I moved to Japan, grew and sold marijuana until I was caught AMA!

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How dank was the herb?

Danker than Dazed and Confused, the song and the movie.

I'm actually proud of the fact that out of he entire time i was in the country my weed was the best smoke I ever found.

Sweet, you ever considering just like moving to CA, WA, CO and starting a legal grow op? Not sure if you already answered that questions already.

Thought about it for sure and if weed had become legal before I started Uni then I might have done it. Growing weed was quite possibly the most relaxing experience of my life. I mean the constant threat of having your door kicked in and going to jail was stressful but just waking up everyday, going into a room and watching your baby plants grow was like being a parent. Most days when I was doing nothing I would start the day off by smoking a joint in the flowering tent since all the smoke went through the scrubber. It was slightly cannibalistic I guess but very relaxing.

cannabistic*

I'd give you gold if I had it.

I grew up in Southern California so I have no idea what any of that is like, I've had a few run ins with cops and weed, never even gotten a ticket. I feel pretty privileged to have bought all my herbs legally since I was 18.

You've definitely got a helluva story though, seems like something everyone wishes they could do, just up and move, start your own business, be yourself. Wish I could.

It makes me proud to see weed legalized within my lifetime. I never would have dreamed this day would come. Enjoy it, buying off drug dealers is a really shitty experience compared to the dispensaries and that's coming from one.

It's a story but it wasn't as dreamy as it sounds. I'm sure many people think about doing it but for me at that particular time it was either get on that plane or kill myself. I had just let the love of my life leave me and one of the only reasons I didn't do it is because I didn't want her to have to hear about me when she got back home and what that would do to her.

I left behind everything I couldn't fit into a suitcase, like literally just abandoned everything; top end computer, flat screen TV, a luxury car etc.

Had I just kept it and moved on I could have really used those things to start a new life, find another girl and just be a normal human being. I was young and stupid and was still coming off the constant high that came with the life I left behind and traveling became my escape. More than just a mental escape like with drugs, I needed to physically escape the world I was coming from and from the moment I landed Japan did that for me.

If you really wanted to do it, it's not hard but once you leave understnad that the world you leave changes too.

What sort of competition did you have? WHat prices were you able to sell at? And whats the pot culture of Japan? Is it getting more lenient like some states?

There is always competition but I kept things tight and small and didn't mix with any other dealers. My biggest fear was the Yakuza finding out and having to pay them a percentage of my income just to work. I mingled with them through some snack bar girls I knew but they never knew what I did.

I sold $30 grams or $20 joints. If people wanted more I gave them a slight discount but it's a sellers market for sure.

Culture wise lot's of people smoke and Japan itself has a history of pot use but they really adopted the draconian pot laws of the US and now there is a huge social stigma attached to drugs in general. Meth is the most popular drug of choice but at any club you can find an assortment of drugs if you know who to ask.

Interesting. Was the great prices you were able to charge spent on an increased cost of living or were you living pretty large? Also how was the language barrier? did you ever find yourself in any sticky situations due to an unintentional miss-communication?

The more I grew the more I spent but that is true in any business. I didn't live large but I did live comfortable and I preferred to spend my money on doing stuff rather than things, a side effect of living out of a suitcase for a long time.

There was one Brazilian guy who I tried to sell too but he didn't understand English or Japanese at all so I ended up just smoking a joint with him cause he was really weird and was super happy when I pulled out a joint. He didn't seem to grasp that I was selling though so we just smoked one and ogled girls because the level of communication was so little.

￥3000 for a gram? Damn, that's cheep. I've seen ￥6000 up to ￥10,000 around Tokyo, but it was pretty good quality.

But, you are right about the draconian nature of the law. I have a family here, so as much as it might be tempting, it's hasn't been worth it to temp fate.

Yeah that was my mentality. Cheap product means I would for sure be able to dump it and the price meant less chance of being ratted out.

What kind of land did you grow on? Did you get to pick specific strains?

I ordered the seeds from an Amsterdam seed bank and had to fly back and bring them in myself because I beleived (and most likely) all foreigners mail was searched.

I grew white widow, AK47, purple kush and my personal favorite, Belladonna.

It was a soil grow indoors with proper lights etc. but when I moved outside I picked a place in the Japanese countryside away from the cities where I thought (foolishly) that no one would be able to see the plants amongst the thick bush.

Where did you hide the seeds?

Some things are better left to mystery, like a shadow covered in darkness where even the sun dares not shine.

Locals were not interested or you werent interested in selling them(may be it was riskier?).

I was most paranoid of the locals then anything. There was a huge communication barrier to start and even if that wasn't a problem the fact that all they would have to do to get out of charges was point a finger at me was a deterrent enough to stay away. Plus they could always get it from a native dealer if they were so inclined.

You mention you mostly soled to non natives, what's the marijuana scene like there? What's the punishment for simple possession?

When I first arrived I was lucky and able to meet up with a bunch of different people who smoked there, surfers, Japanese Hip-Hop artists and just regular Japanese who were exposed to it overseas and brought it back themselves. The price was steep, like $80 a gram was not uncommon for actual weed but you could always find some Iranians selling shitty hash in parks for cheaper.

The Japanese I managed to smoke with were ultra paranoid about it. The first girl I met who smoked with me gave me some from her boyfriends stash and when I asked to buy some more she told me to never mention it again and just forget I ever met her.

That's one of the big reasons I decided to start the business. The Japanese smoke but they will also snitch in a heartbeat due to the intense social stigma attached to drug use there. I figured if I kept things low key and stuck to gaijin then the risk of getting caught would be less.

Punishment ranges but if they think you're selling they will most likely imprison you. I was lucky and only got caught growing so my sentence was commuted. Most likely though you will get deported and banned for an indeterminate amount of time; 5 years, 10 years, when I was eported I asked how long I was barred from returning and the officer just smirked and said 'long time' I asked what that meant and he just repeated 'long time' again.

Who paid for the deportation?

Did you have a choice as to which country you can deport to?

I paid for my ticket and there was a two day hold while they processed me that I spent in some local police cell. I was going to be going home anyway since I was basically starting over from scratch and would rather do it in a somewhat familiar environment.

From the police cell they brought me to Narita Airport and put me in their detention cell which is covered in graffiti of all the other deportees. Lot's of different languages, it was actually pretty interesting and I wished I had a camera at that time. From there the paraded me through the airport in handcuffs and then after everyone boarded the plane they gave my stuff to the air hostesses and took the cuffs off. I first flew to Korea and the pilot gave me my passport and a really weird look but by that point I was free.

what was the food they served like while you were locked up over there? I've been locked up in the states and its nothing special but I would really like to know what they give prisoners over there.

I'm reading through my journal here where I critiqued the food while inside.

Police station - Breakfast - A coffee milk drink with a bun filled with meat or jam

Lunch - Bento box, yum, a typical 7-11 bento box with rice/noodles meat and side veggies, usually pickled.

Dinner - 7-11 entree, either a small pasta dish or another bento box.

Jail (less detailed notes)

Breakfast - rice and natto or this pink slime stuff, squid guts I think (tastes really good actually, much better than it sounds) They also fill up a thermos with green tea.

Lunch - usually a bowl of meat, rice and veggies, nothing fancy, at one point I swear the meat looked like dog and I threw it out but I was probably just tripping out.

Dinner - changed all the time, nothing fancy but a combination of meat, rice/noodles and veggies.

Anything else was bought in canteen (Gansen in Japanese) Like snacks, chocolates etc.

Very interesting, so thanks for that. Now that you've replied I am curious as to what a daily meal plan looks like for jail/prisons in different parts of the world. That would make an awesome album of photos, I'm gonna look around to see if anyone has documented something like this.

