Japan Gets Real

Along with new voices.

(updated: 16 March 2025)

I’d always known about Japan.

From a very young age, I saw the Japanese characters on the back of drink cartons, along with Astro Boy on television. Also, I pondered my mum’s use of chopsticks, her shopping for bean shoots, roasted sesame oil, tofu and soy sauce at Japan Mart and use of the wok. I also liked checking out different car brands which meant going to the motor show. Then, in 1988, I learned Japanese at school. Also, my dad’s good friend had a Japanese wife.

Next door to Japan Mart was Brent’s Toy Shop. Both those shops have become a hairdressing supply store and bicycle store respectively, and have been like that ever since – for decades.

Italy started to get real too, when I first saw a Lamborghini Countach at Brent’s in the mid-late 80’s. Over time, they actually had a few – sometimes with rear spoilers and sometimes without. Inside the store read the slogan: “What separates the men from the boys are the price of their toys.” So gazing at Pirelli P-Zeroes that were as wide as my chest is a vision I won’t forget.

I used to think “how is this even a car?” and the name was cool too. The teasing sales guy said he’d let me have the car for $5, but I needed to pay literally on the spot. Somehow he knew I had no cash on me.

Jay Leno bought one as his daily driver and said the key with Italian cars was to let them warm up before heading off. The shop also had a De Tomaso Pantera, Aston Martin, white Lotus Esprit and red Ferrari 328 GTS at different times and as the office was on a mezzanine, as I would check out cars, the staff would peer down at me.

Wallet-wise they seemed more interested in knowing about my dad than about me. Yet by 1987 we “only” had a light-green Honda Accord…

[2020]

… to hell with those Japanese 4 seaters.

I am pretty sure most of Brent’s cars were new – and multi-brand dealerships don’t exist like this anymore and perhaps that’s why it closed down – the sales guy said something about it – the auto-makers wanted large orders, not for 1 or 2 units and they wanted vertical integration.

At the time, the closest I got to driving in a Ferrari was sitting in Ron Walker‘s red Testarossa on Irving road as I rode passed a well-known residence with “Spartacus.”

[2020 | 2025 ]

Sega's 1986 arcade racer OutRun is set for a live-action film directed by Michael Bay, with Sydney Sweeney producing. Jayson Rothwell writes the script, and Sega's Shuji Utsumi oversees the project. pic.twitter.com/vCauDFXih9

— NTC Feed (@NTC_Feed) April 26, 2025

Good guy… but the Americans and Japanese solved (or attempted to solve) the problem that the Italians created – I drove one in Test Drive on the 8088.

[mid + late 80’s]

…and in Out Run at the Fun Factory arcade with Mikito (see further down) about 100m up from Brent’s, but which has also since shut down.

Recently, (as of 2024) a motorcycle salesman told me point-blank that “Life’s good on a low-rider” for a 2007 Suzuki Boulevard.

Mid-life crisis averted. Thank God for the Japanese!

Yet, I’d rather an electric unicycle at this point because it carves better and co-incides with my dream flying. So whatever takes me to Downtown Venus?!?

Anyway, we had some Japanese next-door neighbours who lived in the apartment block in 1987.

In fact, I met a number of people who lived in that building because I used to hit a tennis ball against the walls in the back parking lot occasionally after school when there were no cars around, and the Body Corporate Manager’s name was Adrian too.

Incidentally, there was a proper tennis court across the road, and the owner was nice enough to let me play their as well and have tennis lessons with Doron on Saturday mornings.

But that court was eventually bulldozed for the owner’s new residence that was self-designed, while their main house was sold-off as well. In that house, during the first intifada, a guy once said that the Gaza Strip was actually a nightspot, but it took me a few years to get the pun.

But my first reaction to seeing footage of the intifada was that the IDF should throw rocks back. In Australia, if someone started throwing rocks they’d be arrested.

