Farewell, My Wonderful Japan Bash

So long, and farewell.

The last post was over three years ago. The last post that I actually put some thought into was even further back in time, in 2016. It's quite obvious that this blog is no longer something I think about. And though I will keep the domain name registered for shits and giggles, I have a feeling the site is about to implode.

You see, I hosted all the photos on a website called Flickr. In the past, it was around $10 a year for a pro account. Then they sold the company. The new owners raised the price. While I redesigned www.ramenadventures.com into a new, non-Flicker-using portal for all things ramen, Japan Bash remains tied to this service.

I canceled it in February 2021. There is a large possibility that the 21,000 photos stored on their servers will disappear. 

I started Gaijin Bash (the original name) in 2006 when I moved from San Francisco, California, USA to Japan. I guess you could e-stalk me by starting at that first post.

So thank you for the views. In total 243,000 people viewed this site from the first post in 2006. I made around $500 in adsense revenue, though I think that is also including money from Ramen Adventures, which is kind of depressing considering that the site has many millions of views. Looking back, I think I did the blog thing incorrectly. I had friends who claimed their blogs were making real money. Blogs about things much less SEO friendly than ramen.

The most popular post was my Teaching in Japan writeup. I hope this post was genuinely useful to people. It was meant to be.

Keep in touch. I'm on every social media platform I can think of @ramenadventures. Look me up. YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, FaceBook, Twitch, Discord, Clubhouse. Sorry, no Mixi.

I'm Brian, and this was Japan Bash.

japanbash.com is now japanbash.co

I was having trouble renewing my domain name, japanbash.com, though the Blogger system. I tried many times, but in the end I was just lazy and let it expire. I also thought that if I let it expire, I could just re-register it through GoDaddy, which is where I have my other domains.

Anyways . . .

The minute it expired, some company swooped on it. I guess that is something that happens a lot.

So now the .com is a .co

Here is a photo of ramen:



If anyone knows how I should try and get japanbash.com back, let me know. I do't want to spend much money, and I think the URL is pretty much worthless from a financial standpoint.

Really? Are You Really Sniffing My Ass?

My collection of Hello Kitty cell phone straps.

私の　キーチーちゃんの　携帯電話の　ストラプ　です。

Aren't they cute?

Oh, the title about smelling my ass? So today I was trying to get some "cool" points with the popular crowd of 3rd graders. At lunch time I pulled out my ipod and started showing off my photos. I showed off motorcycle pictures, pictures of girls I've dated, me dressed up like Batman, all in the hopes of getting them interested in me. By transitive properties of coolness dissipation, if they think I am cool, they will think English is cool. Good logic, right?

Settle down, I'm getting to the ass smelling part.

Out of about 12 boys, they would take turns having 1 or 2 go behind me and smell me. It was just some harmless sniffs near my armpits while the rest of them looked at my ipod. Some of them were getting all up in my pits. I don't sweat much, ever, so maybe it just smelled like my deodorant. I let them have their fun. It's American deodorant, maybe it has a unique smell.

I'm pretty much ignoring this smelling game, but then my kancho sense started tingling. Something was getting near my butt. But this time it wasn't 5 year old fingers, it was a 14 year old nose. Homeboy was trying to sniff my pooper.

I have writer's block now. I think you get the point though. This is what I do for a living.

Saitama in the Media!

埼玉　埼玉　埼玉

I lived in Saitama prefecture for a year. When people from other prefectures are asked about Saitama, they will either laugh or cringe. One of the two. Which one are you? Do you laugh at those who put themselves in a bad situation? Or do you sympathize with them?

一ヵ年　埼玉県　に　すんで　いました。　違う県　の　人　は　埼玉県　を　馬鹿　に　します。 I don't know how to translate any more of this.



From the anime series "Code Geass". Takes place in a futuristic Tokyo that has been taken over by a British superpower. Saitama has apparently been turned into a ghetto. Not much effort required, as that scene looks like the street outside my old apartment. Giant robots and all.



