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November / December 2010
| ISSUE 8 |
FOR
WARD
To Live And Die In N A
W
hoa. The year is almost over. Already. Nagoya hasn’t
yet gotten hit by the big one, but a few smaller ones
have rocked our city. Sometimes seems like we’re
going backwards and forwards simultaneously, both in our
personal lives and in our social lives. Nagoya is alive. Rock
This Town.
Summer ended one day in September, me and the crew
blasted down Nagara River one final time and only J7’s ass
hit the surf a few times. Suddenly it was October for a quick
minute, windy, cold and wet-and now winter stares us down.
Oktoberfest at Tsurumai exceeded everyone’s expectations.
The day was the most perfect day all season, and the bands
and people and the food of Dennis Salmon made the day one
of our most unforgettable. I Love October.
Absolute Halloween brought together a thousand Nagoya
souls and a crew of Nagoya’s Finest DJs emerged. Find Them
Here.
October also saw the COP 10 take a shot at making
our city of Nagoya a player in the global sweeptstakes for
rescuing mankind from itself. Biodiversity is on the table all
over the planet, and several hundred of the top delegates
and leading scientists from everywhere on earth stopped into
Nagoya to make their case. Even Han Solo flew in on his
Millenium Falcon and wielded his light saber in defense of
the animals and the land. It was luminary. From this meeting,
a certain percentage of biodiversity in the form of animals,
lands, marshes, oceans, etc, will be roped off from mankind’s
destructive tendencies. Things Need To Live And Grow, let’s
leave them be, shall we?
COP 10 didn’t meet all of it’s goals, indigenous peoples
aren’t satisfied with what they’ll get when the next miracle
medicine is found on their farmlands, but they got a better
deal than they had-the so-called “access and benefit sharing”
protocols predictably went more in favor of the corporate,
but at least the indigenous people had the opportunity to put
themselves in the running for the riches---strike a blow to
the phat pharmaceuticals all over the world, from right here
2 |RAN|
aren’t we?
Sick.
~ from the publisher
in Nagville. I sort of think we’re all indigenous in some way,
A Nagoya radio institution shut down it’s signal on the last
day of September, and now another radio innovator stands
poised to take Nagoya radio, and radio in general, to a whole
new level, www.nagoyaradio.com, check on it.
Another institution, Hard Rock Café, will be saying
sayonara at the end of this year, we’ve had 3 successful rock
shows on that HRC stage, we’ll say goodbye with year’s end
HARD ROCK CAFÉ SAYONARA PARTY on Friday, December
10th. Our parties at The Rock are major events in Nagoya,
check your calendar.
Dive In Five. That’s how a friend recently characterized
what’s going to happen with the Yen, currently a global
currencly powerhouse. He thinks by next spring, the yen won’t
be as powerful worldwide, good thing maybe, the imbalance
is wrecking havoc on Japan’s economy, but allowing those
of us who work here to be able to travel with a lot more
impunity. Do you think the yen will take a dive on the world’s
markets? Hope not, at least until I get my travel plans together.
Dive In Ten. Please? Next Spring: Thailand.
Year’s end, how is it going with you and the goals you’ve
set for yourself? The SUCCESS ISSUE we did was aimed to get
the entrepreneur in you going a bit. We’re reporting on what’s
happening in the streets of Nagoya, and we’d like you to be
what’s happening. Get Your Art On, however you do it. Make
It Happen.
Big Ups to our newest sponsors,--ENGLISH TEACHERS
SERIES—is posting giant numbers on YOUTUBE, have you
commented yet? The webisode is a star attraction on the net
right now, perfectly timed and placed, and made here in
Nagoya. We Run This Town.
Christmas and New Years are around the corner, we’ll be
out in the streets wanting to know what you’re up to. Smile for
the camera.
tdh
 CONTENTS July / August 2010 - ISSUE NO. 6

5 Relate

features
3 stories about love in Japan
Can you relate?

12 The Pagoda Diaries

Christian

17 A Tale of Two Dancers

22 The DJs
24 The Metro Club
Nagoya's longest living party

cover art: ELIOS NISHIWAKI

table of contents photo: ACHIM RUNNEBAUM
27 Stand Up, Please
The State of Comedy in Japan

29 FUTURE NAGOYA?
Alan Omerovic Re-designs The Design City

4 The Green Spot

departments

It's Not Easy Being Green

18 Go Thailand Mon!

20 Nagoya Club Guide

Looking for a club in Nagoya?

Publisher: TD Houchen
Fashion
26 It's boot season in Nagoya!
Layout Designer: Adrien Sanborn
Web Manager: Jason L. Gatewood
Staff Writer/Illustrator/
Designer: Adam Pasion
28 CreateAya & Maria
Photography: Achim Runnebaum

Send story ideas, art, photography,

Read
30 Moresukine: Updated Weekly From Tokyo
and advertising inquiries to:
tdhouchen@ranmagazine.com

Promotional Events/Co-Promotion:
Taste
32 Ariana: Afghani Cuisine
tdhouchen@ranmagazine.com

www.
Comics
ranmagazine
.com
34 Art, comics, and other amusements

|RAN| 3
The G reen
環 SPOT
境
I T 'S N OT E A SY
BEI NG
GREEN
| Story and photos by Achim Runnebaum |
T
hey're green, and they're everywhere in and around
Nagoya these days.... Unfortunately not trees...... we
still need more of those in the city.. I'm talking about
the COP 10 flyers and advertisements you see all over town.
Maybe you've seen them on the trains or at various venues
around town and wondered what all the fuss is really about.
Well, 2010 was declared to be the International Year of
Biodiversity - a celebration of the various life on earth. COP
is the biggest convention for Biological diversity in the world
and its held right here in our backyard this year.
So why is Biodiversity important enough to have a huge
meeting and hang flyers and posters all over town?
-It Boosts Ecosystem productivity, where each species,
no matter how seemingly insignificant, all play an important
role. A greater Species diversity means a healthier ecosystem,
which means more natural sustainability for all life forms,
which leads to many uncountable benefits for not only the
whole planet, but also directly and indirectly for us humans.
Think about it: We are all part of nature, not separate from
it. We depend on it for food, medicinal resources, pollution
breakdown and absorption, climate stability, not to mention
social benefits such as recreation and tourism...
Biodiversity is a vast, interactive and highly complex
system of interdependent life on earth. It is the basis of life and
to undermine it is to undermine life itself. It is the single most
important challenge we face today. Answer me this question.
What is more important than protecting the planet?
The answer is nothing.... NOTHING is more important
than protecting the planet and everything on it, because we
are all connected and interdependent.
Possibly the greatest value of biodiversity may be the
opportunities it gives us for adopting to change, such as the
potential to discover new cures for current and emerging
diseases.
Oh, and we haven't even touched on the economic
benefits of protecting the environment yet. Numerous studies
have indicated that investments in protected areas will
generate a cost-benefit ratio of one to 25 and even up to 100
in some cases (Pavan Sukhdev, from TEEB).
Our inaction has already cost us an immeasurable amount
of money for environmental repair and losses of production
due to environmental degradation.
4 |RAN|
help
COP 10 in Nagoya - what it is and how you can
In order to protect our planets' biodiversity, we need
to accept and act on a shift from a reactive stance, to a
proactive effort seeking stance that will ensure the long-term
sustainability of earth's natural resources, whether material or
biological.
So folks, as big a deal as COP10 is/was, you must realize
that we don't need a conference to tell us how bad the
situation has become on our watch. It's time to start taking
actions individually on a daily, monthly, weekly, and yearly
basis. Don't wait for the experts to make the first moves for
you. It's up to you to start acting, not for your own good, but
for the good of every living, breathing organism on this planet.
Instead of having a debate every year about how to protect
our biodiversity and help the planet, we should be thinking,
planning, talking, debating, acting, and most importantly of
all, teaching about it every day. Don't wait for experts to find a
solution to this problem. The solution is already out there. Just
look in the mirror and realize that you are the solution to the
dilemma we're all facing. No big, huge scientific breakthrough
or conference will change life on earth for the better.... only
you can do that.
For more information and taking action, go to:
http://www.cbd.int/
Another great resource is: http://www.biol.wwu.edu/
hooper/10thingsforbiodiversity.pdf
If you want to help right now, here are some things you can
do today:
• Help clean up and protect beaches, parks, and fields at
every opportunity you have
• Volunteer your time for environmental organizations
• Be a smart shopper; only buy things you really need in
order to cut down on wasting resources.
• Educate yourself about the state of the planet and
its inhabitants
• Most important of all, teach what you've learned to others,
so that they may inspire others, so that they may inspire
others, so that...... you get the point. Only together can we
make a change.
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relationships are never easy.