That would definitely be a cool photo book.

So they didn't confiscate your money as "ill-gotten gains"?

They caught me growing not selling. Even the money I had on me was put in my canteen the first day I was arrested.

That's great! I would imagine in the U.S. if they caught you growing they would tack on "with intent to sell" and take everything.

The US is a little more accustomed to this type of prosecution though.

The first thing I asked the embassy was what did the last guy get who did this and they said that in these particular charges I was the first and that they would be watching my case for the next guy to ask.

Japan is different though, the police get a confession and the trial is just a dog and pony show. In the US the police arrest and gather evidence and then everything moves to trial. When I had finally signed the confession it had been 30+ days of repeated interrogations and multiple attempts at writing a confession that I wouldn't sign due to errors in translation or whatever little thing I could come up with.

The police were so out of their element when it came to me that I almost enjoyed interrogation because it gave me so many chances to fuck with them.

First, the cops really didn't understand what all the equipment was for. They had an idea but since it was put away when they raided, they had to sort of recreate the thing in the police headquarters. They had to parade all the evidence against me out over and over again for me to sign off on it and after 30 days in lockup, the plants they had pulled out of the ground were so withered that they crumbled like dust whenever you moved them. The head detective even had to laugh when the brought out the plants again and I said I didn't recognize them so I couldn't sign off on something which I truthfully didn't recognize as they crumbled in his hands. It wasn't like they could water them or anything while I was there.

So many little things during that time. Like when I was allowed to write letters to my lawyer and I knew full well that the police were reading everything. So I wrote a bunch of bullshit down and sent it off and sure enough I got dragged into the prosecutors office and they questioned me on some things in the letter. I started arguing that violated my attorney client privilege and was going to write the embassy and the prosecutor had to pull out the Japanese law book and start researching if he had in fact violated any laws (he hadn't) I don't even know if attorney client exists in letters in Japan.

I went through 3 translators and two lawyers to help beat the charges. I knew that they had a maximum amount of time they could hold me for and I intended to just run out the clock and take my chances in a trial. I would have done just that but finally my new lawyer recommended I just sign the final draft of the confession, a sort of compromise between the police and me and he was right.

Realistically, you'll probably never be allowed back to Japan.

You're probably right.

So how did you sneak stuff across the borders? Where and how did you hide them?

lol. I considered answering this but I'd rather leave international drug smuggling as a mystery. Plus I grew it there, I didn't really smuggle anything. Maybe.

yeah i'm going to have to assume that you use the "shoving it up the good ol' butthole" technique.

Why would he be putting the weed he grew in Japan up his butthole to sell it in Japan? There are no borders being crossed with anything illegal anywhere in his story

The initial seeds came from Holland.

Correct. But in all honesty the seeds had to hop 3 countries to get to Japan. Where there's a will there's a way.

This is my first time really contributing to one of these so sorry if I ask a lot .What came of you and your wife after your arrest? Or did you guys eventually split beforehand? Also what did you sell when you were in your gang, and how long were you in one? When in japan, was it hard to sell your stuff? I'm not familiar on japan's drug market but wouldn't think weed would be a huge thing. How do judicial actions against weed smokers vary between Japan and us? Is convictions for weed common? Also, could you increase the price because of the circumstances? Then what did you first start with when you grew before you wanted to expand to growing outdoors? You must've had decent business if you wanted to grow more. Sorry to jump around I just like to take what I can from people lives, it's all so interesting. My final questions are do you have any idea what strains you grew? And what's your fav place in japan to go to. Thanks so much for doing this!

I was with my fiance for 4 years before I put the ring on her finger and she was my partner in crime throughout my years in the gang. We had met while I was actually taking a small break after catching my first case, since I was still a teen I went back to highschool and we met there. 2 months later the family I was staying with threw me back out on the streets and I went right back to dealing as I had no where else to go.

I sold coke and crack mostly but I also sold bulk weed so I had an idea before moving to Japan of how to move it. Honestly it was that experience that led me to believe I could sell drugs in Japan so easily because I doubt a normal person would make those same leaps of logic.

Now before anyone assumes anything, I am really not your typical dealer, I was just a street kid who started using drugs with his friends and those same friends eventually became dealers and brought me along for the ride. I stopped using all drugs except weed and since I was smart and ambitious, the head of the gang took me under his wing and raised me like a son. It wasn't the best situation but it was the only one I knew at the time. Over the years I began to detest the life and after my friend passed away I was done.

To answer your drug market question "I've never heard a drug dealer say how am I going to get rid of all these drugs"

Japan is like the US judicial system on steroids. Confessions are hammered out through whatever means necessary and trials are just a sham you walk through. I was actually shocked when they read my sentence because I did not think I was going to walk away but right after they read the verdict the ushered me out of the court room and back to the jail where they handed me all of my stuff in a box and said bye.

I grew my first 6 plants and then went from there. With cloning weed is a natural renewable drug and I would take cuttings off every plant before putting them in flowering mode.

It wasn't a huge business but I figured I would rather sell off everything over a few years at a careful pace than grow a little and take the risk of growing and selling a the same time. Risk mitigation.

Fav place? Shibuya for sure. It's the most alive place I've ever been on even the most random night. So full of energy and life. But my all time favorite thing to do was go to the temples on New Years Day and take part in the ceremonies then eat fresh soba and anko.

Thank you so much man! I'm not a dealer but I use to be (nothing like you I just earned my money back.) But this was the answer I was looking for. Thanks for the response and in such detail. Sorry if there was anything I hit you didn't want to talk about. And thanks again! Shibuya is now on my bucket list of places to visit.

Np. Yeah dealing is weird. For some it's like a progression, sell weed, sell coke make friends but for me it was literally like smoking crack and now I'm selling it. The boss at the time needed someone to work and kind of forced me into it by threatening my friends. After a while like Stockholm syndrome I just accepted fate and rolled with it. I tried to get out a bunch of times but I always ended up coming back, until I didn't.

I assumed he was asking about your marriage in Japan? You mentioned getting married one year after arriving in Japan. What happened there?

Oh. I met her when I first arrived in Japan and we became good friends. Her dad was a Yakuza associate and they didn't have a relationship any longer but when she told me this I felt comfortable confiding in her my own past.

When my visa was about to expire she asked me to marry her to stay in the country rather than go home and after a month or so of thinking about it I decided to stay.

We were married but we didn't live with each other all the time or anything. I took it seriously but we called it dating rather than a marriage since the marriage was more or less a formality.

She is an amazing person but before I left we formally divorced since I wasn't coming back and a woman in Japan is limited in her career by being married.

We stayed in touch for a long time but eventually she had her own life to lead back there and I did the same and the circumstances of life changed things for us permanently.

So your indoor was 'top quality' and you didn't get caught, but you were arrested for outdoor? What system did you use indoor? And was equipment as readily available as in the West? Did you stay in touch with your girlfriend or family while in Japan? Glad you came out of it all OK and wish you the best for the future.

Indoor was top quality as best as I could get without hydro. I chose soil because, and there were times when it came in handy, hydro will kill plants quick if something came up. I once had to break down the grow op and store it in a girlfriends closet for a week plants and all. They withered a bit but once they were nourished and under the lights again they sprung right up and came back to life.

Fluorescent lights for vegging with 2 400w HID lights for flowering. I had a indoor tent with sea of green with about 10-20 plants at a time and I ran that through a carbon scrubber for the smell.

When I decided to move outdoor, I took the 20 plants I had vegging and cloned as much as I could from them. It left me with close to 175 clones and I planted them in different spots around the countryside. One of those spots was not as barren as I had hoped.

