skills playing along with them.
I saw a movie where the chief of police and politician attended a public, TV broadcasted funeral ceremony of some yakuza head. If that really happens in real life, it really speaks a lot about the yakuza.
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What a story. Damn I hope they didn't follow you to your house.
I can't believe I missed your series of blogs though. I had quite some fun reading them during my boring lecture this morning, so thank you.
I am also highly interested in visiting Japan myself so I may have some questions for you in the future!
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edit: this is a fake story, because yakuzas dont talk/interact with strangers like that.
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EPT
