Is actual Tokyo as harmful because the Yakuza video video games? Chapter 3: Loopy City

Tales of blood, cockroaches, and the previous days of Kabukicho, Tokyo’s real-world Kamurocho.

Nearly each large Japanese metropolis has a bar district recognized for its host and hostess bars, however none of them can maintain a candle to Tokyo’s Kabukicho. Positioned in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward, Kabukicho is so synonymous with the host/hostess scene, and the kind of legally grey people and actions such institutions typically entice, that online game maker Sega overtly modeled the Kamurocho setting of its Yakuza/Ryu ga Gotoku/Like a Dragon collection on Kabukicho.

As a long-time fan of the sport franchise, our crack reporter Mr. Sato has been making the rounds of Kabukicho and speaking to the individuals who realize it greatest to see whether or not the kind of craziness that occurs in Kamurocho is pure fiction, or whether or not it has some foundation in Kabukicho actuality. Having accomplished Chapter 1: The Destiny of Drunkards and Chapter 2: In direction of the Grey Darkness, it was time for Mr. Sato to progress to the third a part of his private quest.

▼ Chapter 3: Loopy City

Nonetheless carrying his Kiryu Kazama cosplay go well with, Mr. Sato took a second to evaluate the final quest immediate, which he’d been given as a part of his dialog with Naruse, supervisor of Kabukico host membership Awake.

The stroll to Saito’s host membership wasn’t far, however the identify of the place was: Smappa! Hans Axel von Ferson. In case you’re saying it with the Japanese pronunciation, it turns into “Sumappa Hansu Akuseru fon Feruson,” with a whopping 16 syllables.

▼ “So lengthy…” thought Mr. Sato, his self-narration leaving him out of breath.

“Is Saito right here?” requested Mr. Sato as he entered the institution. “Ah, Mr. Sato, we’ve been anticipating you,” the doorman replied. “Please have a seat, and I’ll go get him for you.”

“Ah, Mr. Sato, it’s been some time,” a pleasant voice stated to him quickly after. Turning in direction of it, Mr. Sato was greeted by a well-recognized face. “It’s me, Takumi Saito.”

▼ Smappa! Hans Axel von Ferson
Assistant Supervisor
Takumi Saito

“It’s you! Saito, from our article about how hosts get their working names,” Mr. Sato recalled, because the Kabukicho veteran took a seat.

Saito: “I hear you’ve been asking round about how Kabukicho was once within the previous days. I’ve been working in Kabukicho bars for greater than 20 years, so I can most likely be of some help.”

Mr. Sato: “Sure, please, I’d actually like to listen to about it.”

Saito: “These days, Kabukico has earned a popularity as a comparatively protected place. However once I was a youthful man, there have been harmful individuals everywhere in the neighborhood, and our line of labor, host/hostess golf equipment, made us frequent targets.”

Mr. Sato: “When did issues begin to really feel safer?”

Saito: “I can’t actually recall precisely when, however I feel it was most likely round 2012, when the Shinjuku Ward Organized Crime Expulsion went into impact. Earlier than that, you continue to had lots of gangsters who would are available in and throw their weight round, harassing the membership and making an attempt to get a payoff.”

Mr. Sato: “What sort of issues would they do?”

Saito: “At a bar I labored at a very long time in the past, these three thug-type guys got here in. I don’t know the place they bought it from, however that they had a cockroach with them and so they put it into their glass and began bellowing about it.”

Mr. Sato: “Like, ‘How are you gonna make this proper?’ and hoping to rip-off some cash out of you?”

Saito: “Proper. However the supervisor on responsibility was a complete badass. He saved a very calm expression and simply stated “This? Don’t fear, it’s drinkable,” and chugged the drink, cockroach and all. It was so cool.”

Mr. Sato: “Whoa, he should have had nerves of metal!”

Saito: “Wasn’t something the three guys may say after that, in order that they didn’t trigger any extra hassle.”

Mr. Sato: “So that they got here in making an attempt to scare you, however they had been those who ended up getting intimidated. Kabukicho actually was a loopy city.”

Saito: “Yeah, it positive was. Right here’s one other one: I neglect precisely what yr it was, however late one evening I took a break to go to the comfort retailer. So I bought out onto the road and began strolling to the store, however then I noticed this large van pull up, and about 5 guys carrying masks and carrying billy golf equipment hopped out.”

Mr. Sato: “What?!?”

Saito: “All of them went right into a bar close to the place they’d parked, and some moments later, I began listening to pounding and crashing sounds coming from contained in the constructing. Then all of them got here again out, hopped of their automobile, and drove off. After that, another man got here stumbling out of the bar, bleeding, and stated “Name the police.’”

Mr. Sato: “Whoa, issues like that occur in actual life? Much more than the Yakuza video games, it’s like one thing out of the Judgment video games with Takuya Kimura. I’m amazed you’ve been in a position to survive on this city for thus lengthy.”

Saito: “Nicely, often when there was hassle, I wasn’t immediately concerned. And in any case, that’s how issues was once, however stuff like that undoubtedly wouldn’t occur these days. Even the kind of individuals working as hosts are totally different now. They used to all be former gangbangers or delinquents, and lots of them had been fairly shady. Host golf equipment didn’t even used to open till round 1 a.m.”

Mr. Sato: “Now do you must observe the brand new rules and shut down at midnight?”

Saito: “Yeah, and it’s made the trade simpler to work in. The kind of hosts that clients wish to drink with is totally different now too, and lots of them are extremely educated guys. If you wish to know extra about how hosts are actually, Minami on the bar Bond is aware of a factor or two.”

Together with his subsequent quest immediate having appeared, Mr. Sato thanked Saito for his time and headed again out onto the road, certain for Bond and Chapter 4: Not Like a Dragon.

Associated: Smappa! Hans Axel von Ferson
Tackle: Tokyo-to, Shinjuku-ku, Kabukicho 2-28-15, basement degree 1
Open 7 p.m.-midnight
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