(TAPE 18) Nicola Interview May 31, 1991
(INCL: Tearing Down the Hokkaido Farm, Log Cabins, Crazy Wong/Gold Scam Court Case–Incl. “Hammer”, Book Permission, Gold Scam con’t, Miscellaneous-yakuza,Night & Day, Lights, Maki, TSK, Book, Love & Hate for Tokyo, Yae, Japanese vs. American Rant, Yae–Patches, etc.,Japanese vs. American Rant, Book)
SIDE A
(Counter 000)
(TEARING DOWN THE HOKKAIDO FARM)
A: I’m up in Hokkaido and my Johnny up there says “Let’s buy Turkeys.’ I told you a little about turkeys, right. Well, I called up this company in California and they offered turkey eggs for 71 cents, but in Japan, the turkey chick is 14 dollars. 1,800 yen or something. There’s got to be something wrong. So I figured OK, by the time I fix my buildings up, I don’t know what an incubator costs, I’m wind up in a position where maybe I got a tremendous investment in assets, which I really don’t want, so I went up to Hokkaido and I looked at the situation and I called the guy, sort of a tree-cutter, what do you call ’em, a logger? And I said you got equipment to tear my buildings down? So I tore down everything. Concrete. Silos. Everything torn down. And now I got 2,000 tsubo of land out of 40,000 to be exact, 36,900 tsubo, I wound up with 1975 tsubo. But, it’s tachi tochi. Tachi(stand) means house. It’s “house land.” In other words I can put houses on it. So that’s worth maybe ten to twenty thousand yen a tsubo. Farming is worth, where I am, 20 yen a tsubo. Even then I wouldn’t buy it.
Q: Can foreigners buy farmland now?
A: No. You got to be a resident of the town for a year. You got to have a farmer’s license. You gotta be a Japanese. And you got to be young and healthy. How many fucking people fit that category?
That’s a resident for one year. You have to have a farmer’s license. You have to be young. And you have to have land. This is a question of what comes first, the chicken or the egg. You can’t buy the land if you’re not a farmer. You know. So if you’re a farmer. How you gonna be a farmer without land. Then after you’re a farmer, how can you buy land. I mean it’s one of these Catch 22 things. No matter which way you turn, there’s a regulation that you can’t overcome. So anyway, I tore all my farmer buildings down. So now all I got is a private home there. And I got 150 tsubo barn. A new barn. Worth a couple of hundred thousand dollars.
(LOG CABINS)
So I decided that I’m going to go into log cabins.
Q:You tore all your farm buildings down, the silo and what else.
A: I tore my silos down. I tore three buildings down. Or two buildings and a half down. Now now the grass, the land is all clean. Full of little rocks that we have to pick up eventually. And grass the whole place.
So then I spoken to Jack Spillum. And I told him I’m interested in log cabins. So today, just a few minutes before you came, I got the fax. To buy an 11 tsubo log cabin, FOB, North Carolina, is twenty thousand dollars. That comes to about 42 or 43 dollars a square foot.
Q: That doesn’t seem very much.
A: Don’t forget you’re buying something in a container. It’s not big yo. So it comes out to 2.8. Something like that. Then they’re talking about a 3 thousand dollar shipping charge. Q: That’s in addition to the container charge?
A: It’s in it.3000 bucks they say we don’t know is that’s right. It might be closer to 5,000. Which means I gotta add another 2,000. Then you gotta bring it up to Hokkaido which an other cost.Then you got to put a “Kiso” down, which is a foundation. And “Daiku-san” (carpenters) are $100 a day if you can find one.When get through, you’re looking at a 6 million yen investment.
Q: Daiku is $100 a day?
A: 15,000 yen. They’re talking about 30 days. I don’t believe it, myself.
Q: What’s the Kiso?
A: Foundation. Concrete underneath the house….Now common sense tells you that if it costs 6 million yen, and you only got 3 months of the year to lease the house out, if you got 200,000 yen a month.Which I doubt. You’re not even paying interest….I mean roku-ju-mon yen for a season. So you see you can’t do the business. The economics don’t add up for us. If Mitsubishi wanted to do it, yeah, they’d spend 20 million yen to get back one million yen.
Q: It’s only a summer house.
A: Well, you could stay there during the winter, of course.
Q: Is there anything to do? Is there any skiing?
A: Ski? Go right around the corner to the famous ski place. They have a very, very big ski operation there. Which, they’re putting a paved road right in front of my house. That paved road will bring you to the other side of the island. You may know the ski place. I can’t remember the name. But very famous. (hack, hack, cough, cough)…I’m dying, Bobby.
Q: Jesus Christ. Do you have any medicine? Cough medicine? Want some (cough drop)
A: Jesus. I’m lucky you’re here. I didn’t have this cough until you came. You give me it?
Q: It wasn’t me. I don’t have a cough. I’ve had a hangover for a week.
A: Boopie. Get somebody to buy me some yellow vicks. Lemon.
Q: So you see, Bobby, economically speaking, you can’t invest 6 million into a house, that you have no way, you have no guarantee you’re gonna rent it? Then the next step is, you gotta advertise. If you put up 10 houses or 20 houses maybe you got a chance. Freigh might be cheaper. But at the end, you can’t win. Now you go back to the other part. Don’t forget, this is cash and carry,
Q: What do you mean?
A: Well, if you buy a house from somebody in the States, you got to send them an LC. So you need cash for that. You pay a salary to a Daiku-san, you need cash for that. So this six million yen is a cash investment. So when you look at 6 million yen from the point of view of 140 yen to the dollar, it;’s $40,000 bucks, right? $40,000 bucks is 20% in the United States, means what? You could buy a $200,000 house. Why should you pay? So the economics don’t add up to people like me who think carefully about money. I piss it away, but I don’t throw it away. So if I gotta spend six million yen which is about $40,000 bucks. I’ll go to the States and buy a $200,000 house and pay 20% down. And it’s already built. It has an income. And as long as I can make the mortgage payments that come out with…
(To Boopie: Vicks cough drops, Lemon. Lemon is yellow. This is green.)
Q: What were you talking about. Mortage in the States?
A: Mortage is 20% of the value of the house.is, you buy a house for whatever it is, say $200,000. You pay 20% down. $40,000. And you own the house. You got a 30 year lease.or what do you call it a 30 year mortage. It’s about 9 points. It’s under 10% now in the States, so, of course, you’re talking…that’s too big an investment. But on a generally speaking you borrow $160,000 at 9%. Which is about $15,000 a year. So your mortgage payments, you need about $3,000 a month. But, of course, if you buy a $200,000 house, you’d probably get rent together. But, of course, in the States
Q: Well, that’s a lot of rent.
A: Well, that’s a lot of house.
Q: A $200,000 house you can rent out for $3,000 a month?
A: You have to. In the States. In Hawaii, forget about it. In Hawaii, you have no chance. But in the States if you went to a depressed area, like everyplace in the U.S. is depressed. You buy a house for $160,000 like I told you, you’re paying $32,000 down like my friend is doing now. And the payments every month are like $1500 about.
So my turkey business doesn’t work because there is something wrong with the figures. My log cabin doesn’t work because the investment is too high. And then things don’t work because we’re Americans and we have a different way of thinking. And of course our capital is limited. Japanese companies, they got all kinds of capital. Japanese companies, they got all kind of capital. I mean certain Japanese companies.
