Last night was the worst night of my life...

I spent all night hanging out with Mark at his bar and trying to cheer up a friend who's visa fell through. I take the last train (subway) home and call my gf when I get to the station...no response. So I went to Yoshinoya to have something to eat quick. I am just about done when I get this phone call "Ryan, where are you?" "I am in NakaMeguro whats up." "I'm sorry I do not know what happened, there is blood everywhere and there's like 20 cops here and I don't know. I'm sorry, I'm sorry." I said "Are you ok? Do not leave with the cops till I get there!" So I run home in the pouring rain wondering what the hell is going on. I had no idea.

I get to our street and there are a few police cars...I got a little worried. As I walk up to our building I see the front security door has a huge hole in it, someone broke it. So cops are all over the place and they wouldn't let me in the builidng until I told them in japanese that my gf was the one involved in it, so they let me in. I run into the apt to see Miho with blood all over her face and hands and the cops want to question her. SO I tell them to wait a second politely because I just want her to gather her composur before heading out. They politely oblige. So then after a few minutes they started getting a little antsy so I ask what we have to do.

They say that she has to go to Meguro Police Station for questioning. So I say that unless I come she isn't going anywhere without a lawyer. So they let me goto the police station with her. We get to the police station and all you can here is the taxi driver who drove her home earlier in the night clamoring for his taxi fee. What a piece of shit. There were better ways of going about that than he approached. I kind of cursed him out in japanese...ok I did. So then the cops start questioning me in japanese trying to intimidate me. I just laugh and say in japanese "get a translator, by law you have to." So they got me one within minutes over the phone. They were trying to accuse me of attacking her at first. Right away the translator helped me completely dimiss that notion. So they backed off and then started yelling at my gf. So I tell the translator that they are yelling at her and making her cry. So he tells me to give the phone to the cop in charge, which I do...I could hear the yelling over the phone from 3 feet away...it was all downhill from there.

They want to speak with her in private so I tell them they can as long as a Lawyer is present, either a lawyer or myself so I can explain to her what is going on. She was too emotionally distraught to understand anything going on around her. They agree to let me sit outside the interrogation room. That was stupid, they just wanted to intimidate her at tha point. They did not want me anywhere near them, or her. So I am sitting outside the room on my cell with a friend of mine and all of a sudden I hear her yell out "I don't care what you say!!! Leave me alone!! I didn't do anything!!" and then she bursts into tears. She actually ran halfway out of the interrogation room enough to where I could talk to her, she just ran over to me and hugged me and told me to take her home. I couldn't take her home but I was getting to the point where I was scared because I have cops yelling at both of us, she is too frazzled to understand japanese at all that well, and they will not tell me anything. So I tell them to calm down and just talk to her. They understood. I ask why they yell and they start yelling at me in japanese. So at this point I couldn't take anymore. I yelled at them "tell me what is going on or I will get the US Embassy involved!" One of them looked scared, the other cops just laughed at me and basically said go for it.

So I go downstairs to the front desk and ask the cop there if he can help me find a phone number in the japanese phon book. He yells at me in japanese to "fuck off" so I punched the phone book yelled at him and walked out to go to the pay phone at the 7-1 next door. I call information and get the number to the embassy and get in touch with them. The lady, at first was very nice to me and said to go back to the police station find the officer in charge and call her back. I go back and the police officers all ignore me...so i say "denwa no amerikan embassy" and all their heads shot up and one of them came with me. He said to go downstairs and we could call them. SO we go downstairs and he points at the pay phone. The bastard would not even let me call from a regular phone.

So I call the embassy and they talk for a while and i get on the phone and the jap front desk lady at the embassy says to me..."What were you doing at 3am? Are you on drugs? Did you call to protect yourself because you did something that they just haven't found out about yet?!?!?!" All I could thnk was "huh!? where did I become the bad guy?" SO I say to her " I called you because the cops refuse to speak to me, my gf is going to be arrested, and I think they are trying to find a way to implicate me in this." So she says "so you did do something?" I said "no! I was out with friends who will tell you where I was all night if you just call and ask them" So then she says "ok are you being arrested?" I say "no, but I need to know what is going on. I have nobody else I can call at the this time of day. My gf is american-japanese, she was born in america, in san francisco. help her, she is an american citizen. do something" and the lady says "so have you seen her green card?" I say "Green card? She has an American passport, she was born in san francisco! That makes her American" The jap girl at the front desk by this point is obviously unwilling to help me so she says "well I cannot do anything until you are arrested." I reply "but she is american help her, please." the girl then takes an attitude and says "this call is going no where, I still do not understand why you called here. what is the purpose for your call?" So I am at the point of crying almost now I say to her "I called because I am scared. I have nobody else to turn to, I am 22 years old and my parents are back in NY, I was always told by anybody if I ever get in trouble to call the embassy. Just before they tried to implicate me in this. They might still, all I want is an explanation, in englsih, of what is going on. i also just want to protect myself and my gf against any injustice. please help me, please." So she replies back "So why did you call?" So I thanks her for all of her help and said goodbye. I was polite. Obviously she would not help me so I gave up.

