This is the 3rd year that my motorcycle club, Gaijin Riders, is organizing our charity toy run. What's a charity toy run you ask? We collect toys and money, strap all that stuff to our bikes, and ride down to an orphanage. And we are all dressed like Santa. It's rad on all sorts of levels.
You can see some pictures from the 2009 event here and the 2010 event here.
For friends in Japan, if you want to donate toys, hit me up before December 11th. For anyone else, please consider sending some cash. Last year, fan's of my blogs sent over $200. So awesome! I bought the kids a Nintendo Wii. But when we were down there, playing games with the kids and what not, we noticed that a lot of them had worn out shoes. This year we are looking to hook the kids up.
My boy Guy had been living in Tokyo for quite some time, teaching English to children and beating the shit out of dudes in the ring. Hey, sometimes after teaching a Kindergarten class, I feel like socking the first person (adult!) that I see.
I've been going to Guy's fights, which are in the Shooto league of full contact fighting, for some years. And he's only gone up. Recently, he bloodied enough contenders to be eligible for the Pacific Rim belt.
This is the semi. This is big.
A crossover of Shooto and Shoot Boxing leagues (I don't really know what that means, wikipedia links provided) was the flavor of the day. This meant more fights, more pounding, more blood.
The event was officially called Shoot the Shooto. Check out the official coverage here if you are into this sort of thing.
Or maybe this is your sort of thing. This was the first time we had round girls.
Dude's crew was decked out East LA style. This is an actual subculture in Japan. Japanese dudes who rock lowriders and Mexican street fashion.
White dude in the back, a fighter in the European Shoot Boxing league, was very attractive, so we labeled him the ikemen.
He almost knocked the other dude out of the ring at one point. Crazy!
Here's why we came.
Guy was ranked significantly lower at #9 to Tamura at #4.
We weren't worried.
Naw, I can't lie. This was Guy's most harrowing match to date that I have seen. He dropped his guard at one point and Tamura opened his cheek.
The first round leaned towards Tamura. The 2nd Guy. The 3rd was all over the place. You're talking to the wrong guy if you want blow by blow reports.
It went to a decision.
I love this set of photos.
He moves on to the final in January. This is for a belt. Worldwide recognition. Not to make this about me, but I've been down with him for years. Which means that I get to be part of his crew. Trips to Vegas, doing coke off strippers, expense accounts. Right? Isn't that how things work?
Apologies for not finishing this story earlier. The story of how I was illegally evicted from my apartment, treated like shit by the cops, and left to fend for myself more or less. Read more of this saga at Day 1, Day 2, Day 5, Day 6, Day 12, Day 16, and Day 31. I say, "fend for myself," but in reality I am grateful for the help from friends here in Japan.
The last part of the story is simple. I found a place, paid a bunch of money, and moved in. Located a stone's throw from Shinjuku's skyscraper district, this is a great location. If I hadn't spent all my money on the random move-in costs here, I'd be blowing it from the seedy drinking holes of Golden Gai to the penthouse bars of the Grand Hyatt hotel. Oh wait, I am doing that.
It was love at first sight, this apartment. Perfect size, newly renovated from ceiling to the floor, and an amazing view from the roof. And motorcycle parking for a mere 2000 yen a month to boot (most places wanted closer to 10,000). It's a 1DK, meaning 1 living/bedroom, and a kitchen/dinning room. My previous place was a 1K, which means that the kitchen wasn't big enough to do anything besides cook in. Upgrade!
But I lost the great view, the high tech bathroom with butt-spraying technology, and the 5 minute walk to one of my jobs. I'm all out of ginger, shoganai.
Check the tour:
So there it is, and the story here is done. I know I hinted at more of the story, and there is plenty. Just shy of 2 years of craziness. Sorry to say, I'm not going to write any of it. If I see you in person, I can fill you in on the highlights. Why no blog post about it?
Exhibit A, from a recent documentary about yakuza that I watched:
Exhibit B, an article about what public prosecutors were taught when it comes to yakuza and foreigners. The gist is that gaijin and gangsters have no rights. You can read more here. I witnessed this firsthand.
So why would I, a foreigner with no rights, spend even one iota of energy pursuing anything related to the matter of yakuza housing fraud? I was over it the day it began. I'm the type of guy who never complains about bad service at a restaurant, lest I get a big ol' booger in my food. This is a metaphor, with the booger symbolizing all sorts of unpleasantness.
Sure, I lost some money in the short run, but that's what jobs are for.
I picked up this line of beer at Tanakaya the other day. I wasn't drunk at the time, but I didn't realize how much I paid until later in the day.
Which one of those beers did I just pay over $40 for? This is not rhetorical question. The only time I ever payed more than 1500 yen there was for a bottle of 120 Minute IPA some time last year.
I went up north to the mountains of Sendai for some enduro motorcycle riding over the summer. It sucked. I mean, it was cool and all, but we were on the outskirts of a large typhoon, and riding up 75 degree mud mountains is tough. Also, it was my first time riding in the dirt. I felt helpless, lying in the mud after a crash, waiting for someone of ability to come help me make it another dozen meters.
You can get away with excuses once, but what about the second time? And what if the weather is pristine?
Night and day, now I just need to work on my speed. These bikes can handle anything, and I think this type of riding is 10% basic skills, 10% advanced riding skills, and 80% pure balls.
I made a short video on the second day. The battery ran out, so I didn't capture any good crashes, of which there were a few. Skip in a minute to see actual riding.
This event is put on by KTM Saitama. One of the highlights (for riders of higher skill level) is a class with Mr. Koikeda, the All-Japan Enduro champ.
This is like getting half a day with Tiger Woods... except Tiger Woods doesn't warn you that the nearest hospital is an hour away.
A lot of orange.
KTM people are very brand loyal. There are even accessories for your best friend.
Stay safe ya'll.
On a related note, can someone donate $10,000 to my paypal account so I can get a (used) KTM 990 Supermoto bike?