People ask what radicalise you? Childhood low resolution memories of first intifada #Gaza #NeverForget pic.twitter.com/k7odqzPEZC

— dimfrag (@dimfrag) January 27, 2024

Also, with this mindset, the IDF to this day could launch missiles such as Katyushas (or the equivalent) into Lebanon and the territories as well. IDF becomes IPF – Israel Proportionate Force. Because if I lob a tennis ball over the fence, someone may eventually lob it back.

October 2001 – Second intifada❤️‍

From the Gaza Strip where the very first launch of the Qassam rocket #1 took place targeting nearby enemy settlements

The rocket was produced by the chief of engineer & martyr Nidal Farhat of the Al-Qassam brigades pic.twitter.com/1XVgQs11G2

— ❤️‍ بارودي فا مخ ياهودي (@illestbrigadez_) January 29, 2025

Why aren’t there rows of tanks and missiles in northern Israel pointed at southern Lebanon permanently, or a fleet of self-destructing FPV drones ready to go? It makes no sense – actually it makes a lot of sense depending on the perspective. Moreover, Israel should be preparing for drones carrying cold-war warheads next as being the “new Qassams” and have jammers ready to go.

In 2025, if I come across any anti-Israel rhetoric, usually I can just say something like “What are you a Muslim or something? They’ll come for you next. Haven’t you read the Quran?” Talk about useful idiots – especially Prime Minister Netanyahu (previously Milikovski) whereby from my observations, he rarely talks about the Muslim angle of the conflict and confuses Jews with Israelites and Israelites with Israelis – like so many others.

Having today’s “Israel” named directly after its predecessor from 2500 years ago (below right) when the Israelites actually existed (as the 12 tribes) doesn’t help matters either.

[ Tower of David museum, 2017 ]

If only today’s Saudis came with gold tributes for the Prime Minister as might have happened 3000 years ago.

[ ” ]

But that was before Islam and during actual Israelite Kingship.

So Jerusalem is a city that “has been fought over sixteen times in its history. During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times.” src

[ ” ]

So I wonder, when someone buys some dates in Sweden:

Sweden’s largest supermarket chain, ICA, is selling dates in packaging that says #FreePalestine and a map depicting Palestine “from the river to the sea,” erasing Israel.

Swedes are allowing antisemitism to flourish in their country out of fear of offending Muslims.

Tragic. pic.twitter.com/1mytLwWlc0

— Luai Ahmed (@JustLuai) March 6, 2025

Are they:

• Actually wanting to “Re-conquer Al-Quds” rather than to “Free Palestine” as history would infer?
• Aware that the “international day to express support for Palestine and oppose the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories” is called “Al-Quds Day” circa 1979 – ie “Jerusalem Day.”
• Living by the sword?
• Aware of their own ancestral conquests and bloodshed?
• Aware that pro-Palestinian content may in fact be sourced from certain Jews in order to turn themselves into better victims to receive more donations and support the war paradigm? This happens in Gaza as well – diverting food trucks away from those in need – creates better Palestinian victims while providing goods to sell/store and enables more content to be swallowed by useful idiots.

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone date.

All warfare is based on deception.

Anyway, so 11 or 12-yr old Mikito and a bunch of us would go to the Fun Factory and blow our coins on Double Dragon and Dragon Ninja.

Mikito was an only child and his dad was a hairdresser. I’m pretty sure their visa application was rejected and they returned to Japan. He brought over his Famicom and used it here and that was amazing to me. He struggled with English but we all made it work somehow and he was a lot of fun.

Back then, we had a Honda Accord and on my way to learning Karate in 1995, I learned Tae Kwon Do years earlier.

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Yet mostly I dreaded Thursday’s Tae Kwon Do class because at 2 – 2.5 hours, it was so tiring and stressful. It was also a fair drive to reach the Camberwell Civic Centre. One time, the car ran out of petrol and literally rolled into the servo next door. And that’s the way the class made me feel so often.

But, under the guidance of Jack Rozinsky, I ended up with a yellow belt and two stripes before stopping. Karate in 1995 was with Sensei Joe, which I preferred.

I won an award “Most Spirited Senior” that year and was somewhat sad to give it up due to study commitments and a desire to change my physicality.