I have been on my own since about 13 years old hence joining a gang when I was young. I talked to my Ex a bit but when I realized that I wasn't going to come back any time soon I stopped responding to her emails and just let her go. It was hard but she went back to the city we left and I knew I would never and have never returned to that place.

At one point she was the love of my life and getting engaged and trying to start a life with her was the push I needed to let go of my old life. Last I heard she was doing really good though so I'm really happy for her.

Thanks.

And where does Japan stand on medicinal marijuana? Asia is well known for it's use of herbs and natural remedies. It's such a strange dynamic here in Canada. I have one friend who was charged with cultivating (6 plants in her yard) and another friend who gets a pound of pot by mail every month. These people live within 4 blocks of each other.

Edit: I should clarify and say China is well known for herbal/natural remedies, I'm not really sure about anywhere else.

To my knowledge and without a google search I don't believe Japan has medical marijuana. This is a country where you better have death cancer before they give you opiates. I didn't even bother going to the dentist the whole time I was there because I am a huge pussy about dentists and heard horror stories about how they don't even give you anything for the pain.

Funny enough though Japan used to smoke all the time. In the samurai era they all used to smoke and even their Kanji for pot 大麻 has upside down weed plants hanging from the roof of the second character like you do when you harvest them. The emperor even has hemp clothes and there is a special garden where it is sanctioned by the government for this reason.

Beyond that, hemp is indigenous to Japan and grows wild in Hokkaido, in fact a lot of friends there that are from Hokkaido are usually smokers or were at least cool with it.

It would be awesome if Japan just accepted their past and loosened the restrictions around it and maybe as it becomes legal globally that will happen. Until then, if your even accused of smoking there you can lose your job without even getting charged.

大麻 comes from Chinese, though, so I doubt the character's origin has anything to do with Japan, or how much the Japanese loved weed back in the day.

Actually that's true and I never really thought about it till now but the Chinese word for weed is the same thing 大麻.

Was your only punishment deportation? No incarceration or probation nonsense? If so, totally worth it.

I was raided by tactical police, put in solitary confinement with no communication except my lawyer and the embassy for 4 and half months and at my trial I was given a 8 year forced labor sentence at Fuchu prison. Because I was caught growing I managed to get that sentence suspended for 5 years which means if I didn't commit any other crimes I would have my sentence removed but if I was caught doing anythign else, it would be the 8 years plus whatever other charge.

While I was in prison my visa expired and when I was released the immigration officers pulled me in and said that I could either go and stay at an immigration facility aka: another jail for about 6 months while I waited to see an immigration judge and plead my case.

My lawyer said that most likely I would lose that case and be deported anyway so rather than do that I took their plan b which was willingly leave the country and be banned from returning for a long time.

OUCH! Man, sorry for assuming. I thought the deportation was the only thing. I never had to deal with it on the scale you just mentioned, but I was locked up for 6 months in the middle of our state forest when I was 15-16 and shit was not fun whatsoever. I can't imagine how shitty it feels to be locked up in another country.

Yeah but it was something I was prepared for. You would have to be a fool to not study the legal system of where ever you are when it's the thing that decides your fate. The embassy sent me books luckily big ones and can read Dan Brown's Angels and Demons in a day.

There was something about our culture that stuck with me though and that's the fact that as an immigrant I held the belief that Japan was my home and that no matter what the cops, prosecutor etc said, I defended my right to be in the country. Japan is really antagonist against gaijin so I took the position that Japanese move to other countries and are considered Amercian etc. and I was the same and that pot was just a part of my culture and something that was inevitably part of Japan's as well.

As far as I understand it, Japan doesn't really have a differentiation between soft drugs and hard drugs. Basically, as far as they are concerned you might as well have been selling meth or heroin.

I'm pretty sure they're not going to let you back into the country again (I could be wrong).

Japanese tend to rat out their dealers because (IIRC) they are basically tossed in jail until the rat out their source.

(source: I spent 10 years in Japan, have a buddy that did some time there (he had permanent residency, so that made his situation a bit more complex) , I had some run-ins with the police- mostly positive)

The shitty thing about visiting him in Jail was that he got one visit a day- so if I visited, his lawyer wouldn't be able to consult with him or something)

Good on you for going to visit. I had some great friends who are still great people but didn't want to come and see me or bring me anything while I was inside.

Honestly, the entire time I was there the police were generally positive experiences, there were a few times that I was harassed a bit just for being gaijin but overall the cops were great. Even when I was locked up, some of the cops from the initial police station were awesome. One was a DJ in his spare time who brought in an MP3 player of rap music to play when I was the only one in the cells. One day he started playing NAS's Life's a Bitch and I was translating the lyrics for him. It was ironically funny, kind of sad but still made my day.

Yeah the interrogation process is something else that's for sure. 20 days or something but then they can extend it as much as they want.

After the 20 days they also have this process where they bring you in for a bail type hearing where they decide if you should be allowed to go home to await trial. I'm reading the paper right now and my 'bail release' was denied under the grounds "There are reasonable grounds to suspect that the suspect may attempt to destroy evidence" and "until initiation of public action" which I believe is an actual charge that the prosecutor submits to court.

But at the same hearing they allowed me to receive books and money and other things and allowed me to communicate with the outside for the first time.

The visitation thing was a pain but the only person who came to visit me was my girlfriend and she was in constant contact with my lawyer to make sure they didn't double book themselves.

My buddy got drunk and fell on the tracks (to this day he claims he was pushed) a JR guy went to to help him, but was a bit rough, and my buddy tossed him off (natural drunk reaction I guess) and a taxi guy called the cops. The cops looked at the video and claimed he assaulted the Jr. guy. Wasn't a big deal but the junior police guy submitted paperwork so they had to process him. He spent a few weeks in jail. He, or another dude shit himself in the holding cell b/c there was no bathroom and it stank. He's allergic to blue fish and they kept giving him blue fish for his meals (not out of spite, but it was like "that's the meal, sorry guy"). Basically he chatted everyone up and for te most part everyone, police included were cool. He wasn't allowed to read anything but Japanese books (because he could be communicating or passing notes with English books or something?) They made him apologize to everyone and they were like "it's not a big deal. Sorry you had to go through all this. We're all embarrassed." and they escorted him to the bank to post bail. Took about two or three weeks. Hell of a story though. He was a perm resident or something, so at that point, he could have spent time in jail instead of being deported. Also, in the US I think they have an equivalency thing- so if you get 30-50 years for weed (dunno how it works) you have to do that time in the US or something. I don't know the details but I was like whistling.

Moral of the lesson? Don't walk on the railroad tracks after the last train because they still have freight trains.

Also I heard the same story a few years ago in 2002. Guy tried to grow pot in countryside. Gets caught. Japanese know their plants.

Shitty for your friend. At least he wasn't charged.

Cops are human too and even in the worst of my experiences there were some awesome police officers. It's all about how you treat them.

Japan is always a bit funky though, whenever there's an altercation involving foreigners the police tend to side with the native first. Look what happened with that British girl Lindsay Hawker, the guy just walked away from the murder scene.

Can you explain the whole process of how you were caught? Also if you flew in seeds yourself and were willing to expand to a field you must have been making so serious money. Was that because of the huge gap in prices per gram between you and others?

I arrived at the spot to finish planting literally the very last of my clones into the ground and as soon as I arrived at the spot I knew it had been tampered with. I was in the countryside so the second I heard a car I darted into the bush and sat there and waited. I saw Japanese tactical officers swarm the place and I knew they had it under 24h surveillance.

