Form Over Function Much???

I know I’m not alone here when I saw that the Winter Olympics are such a bore! But more than a few residents of the City Under Red Sun have still found a way to get their collective panties in a bunch, and his name is Kazuhiro Kokubo (seen above). The problem was he showed up at Vancouver International looking like this!

My first (and second and third) thought was: カッコイイ!!! [read: kakkoii - dope!!!] But the Japanese media was not impressed! The ill sag, the untucked shirt, the nose stud and the locks to top it…. the media was NOT having it. Instead, they labeled him as  somehow “unrepresentative of Japan”. Even politicians were making statements about his “regrettable appearance”!

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And the Earth Moved… Black Love Below for Haiti

Living in Japan, I’ve developed a great respect for earthquakes. With my heightened gaijin senses, I am keenly aware that my beloved city is long overdue for its next “great” earthquake. And every respiration of the city immediately triggers my flight instinct only to later give way to the realization that it’s just the wind or the subway or…. anything but the end of the world disaster that I’ve so vividly envisioned in my mind.

But a month ago today, my worst fears were realized when I realized that that interesting fog of the Haitian capital wasn’t fog at all but the dust cloud covering a city of some 3,000,000 people in ruins. My heart sunk! Like most Black Americans I share a special affinity for Haiti. My affinity is even more personal because of my relationship with my fraternity and my resident Haitian old head, Etienne aka “Mr. Liberte or La Mort!”. Watching the sheer devastation of the city, my prayers were for my Brother and hiw wife, their families and all the people of Haiti who have too long been treated as the pariah of the Western Hemisphere.

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World AIDS Day 2009

Yeah, I’m a day late but I was in-flight back to the City under Red Sun and didn’t get in until late…

So….. December 1st is (was) World AIDS Day! A day to stop and reflect on the plague of our time and the terrible toll it has taken worldwide. To date, this scourge has claimed the lives of some 28 million people, and another estimated 33 million people around the world are currently living with the disease. There is no cure!!!

By now, we all now the devastation this plague has caused. But today (and EVERYDAY), perhaps more than ever, we really need to stop and reflect on this disease and our lives in the shadow of AIDS/HIV. Too many of us see AIDS and HIV as an African problem. Too many of us see it as a African American problem. Too many of us still see it as a homosexual problem. Somehow we always manage to map it outside our spheres, outside of our personal definitions of ourselves. Perhaps it’s because we aren’t African, or African American. Perhaps we don’t live in DC, NYC ATL or San Francisco. Perhaps we aren’t gay. Then again, maybe we’re too young to remember those truly terrible days, before the anti-retroviral drug cocktails, when an HIV diagnosis meant certain death, and when we watched helplessly as our best friends and family and our idols wasted away and died.

Those days a gone! The fear has subsided, and in its place a terrible new disease has taken hold. This disease…. complacency. Here in the City under Red Sun, as elsewhere, people just aren’t very concerned with AIDS. More than anywhere else, it really is seen as something that happens to other people in some other place in some other other time. Too many times have I heard that AIDS/HIV is alternately a gay, Black, or foreigner disease. And if you’re a gay, Black foreigner (such as myself), then you’re the living embodiment of risk. Largely separated from these at-risk “others”, Japan is lulled in a false sense of security.

BUT AIDS/HIV IS EVERYWHERE. AND EVERYONE IS AT RISK!!!

What really scares me and where to get tested after the break

The Ubiquitous Mask

Swine Flu, err…. New Flu, err…. H1N1. This bug has so many names now, it’s hard to keep track. Whatever you call it, it’s everywhere and spreading. And although this new strain is powerful and highly contagious, it so far hasn’t proved itself anywhere near as lethal as it’s more traditional cousins.

Still, people are rightfully concerned and taking the necessary precautions. For those that qualify, these precautions include the highly controversial H1N1 vaccine. Is it safe? Does it work? Even the so called experts aren’t entirely sure!

These days almost every public space is equipped with a bottle of alcohol-based hand sanitizer. I’m a dyed-in-the-wool germaphobe, so y’all already know I’m thrilled because this means that I don’t have to wash my hands in ice cold water or wipe my wet hands on my pants But, I’m especially thrilled because, although Japan seems unwilling or unable to provide either hot water or paper towels, at the very least it seems people are finally embracing the one thing known AND proven to cut the spread of contagious agents… alcohol-based sanitizers.

All the sanitizer aside, Japan, like the rest of Asia, remains committed to its face masks. According to some, it’s to prevent the wearer from getting sick. But according to others, it’s to prevent the wearer from spreading his/her germs with others. Which ever you choose to believe, seems everyone ends up wearing one this time of year. Like, gloves… check. Scarf… check. Hat… check… Louis Vuitton… check. Face mask… check!
Continued after the break

Tranny Trash Burgers

Sure, I’ve been out to the random joint here or there, or for a cocktail or 10 in Ni-chome with the boys. But I haven’t REALLY hit the scene in quite a while. (I did go to one party where I met a very interesting character I’ll call “Pharrell Fan” but more on that in a different post.) Blame it on the recession! Indeed…

In my absence though, the City Under Red Sun has been taken over! Taken over, I tell you!!! Like when General Zod and his crew went and wrecked shop all up and through Metropolis! But there aren’t three, there are FIVE of them! Not since Godzilla emerged from the ocean has the City faced such a threat!