can't live with them, can't live without them.
Can you relate?
three stories about love in japan
|RAN| 5
Relationships
~
in
~
| By mzlove |
G
Japan…
ot ya’, didn’t I? You thought that this would be another
article about a foreign guy and a Japanese woman,
didn’t you? I’m a foreign woman in a relationship with
a Japanese man. I know what you are probably thinking; you
knew we were out there…somewhere…maybe a few of us
foreign women crazy enough to marry a Japanese guy. Well,
you’re wrong about that. There are actually more of us than
there are of you. The majority of international marriages in
Japan consist of those with a foreign woman and Japanese
man. In fact according to a survey from The Japanese Ministry
of Health, Labor and Welfare in 2006, of the approximately
36,000 international marriages in Japan, 27,881 of included
a foreign woman and only 8,158 a foreign man. We
outnumber you 3 to 1, guys. Out of those 27,000 women, a
whopping two thirds, or 22,000 are from China, Korea and
the Philippines. (10,000 Chinese, 7,000 Filipino and 5,000
Korean) That means there are 3 times as many foreign wives
as foreign husbands in Japan, and two thirds of those are
Asian, so I can offer you my voice as a Canadian wife but I do
so only from a position of a tiny minority (but not as tiny as
the men’s minority, and we all know the importance of size).
My point is that maybe more foreign guys are actively dating
Japanese women (sometimes multiple) and that could warrant
the large number of articles dissing Japanese chicks in expat
mags, but you can no longer pretend that you represent some
kind of foreigner majority. I don’t know about you, but I am
kind of tired of reading articles that mostly bleat out the woes
and unfortunate plight of the unlucky foreign man caught up
innocently in a difficult and incomprehensible relationship
with a woman he barely understands. Are all men natural
whiners? (only slightly worse than natural born killers, I
guess) Judging from the sheer number of articles meticulously
detailing the dating and high maintenance required of
Japanese women, you would think there aren’t any other kinds
of relationships in Japan.
Time to get a few facts straight and put some perspective
on all of this bellyaching! Are you with me, ladies? First of
all, where are all the articles from the foreign ladies? Do they
exist? Yes, we’ve come a long way baby, but when it comes to
keeping the home and the babies, it basically still falls in our
laps. We still have to raise, feed, clothe, entertain, discipline
and educate our kids (and sometimes the men, too). I know
a lot of you men help out around the house, but show me a
6 |RAN|
guy who does more than half of his share of the housework
and I’ll show you some pigs that I’ve trained how to fly. Who
has time to complain about our paltry relationships when we
have to take kids to the doctor, dentist, lessons, juku, friends’
houses, go shopping for food, doing the washing, ironing
and cleaning up? You guys think you are in a bad situation in
Japan? Women have had to become resourceful over our long
and prejudiced history and basically have learned that when
you need support, you usually have to organize it yourself.
One of these examples, the Association of Foreign Wives of
Japanese (AFWJ) founded about 40 years ago, is a nationally
based group and has around 600 members. Yes, it’s a corny
name and I admit to shying away from it upon arrival, but
we’ve actually had men enquire to join. I joined about 7 years
ago and go through periods of high and low participation,
but I always know it’s there. This means joining up with local
foreign women in your area, for example after you move to a
new city, joining the local chat room for serious information
on English speaking doctors (gynecologists!), dentists,
playgroups for kids, book clubs, double income no kids
groups, weight loss groups and local information on your city.
There is even a quarterly publication with article submissions
from national members. I’ll bet you men were all wishing you
were women about now, eh? Some of the women just arrived
a few years ago and are still (ahem…) working out the kinks in
their relationships, while others have been here since the 60’s,
but it’s exactly because of this kind of serious support network
that I think must lead directly to less whiny and self absorbed
articles in public expat magazines freaking out about the high
maintenance and crappy nature of cross cultural relationships
from the ladies.
Secondly, this is not the first time in history that women
have had to endure the wrath of unruly, unfair, sometimes
violent and generally domineering husbands over the
centuries. Why start complaining about it now? We were
still the property of our husbands and fathers until a little
under a century ago and look at us now! What could there
possibly be to complain about??? Come on guys. You chose
to come to Japan, you chose to date Japanese women, did
you expect it to stay a bed (no pun intended) of sunshine
and little white flowers forever? Relationships are hard back
home too, you know. Or is it because of your falsely elevated
status upon arrival in Japan, where you heard how tall and
wonderful you were 10 times a day, that your fall from
rock star status was that much harder now that your life
is firmly rooted in relationship reality hell? We women
never had it so good. At least we found somebody. Most
of us could barely find someone willing to date, let
alone marry us. Oh sure, there were plenty of stares and
leering on the last train home on a Saturday night, but
actually men who came up and chatted to us with serious
relationships on their mind? I could probably count them
on my fingers in my 12 years here, and my husband is
one of them. Do you men have any idea how good you
have it over here? Japanese women have great reputations
outside of Japan, but Japanese men? Uh, not so spiffy.
What’s it like to have a relationship with a Japanese man?
On holidays back home old friends politely ask if I am still
in Japan, then when they find out I’m married, politely ask if
my husband is Japanese, then quite rudely say, “oh…”, and
quickly change the subject as if they have trodden on some
unspeakable issue and do not dare go any further. I can see
they want to ask “Why?”, but most don’t. Once my answer
was immediately followed with, “Aren’t all women in Japan
treated like second class citizens?” I liked that one. Straight to
the point. But it’s a good point, really. Japanese men are also
known to be short, nerdy, chauvinistic, not well endowed,
wishy-washy, mama’s boys. Now I hate to generalize, but if
you think that it’s only Japanese men who have the above
qualities then clearly you haven’t been to the HUB on a
Saturday night at 2:00 am. Not all the J-guys are like that
and if they were, we wouldn’t have married them! Basically
guys, it’s the same for us. There are tolerable relationships,
nightmares, divorces left, right and center, child abductions,
abuse, alcoholism and adultery in our lives, too. We have it
no better or worse than you, maybe just a few more support
networks floating around and women’s natural ability to glom
together in tight situations and support each other.
Th a t b e i n g s a i d , yo u m a r r y a t 2 4 , yo u p ay t h e
consequences. Everyone is compatible at 24, right? But then
most people mature, becomes more set in their ways, slowly
inherit the cultural ways of thinking that we were brought up
with…and are usually different from those of a partner in a
cross cultural relationship. What was once exotic, endearing
and adorable is years later freaking weird, nonsensical,
annoying and insanely frustrating. You may begin to ask
yourself what drew you to this alien being in the first place?
(Oh, right…now you remember….)
Well, chin up, men! Try to focus on the positive in life.
Get in touch with your feminine side, stop whining about your
relationships and Japanese women in general (or just stop
trying to pick them up in seedy bars) or just give up and try
another damn nationality. The difference for us women is that
we know our relationships are sometimes crappy, but we just
try to live with them anyway.
|RAN| 7
Happier
Times
I
am a 40-year-old Japanese woman, living in a 3-story house
with a big yard and big parking space for 5 cars, in the
suburb of Nagoya, with husband, an 11-year-old daughter,
and a 7-year-old son. I have been married for 13 years. I am
a housewife and have been teaching English to little children
to adults for 14 years… it sounds nice, doesn’t it? Well, it
must be…. My husband works hard 6days a week and earns
our living enough, luckily I have my own lesson room in my
house, and my children are healthy and enjoy their school
lives. We should be happy …ostensibly, but the reality is….
not really. What is the happy family like for you? How should
the ideal relationship between husband and wife be?
Encounter with Husband
I spent 4 years to go to college in the US. I enjoyed the
life with my friends there, far away from my family and
friends in Japan. I had some close friends, shared the house/
life/ thoughts, cared and supported each other. At that time,
I had some boyfriends and lived together, but I was too
young to think about marriage, so did not afford to turn the
relationships into marriage. In 1994, at 24 years old, I came
back to Japan, and then started working as an English teacher
at a language school. In the very first class I had, he was
there—he is my husband, 1 year older. He was just one of
the students. I worked very hard to become a good teacher
and saw him twice a week in the lessons. He was a punctual,
hardworking student though he was not a quick learner. He
had a purpose/goal to learn English, which was to do farm
staying in NZ. I wanted him to have opportunities to see and
learn something different and unknown in the world just as I
got the chances in the US, so I supported him to make it true
somehow. After his trip, we became closer, not as a student
and a teacher, and started dating as a man and a woman. I
believe it was 6 months later after we first met. Another half
year later, he moved out of his parents’ house, and then I
visited him frequently and soon started living together. It was
not until I realized that I wanted to marry someone and to
have a baby for. At that time he was reliable and sophisticated
for me because he started working at the age of 18 and knew
better about the system of the society. On the other hand, I
was ignorant, Americanized, and selfish, but I tried hard to be
his someone special and ideal; finished work and went home
early to make time to share with him, did the housework
and prepared dinner for him before going to work, and tried
to accept his taste and interests even though they were not
mine really. I believed it could be possible for me to accept
anything about him if only I had a big LOVE for him. About
1 year later he asked to marry me, surely I accepted, and we
got married in September 1997— I was 27. It was just the age
to marry for the women of those days. More came to have
higher educational backgrounds and careers. Also it’s getting
common for them to continue working after getting married,
and certainly I did.
Marriage Life
I think my husband is a very old typical Japanese man.
Though he didn’t show/express LOVE so much, I felt his love,
which was not the Romantic one I really expected though. He
was nice, cared about me, and spoke well of me especially
in front of his parents. Luckily they have been very kind to
8 |RAN|
A Japanese
| By Risa Chujo |
Love Story
me and liked me a lot. When I first met them, I felt sort of
surprised they had the different family background, characters,
lifestyle and rules from mine. From them he learned the
men should; work and earn for family, not cook and do the
housework, not talk while having meals, and not give a hand
to raise children. In January 1999, our first daughter was born.
All responsibility for raising and education were dumped
on me just as it used to be common at his/my mother’s
generation. Also I didn’t want to depend on anybody, even
my husband and our parents, for everything because they
could do, so I believed I could do myself. Probably I wanted
to be regarded myself as a mother/person. All my interests and
energy were shifting to my little angel gradually. Of course
so my love was. As having more days and time spent with
her in a small world, I started to think how I should live as
a person and what I can/should give/tell her as a mother. I
started teaching English to little children with her in the living
room in April 2000, to have the place for learning/enjoying/
socializing through English. He is/was the man of few words,
but he understood and supported my work at home. His life
is basically the same as before, it has been well-regulated life
even after our children’s births. However my life and roles
have been changing a lot over time. Our first son was born in
February 2003. Basically he was healthy, but until he became
6, he would have asthma attacks and I often had to drive
him to the hospital even at midnight, when I had a fever of
38 degrees/lack of sleep. I was always stressed out and worn
out for everything; teaching for long hours every evening,
raising children, housework and yard work, being sociable
in kindergarten/ school/neighborhood/mothers’ society etc...
I just wanted my husband to share anything each of us faced
on, communicate with words warmly/sincerely, without saying
silly Japanese jokes. He likes enjoying his time for himself, not
having interests to others, not like being involved someone’s
trouble. Now, every moment, each day, I realize we each
have different tastes. Three years have passed since I gave up
communicating with him.
My future and his future….
No one knows what’s happening in the future. However
it is clear in my mind that I feel difficult to continue
the present uncommunicative relationship. Also he seems to
call off the fake relationship we keep. He and I are looking
toward the different ways. Thanks for my children’s support
and understanding, I can step forward to make each of
us shape his/her own future. Recently I feel that I am the
daughter of my mother. Probably I will take the same way
as she did live and raise without husband’s help. I’m not
sure that is the best way each of us will take – maybe not…
it is not the only solution, it would be the best if we could
communicate / understand / care / support / encourage /
notice with love, trust, respect… and compromise. Even if you
are Japanese or non-Japanese, you should keep in mind that
you will have some possibilities to confront with invisible /
unpredictable / ununderstandable reality to share the life with
someone in your long life when you think of marriage --
Love is blind. Husband and Wife should be the best partners
and friends in a family, to take a journey of life, ‘Marriage’…
I believe.
 Time
in the
Love
| By Adam Pasion |
of globalization
B
efore trying to extoll the virtues of international coupling
it's important to address a common misconception. A lot
of friends have asked me for advice over the years about
how to relate to Japanese women, assuming that since my wife
is Japanese I must have it all figured out. The only wisdom I
can hope to glean is anecdotal and highly subjective because
the truth is, I don't know anything about Japanese women;
All I know about is my wife, and even she is not without her
mysteries. For nearly thirty years I have lived in this skin of
mine and even so I am still often liable to act out of character,
do something I could never have expected or otherwise
surprise myself. If I know so little about own skin despite
being privy to my most intimate and private thoughts, how
much less can I ever hope to know about my partner? Magnify
that gray area by the biggest number you know and it might
come close to the inestimable perplexity of an entire people.
To make broad sweeping generalizations about an entire
national character is not only presumptuous but it ignores the
beautiful diversity of the individual. As often as you may hear
the phrase “we Japanese...” the simple truth is that in terms
of personal ambition, strengths and weaknesses, dreams and
fantasies, the Japanese people are as richly diverse as any
other country in the world, even if they don't know it. So
without over-generalizing or drawing unfounded conclusions,
hopefully I can expose a softer light on the troubling world of
international marriage.
The myriad benefits of intercultural relationships should
be quite obvious – sharing new types of cuisine, music,
holidays and humor, learning each others language and
culture, and sampling the variety that makes living on this
planet so damn outstanding. It bears mentioning as well that
the expected differences in culture are exaggerated. I am more
often surprised by how similar Japan is to my home than by
how different it is, and the same goes for the similarities and
differences between my wife and me. Marrying outside of
your own culture takes a great deal of courage, but the irony
is that you are more likely to find a compatible partner that
way. Those who are willing to shed the biases and stigma of
their own culture will most likely be more open-minded and
understanding than those who cannot. The will to make such
a leap speaks volumes to the character of the person, who is
most likely adventurous and looking to experience new and
different things. If both partners are willing to let go of some
their own culture in order to gain a better understanding of
another person's then the couple has that much better of a
chance at surviving in the long run. Simply put, we are not
that different.
An obvious boon for intercultural couples that springs to
mind is the freedom that comes with it. When both partners
come from the same background there is an unspoken
expectation that they will see eye-to-eye on most issues, after
all why should they be different? The reality is everybody
has a different perspective regardless of culture or class
and most people will find plenty to disagree about. This
disparity between expectations and reality causes quite a
lot of cognitive dissonance for couples of the same cultural
heritage, but for multicultural couples it's par for the course.
In an intercultural relationship all the differences are laid out
on the table from the get-go and a certain amount of variation
is expected, even relished at times. The frustration of being
unable to communicate between partners can be ascribed to
language barriers, or cultural misunderstandings which acts
like a pressure valve, easing tension because you can simply
let it go.
When it really gets fun however, is when you turn the gun
on yourself and realize that some of the cultural attitudes you
have held for so long are worth reexamining. An intercultural
relationship is a good chance to let your hair down. When I
got married to my wife and realized that Japanese has no real
equivalent to English curse words I began to rethink why they
exist in English in the first place, and eventually I was able to
relax my attitude about them. Japanese culture has a much
more healthy attitude about sexuality as well, without all the
shy and bashful inhibitions I had as an American. In the same
way I think I have helped my wife to see some of the more
negative aspects of her own cultural perceptions. After several
|RAN| 9
love in the time of
globalization...
continued
years of marriage my wife is much better now at expressing
herself and speaking her mind, even when her Japanese
upbringing would tell her it was an inappropriate situation to
do so.
In a similar manner, there is a lot more you can get away
with as a stranger to your partner's culture. My wife calls it
“international power,” I call it “playing the ignorant foreigner
card.” When the in-laws are having a discussion about
something I don't care to respond to, I can simply pretend I
don't understand. When I do something stupid or irresponsible,
there is usually a bit more grace since they assume I don't
understand the finer aspects of Japanese social graces (if they
only knew!) Naturally these things can become irritating if you
let them. Once when I was crossing the street and didn't feel
like waiting for the light to turn green, my mother-in-law was
quick to remind me “In Japan we wait for the light to change.” I
could have been annoyed and told her that simply wasn't true,
or that it had nothing to do with nationality, but instead I took
it in stride and laughed about it. The less you let yourself get
annoyed by such things the more successful your relationship
will be.
The benefits become more quantifiable once children enter
the picture, most obviously with the children having a higher
chance at being bilingual. But is being bilingual really so
important? The simple answer in my opinion is no. Bilingualism
is highly overrated, most especially in Japan. As a matter of
fact children who grow-up bilingual are the greatest testament
to just how unimportant it really is, since they are living proof
that at least one of the parents was able to be successful in a
country where they were not a native speaker. If a person is
able not only to find a partner but start a family in a foreign
country, I consider that an unequivocal success; a success
accomplished without the advantage of being bilingual. What is
so often overlooked is the benefit of children being raised in a
multicultural home. Raising a child with pluralist value systems,
two distinct cultural perspectives, and two patterns of social
awareness broadens and enriches the mind in unparalleled
ways. This is a sort of hybrid engineering in a pedagogical
sense. Combining traditional traits like a disciplined Japanese
mind and awareness of an individuals place in society with
the cavalier and outspoken character typical of Americans can
create a well rounded and well balanced human being able
to be at ease in any situation. It allows parents to weed out
negative traits and reinforce positive ones, not physically but
culturally. How cool is that?
Of course no relationships, intercultural or otherwise
are without their stresses and problems. Adding disparate
worldviews into the mix places stress on the relationship, but
it also relieves pressure. In the end people are people, and
the individual personalities of each partner will affect things
much more than any cultural attitude ever could. Mixing
cultures doesn't alleviate the problem, but being able to expect
problems and accept them helps you to deal with them in a
much healthier way. Who knows, you could even come to
enjoy the differences.