So now it is about 3am. I have been in contact with Mark all night but since he is a little not sober he cannot help me. having someone who has been drinking all night goto the police station is asking for it. so we both agree its best he stays away unless absolutely neccessary. So I ask the cops for the translator, which by law if I am in a police station, no matter what, and I ask for one...they must give it to me. whether or not I am in any trouble or not. They refuse and yell at me in japanese to sit down and shut up. So I plead with them for a translator. They unhappiliy get one on the phone. the police officer and translator talk for the better part of ten minutes for the translator to tell me that The cop thinks I should stay a little while longer and then my gf will be released and I can go home. So now I think, ok...this isnt so bad after all.

One hour goes by, then two...so I ask for a translator again. They get him without any arguement to the contrary. I speak with him and he says that the cop now thinks it is a good idea for me to go home because they do not know how long she will be there. So I say that I am not going home without her, or in the case of her somehow being arrested, without knowing what is going on. I say to him. "All I want is to know what is going on. I am sitting in the police station minding my own business and doing whatever they tell me to, all I ask is to know what is going on" So he agrees that that is reasonable and tells me to give the phone back to the lead cop. So they talk for a while and I am now back on the phone with the translator and he tells me "just a little while longer and it will be over ok?" so I take solace in the fact that he says that...for the second time.

So now it is 6am and all of a sudden I realize that my gf's parents do not know anything about what has been going on. So I ask the police if she has called them, or if they have...now by this point we were getting along ok, the one guy was actually translating (in very broken english) a newspaper for me to help keep me busy...they went from nice to shock-zoom pissed. They started screaming at me and the one guy tells me her parents are not to get involved. Screaming at me telling me to go home. So I ask about a lawyer...if she has a lawyer, at the very least a public defender, with her during the questioning. They are now furious with me. So I go get a phone card and call my cousin, since he is a lawyer, and studied law in japan..i thought he might now maybe a little bit about what the legal process here is...and he tells me to call her parents immediately. It took me about 20 minutes to gather up the courage to call her father. i was shaking when I dialed the number.

Her mother picked up and said "goodmorning ryan...its nice to ear from you but why so early??" It was 7am at this point. I tell her what happened and then she puts my gf's father on the phone and I tell him and he asks what he should do. I say that you should come down to the station with a lawyer as soon as you can. So he agrees and then says he will call my cell when he gets to the closest train station in a half hour. So now it is about 8am and I have not heard from him. I am sitting there and the cops call me over to tell me she was arrested. i ask for an interpreter and they get him instantly. he explains the following to me...

Standard procedure after arrest in Japan is to sit in a holding cell in the police station for 48 hours. No contact with anyone (family, friends, boyfriends) except a lawyer. Ok seems fair enough I thought. Then she has to go have a meeting with the prosecutor who will decide if she will go on trial or not (there is no grand juries in japan like they have in america). So basically that means a trial for her. So I say "ok, be honest with me....what is the worst punishment she could possibly receive??? I just want to know what is going on here." He says "no problem, in my experience, let me remind you I am not a judge or prosecutor, but in my experience she will get no more than a fine" I then reply "then why is she in jail for three days?" He says "like I said, standard procedure. we do not have bail like they have in america." I say "ok...how do I get ahold of her?? How do I know where she is? Do her parents know all of this? I need to know as much as possible." He says "well, you cannot speak to her for a few days, no one but a lawyer can, not even her parents. After she talks to the prosecutor he will decide whether or not she can contact people besides a lawyer. you do not get one call here like you do in america. I know you are confused but the legal system is very different." I say "ok, I want to know what is going on the whole time. I want to know what the result of the meeting with the prosecutor is, and I want to know when her trial is. I just want to be there for her as much as I can." He says "you cannot help her, the best thing you can do is eave your phone number with the police station and they will contact you if they feel the need to, if they need your help they will call you." I say "fair enough, but I just want to know that she is ok the whole time, I want to see her as soon as possible. Even just talking to her on the phone. I just want to here her voice..anything" He says "the police will call you if they need your help. I'm sorry." and he hangs up.

So I call her parents immediately to inform them of the whole thing and I am basically blown off. I understand that they are upset about the whole thing, but so am I. They could have been a little nicer to me. The whole time the cops wanted nothing to do with her parents so I am the one who had to let them know about everything. Her father says that if he hears anything he will call me but that I should just try to stay completely out of the way and not worry about it. Kind of hard seeing as how I live with her. I also realized something else today...

I love her. I always kind of took her granted. That she would be there, and that I wouldn't lose her. According to one of my criminal lawyer friends who practices in japan she could goto jail for maybe a year...depending on how they charge her. In japanese jails there are no visitation rights. i would not see her for a year...probably never again. I love her. If I lose her I will be destroyed. I am nothing without her, I will be nothing without her.