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I threw away the trophy recently (late ’22) due to it dropping, and should’ve taken a photo before doing so. Back into the spirit realm. I remember sparring competitively with another Jewish guy double my age (Jonathan?) at the second-floor venue in Cato Street.

One of my school friends Peter was doing Chikara style Karate at the time but at a different association and when he found out about the commonality on a lunch break, he played me Pantera in his walkman. He was into the game Street Fighter II a few years earlier and used to emulate the moves he saw and take on the whole theatrical effect.

I went to Japan in December that year too and for the first and only time,

[pic 3: Kobe post earthquake ??]

I bleached my hair with Tina in Greville Street for the school holidays.

So that trip was with Jun whose immediate family lived in Japan and I knew him from Geelong Grammar, Timbertop.

[ Jun on bottom bunk, in front of Use Your Illusion II poster ]

He had slept in the bunk next to mine and in fact, on about 3 occasions  in the middle of the night I heard (and saw) him sit up and speak a completely alien language to me.

[ At the interstellar departure gate. ]

No one else witnessed it, and he knew nothing of it personally. At the time, he was on the top bunk, not bottom. So S and Jun must’ve switched.

It wasn’t just a few words either, the monologues would go on for 2-5 minutes and were very fluent. They really should’ve woken up other people but did not.

And Jun was very often the last person to make the breakfast line-up, right after me. Re-orienting with illusion?

The lingo used for sleeping back then was “spine-bashing” and “departured” and it was a favourite pastime for many.

Today, very rarely I might hear music in my dreams – if only I could access it in waking life, like Lenny Kravitz. Perhaps people access past lives too: and languages. I had a massive download in a sleep in Jerusalem in 2005 – maybe that was Jun’s?

I should’ve tried sleeping outside.

It’s worth noting that Andrew from 4Xoverland mentioned once that part of the reason he likes 4WD’ing so much is to get away from civilisation where he has said that his soul can travel at night in a more effective way. Dream flying too? Something like that anyway.

Continuing, another school friend Sa (brown jacket below) and Jun’s cousin (pink jacket) also made it over to Japan as Jun is Australian/Japanese.

There was a lot to take in including skiing at Tenjindaira with incredible amounts of snow (compared to Mount Buller) and at one point Jun and I spent 45 minutes looking for a ski. I took a fall in the powder and somersaulted and the ski was at the top of landing spot, not down the hill where I stopped. I also recorded a video of me skiing to the base of the mountain, but the camera was on full zoom so it came out poorly.

Note the Alpine Racer game:

But it wasn’t a “game” if there was no sense of defeat, only victory or discovery.

Anyhow, in Tokyo, January 1996, I checked out the the Elvin Jones Special Quartet with Wynton Marsalis at the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan. I missed Jamiroquai by a few weeks light years.

But, by chance Prince came through a night-club that I was at with his massive entourage. I had last seen him in concert in April 1992 for Diamonds and Pearls. He played a number of shows in Japan also in January 1996. I’m not sure if he came through after his concert but I did see him from about 10 meters away despite me not trying to get a glimpse as he strutted across the dance floor to his next destination.

I bought a number of CDs as well: R. Kelly self-titled, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (on Sa’s recommendation,) Jesus Wept and Back from the Raggedy Edge. All these albums came out a few months prior to me arriving. I really was very fortunate to be able to make the trip to Japan and am very grateful for it.

Continuing, I started Bagua and Yoga in 1997 and became vegan for a period of time. I also gave Pilates a few sessions.

But was I heading in the right direction with my menu? I was using a book to learn some of my Yoga poses. Was it enough?

I was still eager to find new voices, even if I didn’t understand them at first.

So via Sugihara, Japan provided a lifeline for my grandparents during the war on the way to Australia, so where was the next stop? Back to Japan?

TLC released tracks in 1995, which I first heard in Japan, and I mashed up in Israel in 2013.

So is that where I would find flow? And yes I did find it, quite literally…

But how do other Israelis find flow? Was defeat, victory or discovery at hand? A zero-sum game?

alike:

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