Q: You have to have a farmer’s license. One year resident of the ku (prefecture) or the town?
A: The area. The town.
Q: How do you get a farmer’s license? You have to go to farmer’s school?
A: I don’t know how you get it.
Q: I don’t know. Maybe it’s a servitude maybe attitude. Like you can’t get a taxi unless he works with somebody else for ten years. You know that shit about the taxi driver, don’t you? You can not be a kojin (private) taxi. Unless you work for a big taxi company for ten years. Then you’re allowed to apply for a private taxi license. It’s not easy.
Q: It’s the same in the States. To buy medallion, it costs a lot of money. $100,000. Or a couple of hundred thousand. Essentaially you gotta go to work and save your money for ten years or whatever.
A: You used the right word. Medallion. It’s like my nephew. He wants to get out of the liquor business in Florida. And the most expensive thing he’s got there, other than the land and the building, is, he’s got a liquor license. They’re worth 150 to 200,000 dollars. Florida.
Q: You can’t be a farmer if you don’t have any land. You have to own the land. But you can’t buy the land if you don’t have a farmer’s license. You have to fill those requirements..That’s…
A: Catch 22. Now, of course, we’re talking about a new one. A new person. But if you lived in the town all your life and you are able to buy land, cuz you lived there all your life, maybe it’s your uncle’s land or your cousin’s land, or something like that, you can become a farmer. Because it’s registered as a member of the family. But when a newcomer goes in, shit, you ain’t got no chance.
(cough drops arrive)
Q: Why didn’t you go…I don’t understand…you said there were no….about this turkey business. You checked with the embassy. You said there were no laws prohibiting it. Why didn’t you just bring the eggs in?
A: What are you gonna do with them? Who eats turkeys?
Q: Why did you want to go into the business in the first place?
A: Because I wanted to go in on a small scale. 500 to a 1000. These guys don’t want ton talk to you unless you buy 20,000 eggs. Well an incubator for 20,000 eggs, what would it cost? And you can only use it once a year. Can you imagine buying an incubator that you can only use once a year. There’s something wrong with the numbers. I don’t know what an incubator costs.
Boopie. What are you doing?
(discussion of seating for upcoming party)
(CRAZY WONG GOLD SCAM COURT CASE. Incl. “Hammer”)
Q: OK. Tell me about the court thing.
A: Now, let’s start on the court case.
Q: The latest chapter. 115.
A: I don’t know how deep you want to go, because eventually you’ll very deep. The Chinese, who was the buyer, had plenty of time to change the god damn stuff, and now, today, a couple of days ago….I realized….well, how do I say it to you so you get it right….Let me…
(To waiter): Boopie. What happened to this gangster SHIOZAWA?…
Boopie: Sir, he said that he couldn’t do anything.
A: He don’t come here no more.
B: He comes here.
A: Still can’t do nothing.
B: Okay.
Q: That’s the guy you were gonna have pay a visit to..uh…(Crazy Wong).
A: Yes, and as soon as we mentioned the name, he sez, “Oh, we can’t do that.”
Well, normal people would just take it as a …..but me, I’m different. I think about it. Why would the guy say no. We’re dealing with a man, Chinese, who’s in the smuggling business. Or should we say a fence for smuggled goods. Cuz that’s what he is. He’s got a legal store. So obviously if a gangster don’t wanna make money by knocking him off, I gotta receipt….wouldn’t it say to you that the gangsters are supplying him the smuggled stuff?.
Q: That makes sense.
A: Of course. As soon as the guy…I asked the guy, “Do you have a collection agency?” He sez, “Well, we have people who do that.” I did it all through him (points to Boopie). He speaks better Japanese than I do. Now, probably I can speak good if I really try. But I don’t really try. Anyway, I sez “The guy owes me 5.2 million yen. $40,000 bucks. And I’d like you to charge him $40,000 more for collection. That makes $80,000. And then charge him interest on every month.”
And the guy sez, “Good idea” and he can do it.
When I told him who it was, or he saw the receipt, he sez, “I know this guy. We can’t do it.”
Now why would a gangster….now he’s the boss of…I don’t know what would you call it. I don’t know if you want to use the name of the company.
Q: Tell me for my own curiousity.
A: Sumiyoshi.
Q: Sumiyoshi?
A: Sumiyoshi, yeah. So, if Sumiyoshi don’t wanna do it. Obviously Sumiyoshi’s got some other interests that are more important than ten million yen. And what the hell is more important than ten million yen. In a smuggling operation with a fence involved.
Oh, he’s gonna have to answer that question in court. If they allow me to question him. Because it’s only natural that Okachimachi where all these people are congregated, and all the stores are concentrated, that the gangsters would move in. They move into any area they can.
Q: OK.
A: Let’s talk about money. This legal battle that I got involved in. I have to hire a lawyer. And I hired my own lawyer who’s…I question his ability, but then what the fuck’s the difference, because this is such a stupid court case. You have to laugh at it. So he wanted the penalty…what the man is looking for is a little under 21 million yen, And this guy is asking 5% of the penalty of, what would you say, the man is suing me, the fucking lawyer wants 5%.
Q: Of what the guy is suing you for?
A: Yeah. And I had to pay him hyaku-ni-ju-yon-mon-yen. (1,240,000) And then…
Q: Of what Wong wants, which is 21 million yen.
A: About 21 million yen. And then there’s such a thing as a success fee. Or end of the court key. He wants another 5%. So I get attacked. And it costs me two-and-a-half million yen, to get attacked. Or whatever it is. How do you like that for beans. Talk about legal cases. So, of course, I had to pay him the money. I got no choice. And then I called the private detective, who gives me no new information, but he repeats to me what I already know. I paid him 100,000. Then he comes back and says, “For 300,000 yen I’ll make a criminal investigation on the character of the Chinese.” I said, “Shit, I know the character of the Chinese. You don’t have to do that. I know he’s been in jail. And I also know…I also feel that Crime Incorporated is supplying him with his merchandise. And therefore, if you go too deep into it, they’ll find you in the fucking gutter. And me with you. So I canceled the private investigation.
Q: What was Wong in jail for?
A: Probably the same shit. I don’t know. I don’t want to get involved into what he went to jail for. What good is it?
Q: Just for the story.
A: I don’t know. I don’t know. I know he’s a jailbird. But I don’t know what the bait….Nobody’s gonna tell you the truth unless you investigate, really investigate…go deep into it. I could find out eventually. Because when he’s on the witness stand, I’ll ask him for his criminal record. Have you been arrested in the last 30 years? But I know he’s…
Q: Been in jail, or just been arrested?
A: I think he’s been in jail. I think he’s served time. Anyway, I don’t know yet, but in the court cast I’ll ask that question. Character. So now, I receive the notice to go to court on April 8th and I had to be in court on April 10th. Isn’t that something? My lawyer on April 10th…and asked for a postponement till we understand what the story is…and they wanted to throw the case out and automatically lose. So anyway, so my lawyer is the vice-chairman of the Bar Association, so he has a little clout. I hate the cocksucker, but that’s okay. And so it was postponed until May 22nd. However, much to my surprise, my lawyer gave them my answer before May 22nd, which I didn’t think is ethical, and therefore causing my court case to end much quicker. And they, on May 22nd, submitted their answer to what my lawyer gave them.
