Whole World 21

Its could be easy to generalize about Tokyo into these very reductive terms, to assume a monoculture pervading every twist down the narrow streets. It could be especially easy to do this as an English conversation teacher for stable, career-minded middle to upper class people, who generally fall into these patterns:

-Engineer
-Office Lady
-Salaryman
-Housewife
-University student working hard to become one of the above or a flight attendant (if they're women)

And who generally discuss these hobbies (in order):
-Working Over Time (and not in the cool BTO way, but in the worn out way*)
-Shopping
-watching DVDs
-listening to J-Pop
-sitting in cafes
-not dancing

Meaning when a student expresses something different, I hop all over it like an excited rabbit, talking out of my ass just to keep it going: "You love breakdancing? Me too!! Tell me lots of things about it."

Toss in the overbearing patriarchy, and when I'm at work I sometimes think of Tokyo as a technologically advanced version of the American 1950s or like Gotham City in Batman Returns.

(Based on the research I've been doing, its own 1950s was a lot wilder and stranger, right after the war with civil society developing rapidly to clamour for control: mass union strikes and passionate pacifist organizations fighting the elites who had been bowed back from their war loss.)

Anyway, what saves me from western myopic high handedness is living in Big World 21, a guest house that leads out onto an old execution ground from the Edo period.

Usually, after jet lag has blown away, the teachers my company sends here seek out new, cleaner, more private places to live. I stayed, and its here that has given me my most present, banal, ridiculous, and terrific experiences. Because my area is far from renowned and is west of west Tokyo's great working class neighbourhood (Koenji), and even Tokyo's hidden gem (Kichijoji), the people that come here are the weirdos, the poor, the unemployed, the underworked, the artistic and the expats. Its a fucked up mix and its great.

Here are some of the people in shorthand:

SATORU - late 20s, he ran away from his gang life in his hometown and became a fantastic chef here in Tokyo. He's about to follow his girlfriend Ruth to England.

MOTOI - drugs and graffiti and raves and one cooking job to another. He's the boyfriend of

KANAKO - 18 years old, she lives here far from her parents for mysterious reasons. For sometime after she arrived she was getting red faced drunk every night and was treated like an object by a lot of older guys here because she's really pretty. She cooks post-war meals like cabbage and lentil soup.

SHIN CHAN - mid 20s Dancing and DJing. When a group of us went to a dance club, he disappeared after an hour. We got worried when the club closed at 5am and I had to peek over every closed toilet stall to make sure he wasnt passed out in one. We finally got him on the phone and he was in the ecstatic at some party way down the street.

YUICHIRO - Awful guy in leather pants. He's a sleaze and boyfriend to

SOYOUNG - from South Korea, she's amazing and in my videos and I had a massive crush on her for months, but I've given up when I saw how much planning she put into Yuichiro's birthday. She's studying computer science and hates it.

KIYOTAKA - finally left. He works for a patent office, and was one of the oldest here, mid 30s. He described Big World as Neverland. He also goes to sex parties. Super great in his own way.

ARLENE - from the Phillipines and working various jobs. She stays up till 7 every morning, and came with me to translate at the doctor's when i cut the shit out of my hand. But she had to put on makeup first.

AKIKO - really nice and learning photography, but the closest thing to evil I've met - she works for the Stars & Stripes news outlet in Tokyo.

VIVIAN - in a metal band that's signed to a label in the UK and works in a warehouse. I forget her real name and am too embarrassed to ask again, but her stage name is Vivian Slaughter. When I asked her how her show went last week, she showed me the awful bruises on her arm and said, "Great!"

EIJI - one of those people that when I see them in a play or movie you think, 'I hate when writers put in someone so unrealistic. How can I believe a person like this exists?' He exists. He tried for years to get a job as a security guard for the U.S. army base, and when he finally passed the test, he had to quit because of a hip problem. He bought a red sports car and doesnt have a license. He takes pictures of foreign women who live in the Big World. And he makes terrible terrible jokes and gives advice on how to pick up women. "Ah, I see you are eating pineapple. Japanese people say, "pine". Do you like pine? Hahaha. If you see Phillipine girl, give her pineapple. Phillipine girl loves pineapple. They love it. Hahaha."

SHINEI – a wonderful cook, a man too polite, an artist working hard to become a children's book maker. He is also working as an english teacher, and studies idioms everyday. Because of this, his english sounds too perfect and polished, like a robot trying to pass off for human:
"Hey Shinei, the police took your bike away cause you parked it illegally? That sucks!"
"Well as you know, that is the way the cookie crumbles."
...but it costs like 5000Yen to get it back though right?"
"Yes, this will certainly burn a hole in my pocket and leave me without a penny to my name."

AI & YU - living in the same room. Its only funny if you pronounce their names right.

KIM PAN - a Korean baker who was in the special forces for the Korean army. He does 200 pushups in one sitting. I'm up to 48 now. We act like Marx brothers around each other because any other language but slapstick is too difficult between us.

MAYUMI – works in a hostess bar complimenting salarymen as she sits on their laps.

A 32 year old and his 16 year old girlfriend, nameless to me, started dating when he stopped a man from molesting her on the train.

SUSHIL – A Hindu who managed to abstain from drinking for about 2 days of moving here from India.

And many more!




*The most extreme case I've heard of...one of my students, Atsushi told me that he had to work 20 hours straight on a weekend. I asked him how he can possibly do that...coffee? "No no coffee...lots of Coke. And I dont eat." "You dont eat for 20 hours isnt that insane?" "It's very difficult."