Take my advice, taste the rainbow.


PAGODA
THE
DIARIES
| Story and pictures by EJP |
T
his stop has proved to be a boring delay in a life that’s
too boring already, and you’re ready to leave after the
obligatory beer for which you’ve waited so patiently
and so long, but just now a small handful of people comes in.
Three guys and a girl, all in their late 20s or so. All drunk. All
noisy. The girl comes right up to you and starts up a pleasant
conversation. She’s Japanese. She’s gorgeous.
This doesn’t surprise you. It also doesn’t excite you. She’s
speaking English. It’s a free lesson for her. She’s not interested
in you. She’s interested in English. She’s married to one of the
guys she came in with and she takes you to join their table.
Her name is Chie. This means wisdom. What a cool name.
Why don’t Americans name their kids things like wisdom, you
wonder. Who knows what kind of positive effect that could
have on a country in crisis? Anyway, she’s friendly and polite.
So is her husband, a Kiwi named Nigel. You can’t help but
notice that she speaks at least half Japanese to him. He’s been
in Japan some three and a half years. His Japanese sucks.
You have a tendency to judge people—that means non-
Japanese people, again. It means English speakers who look
like English speakers. It means Westerners. It means white
people. See how ridiculous you are—you have a tendency
to judge them based on how long they’ve been in Japan and
how well they speak Japanese. In fact, there’s an unspecific
equation you calculate in your mind to come up with a rough
ratio of competency over time. It isn’t science, but it works,
and you’ve noticed you’re not the only one who uses it. So do
most gaijin who live here and actually study the language—
and those gaijin who don’t study the language brag effusively
about that fact, as if laziness and ambivalence are virtues; the
sad thing being, for gaijin in Japan, these are not only virtues,
they are virtual requirements for acceptance and success
here. Okay. You’re exaggerating a bit now. You’re angst and
insecurity are getting the best of you. But it certainly seems
that way sometimes. It is true that Japanese are strangely
suspicious of non-Japanese people who show too much
familiarity with their language and customs. And by non-
Japanese people here, you mean white people. Gaijin are
white people. Chinese, Koreans and other Asians don’t fit into
this equation. When they come to Japan they’re required to
learn Japanese, and they do learn it fast. They can’t function
here without it. White people aren’t allowed to function with
it.
You can’t say for sure why any of this is. The Japanese do
not themselves know why it is. You think you know, but in
fact, Professor Roy Andrew Miller’s persuasive arguments in
Japan’s Modern Myth about the Japanese and their unusual
love-hate relationship with the Japanese language aside, it
seems beyond explanation. It seems beyond comprehension.
But for a gaijin here, so often it seems that nothing
succeeds like incompetence. Act like a helpless child here
and invariably some Japanese person with presumably good
12 |RAN|
Chris
intentions will step up and treat you like one. Lots of gaijin
here have turned this into a lifetime plan. Japan is the perfect
place for a white man with few or no abilities, and the country
abounds with them. This is not a secret. It’s too obvious to be
kept secret. Also, it doesn’t apply to all gaijin. You know some
brilliant gaijin here. But as long as you’re on this subject, you
might as well be honest—one good theory is that gaijin who
do have abilities also have enough sense to get the hell out
of here after a year or two. Gaijin who bother to learn the
Japanese language leave after about seven years. They leave
in frustration because now that they’ve gone to the trouble of
learning the language they discover that no Japanese person
in his right mind will actually converse with him in it.
Anyway, the proficiency over time equation—as
inappropriate as it may sound, there is some utility in it. The
Swiss, German, Czech, Hungarian, seemingly unsure of where
the hell he’s from, asshole with a vague British accent who has
come in with Chie and Nigel serves in the present moment to
support this notion. He’s a moron. He’s ignorant, at least about
Japan, and too foolish to know it. He’s an arrogant, noisome,
unbearable ass. It takes you about three minutes to figure this
out. Unfortunately, however, in those three minutes you have
already bought him a beer. So you’re a moron too. You ask
him how long he’s been here. He tells you three months.
What does he do?
He’s an artist?
That’s cool. It so happens that you work at an art school,
yourself. You know lots of artists. What kind of art does he do?
He’s not sure. At least he’s not able to express it in a way
that makes you the least bit sure what he does, and call it
arrogance, but if the answer to a question as simple as this one
doesn’t make sense to you, you figure, is just doesn’t make
sense, period. You’re drunk and you’re dumb. But you’re not
completely stupid. Still, you’re willing to give him the benefit
of the doubt. He’s drunk too, after all. You try to give him an
exit strategy. “Well, good luck with it,” you say.
He says, “Energy.”
You don’t know what that means, even—energy. But if he
can’t describe what kind of art he does, you can’t help but
wonder how he’s able to earn a living at it, because if there’s
one thing all your years around artists has taught you it’s that
an artist’s earnings are directly related to his ability to market
his work. And that, you’re sure, requires a specific awareness
on the artist’s part of exactly what it is he can do, as well as a
keen ability to describe it. And this fellow, you figure, lacking
both of these, isn’t likely making a dime with whatever artistic
abilities he may actually posses. “Are you here on some sort of
grant?” you ask him. “Where are you working?”
He’s completely unemployed. He doesn’t have a dime.
So he’s not really an artist? He just wants to be an artist?
What kind of artist does he want to be?
He’s going to figure that out here in Japan.
s t i a n
“I see,” you say. And, regretting the beer you’ve bought
him, you start looking around for somebody else to talk to, or
simply some reason not to talk at all. Now you need an exit
strategy of your own.
“Japan is easy,” he says. “It’s all about energy. Everything is
energy.”
You’ve heard this before. It may even be true. But you’re
not a physicist. And neither is he.
“Energy, man, energy.”
This asshole’s name is Christian, and he thinks the Japanese
word for energy is tamashi. It’s not. It’s not even close to that.
Neither you nor he has any idea what he’s talking about.
Though you seem to be the only one bothered by this. You ask
if you can take his photo. You want a record of this guy, just
so you won’t wake up in the morning believing it was all a
dream.
“Sure” he says. “Go ahead.” Then, when you point the
camera at him he sticks his hand up in front of his face.
“Energy man,” he says again. He’s afraid of an energy drain
from his being into your camera. This begs the question, why
did he agree to let you take his photo in the first place? He
wasn’t thinking. And what he means by this, of course, is that
he wasn’t remembering how, in the three months he’s been
here, he has reinvented, redesigned and reengineered himself
into somebody he himself doesn’t recognize. Thus, he can’t
tell you with any certainty where he’s from, what kind of art
he wants to do, or what on earth he’s doing in Japan in the
first place, besides getting drunk. On your dime. You’ve seen
about a million of these guys over the years. You normally
just write it off as culture shock. And that’s normally what
it is. These issues arise here. In fact, culture shock is a long
recognized and well-studied phenomenon. It’s severity and
degree, of course, vary among individuals, but you’ve never
known anybody to come here and not suffer one form of it or
another. It expresses itself in a certain paradigm of symptoms
and stages, the first and most salient of which is a period
of euphoria knows as the honeymoon stage. This is where
Christian is. You went through this yourself. You went through
the entire cycle. But you were lucky. You came here fully
developed and satisfied with who you were. Well, okay, you
exaggerate again, but if not entirely satisfied with who you
were, you were at least willing to admit who you were, where
you were from, what you did for a living. You were willing to
be who you were, whether you liked it or not. Christian isn’t.
He isn’t even aware of who he is. He’s like a child. He’ll do
well here. Never mind that he’s thirty. He may go on just like
this forever. He’s in the right place for it.
It’s all about energy man.
When you arrived in Japan the average period of contract
for a native English teacher here was a year. You came on a
one-year contract, yourself. Everybody did. Few lasted the
whole year. The average stay was only eight months. You don’t
know what the statistics are now—the situation has changed
so much it may even be impossible to measure. You had no
idea you would be here this long. Had anybody told you so,
you would have laughed. Or you would have cried. But gaijin
like Christian often end up staying here a long time before the
ongoing lie that is their lives finds them out. There is simply no
reality where Christian’s living! He’s lost. You’ve seen lots of
gaijin recreate themselves here.
Lots of them are lost.
They don’t know where they are. They don’t know what
they’re doing. They don’t even remember who they were
before they came. Or they don’t know. Or more likely they
just don’t want you to know. So they make up something.
Often, they make up a new version of themselves. You’ve seen
it a million times. The reinvented gaijin! Come to Japan and
pretend to be whatever you want to be. Nobody will ever
know. And nobody will ever care enough to try to find out.
It’s all about energy, man.
This guy’s full of shit.
Why not just go forward from where you are you want to
ask him. Even if it isn’t where he wants to be, it’s better than
being nowhere.
But fuck him. It’s none of your business.
Energy.
He asks where you’re from.
You tell him.
“Oh wow, man. Japanese hate Americans,” he says. It’s
not true though, and it shows how little he knows about the
place. Japanese don’t hate Americans any more than they
hate Swiss, German, Czech, Hungarian, seemingly unsure
of where the hell they’re from, assholes like him. In the
Japanese mind a gaijin is a gaijin is a gaijin and it matters
little or nothing where the gaijin is from. What particular
country any particular gaijin is from is no more than a mere
curiosity rooted in the first month or two of jr. high school
English education—Where are you from? But nobody really
gives a shit. All white people are created equal and they’re
all regarded the same. White people are either somebody to
speak English with or somebody to ignore. You have heard the
occasional Japanese person say he hates gaijin. But even that,
you don’t hear often. And truly, you’ve never heard a single
Japanese person say he hates Americans. Nor Germans, nor