Q: What was the answer?
A: Now the answer
Q: What was the answer the lawyer gave them?
A: I got that now. I got that May 25th or May 27th. And it turns out to be 16 fucking pages. And in Japan, a 400 character (page) translation costs 10,000 yen…..In other words, it’s gonna cost me now 160,000 yen to translate it into English. So I can answer it, in English. And then it gets translated back into Japanese. So the lawyer can understand what I’m saying. And when I get through with this court case it’s gonna cost me 4 or 5 million yen….and I don’t think I’m guilty of anything.
And, of course, they’re trying to camafloge the problem by directly asking me who the Italians were, what’s their name, where they live, you know. And, of course, that’s a smokescreen. I didn’t ask them to marry the Italians, they bought gold. And he looked at the gold, he test the gold, he checked the gold, he did everything he wanted. It has nothing to do with the seller. The seller could be crippled, deaf, dumb and blind. It’s got nothing to do with the merchandise.
Now my next court case is July 3rd.
Q: But you won’t be here.
A: I won’t be here. It’s paper work only. Now the secret or the trick of every court case you get involved in is…which is the main point…the people who file briefs against you…can write anything they want in a brief….doesn’t matter what they say, how they say it, they tilt it anyway they want, and it’s not perjury. If you get the complaint…in this case the plaintiff, you can put the plaintiff on the witness stand, which I think is a must, but somehow doesn’t work. And force the plaintiff to make his statements against you. The defense. Under oath. Now he can’t exaggerate. He can not have innuendoes. He’s gotta be precise. That’s a very important point. However, if for some reason or another, it doesn’t work, in all the cases I’ve been in, the plaintiff never gets on the witness stand. As the case of Tanaka. He was the plaintiff. He didn’t get on the witness stand.
I know so many other cases I got…the case in Hokkaido the plaintiff didn’t get on the witness stand. Oh, I was the plaintiff. If you can get the plaintiff on the witness stand and make him make the statements, like the first statement the guy made, the first, he did not show that they were…he said I was the seller and he was the buyer…he didn’t show that I was the broker. So the judge looks at that and says wait a minute, this guy is the seller. And because I returned my commission which I shouldn’t have done, the judge looks at this and say this guy already returned $40,000, he owes him another 160,000. So you lost.
Q: That son of a bitch. God damn receipt.
A: That’s ok. I don’t worry about the receipt. Because it’s doesn’t make sense. Why should I give you…Why should you ask me for a receipt when you gave me the money and I didn’t give you a receipt. But when I returned the money you asked for a receipt. My answer, when that comes out, this man asked for a receipt to show it to the tax office, so he can get a tax deduction. You know, try to escape the tax man, which ain’t gonna work in this case.
However, now we get to the gist. I went to Hokkaido and I spoke to my Hokkaido lawyer. I spoke to my Tokyo lawyer. If I lose, there is no way to collect 20 million yen from me. How about that? I own no assets. So how they gonna collect 20 million yen from me. The court can say pay 20 million yen, but the court can not force you to pay 20 million yen. And there’s no way you can force a man without money to pay. And it’s a civil case, you don’t go to jail. So my lawyer says, “Don’t worry about it.” But don’t worry about it is still gonna cost me 5 million yen. Course the next answer is, if you can’t pay the guy, where you gonna get the 4 million yen from? But if you don’t pay the lawyer, they’re the biggest blackmailers there are. So this is a very confusing case. The only thing I can see is the Chinese involved probably knows there is no way to collect, unless he thinks I am extremely rich. So the object would probably be to get the money from the tax man, depreciation in profits. Court shows that he won 20 million yen and he didn’t collect it. It’s like in this restaurant Bobby, if you come here and sign and you don’t pay, I get a 80% deduction on your signing. So if you sign a bill here for 5,000 yen and you didn’t pay it, I could present that bill to the tax office and take 4,000 yen as expenses.Hmm?
So that’s the court case, so far. Isn’t it odd? A man goes to court. His lawyers must have told him the same thing, that you can’t collect, why would a tight Chinaman go to court? If two of my lawyers told me there’s no way he can collect, certainly his lawyers told him the same thing. He can not do karishobu. He can’t touch my company. So what the hell can he touch? My nenkin (pension)? It would take him a hundred years to get that money from that nenkin.
I think I told you about the time my salesman made a company called Nicolas Enterprise. And the court says, “Pay 10,000 a month.” It would take him 200 months to pay back the fucking bill. So we said just forget about it.
Q: That’s strange. What’s this tax depreciation. How can he get it from…uhh…
A: Well, he shows a profit. Then he shows a loss.
Q: Oh, I see what you mean.
A: There’s no other way he can do it.
Q: So he really got the money….
A: Oh, I’m sure, because when you really put it together, he’s got all these gangsters supplying him with smuggled watches, imitation watches, and he talks about a watch for 5 oku yen. Hey, that’s a lot of money, Bobby. And he’s got books that show these Patek Philippe’s–you know, specially made watches. He shows you the same watch. He sells it at 10% of the book value. Now how do you do that? He sez, “It’s smuggled.” So, it’s the old story. If you got a factory making watches and you dump’em, you steal’em, you know in America that ‘s a common practice, so if the gangsters are supplying them that…so I think the gangsters are supplying him with watches and what not.
I had a reason in my head but I lost it temporarily.
Q: So what might have happened is he got the gold, sold it, made a profit, claimed it was fake gold, sued you, said he lost x-amount of money and so he winds up taking all that money tax free minus court costs.
A: Court costs to him would be the same, about two and a half million yen. So he had then gold in his possession. Monday 2 o’clock. He opened the safe.Tuesday 6 o’clock. Because he knows all these people that smuggle, they must smuggle gold ingots, they must smuggle everything they can think of. You know, you go through the airport, like I do so often, and the other day they had how many guns from China?…Did you see that? They had a load of guns. How the hell they get a load of guns in. Jesus Christ Almighty. Every time I go through there, they look at you close, they check, how does a guy bring in 50-60 hand guns. Fucking thing must weigh a ton.
Q: But then if he sold the gold and got the money, there must be a record. A receipt somewhere….if he’s got…
A: No. Nobody. You don’t need a receipt. So like I sell you a 10,000 yen note for a 5 and 5 ones.Gold is a negotiable item. And when gold, like the numbers I seen, add 6 numbers on ingot, which they call biscuits, well that means there must have been a series…
Q: So, he sold the gold, got the money, and then claimed it was false…
A: He sold the gold, bought imitation gold which they got…Okachimachi’s got anything…put the imitation gold in the safe and then claimed that that was the phony. That the real stuff was…but he counted every piece, he touched every piece, he’s seen every piece, and he’s a jeweler. So because of his smuggling connections, they probably got imitation, counterfeit gold all over the place, for those you know.
Just like if you wanna buy crack or coke…you know they sell it down on the street now, you know. Jesus, it’s terrible.
Q: Where’d you see it?
A: Oh, I hear about it all day long now. Everybody sells it.
Q: There’s where Katsu Shintaro (famous actor) got his.
A: Well, he’s been…His whole family has been involved in narcotics. You know that don’t you? The sons and the daughters. They been arrested for it before or something like that. It’s a family trait.
Q: Wakasaburo Wakayama or something like that. His brother.