Ladies and gents (and everything in between), behold your negation! Behold, Miss Kisstress, Lady Pussy L’Amour, Princess Katarzena D’Porte, Countessa Vershuka Horkova and Captain Nonke, AKA the Tranny Trash Burgers.

Luckily for all of us – Natives and Residents alike – these devastating divas are less concerned with murder and mayhem and world domination. And more concerned with obscenely outrageous fabulousness. Your President (or Prime Minister) will not have to bow before them. Instead, they might “bow” before him. LOL All, except Captain Nonke, that is ’cause nonke don’t get down like that.

And here they are doing what they do best…

In addition to terrorizing the populace,  the TTB’s are also hitting the small screen! Peep the outrageousness! (courtesy of the Baltic Bombshell AKA Genkiserb – Thanks, babes!)

Tranny Outrageousness After the Jump

J-News Update: Swine Flu HERE! And Really? What’s Wrong with being Naked?

So I haven’t been able to post like I’ve really wanted, so lemme try to play catch up for a second. A few weeks ago I made a post on Swine Flu in the City. In that post I was more than a lil’ dismissive of the whole Swine Flu thing. Turns out maybe I shouldn’t have been quite so flip. The flu epidemic has hit the Second City pretty hard. And now, Japan Times reports that the virus is here!

Japan Times: Flu infiltrates Tokyo as patient tally leaps to 263

In other news, I also made a post about the drunk and naked antics of Tsuyoshi Kusanagi. The police arrested the SMAP star for public indecency after a night of drunken karaoke-ing… naked in a public park! It was expected that public outrage would put his career into a serious deep freeze. But instead folks have instead been critical of the police and the media for blowing this whole incident waaaay out of proportion. And just weeks after his arrest, it seems Kusanagi is already set for a big comeback.

From Japan Today: Kusanagi’s comeback – what was the big deal after all?

Swine Flu in the City

Taking a break from mania-fueled boy lust, I was struggling to come up with something blog-worthy. I mean, you get it already, yeah… I’m a great big gay and I love cute boys! But my beloved Mexicans saved the day with their hottest export since Taco Bell, SWINE FLU! Yes, SWINE FLU! (Malcolm told y’all that pigs were nasty!)

Swine Flu cases are popping up all over the world and has doctors and health officials everywhere racing to prevent the global pandemic that they’ve long worried Bird Flu was supposed to become (but never did). Swine Flu, though, is the real deal! Or so we’re being told. Over 150 have died, several thousand have fallen ill, and the World Health Organization has sounded the alarm. Public health officials have responded with travel restrictions and strong advisories.

Here in the City Under Red Sun, concerns are high. This is after all a “島国” [shimakuni: island country], and the outside world, now as always, presents itself as a grave risk to the eternal “和” [wa: peace and tranquility]. Yeah, ummm… so officials here are taking no chances, screening passengers, quarantining imported pigs, stockpiling anti-virals and warning the citizens.

And the citizens have responded, as they so predictably do, with blanket fear… and a face mask. Part to protect others from the wearer’s germies (how thoughtful!) and part to protect the wearer from everybody else’s, face masks are a common sight almost year-round… through cold season, flu season and then allergy season. In fact, a visitor to almost any East Asian country on any given day would have to be blind not see a least a dozen or so masks before they even cleared customs!

I’ve been here in the Land of the Red (Rising) Sun for almost 4 years now and I have never worn a face mask. I say it proudly: NEVER! And not that I haven’t been seriously sick on a number of occasions. It’s just that I’ve never been convinced that face masks actually do anything to prevent the spread of infectious agents. In an article yesterday on Japan Times, British health officials co-signed my sentiments, stating that:

“…available scientific evidence does not support the general wearing of face masks by those who are not ill while going about their normal activities.”

Read the entire article here.

My sardonic wit aside, I don’t ever want to come across as a basher. But I’m just a staunch believer in the value of good ol’ handwashing, with soap and hot water, gargling with salt water and/or peroxide, taking a daily multivitamin, and coughing into one’s sleeve (NOT hands!). I’m also a very staunch believer in calling in sick from work or school when I’m ill. God knows that I ain’t afraid to call in like: “すみません、病気になりましたので今日仕事に行けなくなりました。” [Sumimasen, byouki ni narimashita no de kyou shigoto ni ikenaku narimashita.] Hell, it is what it is, my fellow residents! It’s OK to call in sick when you really are (and sometimes maybe when you really aren’t). I promise, your Shinto gods’ll forgive you! But no! You’d rather commute through one the most densely populated megapoleis, sit in crowded, poorly ventilated office, and wear your ineffective face mask.

This is why I’m such a “you-so-nasty” side-eye throwing germophobe! No, I might not wear a mask. But I stay vigilant. And I stay with a bottle of tepika alcohol gel in my murse at ALL times!

Yeah, y’all might’ve gotten me in the past. But I will NOT be getting hit with this one!!!