I thought about fleeing but where would I go? They now had my car and being a foreigner on the run in japan probably wasn't going to get me far and swimming home seemed kind of daunting.

I gave up and was arrested and began the lengthy process of interrogation.

It was decent money but I saved most of it and paid my lawyer and other expenses. I had to fire my first lawyer because he was an old man and was right out of his element so I got a younger lawyer who was worth every penny.

so how much of Enter The Void is based upon your story? what's it like on the other side?

ha I was waiting for someone to drop a void reference on here.

I watched that movie a year or two after coming home and it was a bit surreal. The club scenes were bang on, with quick tradeoffs on the dance floor and he even grabbed his pills from an Iranian so Gaspar did his homework.

But no I didn't make this up, the mods verified my court papers from japan and were very stringent about proof so sorry to burst your bubble.

Great movie though. Like nothing I've ever seen.

Oh I did end up trying DMT because of that movie though. A++ would highly recommend.

Well, I'm sold on DMT.

It's something I can't explain but DMT is like a peephole into a higher power. Read up about it and understand the trip first because it's more intense and faster acting than any other psychedelic.

It took me years to be able to find it but when I did it was worth it.

Were most of your customers adults or teenagers?

All adults although I did smoke once with some surfer friends who hung around with some high school girls who also smoked. I'm pretty sure they were 18 but I wasn't that old (early 20's) at the time either so it's hard to tell. Oh and once with a Japanese rapper who I think was still a teen but it was his weed.

Hi there, hope you're having a good day!

My question is a bit different. How did you go to Japan, and just start working there? I mean, I come from a third world country, and we just cannot move elsewhere and start working there without a proper visa and various other papers. Where you are from, is it the same there or just as easy as buying a ticket and flying off to Japan? Sorry for my poor english, not a native!

Yeah the privilege of the first world. Before I left my ex and I took a two week TESL course because we knew we would eventually have to start working to supplement our travels. She dropped out right away and knew she wasn't going to go. After that I literally just bought a ticket and flew away leaving behind a car and all my possessions except for two suitcases which are still right beside me.

There was a website back in the day... daveseslblog or something that had job postings and I found a job through that.

What was your craziest experience while selling pot?

Oh shit... hmm

Selling was kind of easy and really methodical. You don't drink or do drugs when you're working but there's a certain adrenaline rush you get just by doing it that keeps you on your toes the entire time. Especially over there.

I was spooked one time though in Womb (Japanese night club) some yankee kids who I thought were minor league yakuza had made me and were eyeballing me the whole time I was there so I causally made my way to the exit and one of them was following me out but the second I got out of the door I took off running down the alleys and jumped in a Taxi on Dogenzaka and didn't go back there for like 2 months.

Dating a snack bar girl and meeting her yakuza boss were up there with surreal experiences too I guess.

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A girl who sits with businessmen and drinks with them. They don't necessarily sleep with them but they are paid to basically be companions.

what legal businesses would you suggest an ex-pat start in japan?

When Nova crashed I didn't know what to do. I had a girlfriend and wanted to stay but jobs without a Uni degree or Japanese fluency were nill. A friend took me to some host bars but sleeping with women for cash sounds nice in theory but when presented with the choice, drug dealing seemed less stressful.

Nigerians open those hip hop stores so maybe find a niche from your home country and sell it to them.

would you recommend trying to start your own language instruction service? or a kind of host bar that teaches english?

I have no idea how the market looks now post Fukushima so couldn't say. Host bars and the companion cafe culture in general are some of the most uncomfortable places I've ever been but to each their own I guess.

HIP HOP IS NOT NIGERIAN

yeah but geographical authenticity isn't something the average bad Japanese kid is considering when buying sneakers and jeans.

Iranians, Brazilians and Nigerians are huge minority groups in Japan for some reason. Brazil I understand but Iran and Nigeria notsomuch.

"...host bars..."

Wait, what? You could have been a gigolo?

Who was paying for such services?

Yeah there a bunch of host bars there. There are guys who do the same thing the girls do, entice women to drink at the club and keep coming back. I think the Japanese call them 'crows' or something because of the suits and the hair if I remember correctly. The 'sleeping with' part is just the unspoken rule.

I went and saw it and I knew a bunch of girls who did it, one Russian girl ended up marrying a Japanese guy but I just wasn't in the right state of mind to do something like that nor did I think I even could just randomly sleep with women without a choice.

Lonely people pay, Japan is filled with lonely people and services that attempt to alleviate that loneliness.

I thought you needed perfect Japanese to work as a host, is that not true?

My Japanese wasn't bad and if drug dealing teaches you one thing it's how to be social if only superficially. Plus if you have the right look and know how to engage someone it can work. Those host clubs aren't stacked with male models, they're just guys who know how to flirt and flatter women.

How hard was it to purchase the land and how expensive was it? I imagine you had show some sort of proof of legal income?

I had a part time job eventually but I never bought land. I rented apartments.

more yakuza stories and pictures please?

Anyone who has lived there for any length of time has encountered them. They're not really a secret organization or anything. If you got a tattoo in Japan then you probably ran into at least an associate.

I dated a snack bar girl who worked for them and eventually he knew about me and we had dinner. He was cool and I wasn't dealing at the time. He wanted me to introduce gaijin girls to him so he could show him the 'japanese spirit'.

When I started dealing I avoided them like the plague. I only ever went to Kabukicho a few times and never went to Roppongi at all since it was such a heat score place already.

They aren't to be fucked with especially if you're a gaijin.

Do you regret your actions which led you to this point?

In solitary you have a lot of time to think and regret was something I stirred around in my head for a long time, years after I had come back home and started again.

My life was never easy and truthfully, the story about how I got to Japan is far crazier than anything that happened while I was there. I could fill another entire AMA with those stories and from that life Japan was like a retirement for me. One thing I never mentioned is that my best friend who passed away and I had a plan to leave the gang life by buying a farm and growing weed out in the country side with our girlfriends. We were in the first stages of doing it when he died and the dream died with him.

When the opportunity came up in Japan, it seems strange but I took it as a sign from beyond that I was supposed to do it and maybe with the way everything turned out it was.

Over the years I made many mistakes and lost a lot of people that I considered family and there isn't a week that goes by where I don't wonder if I had only done X different. I still think and dream about those people all the time and it kills me sometimes to never know how they're doing. People always bitch about facebook keeping tabs on all the people you used to know but for me I wish I had that in my life. Just to see what happened to everybody, you know?

But at the same time if I didn't live through all of it, I never would have met those people to begin with and I never would have loved and learned all the things I know now. I don't regret much but there are only 3 things I truly regret in this world but those are just my own crosses to bear and even if I could change those I still wouldn't be here now and maybe my life would be worse off for it.

Dude. If you haven't seen a therapist before, try it out. Its always great to get an outside and professional pov on your thoughts and emotions. You sound like you have a lot on your mind, rightfully so.

That's always a thing I might do. When I first got back I went on Something Awful and did the same sort of thing as I did here because it was therapeutic to let it out anonymously, something I can't do in public back home.

I decided to do this AMA because it is almost to the day 10 years ago that I decided to leave in the first place and it was on my mind a lot recently.

When my current girlfriend and I had out son we fought a bit and went to couples counseling with an actual therapist and after the first couple 'getting to know you' visits we both unleashed our horror story pasts on her. The look on her face was priceless but not like shock or anything more like you would never be able to tell that either of us came from what we did. On that same note being able to live through our lives and come out the way we did is something that bonded us from the day we met and why we decided to start a family.

How long in prison?