Swiss, nor Czechs, nor Hungarians. As you said earlier, hate
is a word rarely used here. You’re certain Christian has never
heard it. Rather, he’s probably just said it a lot, and never
found a Japanese person rude enough to disagree with him.
And now you’re almost certain that Christian is not German,
Swiss, Czech nor Hungarian. He’s English like his accent.
Nobody hates America, after all, like the English. Not even the
Afghanis.
Nigel finds a guitar in a corner somewhere and starts in
playing a Nirvana song. Then an Oasis song. Then a Green
Day song. He’s a child of the 90s. Everybody in the bar seems
to be, except you and Sean, and they all sing along. This is
your chance. It’s your exit opportunity. Christian’s singing. You
sing too:
Sometimes I give myself the creeps. Sometimes my mind
plays tricks on me.
You detect a void in the energy field and slip through it in
the direction of the bar where you get caught up visiting with
Sean. By visiting, you mean saying thank you and goodbye.
But in fact, you don’t leave.
Chie comes back to the bar and asks where you’re going to
be in two days. There’s a big beach party going on. You need
to be there, she thinks. Maybe you’ll come back for it, you
|RAN| 13
lie. In a couple of days you’re going to be in Beppu, or maybe
Kumamoto, if you can ever get out of Sean’s place. But you
can’t. Chie asks for your phone number. Like she’s ever going
to call you. Fat chance. But you go through the motions. You
give her your number. You get hers. Then you get her email
address. She says she wants to keep in touch. Fat chance
there, too. But you tell her to mail you anytime. She says if
you can’t make it to the beach party in a couple of days, she’ll
invite you to the one next year. It’s an annual event. You’d love
to go to it. Yes, next year, you tell her. Fat chance, again.
You drink another beer, as if that’s something you need,
then another, and you visit with Chie while her husband goes
on singing. This begins to seem strange to you. You move back
to the table and take a photo of Nigel holding the guitar in his
lap. You point your camera at Christian again, but he catches
you and throws his hand in front of his face. Energy. He’s still
talking, but to whom you have no idea. Certainly nobody is
listening. Or so you think. But you’re wrong. He’s saying, “Let’s
go to Seigo” and inside of ten minutes that’s where you are—
you and Nigel and him. Seigo is the name of another local bar
and you’re sitting there having another beer.
Chie has wisely gone home and you suspect there has
been a fight between her and her husband—the nonverbal
kind that only married people are capable of. But you’re the
sensitive type. You’re afraid Nigel might be angry with her for
spending so much of the evening visiting with the likes of you.
You ask him if everything’s okay.
Oh sure. Chie has to work in the morning. Poor girl. It’s
already 2:00 a.m.
Now you’re sitting beside another Japanese woman. Her
name is Atsuko. She has black, artificially curled hair, black
eyes, straight teeth and a pure, natural, happy smile. She’s
gorgeous too. The country’s full of gorgeous girls. But this one
is also with somebody. You’re just not sure who she’s with.
You’re drunk and you’re dumb, but you’re not completely
stupid. Did you already say that? Well. You’re drunk. You’re
dumb. But as long as you can still speak you can still read
what’s in the air, and what’s in the air here at Seigo is that
Atsuko is with somebody. Never mind the way she’s got her
hands on your arm, stroking the hair there like you’re a panda
or something. This is another thing you’ve experienced a
million times here—people petting the hair on your arms. It
doesn’t happen so often these days, but in the past it was an
almost daily occurrence. Even university professors, both men
and women, have stroked your arms and made comments,
generally telling you that it feels good! Japanese are intrigued
by body hair. They’re also a little bit repulsed by it. In fact,
one of the early words for Europeans was ketojin. This is an
old word and it’s rarely heard these days. It’s very derogatory.
A direct translation for it would be hairy Chinaman! Like
Chinamen are unusually hairy people? And like that would be
you—a hairy Chinaman? But language isn’t math. Inexplicable
things happen all the time in the corpus of linguistics.
This is an awkward situation for you. Being petted feels
good, of course, even in this context, as sad as that may
sound, but it’s also off putting. You know nobody’s trying to
be rude, but you can’t help feeling like an animal. A brute. A
hairy Chinaman? And as much as you like the feeling of this
woman’s hands on you, you entertain no doubt about it—she’s
14 |RAN|
with somebody. And he’s close-by.
“No touch,” you hear somebody say in a loud voice.
Oh shit! Here it comes, you think. And you haven’t even
done anything. You were just sitting here minding your own
business when Atsuko came up and sat beside you with a dish
of peanuts and dried squid. You’ve hardly even said anything
to her. And now she was touching you. You weren’t touching
anybody. This is the story of your life here. You haven’t done a
goddamn thing. But somebody’s pissed off. You don’t need to
do anything to piss people off. You don’t need to do anything
but be yourself, that is. It comes natural for you. You have a
way with people. It just isn’t the right way.
“Dare mo sawattenai zo!” you say, almost desperately,
throwing your hands in the air. I aint touching anybody.
“Though I have been eating her squid,” you add sheepishly.
“Ika okei. Tachi ha dame,” the voice says in that familiar
mixture of Japanese and bad English that you encounter every
single day of your life. Ika means squid. Okei, of course,
means okay. Tachi means touch. It’s one of thousands of
English words that have entered the lexicon quite recently.
Dame means bad. That fucking word again. It’s the word
parents use with their children. It’s the word dog owners use
with their dogs. And it’s the word everybody uses with you.
Any Western visitor to Japan needs to learn this word almost
immediately. Next to gaijin it’s the word he’ll here most often
here. He better get used to it.
“That’s right,” you say, brushing Atsuko’s hand off of your
arm. “Tachi ha dame!” You pretend to be indignant. Atsuko
bows her head and says “sumimasen deshita.” Forgive me.
You laugh. Atsuko laughs. All the regular customers at the bar
laugh. Then Seigo, the owner of the bar as well as the loud,
admonishing voice, laughs too. Everybody laughs but Nigel
and Christian who have no idea what has even transpired.
Typical gaijin.
This is the way most conflict ends in Japan. A momentary
laugh is worth more here than an hour of anger—a fact that
you all too often forget—and in a matter of minutes Atsuko is
stroking the hair on your arm again. All is well. The universe is
how it should be.
Except, of course, that it’s late. And you’re drunk. And you
have that perplexing maze of shoots and ladders to navigate
back to your hotel room before you sleep.
Seigo, the bar, has a Rastafarian feeling all the way from
the art on the walls to the red knit cap on Seigo, the man’s,
head. Never mind that it’s July in the tropics.
Seigo, the man, proves to be a nice fellow and you visit
with him briefly. He tries to share Atsuko’s excitement about
the revelation that you’re a genuine live half-pagoda-nerd on a
nationwide adventure with not a care in the world and hardly
a schedule, but pagodas just aren’t his thing. He has other
interests. Rather more Rastafarian ones, you learn. He thinks
Buddhism is an embarrassing blight on the national makeup.
He’s certainly not the first Japanese person to entertain that
notion, you tell him. There have been lots. Then you tell him
you’ve been to a small island in the Inland Sea where there
is a small temple with a Rastafarian theme not unlike the one
at Seigo, the bar. It has a Rastafarian knit hat with attached
dreadlocks on the statue of the Buddhist saint there, and at
the altar, there are carefully placed cans of tropical fruit drinks
and Georgia Coffee. He’s not impressed. Not as impressed
as he is with the hair on your arms anyway, and like Atsuko,
he reaches out and strokes you too. You take a photo of him.
Then you ask him to take a photo of you and Atsuko. She is
looking warmly at him. You are looking at her. This will turn
out to be one of your favorite photos of yourself on this trip.
Like everybody else, you tend to look better in the presence of
a beautiful woman.
You love this country.
Three seats down the bar Christian is talking with a salary
man. This is definitely a go nowhere situation, and though
they both seem perfectly content, you don’t want any part
of it. But as soon as Atsuko gets up and goes behind the bar
the salary man turns to you and starts speaking English. Well,
he thinks it’s English. He says, “Are you from?” This sounds
like a simple yes or no question, except that it doesn’t mean
anything. It’s stupid Japanese English for “Where are you
from?” Never mind that this salary man already knows where
you’re from. Everybody in the bar knows where you’re from,
where you live, what you are—a half-pagoda-nerd—and
what you’re doing in Miyazaki. You’ve been the sole center of
attention here since Atsuko started stroking the hair on your
arm, and you’ve already explained everything. This is Japan.
Self-introduction is a ritual here. Once one person gets the
stage, he has to hold it at least for a few minutes. If he doesn’t,
he’ll be bombarded with questions till the ritual has been
completed. And you’ve just gone through all of this. There
is absolutely no reason for the salary man to wonder, much
less ask you, where you’re from! For a moment you consider
telling him Switzerland, Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary,
you’re not sure, but you don’t. You just tell him calmly that
you’re from Oregon. He already knows that anyway. It would
be hard to start reinventing yourself now.
Christian wants you to ask this guy why he’s speaking
English to you.
“I’m not going to ask him that,” you say. “I already know
why he’s speaking English to me. I know and he doesn’t. So
there’s absolutely no point in me asking him.”
So Christian asks him. It takes about two minutes and help
from Nigel to get the question across to the guy. Not because
he can’t understand the words of the question—with a little
effort, even the worst English speakers in Japan can understand
the words involved here. He just doesn’t understand the gist
of it. The question doesn’t begin to make sense to him, nor to
the 125 million other Japanese people here. He can’t begin
to answer. But you can. He’s doing it because you’re a gaijin.
You’re white. It’s as simple as that. The bare bones act of
communication has nothing whatsoever to do with it.
“How long Japan?” he asks you. He’s not interested in
talking to Christian any longer. Christian is a moron, but he
can’t speak this brand of moronic English. He doesn’t have
the years of experience with it that you have. Also, Christian
asks too many difficult questions. Salary men like this are
not interested in listening to English. They know they can’t
understand English. What’s amazing is that they don’t also