A: Today they had Kayama Yuzo’s father on tv. What’s his name. (Ken Uehara?) And they talked about a retired home, ichi oku 5 sen mon yen. (150,000,000 yen) And you need about san-ju mon yen (300,000 yen) kanri. So you see, if you’re in the right position, you can get anything you want.
Q: Wong. That’s clever.
A: Because even if the law knows he’s full of shit. They don’t care. They can not investigate and find out if it’s true the gold is …he bought it or sold it…it’s impossible to check these things.
(discussion on serving upcoming party)
A: It’s a very crazy fucking world we live in.
Q: And so what about the Italians. They just took their money and walked away. They sold real gold and walked away?
A: I didn’t care. I really didn’t care. I can only say that I know it was phony. But I don’t care.
Q: But they were phony too.
A: I don’t know is they’re part of Wong’s deal.
Q: But Wong’s deal, the way you explain it, makes sense to me. The Italians could be legitimate smugglers (!?).
A: They could be. But why did they come over to me. And why did they say to me, “Don’t you have a Chinese that would buy this stuff?” Now, the other guy Buzz. What’s Buzz’s position. He reads Japanese. But even that receipt. I could read that receipt almost. Cuz it’s got numbers on it. And it’s got a little kanji. Not kanji but hiragana. Or whatever it is.
Q: If he could really read Japanese on that receipt, he had no business signing it. I’d never sign a receipt like that in a million years.
A: He says that…The way he says it, Wong-san made out a receipt and filled it in and looked at it and before he gave it us, he tore it up and threw it away. Then he made out another receipt. Well, obviously, the first receipt had what the second receipt had. And he sez well if I give them this and it’s mine, don’t forget, this is a Chinese calculator. He’s not just a jerk, you know. And, probably threw it and made the next one 38,600 dollars. And nothing else. Then after we signed it, this guy Buzz says he filled it in. He folded it and gave it to Buzz. Why did Buzz accept it? And that’s Wednesday. Friday, Buzz and him meet. A few days later, Buzz has left the country.
Q: Did Buzz say it was empty before he signed it?
A: He said it was empty before he signed it. But what good is it? I gotta bring him all the way to Tokyo to say that? Why? If I lose, I don’t have to pay anyway.
Q: Why would you give somebody a receipt and then hand it back to him? That doesn’t make sense either….
A: Remember something that could have been done. There’s so many angles that you gotta look at each one because one of them might be the right thing. The receipt was empty when I signed it. And when Buzz signed it it was empty. And forgettaboutit. Friday, which is two days later, Buzz meets the Chinese. So the Chinese maybe has formulated a plan. He says “Look, I wanna fill in, bring the receipt, I wanna fill it in again, and I’ll give you go-ju-mon-yen. (500,000 yen). Buzz says, “Why not?” So now the Chinese took the receipt that I signed that had nothing on it, that Buzz has got, he took his receipt, put it together and filled it in. That’s a possibility. Because I never saw the receipt. I signed it. It was empty.
Q: You signed a blank receipt.
A: Blank receipt for 38,600 bucks.
Q: That he was supposed to give you in the beginning.
A: I got the money in the beginning. I gave it to him back. And he gave me a receipt for giving him the money back. And it didn’t make sense. But I says “Why?” He says, “This is for tax purposes.” That he showed that he got some of the money back. But I sez, but anyway, then he used a false name at the office of money-changing. There’s too many little points of something. But it will be good when the time comes, when they got witnesses on the witness stand, I’ll let you know, you go sit there and listen. You’ll get first hand information what happens in a court case. Cuz it’s open to the public. They don’t stop you.
Q: How many receipts…you just signed one receipt. When you returned the money…wait a minute
A: I gave him the money back.
Q: Yeah.
A: He made a receipt. Threw it away and made another receipt and gave it to me and I signed it., while it was in the receipt book. Because when it’s in the receipt book it’s got the…it automatically makes a copy, right. So now. If that receipt was blank. And he calls Buzz in. Says, Buzz, how much…cuz this ain’t gonna cost you no money cuz I will sue Nicola, let me fill in this part, which could have been done later. Buzz says he did it after we signed. It doesn’t make sense, that Buzz can speak Japanese, read it, he can read Japanese, and …
Q: It doesn’t make sense he’d give the …well…why would he sign it over in the corner like that? I wouldn’t sign a receipt that way, exactly.
A: Where do you sign a receipt? First of all, if I signed the receipt, there’s no such thing. My company would be there. And then I give you my receipt. It would be my company receipt. I would sign on the bottom or something, right? Not where I signed. That was his paper. So if I’m issuing a receipt,…uhh…that’s a technical question.
Now we go to another point that happened.
You know I called my friend from KEISHICHO (police HQ). Tried to get that Interpol. I failed. I failed. And then after a long time, I found out that Okachimachi has no police station…..OK, on Wednesday night we went to a police station. Which is October 24th.And we talked about a complaint and this that and the other thing. And Wong-chan didn’t want much information to go out, this Asakura (Wong), and the policeman says, “I’m busy. Come back tomorrow. Friday.” That was the end of that. Friday is when Buzz met Wong-san. It’s ok.
In the meantime, all these months, October, November, December, January, February, March, April I thought I went to the Okachimachi police station. So I called the private detective, because he speaks Japanese and he knows the right questions to ask, ton go to the Okachimachi police station and find out if a complaint has been filed on October 24th. He sends me a fax back. Most everything is in fax. That there is no such thing as the Okachimachi police station. And, of course, that shocked me.
Q: Well, you went to the police station with them in the beginning, right?
A: I went October 24th.
Q: It looked like a real “koban” (police box)
A: It’s a big building, 2 stories, 2 stories, got the sliding doors. Policeman with a stick in the front. You know that kind.
Q: Maybe it’s Kanda police station.
A: Wait a minute. So now, I call my friend up, Mogami, and I say, Mogami, you’re a police interpreter, you been to all the police stations, you wound up as the bucho (section chief), ne. What police station handles Okachimachi? He says “Well, I don’t know. Okachimachi police station, there isn’t any. Maybe Mansei-bashi. Or Ueno. Or another called maybe Honda. You know it’s out there. So anyway, so, I’m getting frustrated over the situation. I asked my interpreter to call the Mansei-bashi police station. And ask them if they got an interpreter. Cuz most of them have interpreters. A nice young girl got on the phone and I talked to her. I sez I believe I went there October 24th at 7 pm at night, with 2 people. And we spoke to a detective on the second floor. And I remember, it was in the middle of the street. It was a dark two-way street. And she says, “it wasn’t here.” I sez “Why?” She sez, “This police station is on the corner. It’s a corner building. So probably Ueno.” So today I got the answer from Ueno police station. They don’t remember anybody coming there on October 24th. So now where am I?
Of course, if I exposed the fact that I was looking for the police station, I may succeed. But the man on the witness stand has to say what police station we went to. But you see, for some reason or other, the police, who are very meticulous did not file the story of the three people that went to visit them. So my next step next week, I have to do it, is call Ueno police station and ask where the 3 detectives are available so I could look at their face.
Q: They have police uniforms on when you talked to them?
A: No, they were detectives. Civilian clothes. But then you see the other thing that nags in the mind is, so what? You’re not going to lose any money anyway. What are you trying to prove? Will the court believe me that he changed the gold? Another “furyo gaijin” (weird foreigner)? With a fucking record this high? The police have got books on me….The books on me are over one meter tall.
