Matt Fargo (25 page)

happa

If you’ve been in Japan for more than a couple days, you’ve probably noticed an elementary school kid or middle-aged lady sporting a marijuana-emblazoned T-shirt. This doesn’t mean that said woman or child is down with the 420. On the contrary, it probably means that they have no idea what bud is. This is how pot works in Japan: you don’t talk about it except with folks who do it. Kind of like swinging in America. Anyway, there are plenty of people in Japan who enjoy a puff before a night
on the town, and quite a few who enjoy more puffs than that. One caveat, though: outside of Hokkaido, Japanese weed is really bad—and I don’t just say that because I’m from Oregon. Especially in Tokyo, you usually wind up with this turdy black hash that looks and smokes like some hippie just scraped it out of his homemade Fimo pipe. Note: Not to harsh anyone’s stony mellow, but the laws in Japan in regard to possession and distribution of bud is not friendly. So follow your natural sense of paranoia when smoking.

kōku

They do have cocaine in Japan, I guess. At least you often hear folks talking about it. You also see news reports about wayward cops dealing it and celebrities getting pulled over with blow all over their dashboard—just like in America! So, for what it’s worth, here’s my understanding of Scarface parlance as it is spoken in contemporary Tokyo.