4 1/2 months solitary confinement with 1 or 2 hours a week in a concrete cell with a mesh roof for rec time. It sucked and solitary can play some nasty shit on your mind but it's doable. The only person who I did talk to was a a crazy yakuza who was in the cell next to mine. I never got his name but the guards always brought us out at the same time for rec time so we were able to talk briefly when we walked down the halls. He liked my tats and I said his were cool too and that was about the extent of our converssations. He would flip out and trash his cell daily and get into these long arguments with the guards I couldn't really make out but they would make me laugh. Sometimes I imagined that he did it just to make me laugh.

Funniest time in prison was when I took a massive, stinky shit like just horrible and then the guards came and opened the cell door. The air pressure sucked all the air out through the door and caused the guard to start gagging. I apologized just to be polite but man that made my day.

I think you actually missed a huge chance to sell in Korea. Around the time you were doing it (when Nova crashed in japan...6 years ago?) An 1/8th in Korea was going for about $150.

I'm not going to lie. Right after I got back and had to readjust, I considered doing the same thing in Korea or China or some other place but those thoughts were thankfully fleeting and I'm happy I stuck it out and reformed myself.

But goddamn 150 an 1/8th.

Yeah you made the right choice. Plenty of people smoking and dealing were busted. I don't partake but you always know the ebb and flow of when "stuffs going around" and nothings been going around for like 3 years now.

Yeah that's just the way it is in Asia. That's why I thought my business plan was solid. Simple, discreet, quality, no questions asked. People are smoking over there for sure but the natives who smoke keep everything on the dl and understandably so. Foreigners are just extended tourists with no cards on the table. If that was your home country you'd probably be cautious too.

For sure, I mean it comes and goes, it's just that right around the time you were dealing there was an absolute explosion in weed available in Korea for whatever reason. It was an interesting time. Lots of dealing, snitching, counter snitching. It was kind of nuts honestly. There was one club where everyone knew the owners smoked all the time. Turns out they were basically police snitches who enticed people to smoke then turned them in to the cops constantly.

I actually think your plan was solid, for what it's worth, but the growing outdoors is definitely what did you in. Koreans and Japanese love being in nature and there's not enough space to truly ever consider a spot "off the beaten path".

Weird, I actually heard about that from somewhere back in the day now that I think about it. One of the forums I used to visit for growing had some guy from Korea who talked about it but I don't remember much other than it was also extremely risky.

I don't know, you're right but out of all my places only that one got busted since they were not too far away from each other. It's just that at that particular spot they had something else in the area which I didn't know about till later and that's what gave it away. Up in Hokkaido my friends gorw outdoors all the time with no problems but there's a lot more open space up there and less dense pop.

When I was first arrested the cops kept asking me how I knew about that place but when they realized I had no idea what they were talking about they dropped it. I think that's why they had it under such harsh surveillance.

And just think how much that would go for in North Korea...

Weed grows openly in North Korea, people smoke it all the time. Probably more so than any other Asian country.

Do/did you grew good weed?

And do you have any good story?

AK47 and Kush was great for bulk and White widow was great for looks but the best weed I ever smoked was Belladonna. The weed grew into these perfect little balls and the smoke was like 60's psychedelic. On the seed bank website it said it was good for artists and so I kept most of that for myself or charged a premium for it.

It's weird because Japan is like the perfect place for weed. Great scenery very zen like and there's always somewhere with good music and amazing food. I used to call Shibuya adults Disneyland.

Funniest story?

So a friend from back home came to visit and she knew about the grow op. The first week we hung out and the second week we were going to travel so the day we go to leave I walk outside and put the bags in the car and when I turned around to come back inside I saw like a swarm of insects crawling out from under my apartment wall (ground floor).

I freak out cause were talking like thousands of little bugs and only from my apaprtment so I took a picture and sent it to a friend who said they were termites hatching and going to find another nest. It was spring and what had happened was because my grow room was on the bottom, the ground didn't freeze over there and all winter long the bugs had been multiplying under the room.

Our train was leaving in a few hours and if I left it for sure the neighbors would've called the landlord and reported this. If I wasn't home they would walk in and check the place out and send me to jail.

So in record time I broke down the entire grow op hid it all away and sprayed as much bug killer as I could get into every single crack in the floor and outside.

I took the plants and moved them somewhere else in what was a really tense car ride and then managed to have everything down in time to catch the train.

I bought a bottle of champagne for that train ride and when I came home the landlord had fumigated the apartment.

Got any weed?

yes and when this is done I'll probably smoke a joint.

Have you tried contacting your ex when you were deported? Do you know what she's becoming?

When I left I knew I would never see her again. She was going to leave a week before I left but when I dropped her off at the airport and went back home I just couldn't do it and like a cheesy movie I rushed back to find her still sitting outside to gates crying and she missed her plane and came back home. We fought about leaving that week but I was never going to go back to where were came from and since I had nothing there anyway it was easy for me. She had her family though and I knew she couldn't just disappear like I could. When the time came again she booked another flight and this time I dropped her off kissed her goodbye and then turned around and walked away. I could tell she was crying but I didn't even look back. I couldn't.

For years there was no communication but eventually she contacted my sister on facebook and I talked to her through international calling cards which gave an anonymous phone number for a bit while I was there. I didn't know if she was still talking to the old friends we shared and at the time I just wanted to disappear so she knew I would never tell her anything about what I was doing or where I was other than Japan.

When I was deported I told her and I told her why. Part of the reason I did what I did was because our lives were so caught up in the drug dealing lifestyle that I thought maybe if I could make a bunch of money and the drug dealer persona I might have a chance at wooing her back eventually. I thought that's what she wanted in me, the excitement, the adventure.

She never knew when I came back exactly or where I was. I still called her from international calling cards even when I was home and even when she hinted at meeting up I knew that was a bad idea. She is and always will be an amazing part of my past but letting her go was the best thing I could have done for her and I'm glad she wasn't with me when I did what I did In japan.

The last time I spoke with her was when I started school years ago but I didn't tell her where are what I was studying and that was it. I haven't seen her in 10 years now but the last time we talked she said she was doing good, has a good man and I couldn't be happier for her. She was there for me through a really dark time in my life and I hope she gets whatever she wants out of this life.

What kind of prices did you charge over there? The way you describe it, seems like you had the weed industry by the balls.

Is weed not a popular drug in Japan amongst native Japanese people? I heard they prefer uppers? Are they big on opium like the Chinese and other Asian/middle eastern cultures?

Sorry for all the questions, but, drugs.

I didn't sell that much compared to a dealer back home. The difference is that by nickel and diming the weed I was able to make roughly 800 or more an ounce so I didn't have to grow lots to make a decent profit.

I moved outdoors because either way I was looking at 10-15 years of forced labor so to me $75,000 - $100,000 wasn't really worth it after awhile. The outdoor grow would have netted me anywhere from $250,000 - $900,000 depending on how the plants turned out and I wouldn't have to grow anymore at all.

They love the shabu - Meth but there are lot's of really cool Japanese who smoke secretly though.

What was your income vs cost of living?

Why was it too little?

Japan is an expensive place and the salary for english teachers is decent but not great. Combined with the fact that English teachers have a salary cap and upward mobility is rare. I also didn't want to be doing it for the rest of my life.

Long term Tokyo resident here - our times in Japan even overlapped, though I'm still in Tokyo - so your story is interesting. Shibuya is also one of my fav places in the city and I've often thought it would be cool to check out while properly baked. That being said, risk and punishment are way too big. A few questions if you come back to this tomorrow:

1. Can you describe the process after your arrest - they took you to a local koban or to a larger ward (ku) police station for questioning?

2. How long before they let you contact anyone to let you know you were under arrest? Embassy first? Did the J-cops try to get you to give up other people (like people in your phone contact list)?