Q: Is that right?
A: Jesus Christ. That’s Mogami. And if the court gets that information, I ain’t got a chance.
Q: Where are these books?
A: The Keishicho.(police station)
Q: What Keishicho?
A: The main police station.
Q: Downtown. Hibiya?
A: Yeah. Across…the new building. And, of course, I had my troubles. The Imperial Hotel Robbery. I remember that shit. And if you know police, every Italian’s a gangster. Especially if he is from New York.
Q:Wha…Tell me about that receipt again. I can’t remember. You showed it to me. On that particulqr receipt that Dennis signed, was your name on it?
A: Yes. It was a regular receipt. It may have a stamp, but I don’t think it’s got a stamp. And I asked the question, if it has no stamp, is it legal? He said yes. And then it said 38,600. And I signed Nicola Koizumi. Dennis wrote Dennis Trudeau. (note: at different times?)
Q: Because he had a couple of grand involved in it too.
A: Yeah Well he
Q: Why did he have to sign in the first place? That’s between you and him Why was his name on it in the first place? As a witness?
A: No. Well, of course, we made a lot of mistakes. We shoulda had a sales purchase contract made. We shoulda had the Italians put their passports up on the table. There were so many things that coulda been done, but to be honest with you Bobby, I was gonna make $40,000 bucks by doing nothing. I didn’t give a shit. So when the guy said to me, “I got cheated,” I said “I’ll give you the money back because I didn’t give a shit in the first place.” It was not life or death to me. It was not my regular form of income. See.
(BOOK PERMISSION)
Like I said to you, “Whatever you make, keep.” It’s not my form of income. It’s your form of income. So I don’t need it. How much money can I make on a book? Can I live on it? Impossible, right? Don’t need it.
So, in this case, it’s the same attitude. I always had that attitude. I don’t give a shit about money. Because no matter how much money I got in my pocket, there’s always somebody who comes along and takes it. My wife especially. But anyway.
(GOLD SCAM con’t)
Q: When you returned the money was Dennis with you?
A: Yeah. There was 3 of you. You, Wong and Dennis. That’s why I sez, we go to the police station.
Q: Where did you sign on the lefthand side?
A: Oh, when you look at it, it would be…with 38,600, I signed it, a little bit to the right. But you’ll get a copy of it anyway.
Q: I saw it. It looked like this (draws picture)….Amount here, you name here..
A: No, my name was higher than Trudeau.
Q: Dennis signed it…
A: So, if this is the thing, 38,600 here. My name is up here. And Dennis was here. Now if we knew what was going on, if we knew anything about receipts, we would have done something below it, where the explanation is. See.
This month I lost 2 million four.
Q: In this restaurant?
A: Yep. Wanna buy a restaurant?…
Q: Well, Crazy Wong is
A:…is not so crazy.
Q: Is not so crazy. That’s a very clever little thing that he did.
A: Yeah. But if you look at him as a clever Chinaman. Why would he sue someone without checking if the assets are available to ….
Q: Because he wants to hide the fact that he sold the gold for $160,000. And if he can claim that it was false gold, then he can sue you and even if he loses, it doesn’t matter, because he doesn’t have to pay taxes.
A: Yeah, but he can ask me to…
Q: Of course, he could have…
A: He could have done it in a different way and saved 2 and a half million yen on the lawyers fee, which is 10%. So it doesn’t …
Q: But, of course, if he doesn’t have a receipt, the sale of the gold…
A: But I could have made an agreement with him to sign what happened. Right? He coulda asked a statement from me. And I would say yes, we did this, we did that, he paid and I collaborate his statement, so I can collaborate and it would hold up in the tax office. Because he did go to the bank and get money that day. So there’s something funny. Unless like I said, he thinks I’m a multi-millionaire and he can sue me for 20 million yen. But then why did he try to attack my company? (note: Wong called Frank Nomura to try to find out how much money Zappetti was worth). Now my company would be stuck for 20 million yen. We’d have to pay it. But my lawyer says it’s got nothing to do with the company.
Now, we go the other way. Why would he go to a lawyer to get the money if he’s got gangster connections. Why didn’t he try to get the money back through gangsterism?
Of course, there’s a couple of questions to that. Number one, he’s afraid I have good friends in the gangster business. Number two, they already know that he received real gold and he’s trying to pull a fast deal on me. Then we go back to the other thing, being that people like Machii are good friends of mine, why doesn’t the word come to me that Wong-san replaced the gold? See? Because all these people are in the same category.
Q: Maybe everybody knows that he replaced the gold.(Alt: Does anybody know that he..)
A: Yeah, of course, but it’s not that easy to hide….Then why didn’t he try to find…If you lost 20 million yen worth of money, why didn’t he try to find the Italians So he’s got a receipt from me. That’s got nothing to do with it. Why didn’t he try to find the Italians? He went to court. He filed the paper in February. So he sat on it…November, December, January. He sat on it for 4 months. You would think he would complain to Interpol and try to find the guy. And that gives him a stronger case with the tax office.
Q: Maybe it took him 4 months to think of this.
A: Nooo. Chinese are not that way. Wong-san is not….He’s calculating. I’m a calculator too, but my lawyer told me don’t worry, forget about it. So I forgot about it. Now the court case comes, the lawyer makes money. He sez, even if you lose, there’s no way he can make you pay.
Q: Still you wind up paying 2-3 million yen to the lawyers.
A: To the lawyers.
Q: And then his fees and the translations of the documents, then that’s 5 or 6 million total, right. So Wong as cost you 5 or 6 million yen in all.
A: Yes, cuz I asked this SHIOZAWA, or whatever his name is, “Meet him in Zushi and hit him on the head.” I guess they can’t do that. I said, “OK. I’ll somebody else and kill him.” That fucking gangster shit in his pants. Can you imagine that? A gangsters being so uptight when I use the word “I’m gonna kill him.” Go to Zushi and get him killed. Now if the gangster didn’t care he wouldn’t shown no emotion at all.
It’s like the time I introduced Pascal Perez to Ginza Machii. I told you about that one. Pascal Perez says, “I want to kill that boxer that I brought. He’s fucking my wife.” And Machii says “Give me a million yen.” The son of a bitch pulled a million yen and put it on the table. Shit, how would you like to be in a scene like that.
(tape stops)
(MISCELLANEOUS: YAKUZA)
…my office was in the keishicho. A little shitty desk in a little office. It was on the 5th floor of the old bldg. And that’s where the had the courtroom. And I went in there one day, and listened to the court, and they had this guy called Sekine (Ken Sekine), who had a machine gun and shot up Shimbashi Station.
Q: Was he a yakuza, gangster? (yes)
A: I don’t know what the hell he was. That would be 1946. Funny how some names stick. And some names don’t stick.
Q: Ando shot Yokoi in argument over Yokoi.
A: Yokoi was dirty money.
(Mistaken ID of Goto, Noboru, head of Tokyu, owned politicians)
Q: Remember how I told you I had a guy had boat next to me called Kitty. I had the 53 foot cabin cruiser. He had the Kitty.Which is a little plywood shit boat. Then he bought the Toyatsu, bought a big 56 foot cabin cruiser)
Q: (Mistaken tale of guy who stabbed Rikidozan. More unsubstantiated bullshit.)
