Long Time Resident - New to TAG

[ShowaJidai]

Older, married Caucasian guy here. Same old story - wonderful married life until the kids came and the wife took any flavor of sex off the menu. I first came to Japan as a teenager in the 70's and was hooked for life. Japan has changed a million ways in both the P4P and hook up scenes - but still wonderful. Good to have a forum like this to share stories and news.

 

[Wwanderer]

Welcome aboard!

I didn't arrive until the '80s and didn't start spending considerable time in Japan until the very early '90s, but good lord, it sure has changed astonishingly even since then...wish I had made it over in the '70s...

-Ww

 

[ShowaJidai]

Japan before the internet, before cell phones, when there were so few Gaijin that you might not see another foreigner for an hour walking around Tokyo. People would stare in disbelief when you spoke more than 5 words in Japanese. Walking by a school yard and it would erupt with "GAIJIN! GAIJIN!" Women were a completely different story...

 

[krdxgm69]

Japan before the internet, before cell phones

Japan before AKB48 and clones.

 

[ShowaJidai]

Japan before AKB48 and clones.

Heck, Japan when there were basically no blonde Japanese.

 

[Wwanderer]

Endless ranks of phone booths (public pay phones) everywhere, vastly more vending machines, money-money-money flowing like water through the streets, little carts on side streets selling delicious made-on-the-spot meals (takayaki, okonomiyaki, ika-on-a-stick...), the vivid "old Japan" feeling in the countryside, and more importantly than anything else imo, people's feelings of optimism/success/pride/energy/superiority that pervaded the bubble economy culture and largely died with it .

-Ww

 

[ShowaJidai]

Do you remember the Iranians selling doctored phone cards?

 

[Wwanderer]

Do you remember the Iranians selling doctored phone cards?

LOL! Definitely!

-Ww

 

[Wwanderer]

Chiyonofuji!

-Ww

 

[ShowaJidai]

How about the shorthand codes for Pokebell (pagers)? When all you could send was numbers - so there were approximations like "80" for ハロ.

 

[namae]

Bush.Bush.Bush. Lots of Bushy bush.

More bush than you could poke a stick at!

 

[Wwanderer]

How about the shorthand codes for Pokebell (pagers)? When all you could send was numbers - so there were approximations like "80" for ハロ.

Afraid those pre-date my Tokyo days...or I forgot them!

-Ww

 

[MikeH]

Do you remember the Iranians selling doctored phone cards?

Eleven for thousand yen. And if you brought them back after usage you could swap them for one fresh one. Not that I'd never would do that, but I heard from friends .

That operation was still totally handled by the Japanese. They just used the Iranians as front as they knew the police wouldn't arrest them. Because if they did they would need to send them back home with government's expense.

 

[MikeH]

More bush than you could poke a stick at!

That's correct. As being the only white boy in sight the bush poked itself to your stick before you could react.