know they can’t speak it. But that fact never seems to bother
them. You suppose the things they say make perfect sense
to them. But they sure don’t want to field any questions.
Questions are too difficult for them.
And
now this question
is too difficult for you. How long
Japan, for the love of god? About 3500 kilometers
from north to south, you want to tell him. But you don’t. He
wouldn’t get it anyway. He wouldn’t even understand the
words. There are viable linguistic reasons for this. Numbers
are difficult in any foreign language, and kilometer is another
word that’s been imported from English. He thinks the word
he knows for kilometer is an English word, but it’s pronounced
so differently in Japanese that the original English version of
the word would be completely unrecognizable to him. But
it doesn’t matter anyway, because what he wants to know
is how long you’ve been here. He wouldn’t believe you if
you told him. And if he did believe you, it would only upset
him. He would pout. You tell him “too long.” You say this in
English. He says “Eh? One more.” You’ve just given him a two-
word answer to his three-word question, and he wants you to
repeat yourself. This is typical of English conversations with
salary men in bars, and you have to ask yourself, what on
earth are you doing in this damn place at 3:30 in the morning.
Nigel’s okay. Seigo’s okay. They’re like most people; they’re
nice enough. You can take them or leave them. But Christian’s
an ass. The salary man’s a bore. All the salary men lined up at
the bar are bores. Maybe everybody out at this time of night
is a bore, and the only one in the bar who still interests you
is Atsuko, but she has long since lost all of her interest in the
hair on your arms and moved back behind the bar. The scene
is depressing, and face it, the most depressing part of it is you.
You’ve known since midnight that you weren’t having any fun
with these people. You get up to leave.
As you exit the bar you discover why Christian thinks
tamashi is the Japanese word for energy. Seigo is standing
behind the bar holding a fist in the air like a Black American
athlete at the 68 Olympics. This is apparently his way of
bidding you goodnight. He solemnly says “tamashi.” This is
the Japanese word for spirit, or soul. Christian looks at him
with a respect that borders on admiration and says, “Spot on
man. Energy. Everything’s energy.” You don’t think he even
notices that you’ve left.
PAGODA
THE
DIARIES
|RAN| 15
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A Tal e ofer s
Two Da nc
| Story and pictures
by Jason L Gatewood |
D
ance. It’s sometimes called the purest expression of
emotion. The rhythmic exhibition of visual, physical,
and performing art. In just a few moves, a dancer can
convey hopelessnes and hope. Violence and peace. Sadness
and joy. Most people from outside Japan already know about
the more traditional forms of Japanese dance most often seen
during O-Bon and matsuri periods during the year. But that’s
not the dance being performed at any of the local hangouts
around town, right? In our first issue, we examined the
phonomenon known as “Glass Dancing” where young folks
gather around the large windows of certain skyscrapers on
the sidewalk and practice dance all night. This time we go a
little more in depth with two dancers from the area and talk
about dance in their own words.
Yuri Mizutani (21)
Hometown: Kuwana, Mie
First Impression: I was into Namie Amuro when I was around
12 years old. The dancing, the moves in her videos, and also
the music were something so different from other J-pop music;
it was sexy.
Other Activites: I’m into anything dealing with music really.
I enjoy listening to music and seeing concerts and DJ events.
I like to go out to clubs and dance when I have time. I guess
dance is my life.
I was a shy kid. A really shy kid. I couldn’t really talk to
someone I didn’t know easily, and even with friends, I had
trouble expressing details... I felt like I had a lot to say, but
didn’t know how to say it. But when I danced, I could put
all my energy into it. I can be real with myself and others
around me. When I started high school, I started getting very
interested in American pop artists like Janet Jackson and
Brittney Spears. Their music was more forceful, and more
direct. The beat makes your body want to move. Before I knew
it, my friends were introducing me to others that wanted to
dance too, so I became a dance intructor when I was 19 years
old.
I felt I had to see how Americans were dancing to their own
music, so I worked two jobs and only slept 3 hours a day to
save the money to go to Los Angeles. There I studied hip-hop
and r&b dance for 2 months. I really want to go back to learn
more, but I need to save again!
Where you can catch her:
o, Mie at the
I teach 4 days a week in Kawagoe-ch
e. If you ’re lucky,
community sports center ther
e club s around the
you can also catch me at som
Chukyo area as well!
Asako Saito (27)
Hometown: Nagoya
First Impression: I was into SMAP as a little kid. I know what
some think about “Idol” groups in Japan, but remember, these
people are on stage 5-6 days a week. They dance, sing, and
act. I guess they have to be smart too--They go on lots of game
shows as guest talent (wink).
Other Activites: Tennis and drawing. I am really into drawing
actually. It’s very relaxing.
I started dancing in university actually... I guess most people
who are serious about it usually start much earlier. So I did
feel a little out-classed when I went to class at first. But the
others around me really supported me, especially the more
experienced members. So I’d attend class 3 times a week.
Eventually I became very serious about it and decided to go to
Vancouver, Canada for summer dance camps and also enroll
in a professional dance school as well. In my second dance
competition, I recieved second place; Silver medal! Ever since
that debut, I’ve been doing whatever I can to increase my skill.
Since I also majored in English during college, I also took a
chance at going to New York City and taking dance classes
there too.
As a semi-professional dancer, I really enjoy training students.
It’s like I’m giving them the chance to enjoy something I truely
love. I have other friends that perform more often, but since I
work a “regular” job, I usually only perform once or twice a
year.
Where you
can catch
I give lesso her:
ns every W
ednesday a
Dance Spa
ce Vib, at 1
:30 ~ 3pm
t
at Nagoya
Studio 200
in Sakae.
and
|RAN| 17
 ha
T ha i l a n d M on !
uchen |
| By TDHo
L
isten, if you’e been considering where to spend some time
this coming Christmas vacation, I’d HIGHLY recommend
you purchase a ticket to THAILAND. Prices have never
been better, and Thailand is a HELLUVA LOT OF FUN. It’s a
tropical paradise the likes of any island in the West Indies, but
with a decidedly Asian atmosphere. This ancient paradise is
like having a giant Jamaica smack dab in the Orient. It’s a 3
hour flight from Nagoya, the food is ridiculously delicious and
CHEAP, as is almost every and anything you could think of.
There are tons of wild, crazy, fun, exciting, erotic, eye-popping
and interesting activities, and the Thai people are extremely
polite, eager to please, and a lot more outgoing than Japanese.
Thai people love to party, and they know you are there to have
a good time- they want to have a good time with you.
I went to Thailand last summer and rode an elephant
across the backlands and over some mountain that overlooked
the Pacific. I was terrified. I’m terrified of most things I guess.
My tour guide/elephant-driver dude was a comedian, he
GOT OFF THE ELEPHANT and left me up there by myself, on
the edge of some seaside mountain, with this 2-ton animal
underneath me, a kid from Brooklyn, and I WAS PETRIFIED.
Dude laughed his skinny Thai ass off while I screamed like a
bitch as the elephant shook and shimmied until I thought he’d
collapse and we’d go careening down the mountainside into
the Pacific. He didn’t.
We ‘toured’ the mountainside and saw authentic villages
of Thai people living in houses and villas on the mountain.
I had a conversation with a cute Chinese girl who was also
visiting while we both rode separate elephants. Sexy. Fun.
Elephants. You Should Learn.
Also saw Thai boxing, which was kick-ass, no pun
Go 行きや
intended. I saw 10 fights over a 2 or 3 hour span in a
sweltering hot stadium slightly outside of Phuket. The
audience was as entertaining as the fights, people from
all over the world, beer, it was a truly visceral experience.
Apparently, Thai people controlled violence.
Made my way back into town around midnight, the streets
were packed with people on mopeds, walking, driving, etc. It
was a cross between South Beach, Montego Bay, downtown
New York City and Bangkok all rolled into one. The beach was
always no more than a 10-minute moped ride away, the clubs
were ALL open until daybreak, the streetlife was erotic, hot,
spicy, and mind-bogglingly entertaining. Thai is a place where
people KNOW what they are there for, and they get it in.
The vendors, restaurant and bar owners, and hotel staff
were all very friendly. Keep in mind that in Thailand, you can
bargain for better prices than you see. Try talking them down,
but truth is, you don’t have to, prices are already very very
cheap for almost anything.
On the day before my departure day, I took a speedboat
trip to Phi Phi Island (location of the movie “The BEACH”
with Leo DiCaprio), parasailed, gorged on delicious tropical
Thai food, relaxed on a pristine beach with see-thorugh
aquamarine waters, and puffed a funny cigarette with the tour
guide on top of a hut, with a Mai Tai on the table next to me.
It was brilliant.
The weather is tropical all-year-round. The hotels are
MUCH CHEAPER THAN YOU THINK, the strong yen allows
you a fantastic exchange for the Thai “Baht”, and YOU
DESERVE A BREAK.
Make it to Thailand before you leave Asia, you’ll thank
me later.
 NAGOYA
C L UB G UI D E
“Yo, what’s poppin’ tonight? Where
are you going….?”
Here’s Where:
Lots of Nagoya folks seem to think there isn’t
much in the way of interesting nightlife here.
They’re Wrong.
There are indeed quite a few spots for dancing
the night away located just a train or bike ride
away. And if you’re not into dancing, just want to
stretch out somewhere, have a few drinks, listen
to some tunes, and have the opportunity to wild
out, we’re waiting for you on the outside. Get
out of your apartment tonight.
STEPS - www.steps-nagoya.net/info/1.html 052-242-
7544 In Sakae, STEPS bills itself as a “Sports, Music, and
Restaurant Bar”, and it is. Plus, Pole Dancers, great food
and friendly staff. STEPS is a cozy small spot to fall into 7
nights a week. Open until 6am daily.
ID Café - www.idcafe.info 052-251-0382 Also in Sakae,
ID is actually a multi-genre club. The 3rd floor is usually
the most busy however, because that’s where the Hip
Hop pounds. If you’re into a wild, packed, over-zealous
crowd desperate to get their groove on no matter what,
ID is for you. An experience for sure. 1st floor is techno.
2nd is mostly bar space. 3rd is hip hop. 4th is 80’s, or
whatever the djs are into that night. 5th is hip hop/reggae/
rnb. See ‘Thomas’ at the door. That’s my nucca.