3. Looking back - any advice on what you would have done differently to avoid getting caught?

4. By the way, how did the cops react when you came out of the bush? Did they have guns drawn on you or were they more relaxed? How was their English level or the English level of the interpreters?

Thanks in advance if you answer. Glad to hear that you've gotten things together and best of luck to you!

I saw your post before I went to bed but I was too tired to dig through my journals. So I'll give you the chronological timeline of arrest procedures for my case.

1 - First day was my arrest where they brought me to the closest police station not a koban and about a 13 hour interrogation.

2nd day - nothing much happened. Some more questions but later I found out they were raiding my place that day.

3rd day - brought to the local prosecutor for the first time. He explained the situation and informed me of my 21 day detention.

4th day - they let me have some smokes and then 5 hour interrogation with the lead detective.

5th day - nothing, kept in my cell all day except for 2 smokes in the morning.

6th day - first lawyer meeting, he told me I'm looking at 10 months to a year or maybe just deportation. He was an idiot.

7th day - They brought out my cell phone in interrogation and asked me a bunch of questions. Nothing was on that phone so that went nowhere. Later they begun bringing out my setup to me and had me sign ownership of them, I wanted to speak to a lawyer first but after 8 hours of interrogation and threats against my friends and family I signed.

8th day - onward - more of the same. I can write each one out if people really want to know the minute details.

After 10 days inside they let me take a bath.

2 - The embassy sent a letter to me a week after my arrest and after two weeks they sent someone to speak with me in person. It was a good conversation because they told me what to say to get sleeping pills since I was barely sleeping with guards watching me constantly and lights on at all times.

They interrogated me about other people but I told them I bought the seeds from a Nigerian guy in Tokyo. I knew that any connection with organized crime was going to fuck me so I just made up a tale about how I was in this alone and growing just for myself.

How to avoid getting caught.

Don't grow outdoors for starters. It's easy to keep a small grow op in an apartment with minimal lights and carbon will erase all traces of any smell. This goes for any country.

Tell no one what you are doing and don't let anyone know you even have drugs at all. I would go and hang out with my best friend and bring weed but when he asked where I got it I would tell him I picked it up in Tokyo. After it was all said and done I told him everything but only then.

4 - So I actually wrote this down too.

the first cops I saw were tactical, they had their guns drawn but when I came out they immediately lowered them when they could see I wasn't a threat. placed me under arrest and just had me sit there with the plants while other cops showed up. A few tactical cops were screaming at me in japanese, like that rough sounding japanese so I didn't understand what they were saying.

A few were surprised to see a gaijin, I guarantee they were not expecting that. One cop looked almost mournful about it, like he knew how fucked I was.

Only one spoke broken english and he was instructing me while they made me take pictures with the plants, like holding onto a leaf and shit. Lot's of pictures were taken and then after they brought me to the cop car and made me carry all the stuff I had brought down with me back up.

Back at the station the first interrogations were fruitless, there was one really cool cop who spoke with me and I was telling him 'I'm fucked' but he just kept saying 'we don't know' over and over.

That cop and I built up a rapport and he was a handsome guy and told me about his wife and how he wanted to travel to the US. He brought me McDonalds for dinner and made that situation a lot less tense.

I never saw that cop again after that first day.

Enjoy Tokyo man, I miss that place.

So what are you doing now?

Living. I have a beautiful girlfriend and a beautiful son and about to finish University.

Do you plan on telling the son?

That's a bridge I'll have to cross when I reach it. I have a bunch of tattoos (they can all be covered up) and one day he'll figure something out. I'll probably explain it too him depending on his age and where he and I are in life. By the time he is 15-16 years old I may be able to go back there and it would be interesting to explain to him how I lived and the experience of it all. Debauchery aside.

At your peak sales how many people did you sell to? Where would you meet them?

? Depends, steady customers were anywhere between 50-100 depending. Tokyo and Japan in general is a really transient place so the best way to sell was with joints in a pack of smokes in the clubs. You can dish out what you have and then disappear before anyone knows whats up. No names no phone numbers and you're gone.

They just kicked you out? No jail. Seems like a pretty low risk then if you don't get too attached to Japan

They kicked me out because of circumstances. Extremely lucky circumstances. Had anything gone different I wouldn't be here writing this.

I can't stress enough the extreme risk involved. Had they caught me dealing or had I been setup I definitely would have gone to prison for a while. Even if it was only a small amount.

And I was extremely attached to Japan, I moved there without thinking too much about it but after 5 years you do get attached to a place. I called it home and had I succeeded I would probably still be there. I had strong relationships with people there and I miss them dearly knowing I can never go back to visit for a long time.

How was getting caught? How was the jail? Deportation? What's your life like now?

Getting caught sucked as you can imagine. My friend once said that jail is like having your arms cut off and not being able to interact with the world. Everything moves along but your stuck unable to do anything about it. There was a lot of fear that I was going to be gone for a long time and regrets that the money wasn't worth it. You hear a lot of dealers back home talk about 'gettin it' make money regardless of the fear of prison because you'd rather make some money and go to jail than live on the streets with nothing and to a point I think they're right.

At one point in my life I thought that my entire existence revolved around sellign drugs, like I was born to do it and would die doing it. That kind of mentality helped push me along but looking back wiser I realize that there is more to life than just making paper. It helps for sure and in everything there is a hustle but jail is the worst place in the world and had I gone away for longer I would probably have never left the life.

Everyone I knew in my old life ended up doing time or is dead save a few lucky ones and I'm just happy I got out the way I did. Even if It was a rough ride.

Are you a white male? And given that you served jail time plus got deported. Would you ever consider doing it again in another country or recommend it as a life style for anyone else in that situation?

No after dealing drugs for 10 years I was finally done. I saw the light sentence as a sign from above that I should change my life so I did.

There is a certain stereotype of drug dealers in western culture and while many may have the skills to sell drugs in a foreign market I wouldn't recommend it as a choice. It took a certain look and behavior that I had developed that allowed me to do it for so long. I said that I was caught growing and that's the only misstep I made. I doubt I would have been caught dealing at all and that may have to do with certain biological assistance that the Japanese seem to prefer over others.

I am proud of being able to spread the good seed in a foreign land though, with marijuana becoming legalized it says something about all the people who risked so much just to keep it around all these years.

How did you get caught?

When I moved the plants outdoors I picked really remote places deep in the bush/forest. Typically on a slope so they would get natural water runoff. I intended to just let them grow over the summer and harvest them in the fall without ever going back to check on them. I even had a plan to harvest at night with night vision goggles just to make sure I wasn't caught.

One such place was not as remote as I thought and leave it to Japan with their forest caretaker industry to discover the spot before the weeds could take over and camouflage the pot plants. After that the police said they had the spot under 24h surveillance. Within minutes of me showing up they had me.

It was literally the lat of my plants and when they raided my apartment they found the grow equipment already put away and just some dried pot and a bunch of clones that I was experimenting on under a simple light.

How did you approach the subject with strangers? I feel as if it would be risky to offer drugs to someone unless you know they won't narc on you, especially since Japan has crazy drug laws (or so I've heard).

Actually it was easier to approach strangers than people I knew. Strangers don't know anything about you and it's easy to interject into a conversation quickly "where you from? cool, you smoke weed?" Imagine having someone just walk up to you at a bar and make small talk like that. If they were looking then they'd respond positively and I was golden if not I would walk away or politely excuse myself.

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I made enough to live well but not enough to say I was rich off of it. After my arrest I 'disposed of' about $75,000 of product that I couldn't sell. Considered selling it to the Yakuza but since I was still facing 8 years in prison I thought it was better to just wash my hands of everything.