A: Riki got stabbed at 9 at night. Noguchi stabbed the guy that stabbed him.
SIDE B
(counter 000)
and this guy stabbed Noguchi. Noguchi stabbed the guy. A 3rd guy involved.
Noguchi is a good friend of mine. You can get to meet him. You get more stories. But I don’t know, these guys don’t talk too much.
Q: That’s a problem.
A: But I think they’re all retired now.
(More BS…)
Q: Kubo Masao. You know him. You ever meet him?
A: He Indonesian?
Q: No.
A: I know Kubo. Heavily decked out in Jewelry.
Q: Really rich guy.
A: Yes, that’s Kubo. Dark skin. Like I say, Indonesian type. I know…I mean I shouldn ‘t say I know him. I’ve spoken to him a few times. But I don’t know him. But he used to go the clubs in those days when I used to go. And he was loaded down with gold, jade, all that kind of crap. Kubo. Well-dressed. Good looking man. Must have been very rich.
Q: Sukarno used to stay at his house when he came.
A: Indonesia. See? See the relation.
Q: He’s the one who sent Dewi.
A: Dewi. And 5 girls. Yeah. He would be the type. Dewi stayed. I told you Dewi’s brother was killed by Sukarno. Cuz he tried to bring the sister back. But Kubo probably was an Indonesian.
By the way, Dave Jones is having a party at a hotel…inviting you to spend 15,000 yen to say goodbye to him? I got one.
Q: I never met him. I never even said hello to him. So why would I want to say goodbye to him.
A: So you save 15,000 yen. But you know there’s two brothers. There were Latin Quarter. They worked at the Latin Quarter and they used to park the cars. They were Korean kids. One was called Jimmy. And Jimmy had a fantastic memory. And if you could trace this kid. You can get anything you want to know about Kubo or anybody in that era. Cuz this Jimmy he had a terrific memory. And I know after the Latin Quarter collapsed or whatever it did (note: burned down), he went to work for the Skyroom in Yokohama near Yokohama Station, he was working over there. If you can get close to somebody who was in that era, who knows him name, this kid could probably give you a tremendous amount of information. Cuz he’s got a good memory. Like he knows Kubo very well. Cuz Kubo used to go to the Latin Quarter.
Q: This guy (crime writer) Sasaki said he interviewed you once. Wrote a story about your restaurant. Long time ago. Late 50’s I think, he started out as a writer. He says he remembers you, and how the stairs used to creak when you walked up them.
A: Well, they weren’t meant for 200 pounders. Well, you should get that interview and look at it.
Q: He said it was just about introducing the food and what the pizza was like.
A: I don’t remember. I had a lot of people come around and bother me. Those days I was doing so fucking good I was arrogant.
Q: He said Machii had a bodyguard named Uchida. He’s the one who used to shoot at the clock in the Ginza. Ever hear of him?
A: No.
Q: That was about 10 years before you and Machii got to know each other.
A: Oh, look, we got customers.
Q: He also said that in Showa 20 (1945) Machii had a fight with a “kakutogi senmon” (martial arts expert). Some guy, martial arts expert, very big gaijin, said he came walking down the street toward Machii, walking down the Ginza, they bumped shoulders and Machii hit him with many body blows and knocked him down. On the Ginza. He became famous for that. Because he beat the shit out of this big gaijin guy. Martial arts gaijin.
(Nick checks audio watch)
A: You know who he’s…is it degner. (meaning: Don Drager). Chuck Norris….It could be Dan Degner.
Q: This was 40 years ago.
A: Yeah, Dagner was an ex-marine. He was the number one man in karate in Japan. I mean the schools and whatnot. (note: this is Don Drager). I may not have the name correct. But it’s very close to that. And he’s famous. But he recently died. And I doubt if Machii and ten gangsters could hurt that guy. 20 gangsters. Cuz that guy was a martial arts champion. You name it. But anybody who’s in judo or the martial arts, can remember his name. …..he was a marine colonel. And he was not a big guy. He might have weighed 180-190 pounds. Which I don’t consider big. Look at me. I’m 180 pounds. I don’t consider myself big anymore. But if it was that guy…Maurice, yeah. Maurice, you know that name.
Cuz this guy Bill Mahoney that stays in my house in Hawaii which I don’t let him stay anymore. He claims he beat up Maurice. I just don’t believe it. But then they say sumo people are afraid to fight. Sumo’s all balance. They don’t like punching.
Q: You mean sumo, karate, or judo…
A: Dagner was the number one man at the time. But I think if you ask Corky, Corky will come like that. Don’t mention my name.
(hack, hack, cough.)
A: Dying.
Q: Don’t laugh and cough at the same time. It’s not good for you.
A: I can’t stay in the restaurant with this loudmouth that I can’t.
Q: You remember a club called “Night and Day” –a snack.
A: Well, let’s see. Night and Day. Was it up here? Nogizaka? Past Nogizaka.
Q: How about a woman named Taira Taiko…her husband worked for the Evening Star of something. American. Night and Day was hostess club. Ty was married ten times. Says he met you.
A: Night and Day. You’re talking about the DragonLady of Okinawa are you?
Q: I don’t know. He said there was a club, one of the first clubs on the Ginza. Came to Roppongi Kossaten (crossing)….can’t read my fucking writing.
A: Wasn’t that right there across the street?
Q: You go in to pick up girls and sleep with them. And the owner Taira Taiko was married ten times.
A: Doesn’t say she’s an Okinawan?
Q: No.
A: Heavy, heavy, heavy makeup?
Q: I don’t know.
A: My wife would answer that question….
(LIGHTS)
(To waiter):I think you gotta go…it’s too bright this way. Boopie. Why don’t you take the shade off some of these, take the shade off the back end, over the table, you know just unscrew the glass pieces. On the regular lights you got… Yeah, unscrew the back…. Unscrew the back…. It’s got 6 pieces, right? Unscrew the back three… Yeah…. I don’t think so…. Why? …This why you don’t have no glare in the customers. Cuz they all got good eyes anyway. They could see.
(MAKI, etc.)
Q: He also said he met you one night at a mansion. There was a small party. There were some peopole, small party, place owned by this Karaseru Maki, this person who had a sex change, changed from a man to a woman. Had dick cut off in Morocco in Showa 40 (1965) And she had a club on the Ginza.
A: I think you’re talking about the…I call her Dragonlady from Okinawa. And she used to wear heavy makeup. She had a club across the street. On top of the Kastella place. Maybe that was called “Night and Day”…And she got married a tremendous amount of times. But she’s an Okinawan girl.
Q: No, he’s talking about two different people. There’s two different stories. I asked him about the first club, what was the first club in Roppongi….he came up with “Night & Day” said it was owned by He said it was owned by this woman named Taira Taiko. And they sold Johnny Walker whiskey there, black market Johnny Walker whiskey, she was married ten times,
A: To Americans?
Q: Yeah, one of her husbands was an American who was a reporter who worked for the Evening Star….But then, this is a different part of the interview. I just asked if he’d ever been here. If he’d met you, he said he met you one time in the mansion apartment of this woman, there was this small group of people that was there and you were there with some other people and this woman’s name Karuseru Maki. And she was …Showa 40. 20 years ago. And she had a sex change. Formerly a man, she went to Morroco and had an operation and came back.