Nagoya is a very transportation friendly city.

ABIME 2030 - www.abime.info 052-951-4155 In Sakae,
Everything is pretty much walking distance
Abime recently changed format from being a techno
between each other, lots of clubs are located in
club to a more hip hop friendly sound, as well as having
a cluster around certain areas. Toshincho, Sakae,
killed a long held policy which didn’t allow foreigners
Fushimi, Imaike, Shinakae, these are the areas to
inside. Now, just bring your ID and you’re in. Large
go get your groove on and get it in Nagoya style.
modern space near Sunshine Sakae.
This may not be a definitive list, but it’s pretty
close.
Club Shelter- www.club-shelter.com 052-242-8030 Off
in the cut behind the Chunichi Building, Shelter is mostly
Go out. Meet someone. Dance. Have fun.
Japanese hip hop djs, but also features house, electro,
Right About Now.
RnB, etc. 3rd floor, same building as Arena.
tdh
Ozon/Spiral – www.ozon.jp.com This is a dual-club
enterprise located in Sakae near Wakamiya Park.
Upstairs, Spiral is a small sound room where live acts,
such as wanna-be RnB singers and rappers, do their
HIP HOP thing, downstairs, OZON is a large warehouse-style
club with a huge stage. These two spots are popular with
CREAM BAR - info@bar-cream.com 052-261-1766 young Japanese and area blast to fall inside once in a
Located In Sakae. If you like your club night CRUNK and blue moon.
THICK, CREAM is the spot. Open until 6am, CREAM gets
packed with an international crowd. Rowdy and rawkus,
exactly like a hip hop club should be. DJ G gets wreck
on the decks. Other nice DJs as well. Fall in.

The Underground - www.underground.co.jp/index. Rock

html The Underground is actually a three-club
Electric Ladyland - ell@ell.co.jp 052-201-5004 Named
conglomeration located on three floors in Toshincho.
after the legendary Jimi Hendrix studio and album,
The three clubs which make up this conglomerate
this Osu gem features hardcore/thrash metal/emo/goth
are Lush/052-242-1388, Cypher/052-264-9603, and
and other genres. Pretty exclusively Jaapnese, however
SoulGround/052-241-7366. Upon visiting the website for
foreigners are welcome to check out the scene.
The Underground, one immediately notices a WARNING
which reads- “foreign men who have no women will not
Club Quattro - www.club-quattro.com No phone
be allowed entry”-they’re serious. If you want to see how
number available. Quattro is located in the Parco
the Japanese hip hop set gets down, bring a girl. Mostly
Building in Sakae. It’s a large rock club that often features
east coast authentic hip hop beats, old school, and the
world famous artists, along with local favorites in several
clubs get rammed. Worth it.
genres.

20 |RAN|
Diamond Hall - www.diamond-hall.com 052-265-2665
I ride my bike down Hirokoji Dori a lot, and at night on
any given night, right before I hit Sakae, there are always
dozens of young Japanese wearing black spilling out of
Diamond hall after seeing some thrashy guitar show. I
think. Either way, Diamond hall and sister venue Apollo
Theater are large “halls” where you can get your rock
kicks off. Kick rocks off. Something.
Heartland - www.theheartlandstudio.co.jp No number
available. This place is located underneath The Hard
Rock Café, which, if you haven’t heard, is closing it’s
doors at the end of this year. Be sure to come out to our
ALL STAR JAM in December. Anyway, Heartland features
Japanese hardcore, DK, and other genres.
space where all kinds of beat minimalism plus dark arts
take place, electro/house/techno/breakbeats/dubstep/dnb.
Machine Gun Beats.
Plastic Factory – ww.plasticfactory.jp 090-2346-1682
Located on the backstreets of Imaike, Plastic Factory is a
Nagoya Institution. This large space run by ‘Heinz’ caters
to an eclectic mixed crowd, multi-genred music, also
be sure to peep the upstairs artspace constructed by the
hands of Heinz himself. Last Sunday monthly is Nagoya’s
famous “Harmonium Parlour”, open mic for semi-serious
and hosted by Semion. Couches and an arthouse feel.
Nice.

Huck Finn - www.huckfinn.co.jp 052-733-8347 Located

on Imaike’s backstreets, Huck Finn has two floors, ground
REGGAE
floor usually features more folksy, acoustic, organic stuff,
Roots Vibes - 050-1381-6425 This Rasta decorated roots
basement has the edgier, grittier, punkier fare. Saw a cute
spot is in Toshincho, open until early morning hours
Japanese female acoustic duo on the ground floor one
serving delicious food, exotic drinks, and booming
night singing Christmas songs with an accordion.
reggae beats provided by the infamous JFox-and a host of
rotating DJ’s and artists, sometimes world famous reggae
The Bottom Line – www.bottomline.co.jp 052 741 1620
artists can be seen at the bar, Yamibolo was there one
Legendary Imaike big hall where famous acts as versatile
evening I stopped in to holla at Fox.. Stop in and get your
as Ice Cube and Brian Setzer have graced the large stage
vibe on. Authentic. (As of this writing, ROOTS VIBES has
in the cavernous hall. Must see if you live in Nagoya, at
temporarily closed it’s doors, but we included it anyway
least once. Seriously.
because we know it’ll reopen somewhere, sometime,
somehow..)

Club Buddha - www.clubbuddha.com 052-251-5450

HOUSE/DANCE/ELECTRO Small space located in Shinsakae featuring live bands,
djs, dub, roots and culture reggae. Cramped but nice.
R A D I X - w w w. r a d i x . t o 0 5 2 - 3 3 2 - 0 0 7 3 L o c a t e d
Arena - FACEBOOK/arenadanceclub/052-252-7020-
underneath the Tsurumai line, RADIX has a world class
Located in Toshhincho. Small but lively intimate after
sound system and regularly attracts world famous DJs
hours club. Located in the same building as hip hop
and artists, along with a hyped crowd. Radix is a true
club “Shelter”, on the 2nd floor. Recently growing in
club goer’s club, the bass forces it’s way through your
popularity as a result of Andy Snadden’s weekend House
body. Go. Here. Soon. Also hip hop/techno/house, check
Jams. Check it out.
the website to find out.
Mago - info@club-mago.co.jp 052-243-1818 Located
PLUS PARK - www.plus-park.com 052-261-1173 Plus
in Shinsakae, probably the most famous of all Nagoya
Park is another of those multi-genre clubs, featuring hip
House Music spots. Large beautiful club.
hop/reggae/r-n-b etc. It bills itself as a “sports/music/
About - www.club-about.com 052-243-5077 Located in
amusement” space. Large and well-equipped, located in
Toshincho. Friendly after hours spot with a great lounge.
Sakae, Plus Park is a new addition to Nagoya’s nightlife
Emporium - www.theemporium.jp/ 052-262-7027
scene. Features well-known live hip hop and r-n-b acts
Located in Sakae. Gorgeous plush 9th floor club known
regularly. Nice spot. Open late.
for beautiful classy women and a great sound system.
Might be hard to get in if you’re with a bunch of guys.
Club Zion – www.clubzion.gionsound.jp/scadule 052
Dress nice and look cool. Go solo.
339 2331 Reggae spot near Kamimaezu, haven’t been.
Don’t know. You tell me..
Club JB’s - www.club-jbs.jp 052-241-2234 Located in
the Toshincho club cluster, JB’s is consistently voted one
of the world’s premier clubs. House Music isn’t all that’s
on offer here, but House is a consistent genre with some
of the world’s top House DJ’s taking turns on the decks. ALTERNATE SEXUAL
Guaranteed great night out here. Holds upwards of 300
souls. METRO –-www.themetroclub.com 090-4194-9722 @
lover:z in Shin Sakae. Nagoya’s longstanding gay party
Domina - info@cafe-domina.com 052 264 3134 Domina comes in all colors, shapes, and sizes. Fun night out, and
is right around the corner from JB’s, underground dark you don’t have to be gay. Across from CBC building.

|RAN| 21
 DJ Babur maddLOVE Dan Sonoir DJ GhostWilly
UK Brooklyn, NY Virginia, USA Kenya
Sexy House All Genre Electronic Hip Hop

Nick Edges crushmonkey DJ Dij

Taro Alexander UK Brisbane, Australia Tennessee, USA
DJ - Producer Deep Funk House Drum-n-Bass Dance Music
Honolulu, Hawaii
Breakbeat

DJ Andy S Ambush Soldier DJ Travis Lucas SuperMario

New Zealand Aichi, Japan Gold Coast, Australia Uganda
Soulful House Reggae Tech House African Vibes-Hip Hop

