Working in Shinjuku Part 2...Cowards, UFJ Merger

Working in Shinjuku is alwayys interesting. Not too long ago I saw a Pachinko Parlor closing one night and outside of it they had buckets of pachinko balls they were tossing sans-bucket into the back of a small dumptruck. I was talking to a few of my friends about 3 feet from this wholle fiasco as it was unfolding. We dubbed it the "Pachinko Ball Truck." It was happening right in the middle of Kabukicho like it was a perfectly normal thing. Hence it must be. The beauty of Japan is that they do not allow gambling. Pachinko, however, is played to win money. So the way that this works is by taking all the balls you win while playing to the counter and they sell you things like teddy bears, small micro-chip looking things, poker token looking things, etc. You then take these things to a "TUC Shop" around the corner that then buys them off of you and gives you actual money. It is a legal loop hole that is beautifully exploited all over Japan. So anyway, I met this tourist who walked into a pachinko parlor with 3,000 yen and walked out with an armful of teddy bears. He took them to the TUC Shop and walked away with 34,000 yen. It was a fair trade. 330 dollars for a few teddy bears, screw E-Bay, Pachinko is easier.
 
The Yakuza are also alot of fun to watch. The other night I saw a younger errand boy of a Yakuza get into with one of the Karaoke Club flyer guys and start smacking him around. Out of no where this ancient pinky missing, pin-stripe suit wearing, mega Yakuza came and smacked the guy over the head with one of those paper folding Japanese-style fans. I laughed my ass off. Then he grabbed the guy buy his tie and literally threw him into a set of doors. He then punched him in the face a few times and grabbed him by the neck and yelled something in Japanese. The stupid younger Yakuza then bowed and apologized profusely to everyone involved, including the guy who beat his ass. So after all was said and done I decided to celebrate this entertainment with a smoke. I walked up to the battered Yakuza and said "raita- arimasuka?" which means "do you have a lighter?" He looked at me like I was crazy and probably thought about doing something to make me pay for asking the high and mighty for a lighter. Instead he just said "hai" and let me borrow his lighter. One of the other Yakuza then bowed to me and said "sumimasen." Unreal. All the foreigners that saw me do this were shocked. good stuff.
 
The last few nights have been crazy. I usually do not drink all that much while I am working. i have a few drinks at most, if any. Wednesday night changed all that. I grabbed two Korean girls and brought them down and in one hour they bought me 20 some odd beers. I was soo drunk I couldn´t even play darts. The other guy working, David, had about 5 or 6 triple shots of whiskey courtesy of the Korean hostess girls. He could barely breathe haha. That is not even the best part though. They kept telling me how cute I am and shoving money in my pockets to show how much they liked me. They basically made me their "host" for the night for all intensive purposes.
 
Last night I found a group of 6 British, Aussie, and American tourists to take to the club. they were wicked cool. I ended up hanging out with them all night. They got me pretty shit faced as well. If this keeps up my goal of having a liver equal to Mickey Mantle´s will soon become a reality. Better keep training.
 
So now after two nights of drinking like I´ll never have a beer again I am exhausted. I have three more nights of work in a row and a tv show to do on Sunday. I don´t want to do it because of two reasons. One, I have to take a two hour train ride to Yokosuka, where the military base is. Two, i have to wear a Navy uniform. Uck! But it pays my bills so it´s cool. I also was able to swing a trip to the beach on Sunday afternoon out of Miho who, for some odd reason, has a fear of the beach.  Screw that, we are going. it has been nearly two years since I went to a beach. I will not go all the way down to within ten minutes of one to be told I cannot go to it.
 
The Latest Interesting Search to Find Me: Gay Strip Bar in Tokyo . How in the hell did this find my site? THere is no mention anywhere of a gay strip bar. AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!
 
The latest people to join the cowardly ranks of the French are now the Phillipinos. How shameful are they? Please don´t take all 51 troops out of Iraq! Oh god no! They were making such a difference. Much more valuable than the 100,000 plus Americans there....right.
 
UFJ Bank and Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group are looking into a possible merger. Poor Sandy Wyle must be rolling in his retirement home. This would make the new entity the largest bank in the world. One observation, UFJ Bank´s ATMs are now open 24 hours (they are pioneers in the Japanese bank industry for that) and Tokyo Mitsubishi´s close frequently at either 5 or 9 pm...could TM finally get 24 hour ATMs? I can only hope. I hate the bank even though I use it. Miho´s father was an exectuvie at UFJ. He must be rolling in his retirement as well.