A: The only Maki I know is the one who was married to Shiro. You know, anything can be possible. Those days I was all over the place.
(TSK)
Q: Amano Kenji is this other guys name. He has a club near the Boei-cho. (Self-Defense Agency) 21…He was a long time friend of Machii’s. White hair. Rather small guy. But he was always Machii’s point man. If there was a fight, or had a war he was always in the front lines. Running clubs in Roppongi and also Akasaka.
Q: You don’t know Fujimatsu?
A: No.
Q: Yeah, the guy said Machii had a day face and a night face.
And Amano Kenji took care of the night face part of the business.
A: (shakes head)
Q: Uh. Well, that’s too bad. Shit.
A: Ginbasha. Club Ginbasha she had over here. That was the name of that club, Ginbasha. It coulda been the first Night & Day and then it changed to Ginzbasha. She coulda had some other place and then she came over here. But she was one of these broads with very heavy makeup. You know her eyelids would go like this. You know, black paint. And the name could be Taiko.
Q: They called her Dragonlayd?
A; I called her Dragonlady. And she was no young chick. But I think she’s retired back in Okinawa. Or she’s in the States. She certainly had enough husbands to qualify for stateside citizenship.
Q: Tosei-kai people Tsumura, Yatusnami…those names ring any bells? They’re running the organization. And Machii’s wife. He said that Machii is really sick now. He’s not receiving visitors. This guy said Fujita and Amano are the two guys I ought to meet.
A: Hamano.
Q: Hamano?
A: Hamano. H isn’t it. Isn’t not A.
Q: Amano is what this Japanese guy I was talking to said. Maybe he remembered his name as Amano.
A: I know one of the wheels was called Hamano. There was the old guy Hayashi. But you know they got a lot of them. Tamura. Of course I used to know them. The ones that were very active in this area was Matsubayashi…Matsubayama?….
Q; Matsubara, you told me.
A: Matsubara and Imai and Nakayama and …I can’t remember the names anymore. Nakayama Joji. Matsubara. Imai-san.(note: Imai is the one Machii “placed” in Dan Sawyer’s entertainment promotion office in Tokyo, trying to take a share of the business. Sawyer the secretly had Tokyo undercover cop placed in same office. Imai wound up in jail as a result) But I think Imai and Tani are in Hawaii George Kajioka I heard died.)
I don’t know no more. But Bobby I been away from them for 7-8-10 years now.
Q: Yeah, ok, I’m just checking.
A: Maybe you might hit a name that I know. But you ought to put all those names down and ask my wife. Cuz she’s got a better memory than I have….Can you see?
Q: Yeah, I can see ok.
A: Guys with eyes are lucky, baby.
Q: They’re fading fast.
A: You gotta be careful.
(BOOK)
A: Bobby you earn ever penny you make.
Q: The nice thing about books is that they are always there. And they pop up when least expect it and earn money for you. I just got a check in the mail the other day for three million yen. Reissue of Chrsysanthemum and the Bat. Gonna reprint it next month. I’m gonna get some more money.
A: That’s good. But I tell you…you got to have…you got it all to do with money…you can’t leave it in the bank, Bobby. Got to do something with it. Everything is…because you know like today, I told you, they’re talking about $3,000 and the guy is not sure if the container from the East Coast to Japan is $3,000…That was six months ago. Probably $4500 by now. So you got to get in the position where your $3,000 is $4500. How? You can’t do it in a bank. You buy an asset, $3000 today. It’ll be $2,000 tomorrow. Stock market? Blue chips? Mutual funds. I don’t know. Anyway, I don’t have that headache. My headache only is can I spend $40,000 a year. That’s all.
(ON LOVE AND HATE FOR TOKYO)
Q: All right. We might as well do this while we’re at it. You told me once that Tokyo really used to be a wonderful city and said that the place had changed for the worse…they ruined the city….etc (unintelligibele). I just want you to tell me… why. Why you think so.
A: Well, before…let’s say we’re really optimistic. During 1945 to 1955, I’d say the American democratic system was well working in Japan, which means we had a democracy. People were treated properly. There was no rough riding. Then about 1960, maybe later, the Japanese started to feel their oats, and Tokyo wasn’t a place to live no more. Because now the object was to get rid of the foreigner. And, of course, I’m speaking from a foreign point of view. And I imagine the majority of foreigners that left Japan, left between 55 & 65. I started in the business in 1956. And my restaurant was full of gaijin. And, of course, by checking the American Embassy records how many Americans married during that period, you probably find that a lot of Americans got married in 50-51-52-like that. And then it started tapering off. But, I’d say in those early days, the Japanese are very polite. They were not the arrogant bastards that you see today. And this sickness goes down to everybody, yo. They’re all arrogant son-of-a bitches.
But I gotta admit today, a funny thing happened, I got on a train with my wife,
And a Japanese younger man than me gave me a seat. Do I look that bad? I couldn ‘t help but laugh. And my wife says “Take the seat.” I sez, “Get out of here.” I took the seat. I’m saying Jesus Christ. That guy looked about 50. But you see he must be from a different school. Because Japanese don’t even get up for pregnant women.
But you know in those beginning days, you run a red light, the policeman stops you, he gives you a bad time, he says “be careful and sayonara.” Today, shit, they want to throw you in jail.
(YAE)
The other day when I was driving home with my wife, some insurance man, Charles Bickford, Binnford, he’s got an insurance company called “Johnson,”….he hit my car, with a shit Japanese car he was driving, and I got a Volvo, and I mean he hit that car. So I got out and he got out and I looked at my car, and of course a Volvo ain’t gonna have any damage, that’s a junior tank, and he was very defensive. He sez ‘We were both moving.’ I looked at him, I sez “you’re an American?” He sez “yeah.” I sez “Let’s forget about it.”
My wife got pissed off. She says, “What do you mean, forget about it?” You know. She put herself in such a position she trapped his car. She caught him on this side of Roppongi, where he was behind her and he couldn’t move. And she got him, “Boom!” He got out. I sez Gimme your name card. He sez I ain’t got no name card. And she got his name card and she called the company up. And even though it’s my wife, she had a Japanese arrogant attitude.
I sez, “Yae-chan, there’s no damage to my car. And I don’t care about his car. And he did hit us. We didn’t hit him. He’s behind us.”
She sez, “I just want his name and I want to tell his company what he did.”
I sez, “You know what’ll happen. You waste 3 or 4 hours. Nothing’s gonna happen. Cuz they’re two gaijin.”
But that’s a form of Japanese arrogance. Unless you are very close to them, you don’t notice it.
Q: She just wanted his company to know what he did? That’s all?
A: Sure. That’s all.
Q: Just to…
A: … stick a needle in him. And he could be the president of the company for Christ’s Sake….And she wanted to know what the fuck he was doing in Roppongi when his house was in Mita. (laugh) (cough)(hack)…I said “Maybe he’s got a mistress”. because it was early in the morning.
Q: She asked him why?
A: She asked the company why. Why he…What the hell is he doing in Roppongi if he lives in Mita.
Q: Jesus Christ.
A: You know, of course, I understand Japanese. I didn ‘t want to get involved. I just…I say, “What do you make so much noise for?” She sez, “Well, you never know. I might get whiplash, later on.” I sez “jesus christ.”
