Notes from a Tokyo Travel Journal, page 2

Having read a little about the Japanese culture of sex, and more importantly having less restrained inhibitions in a place where everything I did was looked upon somewhat curiously, I decided to go to a strip show that a common guidebook from the U.S. had mentioned. The entrance fee was Ľ4,000 and you could stay as long as you wanted, but there were several repetitions of the same program between 11:30a.m. and closing time, 9:00p.m. I entered the theater near the end of one woman's act. She was thin, attractive, and danced very well. The next woman was less pretty and had very squinty eyes but I couldn't determine if they were naturally squinty or she was trying to look sexy because she seemed to open her eyes at some times more than others. Her routine consisted of her yelping immediately after she walked onto the main state, then walking down the cat-walk and squatting before one man at a time as she held her vaginal lips open for the patron to stare for several seconds. She did this in front of about eight men, one after the other, then left the stage. The third woman was then only non-Japanese woman and she wasn't a Filipina. She was a blond haired Western woman. She was heavier than any of the other dancers, and couldn't dance very well. It appeared that she was there for the almost exclusively Japanese crowd because she was blond-haired and had relatively large breasts. The next woman had to work a little harder. After the main part of her routine was over she walked down the cat-walk and squatted to reveal her inner vagina to about three men before she left the stage. walk with a small black bag. She would stop in front of a couple of men at a time and begin wiping their hands with a small hand towel similar to the ones found in restaurants throughout Tokyo. Then she would grab their hand and place it at her vagina allowing the man to caress her but not penetrate or, if a hand was already there, she would place it on her breast. The next four dancers appeared in increasingly complicated traditional attire, and sometimes with a traditional coiffure. The fifth dancer I saw used a dildo in her routine on the stage. After leaving the stage for brief time she returned to walk down the cat-walk with another dildo which she handed to one man at a time, letting them insert it into her for a few seconds. The next woman was the most talented dancer and made me wonder if she had not spent some time studying traditional dance before her employment at this particular sort of club. Her routine included a transparent, blue-hued parasol, as a prop which she used first to stroke as if to seduce the patrons, to seductively "hide" her naked breasts, and to open and close as a metaphor for an orgasm as the handle was moved back and forth between her legs. The seventh woman had an attractive body though the makeup on her face did not cover the acne there too well. Her specialty was to walk down the cat-walk and hand a man a Polaroid camera. She would then sit on the stage before him and spread her outstretched legs for him to take two pictures for Ľ1000. She would kiss one of the pictures to leave her lipstick impression before moving on. One of the older men gave her several items, one of which was a small tripod, apparently he was an experienced patron who wanted more photographs! The next dancer was older than the rest and the thought of her revealing her vagina was all the encouragement I needed to decide I had seen enough and leave.

There is something about the young Japanese woman's voice that is heard on subway train intercoms, in the elevators of the department stores, and anywhere else a young woman might be employed to deal with the public that is both alluring and annoying at the same time. It is the artificially high, little girl pitch with which all unmarried woman seemed to be expected to be to speak in throughout Tokyo.

I walked through Roppongi on my way to video tape the Tokyo Tower and saw more Americans than we had seen anywhere during our brief Asia trip to the Philippines, Thailand, Korea, and Tokyo. I think I saw as many young black men as white men and they all appeared to be tourists out partying on a Saturday night. I use the words "tourists" on purpose because none of them appeared to have the common casualness of those who have been in an area for more than a couple of weeks, or even the confidence of those who go out to bars that they have frequented for several weeks or months.

I was surprised to see bums at a subway station in Japan but there they were, ten maybe as many as twenty men lying down in between columns as if this was the best place they could call home. This rare site in Japan made me consider how few the number such people were considering I was in the largest city in the world.
It also helped me think about the level of crime in Tokyo. While we could not assess the level of crime in Japan from a week long experience in Tokyo, it is possible to relate some relevant. People left valuables out in the open where such items could easily be stolen. Bikes were locked with a simple key lock at the front fork; beautiful sculptures, that could be carried away by a couple of grown men, decorated the memorial plots at a Buddhist cemetery; no bars covered the windows or doors of the buildings - though some shops had the sheeting which could be lowered like a garage door to cover their businesses when they were closed; plants stayed in their plant stands that did not appear to be bolted to the ground, in fact nothing looked bolted to the ground as in most larger American cities.
People in general didn't seem to be outwardly friendly to strangers the way some Americans might act as a way to break the monotony of an everyday routine, but we never saw confrontations that occur daily on American mass transit lines or that occur from an accidental bump while walking on the street. The Japanese people we saw seemed amazingly uninterested in the others around him or her yet keenly sensitive not to do something that may upset someone else.

The unusual level of conformity and social pressure that Japan is known for undoubtedly starts in the earliest days of school. The school childrens' uniforms seemed to include book bags, socks, and shoes as well as hats for the boys. We learned that the less expensive book bags sell for Ľ40,000 to Ľ60,000 ($400-$600) and lack any writing on them whatsoever. In the U.S., by contrast, the school bags cost about one-tenth the price, though they certainly aren't made with patent leather and hand stitching, and usually have some writing on them if only the maker's brand name. [see comment]

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