My First Trip to Japan the Ending

With all the shows done, there wasn’t much else for me to do wrestling-wise without some travel. I think by that point, I was tired and might’ve been near the close of my trip. Because I had spent so much time at these shows as well as being sick, I don’t recall checking out more of Tokyo. There is one exception: Shinjuku. The main reason that Shinjuku caught my attention is because of how I read about it in William Gibson’s early cyberpunk books as well as some discussion in my Japanese literature courses at UCI. I had no idea what to expect except for one other associated name in Kabuki-cho.

For the uninitiated, Tokyo has a few major train stations you can enter from Narita in Ueno, Shinjuku, Shinagawa and Tokyo station itself. Shinagawa is probably better associated with the bullet train and the outer “upper” circle of the Yamanote-sen region where if you use Keihin-tohoku line, you’ll head towards Kawasaki and Yokohama. All four are major train hubs where thousands of people cross over almost all day long. Shinjuku itself is near some government and corporate offices as well as having one of the largest shopping districts. I think most people either head towards the west or east side depending on what your purpose is.

The east side is an interesting section because it’s more entertainment oriented. More importantly though, it has the infamous Red Light District called Kabuki-cho where a large red gate formally announces the entrance to the zone. Sometime in the late 2000s, the Tokyo government did a major crackdown to increase safety. Part of the change was forcing the “ponbiki” (or pimps as I’d like to call them) to avoid harassing people in public and most I think are relegated to standing at the entrance of their shady establishments.

Back when I went though, there were numerous of these types hanging about trying to usher you into their establishments. Along with those people, there were Nigerian Pimps that came along later on. You could hang out in a foreign friendly district like Roppongi and it would not be uncommon to see a large black guy come up to you and shove a drink ticket in your face while saying, “Cheap drinks and girls with big tits.” Because later on I would live in Akasaka and pass through Roppongi nightly on the way home, these pimps got really annoying and I figured out ways to avoid or ignore them like walking really fast, pretending I couldn’t understand English and listening to my music loudly.

That was later on once I became more familiar with some of the seedier sections of town. For me, I had no idea what Shinjuku was like. I think when my class/professor discussed it, the only image I had was a spot where numerous trains would be. So I imagined this old Sante Fe type of train graveyard. To my shock, the station was a confusing sprawl with multiple exits, thousands of people bustling in and out with me having no sense of direction, I effectively just wandered around until I reached fresh air. It might’ve been at night when I got there but I know it was certainly night by the time I left.

I can’t say how or where I was going because I wouldn’t have recognized anything back then. There’s a chance I started on the South or West side but gravitated towards the East side. And I knew that I eventually got to Kabuki-cho because some guy with that host hair style with a young pretty girl who probably was working for him started talking to me. He was surprised when I told them I was from America because of my appearance. Probably, the clothes gave it away since I was still wearing shorts and t-shirt despite it being early to mid December. Beyond the pimp, the pretty girl, getting lost and the bright lights of the area, there’s almost nothing else that I remember from that night sadly. But I think that moment infected me with an obsession not just for puroresu or joshi puroresu but for Tokyo. I knew that America lacked something gutsy, raw and energetic and I never have been able to re-capture that magical feeling that drew me repeatedly back to Japan for so long.

Needless to say, I eventually got back to the New Koyo. As per the usual, there was a group of odd foreigners waiting around just talking. You could say that the New Koyo attracted all types of characters probably because it was cheap and foreign friendly. If you were taking a trip in Japan, you really wouldn’t want to spend a fortune for your abode because you should be out exploring most of the time. Later, I did switch places depending on my purpose.

Now, one thing I do distinctly recall was this large, older individual who claimed also to have been a pro-wrestler in the past. He might’ve been Mr. X or Mr. Wrestling, etc. but I forgot his name unfortunately. But he was funny and mentioned he was out there training students on some martial arts. He told one story how he lived on a piece of property and during Halloween the kids would steal his pumpkins. So one time he rigged the pumpkin with some sort of explosives (not too dangerous) and stuffed the inside with dog shit. He might’ve even had some booby traps on his property. When I mentioned getting lost in Kabuki-cho, he did ridicule me on “getting my willy wet.” But that was the kind of person you’d meet over there and I did meet some very interesting people.

Before returning to Narita, one thing I learned was that you could use a delivery service at the convenience stores to send your luggage. While I solved the backpack problem by picking up a new one over in Ueno, I still had the issue of the heavy, overbearing suitcase. There was no way I’d lug that thing all the way back. And this was before I learned about the limousine bus, which I highly recommend if you’re near a place that has the service. Luckily, we had that Lawson’s around the corner so I setup the delivery for the next day. That would free me up considerably and make move out much easier.

I think I ended up using the Keisei Express again on the way back from Ueno. To be honest, I really hated that line because it would make an explosive noise whenever it passed another express in parallel. The worst part is if you didn’t know about it and had your back to the window. So I think I ended up using that line for a while until I learned about the limousine bus that I could take from the Tokyo Ritz Carlton at the Midtown Project once I started living in Akasaka.

The flight back was nerve wracking though because I would have to go through customs again and was bringing back various tapes I acquired. In retrospect, I really regret buying all those VHS tapes just because I ended up dumping most of them. I probably could’ve saved a few thousand dollars easily if I had known better. Also, most of the shirts I bought got worn out and the posters were damaged to tossed in my move.

I did meet someone in the customs line who reassured me that I had nothing to worry about. He mentioned he was coming from a South American country, which had a higher likelihood of getting a closer inspection at that time. After dealing with customs a few times though, I stopped worrying. Then again I wasn’t hauling a lot of stuff back in the future except when I moved back home, which had its own headaches with bureaucracy. All I know is that I still was hungry for more. And in a few months, I would return.