So much to talk about....
First up Halloween which I don't have any photos of but was pretty good fun. Me and GHB or whatever his name is these days were very restrained this year and the dancefloor seemed to be fuller and for longer than last year. Less acts seemed to make the night much smoother for Nanja's Jamie and Natasha and the atmosphere seemed way less overly drunk than the last time (although I heard one story I'm struggling to get my head around) and most people seemed to enjoy themselves. I was very disappointed to see Charlie Brown in a Stitch hat this year though.
And then there's the dance thang. Today saw the publication of two articles by
SH in
The Japan Times and on
GetHiroshima. I'd like to make it clear to the authorities that I have never met SH in my life, have never spent any time with him and if he were to introduce himself I would run away with my hands over my ears shouting LALALALALALALALA :joke:
Seriously though readers, my mother inlaw is so fat... etc. Seriously, there are a lot of answers to a lot of questions in the GetHiroshima article. The whole situation has produced a lot of rumour. Partly down to a natural, and I think especially Western tendency to spout off with only a basic grasp of the facts involved, but also due to the deafening sound of silence that has rolled out of official land. The Police have said come and speak to us, but then again I only heard that through City Hall. At least they did speak to me though. I originally mailed the Mayor and my mails were passed on to Hiroshima City's Citizens Safety Promotion Division. I won't go into our discussions cos any information I got out of that you can all read in the two articles SH has written. It was all very polite and I do genuinely appreciate the time they spent on replying to and meeting me. The situation was still very confusing though and after the raid of Cover I fired another, I suppose fairly strong email to the Mayor. I was well aware he couldn't comment on Prefectural Police procedure but what the hell did he think about it? What voice did the citizens of Hiroshima have? No reply, although once again the good people of the Citizen's safety thingy got in touch. Obviously the Mayor is a busy man and replies to emails are handled by various departments. Fair enough. I know he's a busy man, and I'm all for his messages of Nuclear disarmament and peace. Too fucking right I am. Imagine my surprise then when I found out that although the Mayor is too busy to reply to my emails, my name (real one, I don't think he's downloading my tunes) is being bandied about amongst his friends as if I have some kind of vendetta against the city of Hiroshima and am trying to 'blackmail' the city. Their word not mine. I was pretty shocked, angry and I have to say, slightly scared. I don't know any of these people and yet they are using my name as if I am public enemy number one. I suppose it's all in keeping with the times though isn't it. Just as The War Against Terror (T.W.A.T) labels anyone as anti-American for daring to criticise it and
British fuckwit tourists can get innocent people thrown off a plane for looking like wrong uns (my favourite rant from my chum's blog. Don't loook if you don't like, er, humour), get angry about Police actions ruining the nightlife of Hiroshima and suddenly you hate Hiroshima rather than loving what's been taken away. Ofcourse nightlife being shut down ain't the same as being suspected of being a terrorist just cos you're browner than the pasty, lardy wankers covered in egg and chips (they were obviously jealous) but you get the picture. Still, two can play at that game and now I've put it on my blog, the whole world knows, yes they do!!!! Bwahahahaha.....
Anyone reading? Oh well.
And what of the situation at large? The treatment of Ricardo and Hideko stills makes my blood boil. The arrest of Cover's owners and bar manager stank aswell but the Police can always fall back on the ' they were breaking the law' line. There's nothing really you can say to it. Well there is, it's just that noone will listen. If you read SH's article on GH you'll see that he basically asked the fuzz, if the activities of a lot of bars/clubs in Hiroshima had been illegal, why have they only recently been targetted. The offical line is;
The police have always acted against bars when information has come to light that illegal activities happened. Obvious bollocks. Anyone with a brain knows that Bars and clubs have been allowed to operate as they had been.....until recently. And if the police are so concerned about the law why the hell weren't they doing their job properly before? Any former police chiefs/officers gonna get arrested for negligence. Ofcourse not.
Still, they have the law on their side. Obviously, and as it is, finally it's clear. And it's shit. Embarrassing for any modern thinking country. Just as the UK was the laughing stock of Europe (the world?) for it's archaic drinking laws, if this continues Japan will become similarly laughable because you can't dance after 12/1am?
The Japan Times reports that similar things are happening in Tokyo. One might hope that the anger generated by people over the recent raids might make the police step back from the club scene. The clampdown is designed to target some of Japan's seedier businesses and the activities of organised gangs. Great, go for it. The trouble is, young people who like dancing in night clubs are being lumped in with all the other shit and as of now the police don't seem to care about differentiating. How insulting is that for us?
What is it about
dancing that authority figures around the world find so dangerous? Is it just that those in power never got invited to any parties or asked to dance? Probably.
I turned 18 in 1990 living in the UK. Acid House was already a few years old and
raves were set to explode across the country. The thing is, we were used to working around the law. House parties, warehouse parties, raves.....we'd been brought up on a nightlife diet of getting around things, and in a way it made it all the more exciting. But, to be here, in a country where noone goes out dancing before 12, to be suddenly told you can't do that after that time.....how depressing? The law needs to be changed, but when you look at how long British drinkers had to wait until they could drink like adults rather than idiot teenagers, I don't hold out much hope. In a way, thank god it is happening in Tokyo. It's far more likely to gain a bit of movement when one of the most exciting cities in the world is being told to sit down at 1am. We'll see.
And that my friends, is the longest post I've ever done.