22 |RAN|
|RAN| 23

| Story '& photos by Adam Pasion |
T
he Metro Club: where the Nagoya salaryman can trade
in his slacks for stiletto s. Where the lines betwee n
gender and nationa lity blur and lose their meanin g
to the beat of the thundering speakers. Where the codified
robotics of daily life are forgotten in the tangle of sweaty
bodies pulsing under the strobe light. The Metro Club is where
Nagoya lets its guard down and gives Shinjuku nichome a run
for its money. For the last 18 years the Metro Club has been
rolling out the best gay/lesbian/mixed party in Nagoya and
yet when it comes to explaining just what it is, words become
slippery and evasive. Nominally it is a “club” but properly
speaking the event has changed venues several times over
the years. It is more akin to a party, but that word too falls
short of the mark. At the risk of sounding cliché, Club Metro
is an experience that dissolves the barrier between subject
and object, entertainer and entertained. It pulls the rug out
from under the controlled and planned programming that
exists in so many Japanese clubs and turns the event into an
interactive, dynamic experience that is unique every time. On
24 |RAN|
ME TRO
THE
CLUB
any given night you may see singing, dancing, drag queens
and strip teases and the later you stay the more interesting it
gets. If that sounds a bit intense it is because it can be, and
yet at the same time The Metro Club is the most relaxed and
open club environment you are likely to find anywhere. While
the dancers act out their primordial love rituals others sit and
enjoy a few drinks and a good chinwag, without seeming
like wallflowers. The sofas are strewn about with those who
haven' t had enough to drink and those that have had far
too much. There is a very come-as-you-are (or come as you
wish you were) and do-as-you-please environment that asks
only that you enjoy and respect all the party has to offer.
Whether you are gay, straight, lesbian, bi-curious, transgender,
transvestite, or a transformer, there is a place for you at Metro.
We asked the maître d-cum-MC-cum-Madame Matty d'Metro
to answer a few questions about the event, the gay community
in Nagoya (and a little about circumcision). Several beers later
this is what came out:
RAN: How do the clubs that you throw the party at react to
the event?
Matty: People here are a lot less hung-up about their sexuality
like people are in the west. All the staff are straight and of
course they know what kind of party it is but I have never had
any problems or attitude.
RAN: Why the need to specifically label and market the party
as an “international event?” Why not just participate with the
established Japanese gay clubs? As a foreigner how have you
felt going to Japanese gay clubs?
Matty: Basically all that exists in Nagoya and even most
major cities in Japan, are gay “snacks.” You go in and you sit
at the counter, you get charged two thousand yen for a beer
and three peanuts and then you have to talk to the ''Master''
who is like “so are you a top or a bottom?” It's like, I don't
even know your name, you don't know mine. I didn't come
here to talk about what I like to do with somebody that I am
involved with. So that is pretty much how the whole Metro
Club got started. The three guys who started it were like,
“there is no where to go and just dance, and be in a gay, open
environment where you can just have a drink, meet people
and talk, dance and move around freely. In the “snacks” you
don't move. You sit down and if there is somebody down the
bar who likes you, they write it on a little slip of paper and
pass it. It’s like, “grow up people. You are a 30 year old living
at home with mommy and daddy and you’re still in the closet,
passing notes to people in a bar.”
RAN: So when Japanese people come to your event do they
enjoy it? What sort of feedback have you received from them?
Matty:The Japanese people who come are always saying it’s a
great party, a lot more friendly and relaxed than they thought,
and they come back.
RAN: Are there many Japanese people in the gay/lesbian
community who come-out to their friends and family?
Matty: I think it depends on the individual, their family and
their line of work. I know some guys who have come out
to their families and been totally accepted. I think they are
definitely the exception though. There are a lot of really great
people here, and there are also a lot of people who grow-
up here and their world is very narrow and there is a lot of
expectation to conform, to marry, especially if you are the
oldest son.
RAN: Do you think that in Japan it’s common for a lot of gay
men to get married?
Matty: I think a lot do. The first gay person I met in Japan was
a married man. I actually became very close with the whole
family, and every time I had a little vacation I would stay at
their house. Nice wife, nice kids, nice mother-in-law, big
country house with rice fields. And nobody knew anything.
RAN: Club Metro is a really eclectic crowd, not only in terms
of orientation but nationality, age and gender. How do you
think that affects the atmosphere?
Matty: I think that is what
makes the atmosphere so
wonderful, is the diversity at
the party, and the openness.
It’s basically a gay/lesbian
event because there's really
nothing like that in Nagoya
on a regular basis and I
think the community needs
somewhere they can come
and feel welcome and meet
other people who are gay or lesbian or bi or whatever. But it's
basically open to anyone as long as they understand they're
on gay turf. It’s funny, the very first time I went to Metro 15
years ago, one of the guys who started the party was standing
at the bottom of the stairs to the old Club Mago and he said
“are you gay? Because this is a gay and lesbian party only.”
But that is what I never ever want to do. We all have to get
along and get together and accept each other no matter who
and what we are. I love that there are women and men and
they’re old and young and of all imaginable persuasions.
They're transvestites and transgender, they're gay and lesbian,
and whatever. Some of my closest friends that I have in Japan
I met at Metro and I know lots of people who met their long
term/lifetime partners at Metro. It's a small thing in the big
wide world but personally I think that is great, that Metro has
served the community so well on that very important level.
RAN: What would you like to see change in the Japanese
LGBT community?
Matty: I wish more people in the Japanese LGBT community
would come and check out the party, because I think some
of them think, “oh, it's all gaijin” and yeah it is a lot of
foreigners, but a lot of Japanese come and the ones that do
come are always very pleasantly surprised at how warm and
friendly the party is. I think a lot of Japanese who don't come
have the wrong impression of the party. I wish they would
come once to see for themselves what's really going.
RAN: Anything else you want to put on the record?
Matty: 18 years is a very long time, it’s a generation and The
Metro Club is the longest running monthly event happening in
Nagoya, perhaps in Japan, of any kind. Club Metro has been
held on the second Saturday of every month for 18 years. It
has switched venues several times throughout the years but
now meets regularly at Club Loverz in Shinsakae, directly
across from CBC TV's giant Ultraman statue. The party begins
at 10 and always goes until 5 or 6am. Entry costs 2500yen
at the door and includes two drink tickets. Whether you are
gay or straight or somewhere in between, Club Metro's doors
are always open and the party is always in full swing. www.
thenagoyametroclub.com or on facebook at The Nagoya
Metro Club
|RAN| 25
Fashion
流

B ootns
行

S easo
| By Achim Runnebaum |
in nagoya
The Must have item this season for fashionable
nagoyans is a fur tail dangling from women's
bags or belt loops.

RAN
Winter is upon us once again, and with
that comes one of the nicest seasons in
rry tails and
Japan. The fall season, otherwise known as Why are fu
so popular
Boots season.
accessories
this season?
But aside from that, there are many other
interesting trends to occupy your visual
sense this season: Well, the
y're cute
and feel
From short, colourful boots, to the already good.
seemingly ubiquitous fur, this season has
something for everyone. Even though most
people we talked to seemed to think that
Nagoya Fashion is conservative and behind
the times, this season is shaping up to be a
feast for the eyes.

RAN
RAN Why do you
u choose
How did yo day? wear a hat?
to
your outfit

RAN
What style of shoes is
"in" right now?
Short colorful boots,
especially red.

I just looked in
my closet and I didn't have
put on the first time to properly
thing that I style my hair
found and feel today, (laughs)
comfortable in. And I think hats
are cool.
26 |RAN|
 Stand up, please:
| By Alex Fraioli |
"I'm preparing for a twenty-minute set next month.
I'm a little nervous," I tell my friend.
"Oh! Just you?"
"Yup."
"For twenty minutes?" She is incredulous.
"Well, yeah."
"But… When does your partner come out?"
This is a common exchange whenever I bring up the topic
of Western stand-up comedy to my Japanese friends.
It's not their fault. On the surface, Japanese comedy seems
stuck in the Vaudeville era. The majority of active performers
are 'manzai', comedy duos consisting of a 'boke' (the wise
guy) and 'tsukkomi' (the straight man). Given the emphasis
on social roles and modes in Japanese society, it fits that
even the comedy scene would have performers conform to
preexisting, easily-accessible archetypes. The relationship
between boke and tsukkomi is basic and predictable, serving
only as a vehicle toward the inevitable outcome: one dude
smacking the other dude on the back of the head in roaring
consternation. Scathing social critique -- a staple of Western
comedy -- has little place on the Japanese side.
Not to say it isn't funny. The problem is not that something
is "missing" from mainstream Japanese comedy, but that,
unlike the West, there just isn't much of an audience for
anything else. In speaking with some average Nagoyans, I
learned a few surprising things about these bow-tie-wearing,
television chucklesmiths: They're all that most people want. I
consulted a 15-year old high school boy, a 35-year old female
train conductor, and a kindly widow. The prevailing sentiment
is that at the end of the day, investing thought and emotion is
the very last thing most Japanese people want to do. Sitting
down to watch ridiculous slapstick is a pretty good stress
reliever, and I really can't argue with that. The more I thought
about it, the more parallels I began to draw to most American
sitcoms.
The big difference is that Western stand-up is almost
stylistically inextricable from TV comedy. Many of the
same concepts, formats, and even people are employed on
both fronts. We even put hour-long stand-up specials on
TV, something that would be too monotonous for Japanese
audiences. The simple truth is that comedy, to most Japanese
people, is a very black and white thing; if you're not making
me laugh nonstop, you must not be a comedian.
Comedy is a bit more flexible in the West, which
experienced a gritty alternative comedy boom in the late
80's and early 90's. While Western comics were
trading seltzer bottles for cigarettes,
their Japanese
The state of
comedy in Japan
counterparts kept right on pratfalling. The sort of dark or
obtuse humor that we so love (you may have heard your
Japanese friends use the term "American joke") comes in part
from an entertainment renaissance that Japanese performers
never really needed.
As with most forms of entertainment, it comes down to
business versus art. The manzai seen on TV are talented and
well-rehearsed, but they're there primarily to earn a paycheck.
Authentic, expressive comedy is confined to Tokyo's Asakusa
district, which stages original Rakugo performances, what we
urbanites would think of as one-man shows. They may not
necessarily be humorous, but they deliver a personal, more
opinionated performance than a TV manzai. And they DO
have a following.
Rakugo is as close to stand-up comedy as it gets in Japan.
A single performer kneels onstage, imparting tales and
witticisms from the perspectives of multiple characters. Many
Western stand-ups specializing in long form comedy take a
startlingly similar approach, eschewing laugh-a-minute gags
for raw, altruistic stories about life.
For a Japanese fan's perspective I spoke with Hiro Osada,
manager and bartender at The Coopers, an Irish pub in front
of Nagoya station. He's an outspoken guy who loves to laugh,
and tries to take a humorous approach to life and work.
Ran: What's your take on Western comedy?
Hiro: Well, it's difficult for us Japanese to identify the
punchline in an English stand-up routine or talk show. With
movies, some of it is easy, some of it is hard. The physical
humor of Mr. Bean, or The Mask, for example, is very
accessible. Slapstick is pretty easy to get, but I'm not a kid,
you know, sometimes I want something deeper.
R: Do you like any Western comedy films?
H: Oh, sure. I loved Tropic Thunder. Most of the humor was
in the characters, especially Jack Black's character. I love Jack
Black. I also enjoyed Superbad. I think that kind of coming-of-
age story is universal in its appeal. The way that emotions shift
in a comedy is different than in a straight drama. First you're
smiling, then laughing, then crying. I wouldn't be crying if that
scene wasn't preceded by jokes. That kind of dynamic is more
powerful than a straight tragedy.
R: What about the language barrier? Are you satisfied with
Japanese subtitles?
H: Not really. I like that some swear words have power
in English films. Words like 'asshole' or 'motherfucker' are
usually left alone in Japanese subtitles, but I get a kick out
of them when they're used for comedy. They're always just
translated as 'kusoyarou!' which is very vague. English curses
have a specific potency.
R: Can you give us an example?
H: Well, I saw a comedy recently, I can't remember the
name, but one character said, "I've been waiting here for thirty
fuckin' minutes!" and the Japanese subtitle just said "I was
waiting for you." I think that 'fucking' is crucial to create an
atmosphere of comedy, you know, it establishes that character
as an asshole. Assholes are funny.
R: Assholes are funny?
H: Assholes are hilarious.
Alex Fraioli is a local
humorist and comedy nerd.
You can follow him on Twitter
at @pitohui or on his website,
Pitohui.org
 Create

& Ma r i a
創造

Aya
H
i, we're Aya Sakai and Maria
Amakusa. We met in high school
and have both loved drawing ever
since we were little. While our styles differ
drastically, we've been drawing together ever
since we met. Having different perspectives
and styles has helped inspire us to keep our
art fresh.

