Random Sketches from Tokyo

Just a collection of the sketches of little moments of my life in Tokyo :) The story of when I got arrested can be found under the Number979 tag :) My main blog can be found here.

[tokyo-moleskine]

Meanwhile, outside. Before I was arrested, I was out on a haikyo/urbex outing, which is the hobby of exploring abandoned buildings. I usually go about these alone, so I liked updating my Facebook and Instagram throughout my day so that my friends can sort of join me in my solo adventures (as well as know where I am, for safety purposes). On the 22nd hour, I posted this last picture before my feed went silent:https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153696144771061&l=6c6d4118ca It was my view from inside a squad car. My friends Samie and Herb, worried that no one had heard from me since, started looking for me. Herb is a university professor, and it's already happened more than once that a student of hers has gone missing for a couple of months or so, only for her to find out later that they had been in jail that whole time, but with no way to contact anyone. Samie called every police station in Adachi Ward, since that was the location that was indicated on my status update. Every station simply said I wasn't there, until she got to Minami Senju Police Station. They weren't allowed to tell her I was there, yet they can't lie either, so instead she got a very roundabout answer.

[yapitori]

My friend James is one of the best guys on earth and I can never believe how he’s always able to bear my craziness (and the dumb stuff I think about) when I get depressed. I told him about a decision I made that was heartbreaking and he came running to my house to comfort me despite being sleepless from being on duty for 24 hours. Every crying mess of a girl needs someone like him around. I wish the Navy didn’t take him away so often :(

Full disclosure: I am not this cute in real life when I am crying. They call it “ugly crying” for a reason.

[tokyo-moleskine]

You can also see the full story on my Facebook artist page! :) I just realized that I have completely forgotten to update the pages here!  >_< Oops! ------- One thing you must remember if you are arrested in Japan: You are entitled to a lawyer that is provided by the Japan Bar Association. If you have under ¥500,000 (around US $5000) in your bank account, your lawyer is free of charge. However, they don't tell you that. When we were processing my paperwork back at the police station they told me to tick a box, and upon closer inspection, the box stated that I did not need a lawyer. Immediately I shook my head and said that I did want a lawyer. However, you cannot have a lawyer present when you are giving your statements. You do those alone. So what is a lawyer for then? Your lawyer is your liaison to the outside world. Remember when I mentioned that you're not entitled to any phonecalls? Only through my lawyer could I tell my company that I won't be coming to work, as well as let my family know what's happened to me. My lawyer arrived at the detention center at around 7 or 8 pm on my first night. We didn't exactly see eye-to-eye regarding what should be revealed or not. I told him to call my mother and to tell her where I was, and his response was, "You want me to tell your mother you're in jail???" He was also reluctant to tell my company what happened to me, even after I insisted that they need to know where I was. I asked him to send an e-mail to a certain person who was important to me, to tell them where I was and what happened to me. Later when I got out, I learned that the e-mail simply said that I was "involved in an unfortunate incident involving unmentionable circumstances." Oh wow. Talk about secretive. Lawyers are also there to arrange depositing money into your account, if you're staying there longer and need to purchase stuff inside. I'm not sure what else he did. Honestly, I only saw him twice. Once on the first night, and once just before my hearing. He wasn't even there during the hearing itself.

[tokyo-moleskine]

Ah, prison food. Pictured here was my first breakfast: scrambled egg roll in the shape of a sakura flower and dyed pink with a meatball on some pasta, Japanese pickles, and a LOT of rice with some black sesame seeds on top. We also get a bowl of miso soup and after we finish it we can refill our bowls with either hot water or green tea. For lunch and dinner, the largest compartment will have some kind of fried meat or fish, and the rice will be given in a separate container instead. We’re given two bottles of condiments: soy sauce and something that is simply called… “sauce”. You should use them because otherwise the meals hardly taste like anything. You only have one go at it so once you give it back to the guards, there’s no turning back. I doused my rice with sauce until it was a black soppy mess. There is actually a vegetarian option but they don’t tell you about it! On my second evening I was having dinner with a girl from another cell and she only realized that she could get vegetarian because she saw someone else’s veggie meal. However, the guards refused to switch her meals to vegetarian, stating that she ate the meat from her past meals anyway. Since she didn’t die or get sick from eating the meat, there was no reason to change her meal options. Boo.

[yapitori]

For this month’s haikyo outing I visited Hotel Queen in Saitama. I couldn’t really find any history on the place so I guess it just closed due to its poor location.

[yapitori]

View this post on Instagram

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA I’m sorry I found myself in the middle of the forest and a dramatic music number just HAD to happen. (I know I’m an embarrassment , please don’t stop being friends with me) (at 西武第二球場)

[yapitori]

Auditioning for resident ghost. #haikyo #urbex (at Lake Tama)

[yapitori]

I feel like I’m the last person in Japan with no obligatory sakura post and I wanna be like the cool kids so here’s some hastily taken pictures during today’s bike ride to work :D

[tokyo-moleskine]

The perks of living in a non-English speaking country. I can sing any lyrics I damn want around senior citizens.

[tokyo-moleskine]

Exploring ruins in Berlin. Roc likes to take pictures. Me, I just like to climb things.

[yapitori]

I escaped work in time to make it to Takayasu Akira’s birthday party! He had a good run this season! Hopefully my timing won’t suck so I can watch a local match live in the summer sumo season.

[yapitori]

Abandoned Elementary School in Taito Ward, Tokyo

Opened in 1928, closed in 1996. Though not in use and covered in ivy, the building’s still pretty sturdy and is a designated evacuation center in the event of an earthquake. The place had a fence around it but I was able to find a gap where I was able to squeeze through (5 more pounds and maybe it wouldn’t have been possible, haha!).