Do you mean you were out on bail after your arrest? How otherwise could you dispose of the product?

Never keep all your eggs in one basket.

How did your customers find you? Just... knowing local gajin circle?

Gaijin talk but the best thing to do is just randomly go to clubs or out in the city. You can be brazen about it then, just strike up a conversation and ask people, if they're not interested or hesitant you can disappear and move on. It's not like they are going to run and find a cop just to rat you out and even if they did what would they say? Non descript gaijin asking about weed? They'd probably want to avoid the cops as much as you.

There are people there that didn't know what I did on the side at all until after I got caught. Hell my best friend didn't know anything other than I always had weed whenever I came over.

how did you learn japanese? were you proficient?

I picked it up when I arrived there and I'm not fluent but after so many years I could have a decent conversation and understand a little bit of TV Japanese.

How much?

$30 grams, 1/8ths for 80-90 depending. 75 to my friends.

I just want to know how you managed to stay there? Did you stay on a freelancer visa or did you have another job?

I went on a working holiday and married my best friend in Japan after the first year.

I know it's been a while, and you're probably not answering questions anymore, but here goes:

Where was the best place in Japan to smoke a joint?

Are there any places you wish you had gotten high and enjoyed the scenery, but were unable to?

What kind of precautions did you take when smoking?

Were edibles popular in Japan at all? I'd imagine they would be (harder to get caught dosing compared to smelly, visible smoke), but I of course have no experience.

Were psychedelics big in Japan?

Did you participate in a lot of outdoor activities?

Best place to smoke? Depends on what I was doing I guess. Too many to name. The beaches along the eastern coast are amazing. White imported sand from Australia in the summer were a nice sight.

Smoking a joint and going to the temples were always fun. Something about the classical architecture in Japan is just so relaxing, mixed with ancient forests was great too.

I can't say it enough but the being stoned in Shibuya is a really unique experience. There's just something about the utter chaos around you and the lights, the music, the people, the crazy people, the gorgeous women and then your just casually strolling through them all, taking it all in, at all hours of the day or night. Plus there's so much amazing food around you, Yoshinoya, Curry houses, $ sushi, it's just something else.

Most people are usually drinking or on uppers in that place but it was nice just to smoke a joint and see the most interesting things happen so randomly all along a few tight knit streets. But I'm super bias, I love that place but good luck trying to find a secluded spot, try a back alley or hotel room balcony.

Precautions? Be smart, not only smart, be paranoid, it's the one time it might come in handy to be a little noid. Expect that no matter where you are there is always going to be someone around you. I've gone out to smoke one in a small town in the middle of the night, on a completely blacked out street and still ran into people. Be quick or do it in your house. Or be ghetto, take a paper towel roll and wrap a paper towel over the end with an elastic and douse it in a dryer sheet, Axe or equivalent and blow through that. It stinks but it works. Or just smoke in your car.

I tried taking the cuttings (leaves) and made butter one time, like a lot of butter. I did it over night in a huge pot because it stinks. Anyway I had this butter and I myself wasn't that familiar with edibles but I figured why waste the leaves and I might as well have something else to sell.

So I tested out the butter but the amounts I was doing weren't really doing anything to me at all. So one day I decided to make a milkshake with about a cup of this foul, disgusting butter in it. I managed to get it down and I went about my day, went grocery shopping, watched a movie etc.

After about 9 hours I realized this butter was bunk and gave up so I started rolling a joint and just as I was about to light it up, I started sweating. I felt so weird and was shaking, sweating, it was coming in these waves and I knew something was wrong.

Long story short I ended up throwing up for an hour or more, hallucinating that my puke was neon worms swirling in the toilet and I felt like I was going to die. I had to call my girlfriend to come and watch me and she drove for hours to my place in the middle of the night because I was worried I might have to go the hospital. I spent the night just shaking under the kotatsu (weird japanese heated table) and that was the last time I ever ate pot. I threw the butter out.

Apparently I arrived just after magic mushrooms became illegal there but I heard you used to just go to a head shop thingy and buy them. I found MDMA in Japan but nothing else while I was there.

I went to the beach but I wasn't really an outdoorsy guy (still aren't).

You replied to another comment saying that you got married while in Japan - how did that come about, and how did that go? Did you meet your current gf once you returned home, and does she know of your past?

Thanks for doing this AMA! Very informative and entertaining, and kudos to you in your accomplishments!

I already replied in another post about the wife. She was my best friend but certain things happened and the chance of us getting back together after I came home become slim.

My current gf knows about everything but she doesn't really care. It was a while ago now and I'm a different person completely. When she got pregnant she did make me tell my ex-wife (who I was still talking to frequently) and since then we haven't spoken much.

Did you speak Japanese before moving or did you learn most of it as you went?

Picked it up as I went along. Best advice for learning a new language, date a native speaker and have them speak to you as much as possible in their tongue. You will learn it through osmosis much quicker than just mnemonic studying but the only issue is I now speak Japanese with a female tinge.

how is the underworld culture over there? what would have happened if people found out you were selling/growing? just a tax? do you think people would've tried to steal from or extort you?

I had a friends who were more acquainted with the actual underworld and most likely I would have been able to negotiate a tax. I wasn't cutting into anyone's business so I just would have to pay a percentage to some random guy or whoever found me out.

Steal/extort who knows.

Hey so I was wondering about how much startup cash did it take to pack your bags and start anew in Japan? And also what was the process of getting a visa like? Leaving The states sounds like a good change of pace sometimes

1 plane ticket = ?? About $1600 for me at the time.

$2500 in Travelers checks you need for the Visa.

I brought a few more thousand with me but it wasn't necessary if you find work right away.

How were you able to teach in Japan without a degree? I've always been fascinated by Japanese culture, but going to get a BA and spending all that money just to teach english throws me off.

Yes I was able but only for a year on the Visa I had. A BA isn't going to hurt you in the long run though, depending on which major you take.

Regarding your English teaching..

Did you have some kind of College Degree / Qualification upon your arrival in Japan?

I'm English, and I'll be moving there in March. From my initial research it seems like they are pretty fussy about who they'll let teach English (only graduates). I have a TEFL qualification, but no Degree, so no English-teaching company seems remotely interested in employing me at present.

I'm a qualified hair stylist, so I can always use that to make money, but I'd love to know if you were able to teach English without some kind of degree.

I found your AMA pretty fascinating too! Glad to hear you weren't detained for any longer.

I have TESL certification. A 2 week course.

the JET program is pretty strict and they even tell the people they have working for them not to hang around with us degree-less foreigners. Maybe rightfully so.

But I was friends with a bunch of JETS and they were all pretty cool regardless, a little snobby but cool.

A gaijin hairstylist might be a promising way to make money there, just brush up on their styles and learn a little Japanese and maybe a small shop will let you rent a chair or something.

Would you do it again knowing that the outcome would be the same?

I think anyone who has lived through something and come out stronger because of it asks themselves this question. Knowing it would end the same then sure but there are many things I would've done different.

Dude, hate to tell you, but you will never, ever, ever be allowed back in japan. Ever. No ifs ands or butts. No question, so I guess ill just ask how that makes you feel?

Sorry, bud. Japan is harsh about such things.

It's depressing to be honest. I'm hoping that with enough time I can get a pass or something anyway. Regardless, there are many other places in this world to visit so it's just one itinerary I won't have to plan for.

No law says you cant try, and maybe their attitudes will change. Theyre gonna need people with the old folks dying and the young folks not fucking.

Yeah that's one thing that always bothered me about Japan, it would be such a unique place if they weren't so xenophobic. They have tons of people who not just respect but place their culture on a pedestal and would willingly move there in a heartbeat but they make it so hard.