Aya:
My art is often about imaginative worlds and
unique characters. I never want to forget
how children think and feel. I can't help
but smile complacently when I'm drawing
imaginative things, because it's fun to
imagine them existing in this world. As we
grow older and become so-called adults, we
tend to think about things realistically, but
I want to keep imagining dreamful worlds
and fun, weird things. I like the warm feeling
pencil drawings can express.
I also love colorful things, and often
make paper cutouts. I won a prize in the
Nika Contest with my paper cutout piece. I
really want more people to know my art and
world, and I hope my work can make them
smile.

Maria:
I tend to use white, black, and red in my
art, and I love the male body. Knowing the
world of bondage and S&M escalated my
desire to use these elements. These days I
want to share the S&M world, which moves
me. People tend to have stereotypical sexual
ideas about it, but I want people to notice its
beauty. I keep drawing, hoping that others
will notice it as well.
 Living
生
活

FUTURE NAGOYA ?
Alan Omerovic Re-designs The Design City

| By TDHouchen |
Alan Omerovic is a native Canadian from
Vancouver bent on re-designing Nagoya
from the ground up, literally.
From the tender age of 4, Omerovic has been drawing
buildings, futuristic cityscapes, and possibly laying the
groundwork for developing future urban landscapes more
suited to today’s need for sustainable environments, better
use of space, and more livable surroundings.
From 4 years old.
Omerovic, self-described “architectural artist”, is a
mostly self-taught designer who creates elaborate models of
gorgeously intricate skyscrapers with roof gardens, colorful
glass exteriors and foliage adorning the outer walls of his
buildings, suspended high in the sky like flying trees. His
edifices look like giant, towering, gleaming living buildings.
Hey Alan, how much is the rent?
Omerovic believes Nagoya should be a more “vibrant
photos: ALAN OMEROVIC

and relaxed city”, with “more green space, wider streets”,

and better usage of Nagoya’s vast roof space. I second that
emotion.
Check out his designs and get an idea of what Nagoya
might look like in the near future, if Omerovic has any say in
it. This could be your new digs.

|RAN| 29
Read
文
学
| By Adam Pasion |
I
n stark contrast to its classical oriental roots, modern Japan
is celebrated for embodying the surreal and bizarre. With
their maid cafes, decorated freight trucks and black-faced
yamanba girls its no wonder that neighborhoods like Tokyo’s
Harajuku and Akihabara are drawing more tourists than the
traditional temples in Nara. For long-time residents of Japan
the novelties of “engrish” t-shirts, big furry mascots and lolitas
may have lost most of their charm and what once would turn
heads now has seamlessly blended into everyday banality.
Even so there are still countless moments that leave even the
most jaded expat scratching their head. For example, ever
wonder just what goes on in a Terekura (telephone club)? How
about some of those foods you were too scared to try, like live
octopus?
For lifers and greenhorns alike, “Moresukine” is a book
that will no doubt answer many questions about this surreal
clump of islands we inhabit and perhaps even restore a
bit of that mystified wonder that slipped away so long
ago. In “Moresukine” whose title comes from the Japanese
pronunciation of “moleskin,” author Dirk Schwieger explores
all those places few foreigners dare to tread, not because he
wants to but because he has to. For 6 months Schwieger had
an open challenge on his blog in which readers could submit
any suggestions to him and he had to do it and document it
in comic form. For every experience from capsule hotels to
ancient swordsmiths, Schwieger is ever ready with pen in
hand to record the event in his trusty moleskin. The concept
itself is fun and imaginative but its also superbly executed
with confident lines, creative pacing and an eye for detail that
will throw the reader right into urban Tokyo. Schwieger was
kind enough to answer a few questions about his work for
RAN Magazine.
30 |RAN|
RAN: Moresukine is one of the first interactive projects I have
seen that really utilizes the internet as a creative tool. How did
you come up with such an interesting idea for a comics-blog?
Schwieger: It really didn’t feel all that “pioneery” back in
2006, but basing the book on assignments allowed me to
combine my resentment towards the navel-gazing aspects
of some personal blogs with a structural approximation to
certain facets of Japanese culture. Like, creating a work in a
joint effort rather than by one blown-up European artist’s ego,
rooting it in all that virtual communication hubbub or turning
myself into a flesh-and-blood avatar that could be navigated
through different levels of everyday life in Tokyo.
RAN: In the West, Tokyo has a reputation for being a strange
and surreal place. After living in Japan for some time, do you
still feel it is a strange place or is that stereotype exaggerated?
Schwieger: One of the main points of MORESUKINE was
that around the globe, there are countless Tokyos in the minds
of people – erected out of endless anecdotes, myths and
projections of this dream city far, far away. I guess for me,
there are at least two coexisting Tokyos: the excessive, mind-
blowing one, where you can go and see people doing their
business on stage or whatever, and then there’s the place
where you do your everyday stuff, go to the supermarket, do
your laudry, meet friends. MORESUKINE is very much about
the interface between these two worlds.
RAN: Being forced to explore some of the stranger niches
of Japanese culture, how did that affect your experience
living here?
Schwieger: It was such an enriching experience! Having this
uncannily well-informed readership sending me to places I
would never have seen let alone dared to enter without their backup.
On the other hand, I hope I was also able to dispel some of the more
exotic projections and could point out that, you know, in the end we’re
all carbon-based.

RAN: What has been the general response to your work from
Japanese people?
Schwieger: As challenging as it is to reach the general Japanese public
with an English-language work, those who were able to follow my narrative
seem to have had a lot of fun. One Japanese reader left a comment on my
Studio Ghibli Museum entry, saying that he has lived around the corner of
the museum for years and now finally decided to go there himself.

RAN: How do you feel about the Japanese comics scene compared
to that of Germany?
Schwieger: I would say in Japan, you really have an industry – huge,
fast, professional, commercial – whereas in Germany, it’s more or less a
subcultural scene. A rather small ensemble of market players and only few
German publications a year.
There was no way I could set foot into the Japanese manga industry without
speaking Japanese, so I tried to become more professional by imitating the
overtaxing and sometimes inhumane elements of this industry with my own
weekly MORESUKINE schedule: seven days for receiving an assignment,
doing research on the topic, making phone calls, appointments, organizing
an interpreter, going there, experiencing something, or not, reflecting upon
it, laying-out the pages, writing, pencilling and inking four to eight pages,
in addition to your day job – it was crazy. But it was me trying to create my
own industry-like pressure and see what happens.

RAN: What sorts of things did you get inspiration

from in Tokyo?
Schwieger: My experience was, that you didn’t have to wait for
inspiration, it was waiting for you right in front of your doorstep. You
go outside and some elderly gentleman that just bought himself some
takeaway suddenly approaches you and firmly insists that you take his
food as a gift, leaving you with his plastic bag, a brimful of question
marks and the task to somehow fit this incident into your world view –
that’s inspiration!

RAN: What advice would you give to foreigners

living in Japan?
Schwieger: At the risk of replacing one stereotype with another,when I
talked to people about moving to Japan some ex-expat warned me about
how unapproachable Japanese people are and that I should go to a gym in
hope of meeting some Americans or Australians if my loneliness became
too unbearable – and I’ve had very,very different experiences during my
time in Tokyo.
So the only underlying advice that you will find in MORESUKINE is a plea
for openness and impartiality. I am convinced that if you meet people and
places and situations with a certain amount of openness of mind, you will
be richly rewarded.

If you are not hooked yet go check-out the book, bound

to look just like a Moleskin notebook, or for the more Dirk Schwieger
digitally inclined, (and cheap-ass gaijin) go check-out the
original blog, still available for free at: NBM Comics Lit, 2008
http://tokyoblog.livejournal.com/ ISBN 10:1-56163-537-5

|RAN| 31
Taste
味
わ
う
ARI A N A
T
o call Ariana an Afghani restaurant is bit misleading,
as in fact the restaurant itself makes no claims to be
Afghani at all. In fact if you are like much of the lunch
crowd, it would hardly stand out from the hundreds of other
Indian curry houses (most of which, in this fare city of ours are
in fact Nepalese). As a matter of fact to even get a glance at
the Afghani cuisine you have to ask for a separate menu which
would be better described as Pan-Middle-Eastern/Central-
Asian fare...what a mouth full, now you see why I just called
it Afghani. In many ways the menu reflects the diversity of
Afghanistan itself with influences from Arab, Persian and Asian
traditions. The key to adventurous eating is to order as many
things as possible to insure a well-rounded understanding of
the menu, which in the case of Ariana is taken care of by way
of the course menu.
A perfect way to begin the meal is with Bolani, a
deceivingly simple leek and potato flat-bread covered in a
sweet chili sauce. Unlike other flat-breads such as naan or
pita, bolani is more pancake like, the tame middle-eastern
cousin of okonomiyaki. The highlight of the menu, not to
be skipped is mantu, a type of dumpling that looks similar
Just a couple blocks northwest from the tracks of JR Chikusa Station, Ariana is so
much more than a curry joint. Make a point to ask for the Afghani and Irani menu
and glut on some of the best Middle-Eastern food the city has to offer.
32 |RAN|
| By Adam Pasion |
to Chinese shumai. That is about where the similarities end
though, because mantu dumplings are placed on a bed of
fresh garlic and lemon yoghurt, then garnished with a chilled
tomato and onion sauce. The dish is not only aesthetically
pleasing but it tastes just as exotic as it sounds, with soft
chunks of steamed lamb bringing the disparate flavors all
together in a strangely exquisite balance.
After sampling the Afhani portion of the menu there is
still the Irani food beckoning to be eaten. The Irani bill of fare
has more of the standard things you might expect to find at a
place catering to the Pan-Middle-Eastern palate. Koubide is a
type of mutton kebab gingerly spiced and grilled to perfection.
Susa is a bit reminiscent of tandoori chicken but a bit heavier
on lemon and herbs, and to give the dish a hearty backbone,
the zeresk plaou, a type of spicy rice that will fill any empty
pockets left in your stomach. As a sort of non-alcoholic
digestif, daring diners may enjoy dugh, pronounced a but like
'dog' no less. Dugh is an unsweetened yoghurt drink seasoned
with salt and mint. Although the salt probably does a bit to
make you more thirsty than when you started, the mint is
actually quite refreshing.
http://ariana.dweb.jp
girl and alien illustrations: YUKO SANBORN
 Can you
find the 8
differences
between
these two
pictures ?