From the movie "A Yakuza in Love". He's actually saying だ埼玉、だ埼玉。Da-Saitama! Dasai means not cool.

But fictional movies about romantic gangsters and battle mechs aren't the only way to imagine Saitama! Just check out the local news:

Drug Bust in Kawagoe.

This is old news, over a year ago. Some Nova teachers were slangin and got busted in Kawagoe. It was swell to be pigeon holed in my town after this. Suddenly everyone in town wanted to know my relationship with the Nova jackasses who got busted with coke and pot. Good times! To be honest though, I was too high on coke and pot to really care what people thought.

Car Crashes into 7-11.

Driving the motorcycle was a chore around Saitama. Not only were the streets clogged with delivery trucks, but said delivery trucks were mostly being driven in reverse by an unsuspecting old granny driver. And there were giant robots in the streets to be concerned about as well.

Girl Attacked with a Stun Gun.

If you've read the blog for a while, you've seen my lovely photo collection of warning signs. My favorite is still:



Lesson learned, believe all hand painted signs depicting school girl violence.

Old Man Schoolgirl.

Ahhh.... now isn't that sweet. There was an old dude I would see at the Kawagoe station bus stop about once a week decked out to the nines in a sailor moon style school girl dress. He seemed harmless. School girls are harmless... right?

School Girls Attack Police.

Wrong!

McDonalds Porn Shoot Busted.

Saved the best for last. Tourism into Saitama jumped the week after this story broke.

I also read a biography, "Confessions of a Yakuza", where the guy went to Kawagoe to a VD clinic in the 1920s.

Open Letter to the Chinese Guy Who Stole My Camera

Dear Chinese guy whole stole my camera,

Hey buddy. How's it going? Long time no see! Well... I never actually saw you, but you saw me! On my damn digital camera!

I know where you live... in Xian, population about 3 million. Or maybe you live in Guilin. Fuck it, I don't actually have any idea where you live. Congratulations, you win. Your prize is my camera. The same one you stole. You can have it.

I bought my Canon IXY digital camera about 8 months ago after I broke my Canon A700 during one of the notorious bicycle accidents. Although the IXY took shitty low light photos, and the landscape shots were nothing to blog about, it was tiny tiny and would power up and take a shot in half a second. A great camera for roadside monkey sightings.

I think you work at the airport. You also stole my dad's cell phone. But you didn't touch my ipod, which was right next to the camera. Did my collection of hip hop, new age forest music, and philosophy podcasts turn you off?

As part of my "Congratulations, you're finished having children molest you while you teach them pronouns" present, I bought a new Nikon D40. You, Mr. Sticky Fingers, didn't get to that one. I kept it bolted to my eye during my entire trip to China. Of course it takes better shots, but I can't really carry an SLR into museums for some candid artwork shots. I feel like a ninja who, though his sword may be deadly, feels naked without his shobo.

When I told my guide in Guilin that I had my camera stolen, he said in his deadpan way, "Well... this is China." It was funny.

So you have my camera, Mr. Zhong guo ren. I don't have many photos on it, just some macro shots of my ryokan dinner from Izu in Japan. Can you please send those to me? There's also random videos of Shinkansens, but you can just delete those.

Sincerely,
Brian the wei guo ren.




Next: I went to Nara and then spent 11 days in China. My camera with all my good photos wasn't stolen, so I'm gonna try and get up my shots soon. From the Great Wall, to fake Gucci bags, to ... unusual ... food, there's a lot to show.

Japanese gyms don't like the handicapped!

I got the tour of the local gym. I thought it would be nice to start working out after work. On the list of people not aloud in the place:

• No criminals
• No drunks
  
• No tattoos on the body
• No mentally ill

Guess no gym for me. I kinda expected that tattoo thing, so it's not that big of a deal. But no mentally ill people?!? That's fucked up!