(JAPANESE VS. AMERICAN RANT)
Q: OK. More. More. How did they ruin the city
A: It’s such a tremendous organized operation that you can’t pinpoint it. There’s a tremendous amount of volume. There is no more individual instance. The whole thing. It’s always 100% of the whole. The attitude. 100% of the people join it. Every thing becomes 100% It’s not like in America where the Latinos want to do something else and the Germans want to do something. Over here everything is concentrated in 100% of the attitude. And you know they have something in this country where they got….they got these talk shows, and these talk shows are all orientated to have everybody in Japan parrot what they say. They don’t allow you to have your own opinion. And all these things when you add them up, becomes very anti-foreign. Very anti-American. Very anti-everything. As an example, today on tv, Kayama Yuzo’s father’s on tv right. OK, he got married when he was 69 years old and he married a girl who was 29. She threw him out. He’s 83 now. They were married 15 years. He’s broike. He ain’t got a dime.
Q: Uehara Ken.
A: Uehara Ken. That’s the name. Now if these people were compassionate and they’re all in the entertainment business. How come they don’t do something to alleviate his financial problems. After all, he’s one of their sensei’s. (masters) So lip service, they give you. Cooperation. No way. America’s the same thing. The SII talks. Anything you doing the Japanese, lip service is beautiful. Cooperation is not there.
I receive the copies of the Yomiuri Shimbun from Hokkaido today, just about 2:45 And when I came back from Hokkaido, I looked at the Japanese Times. I couldn ‘t find that French Prime Minister’s statement that if you don’t know the Japanese are trying to conquer the world, you got to believe the Japanese are either stupid or naïve. It wasn’t in the Japan Times. It wasn’t/was in the Yomirui Shimbun. So now, I got the copies of the Yomiuri. So if I wanted to spend money, I’d just put all those fucking copies and put’em in a god damned xerox machine, and send it to every senator and every congressman, and send it to Carla Hills, and ask them, the reason why you don’t operate, everybody is sticking their hand out, how much will the Japanese Incoporated pay us. Did you read about the Russian? What’s his name, the old man, Palsie(?), 80-90 years old. He gets 2 million dollars a year for being a Russian lobbyist? Did you read that? Maybe more.\ $50,000 a day? Is that what it was? He’s a lobbyist for the Russians. His name is Palsy. P-a-l-s-y. He used to be a big government official. And his job is to try to get the American government to give them 100 billion dollars. Now what the fuck can an 83 year old man, or 91, what the fuck does he need two million dollars for. How the hell can he spend it. I look at myself. I’m only 70 and I’m not allowed to do this. Or that. I’m not allowed to eat this. I’m not allowed to drink that. What the fuck can his expenses be? Food? Zero.
Q: He’s a Russian, where?
A: He’s an American. An American government official who has retired. And he is the registered Russian lobbyist. And he is the one who is cooperating with this guy who came in.recently trying to get 100 billion dollars from the American government. His name is Palsy. Or. He’s a famous name. But he’s 90. So he must have been famous 30 years ago. He could be Russian. He could have been the ambassador to Russia. He could have been anything.
Q: How much does he get a year?
A: Two million and a half dollars.or 3 million dollars. I think it came out to 50,000 dollars a week. And it was in the newspaper in the last 2 or 3 weeks.
But you know Bobby, you talk about the difference between yesterday and today. You walk in a club in Japan and the girls were right there. They were friendly. They were sociable. You know. And if you wanted to fuck one and the Japanese wanted to fuck one, you always had the choice. They never go with a Japanese. Today, they wouldn’t go with a foreigner if he was dead.
If you use sex as a barometer, you can tell the way the people think.
You know I used to walk in Roppongi down there. Walking from my restaurant to here. And the kids would all say, “There’s Mr. Nicolas. There’s Mr. Nicolas.” Today, they say there’s a fucking gaijin….Life has changed. I used to have all these kids bothering me. Pulling my hand. You know, all kinds of school kids. Up and down the street here. Today, it’s changed.
Even my son says, “Who the hell is Nicolas?“
(YAE–PATCHES, etc.)
Q: Do you think I can interview your wife next week? On Tuesday?
A: Tuesday. …Okay. We’ll try.
Q: 4 o’clock.
A: She’s in bad physical shape. And she’s shocked. The doctor says, “Jesus, you look good.”….I said, “you should see what I look at all day. She’s got patches here. Patches here. Patches all over her head, you know. Got headaches. I sez, “Next time you go to the States, buy Tylenol.” I always got a headache. She don’t wanna admit it, she’s old. She’s 58. She played golf Sunday and she’s dead for the rest of the week. And that’s been going on. Oh, every time she plays golf, 3 or 4 days later, she’s finished. But today she had a little smirk on her face, when I sez, “You know, you’re getting old.”
Q: What are these head patches?
A: Oh, they stick’em on. You ever see these fucking women. Cuz, you know the temple is where you get a headache, right. And she’s got Salon Paz (sp?_) or some shit like that. She’s a firm believer in Japanese medicine. And then again like I say, they believe everything. All you got to do is listen to a talk show and the guy says yeah, this works. 120 million Japanese do it.
(JAPANESE-VS. AMERICAN RANT)
But, Bobby, this is still a better country than the United States. You can still walk down the street. You don’t have to worry about getting shot at or robbed. Or be a victim of what do you call it, a drive-by shooting? They don ‘t have that here. It’s got its advantages.
But it’s got worse advantages. It’s got people shooting you without using guns.
(BOOK)
Q: This is great. The more I think about this book, the more I like it. I had a long talk with my editor on the telephone. I told her. She really got turned on. The proposal that I turned in was something called “Tokyo Lives”. I had a list of must have been 10-12 people there, follow Japan through three eras, you know Postwar up to the Olympic, Olympic up to 85 Plaza Summit when the Yen really shot up, and then 85 to now and how it’s changed. City’s become completely different in the past 7 years. Because of the impact of the money. You’re ….it’s perfect. They ought to make a movie out of it.
A: 50 billion dollars a year. It’s got to go someplace. Every year, you know. Jesus Christ.
Q: But I had all these different people in there and I just said, “Shit. The story is right here.” I mean you, Machii, the Tosei-kai, and Rikidozan story….
A: There’s a lot of them out there.
Q: And you three…follows through Tokyo, throw in a salaryman here and there, you know, just give a little balance, like my brother-in-law, get him in there, but this, it’s just a great story, about how the city grew.
A: Bobbie, at the end, even though I grossed 3 to 4 million dollars a year every year for the last 35 years. At the end, I’m broke. I mean I got a million dollars. To me, that’s broke. That’s not even one percent of my gross income. What the fuck happened to all that money? My god and I never paid taxes. My first 15 years I don’t think I ever paid a penny in taxes. Isn’t that something.
Q: That’s a great quote. “I’ve only got a million dollars.”
A: And I don’t consider a million dollars money. I’ve seen so much of it. It went through my fucking hands and my pockets. Imagine, I had a 53 foot cabin cruiser and I got $191 for it. (laugh)
Q: Must have been pretty old.
A: No, it was a brand new boat. I built that boat in 1965. I launched it I think I sold it at 1970, or maybe less than that. I don’t think I had the boat 4 or 5 years, but I got 191 dollars for it. Thanks to Mr. Robertson;s boat yards in San Diego. Who can say that? The fucking boat and market today is about $300,000. William Gardner.
(Tape End)
Tokyo Junkie 