How important do you think it is keeping non drug dealer like appearance. Was there anything you had to do to change your character or looks when around certain people?

That's one thing I learned from early on in the drug game. Look like everyone else. The smartest, baddest, motherfuckers don't look the part.

Bad boys who try and look bad are asking to get caught.

There's a million rules I used to follow and even now I still do to some degree; don't wear a baseball cap while driving, wear glasses even if you don't need them, driving drugs along the highway? pack a suitcase and have a fake itinerary of where you intend to go etc.

One thing I still do to this day is find a commonality between people quickly. If they mention sports start talking sports, personally I'm not a sports guy but I keep enough peripheral knowledge about them to have a quick conversation with someone.

There was one time when I was driving around with a girl, smoking a joint and got a call. I had to grab something off my connect and deliver it to another guy 30 min later. Well right as the meeting with the connect is happening in a restaurant parking lot a cop drove by. The connect got spooked and just jumped out of the car and took off, leaving a bag with 15 ounces of rock in the backseat. I'm flipping out inside but I just slip the bag under my seat and casually drive away as if nothing is wrong, figuring the cop would just go on his way. The second I leave the parking lot I see that the cop has turned around and is now right behind me and 2 seconds later I'm pulled over.

I done. I'm telling the girl I'm done and I'm about to go to jail and give her a list of things to do once I'm arrested. The cop comes up to the window and asks for the usual, if I've been drinking etc. I'm freaking out thinking he can smell the weed but he doesn't mention it yet.

When he get's back he asks me some more questions and tells me I have warrants out for my arrest for a traffic fine I didn't even know about and goes back to his car one more time to confirm his identity.

I'm fucking done. That's it game over. It's been a good run. I think I tell this girl I love her just to say something not utterly depressing.

The cop comes back to the car and says he's going to have to take me in. We're sitting along a snowy road in winter and I ask the cop if I should leave the car here, halfway into the other lane. He hmmms for a second and I tell him that there's a Walmart just up the road where I can park it there so it's not obstructing traffic and by the grace of god he let's me drive there slowly with him right behind me.

While I drive I'm telling the girl what to do and she's listening but she's freaking out a bit inside too. When we get to the parking lot I turn off the car and call a cab for the girl and while I'm sitting and waiting the cop and I start talking. I don't remeber what exactly we talked about but I made him laugh and the cop took me into his car, jokingly asking if there's any reason to search the car from my prior record.

I leave the keys and everything with girl and she knows to take the rock, jump in a cab and go to a mutual friends house. I leave with the officer just pissing myself internally at how thin of an edge I'm on.

Once in the cop car, we keep talking and I'm telling him how awesome it is being a cop etc. and That guy ran with it and was doing hard corners in the snow all the way to the police station. He was loving showing off and I was just loving every single thing about life at that very moment.

The point of this is, even under crazy stress I found a commonality between the cop and I and because of it he went easier on me then maybe someone else. It just so happens that at that very moment it saved my life.

Oh shit I just remembered what it was, the cop asked if I was drinking because I was leaving the restaurant/sports bar and wanted to take a breathalyzer test. I knew I wouldn't blow over but he said something like he has to use it a certain amount or something and when I passed I made a joke about something and that's what started the conversation.

Anyway as an aside to this story, when they brought me downtown they asked if I could get the money right away or else they were going to have to process me, I told them it wouldn't be a problem and that I just had to call my girlfriend and she'd bring the money down. Well she did but the girl I was with in the car wasn't my girlfriend and when my actual girlfriend showed up at some point in the conversation the fact I was with another girl was brought up. Needless to say my girlfriend wasn't happy and started slapping me in front of the police while they finished the paperwork and laughed their asses off.

You posted this on somethingawful years ago and a bunch of people called you out for making it up. How's it going this time around? This almost certainly didn't happen as you would still be in prison. Simple possession can land you 5 years. Growing would have gotten you double that easily.

Yeah I did the same kind of thing on ask tell right after I got home and if you remember the thread it was shut down because some japanese goons managed to find actual japanese new articles with my real name and details which they thankfully pm'd me.

I had to provide reddit mods with my court papers and id proof that I was legit which is something I would've done with SA if they had that sort of thing around.

I dealt for 10 years and you'd be surprised at what people can walk away from if the circumstances are in your favor.

My first case I ever caught was in a car selling to an undercover officer with a friend and I walked away from that 2 year court case with an acquittal, and that was literally my hands exchanging cash with a UC. It cost me about $30,000in legal fees but I don't even have a criminal record.

Oh and before you call bullshit on that one too, I also provided those docs to the mods to verify as well.

Hate us cuz they anus

Can you compare the jails in Japan and where you are from ? From what I seen on tv, everything in Japan is neater and nicer. Just wondering if the jails are too.

Were you able to pick up Japanese pretty well during your time there?

I sold drugs for longer in a crazier environment before leaving to Japan but surprisingly, I've only ever been in holding cells here at home (combination of good lawyers and luck I suppose) so I can't really compare.

The first police cell was just that a cell with a little enclave toilet and sink at the back. In the morning you roll up your futon and put them away and then you brush your teeth at a sink while guards look on and then back into the cell which is kept completely barren except for a single book they allow you to have at a time.

When they feed you the open a little slit in the floor and you eat as fast as you can, well I did anyway. For a week there was another guy in the cell beside me and we'd race to see who could finish first in a sort of unspoken competition. We could finish a bento box in under a minute.

The next jail was like a regular jail and I was in a tiny cell with tatami floors with bugs in them that would bite you throughout the day and night. It had a little shelf and a small cupboard for clothes and a small toilet at the back with a sink. You were allowed to keep your futon during the day.

Food wasn't bad but I'll eat anything so I'm not a good judge of cuisine. Since it was solitary shit got boring really quick. Lot's of reading. Sleeping, make shift workout routines. Writing etc.

The police were assholes at the first cell but the guards in jail were actually pretty cool. You had a list of stuff you can buy off canteen just like at home and since I had money I would buy random food or stuff just to pass the time. Rec time was shitty since it was constantly raining and that meant only 1 or 2 hours a week of fresh air, no smoking at all (Cops let you smoke 2 cigarettes in the morning)

Another prison was nice enough to send over their english reading material which as cool. Some Tom Clancy, Henry Thoreau etc. The embassy would send me new books every couple of weeks too.

My girlfriend came to visit me which was hard but it was the only chance to get anything done while I was inside. Her dad was a Yakuza associate so she at least understood how this all worked and wasn't freaking out like a normal woman would have done.

I only dated Japanese girls while I was there and I picked up conversational japanese, enough to get by. Funny enough I find myself speaking to my son in Japanese all the time to try and teach it to him and it comes back more and more each day.

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4 1/2 months. I read tons, back then I could recite to you passages from Japanese law statutes. I knew exactly what would happen, which prison I would most likely go to and every single step along the way.

I did the same thing back home when I was dealing before.

Are you an idiot? You do realize the drug laws in Japan are much harsher than in America. That would be like trying to sell crack here.

That also boggles the mind. What expats are so stupid as to smoke overseas?

Am I an idiot? yeah, maybe. But if you read the AMA you'd know that I sold crack for 5 years before leaving to Japan so to someone who is accustomed to the kind of fatalistic mentality it takes to sell rocks, selling weed in Japan was right up my alley.

Expats smoke overseas and so do natives, people like weed, it's why it is becoming legal in good ol' draconian-never-ending-war-on-drugs-USA. People want to get high. I myself seldom drink at all but I do enjoy a good smoke here and there.