Sorry for the crappy grainy pictures. You know I just use an iPhone and it was dark.

This is my first time exploring in the middle of the night (around 2:30 am), and while I’m usually able to push myself despite of fear during the daytime, my cowardice really comes out in the dark and I didn’t put enough effort into finding a way deeper into the building. I was too scared. I hate being afraid of everything ;_;

But perhaps I shall return in the summer because I believe that the ivy would be even more lush during that season!

[tokyo-moleskine]

Roll call comes right before we lay our beds out at night and right after we fold them in the morning. To get ready for it, everybody kneels facing the front of the cell with our mini towels laid out in front of us, and hands on our knees, palms up. Then we quietly wait for the tantou-san to come, accompanied by the only male guard in the facility (who we call "aniki" -- which is the gangster way of saying "big brother"). Tantou-san yells out our numbers* and we have to prompty respond "HAI!" Then she gives us the cue to greet and we bow deeply as we yell "good morning" or "good night" along with Aniki. When roll call is done, we take turns bringing our futons back to the futon storage room then they start bringing us our toiletries to our cells so we can wash our faces and brush our teeth :) Then it's time for Anri to sneak in some lotion and lip balm for me again! *The only correct numbers in the picture are 979 (mine) and 913 (Emi's). I don't remember the rest, so I made them up :P

[yapitori]

Sometimes I like riding my bike along the Arakawa river bank. I started this self-portrait late last year, as an exercise in backgrounds. However, my hair got cut short shortly after so I kinda shelved it. Tonight my mind was doing the whole overthinking thing again about random things I shouldn’t even be worrying about so I went ahead and finished it to get things off my mind. I tried a Makoto Shinkai type of technique where you use a photo as a base and do a paint over. However, I planned the lighting a bit poorly and good god, I cannot render grass to save my life. Learned a few things, though. Now that my hair is short I need to do another one and hopefully do a better job~

[yapitori]

Okaasan's story sounds so sad. :( Is there no way to write letters to your cellmates while they're still in jail, in order to get better contact info?

Unfortunately I don’t even have their full names so I can’t write them. A letter just labeled “Okaasan, cell #13″ won’t be delivered. Also, we can’t write outgoing mail while we’re in there. 

The thing is, I was in a detention center, which wasn’t full-fledged prison yet. In prison you can write and receive letters, get casual visitors, buy snacks, have hobbies, etc. But actual prison is where you go after you’ve been sentenced. Where I was being held, is where we are kept until they know what to do with us.

In Japan, you can be held legally for 23 days without a charge. The initial is 3 days. After three days they have to make one of three decisions: 1) hold you for 10 additional days for further investigation, 2) start formal court proceedings, or 3) release you. 

If they choose to hold you for 10 days, then they can make one of those three decisions again. Then, after 23 days, they only have 2 decisions left: 1) start formal court proceedings or 2) release you.

Obviously I was released after 3 days.

[tokyo-moleskine]

"Lights out" was at 9 pm. I put that in quotations because they keep one pair of flourescent lights on in each cell (each had six pairs of long tubes) during sleeping hours so the guards could keep an eye on us. Me, being the most junior cellmate, was the one who had to sleep under it, much to my silent dismay.

I'm used to sleeping in complete darkness, but Okaasan warned me that I'm not allowed to cover my face when I sleep. I didn't listen and put my towel over my eyes anyway. All through the night she kept removing it. I kept putting it back.

Okaasan and I were battling over my blanket as well. I refused to put it on, but she insisted that I would catch a cold if I didn't. I said I was warm enough but everytime I kicked it off, she put it back on me, saying that it'll get colder as the night progresses. At around 4 am, I woke up and noted that it was indeed a bit chiller. Luckily Okaasan won by putting the blanket back on me when I was finally sound asleep. I was grateful.

The next morning, a guard called me over and reprimanded me for covering my face when I was sleeping. Okaasan gave me an "I told you so" look.

The next morning I tried to ask Okaasan what she was in for, but she dodged the question. She said she'll tell me later. On the second night, when everyone else had fallen asleep, she opened up to me and told me how everyone in her life had already died. Her husband was dead. Her daughter, who studied biology and was such a smart and sweet girl, was also dead. All her friends had also grown old and died. She was the only one left, and she was lonely and friendless. And this loneliness seemed to be connected to the reason that she was in there.

And it was then that I really felt frustrated that we were being so closely watched, that I couldn't even write down my cellmates' contact details. I wanted to see Okaasan again when I got out. I wanted to visit her at home and have tea with her and be her friend. But I don't even know her name.

[tokyo-moleskine]

Emi has trouble pronouncing "Yapi" so she decided to call me "Chappy" instead. I didn't mind. I mentioned her love for Lady Gaga before. When I told her I was bisexual, her first reaction was to compare me to Lady Gaga (then Anri happily piped in that she was bisexual as well). I don't know much about Emi, but from the fact that she has the luxury of firing her lawyer and is searching through private listings for a new one (that is good at handling foreigners' cases, she said), that she either has a lot of money or there is someone with money who is taking care of her legal fees. Personally I knew I wasn't in any real trouble so I just took the first lawyer that the Bar Association tossed at me, paid for by the government. The truth is that I hardly even saw my lawyer since you're not allowed to have your lawyer with you during interrogations. She's usually pretty cheery a little boisterous, but during the period when we're allowed writing materials to write to our lawyers she loses that smile and becomes really serious as she pours over her papers. I'm guessing she's probably in some deep shit.