Comments on: Ruins of the Queen Chateau Soapland

By: bill

bill — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:47:32 +0000

..Great pictures..let me fill you in on this ..as I was in Mito for 3 months in 89..at ramp up to the bubble peak in Japan. In those days I was a mere 21 yrs old..teaching English. Mito was kinda hell for a 21 yr old..it was boring..Japanese there whom were young and had any brains had left and you had a town with a population of government bureaucrats and rice/natto farmers..there was a lack of people between 19 to 40, except what I would call “bozos”..whom were drop out..unable to get into Uni in Tokyo. I taught English at a cramp school..I had being recruited in Tokyo..it paid 400K a month..was 9 hrs a day..included accommodation..I foolishly thought I would master Japanese and learn the culture being in Mito..it was so wrong..I instead as a white guy discovered racialism..this strengthened me in understanding how that felt..In Mito people would avoid the foreigners..they were unkind and not friendly..I would take “kiten sushi”..which is revolving sushi bar and would often have seats next to me keft empty and a queue outside of clients waiting to sitdown..old people dominated Mito..there were rude, horrible and small minded for most of it..but there were some exceptions..some old kind ones whom were exceptions and people under 19 were..high school students..with zeal for knowledge. The soapland and red light boomed in those days..I meet many “touts”..i was in that bar zone drinking at dives sometimes to let ouyt stress..the zone was full of Phillipines and Thailand ladies..brought in by Yakuza..most were cheated and held against their will no doubt..almost zero Japanese and no Koreans..Mito was a farming town and J and K girls could easily work in Tokyo for more and better conditions. The soaplands clients were J old farmers and government guys..that was all Mito had..they were crude, rich ..but low class, chumps for the majority..no doubt they abused those girls..Mito men were known for their rude “kusou inaka” manners..they were hated by Tokyoites or educated Japanese as a whole. Luckily I met a decent J girl on a weekend to Tokyo and got a job there in Finance and moved out of Mito for good..Mito was a terrible..rest is history..I now live in Tokyo still..are successful and happy with a great Family. Funnily the Japanese complain that Mito ids overtaken by Phillipinos..they deserve to succeed there given how they were abused..Phillipinos are married to old farmers there and mixed children take over the land..Japanese young ladies leave Mito for Tokyo..as soon as can..with few exceptions..today Mito is dying..only the old and Phillipinos or poorer races with little choices want to work fields..the racial Japanese in Mito and the whole countryside fear this..but it is reality..one day the foreigners will control here in 50 yrs time, as the old people die out and are not replaced..hope this is useful..best regards everyone..btw..if you like Natto..buy Mito natto..its the best in Japan..only decent thing that ever comes out of Mito!

By: out of ruins - Stories and Images from the Edge

out of ruins - Stories and Images from the Edge — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 11:24:01 +0000

[...] I get into explaining what a soapland is, and showing the photos, know that you can see my first post and original photos here. The text is more florid, the photos a bit starker, but it’s the same place [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:02:10 +0000

no problem, Its just i live near Mito and haven’t seen this Building yet, but I keep searching;)
Like your Haiyko stories, and if you decide to come back Ibaraki again let me know;)
greez
mike

By: MJG

MJG — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:45:51 +0000

Mike- Thanks, and yes, but it’s one of a few spots I decided not to give out the location for- sorry.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 06:10:10 +0000

cool pics:) do you have any directions for to get to the place?

By: MJG

MJG — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:08:13 +0000

Video, yeah, was worried about providing incriminating evidence of myself or SY in the location. There’s still a few photos, but the video was too blatant. Future videos will be more careful I guess.

By: Jason

Jason — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 22:17:04 +0000

What happened to the video?

By: ï¼³ï¼¥ï¼®ï¼³ï¼¥ï¼©

ï¼³ï¼¥ï¼®ï¼³ï¼¥ï¼© — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 09:24:57 +0000

To MJG
Thank you for the answer.

Every worker in Japan before was a middle class. Therefore, everyone becomes a small king, and every small poor person becomes it.
Here is facilities that can become kings of one country only one o’clock if paying though had been called such a commercial establishment “Turkish bath” before.

The amusement facility on which only the character and conduct doing
bears not the purpose but worker’s enjoyment.
Therefore, an ostentatious decoration and extra service overflowed.

SENSEI
Compiler soft use

By: MJG

MJG — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:29:38 +0000

Heather- I think that’s a cultural difference about Japan- maybe sort of unique to here- they don’t go in for ‘vintage’ stuff in their buildings at all. Generally speaking, it’s all new and on the go. Buildings get old, fall into dis-use, they are very quickly torn down whole-sale and replaced with something else. It’s the same for shrines and temples, which are almost all made of wood, and so rebuilt every 60 or so years.

It’s something to do with living in a country with so little usable space, and so many strong earthquakes. You can’t build things that last a long time, so why try. This leads to a housing market where anything once built and occupied has its value instantly marked down. Buildings don’t appreciate here, they only lose value. This creates a mind-set of avoiding anything used or old. Though there are bustling small shops for vintage clothes- it’s chiefly a niche thing, and doesn’t extend to anything much more expensive.

One more on this note- there is little interior decorating or DIY going on here. There are no TV shows about it. There is not the culture of showing off your house to your friends and guests. Most Japanese houses on the inside are very plain and simple, and that’s how they like it. So adding old-culture garnishes just wouldn’t go over well. It’s a shame.

By: Heather

Heather — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 06:00:25 +0000

Thanks for replying! I didn’t really mean any of the furniture or anything, that stuff must be pretty well destroyed by now. I was referring more to the structural aspects of the building. There are a lot of companies over here in the States that go around to old buildings and scavenge various architectural elements, clean them up, and then resell them as “vintage”. You can find some really cool stuff that way – a friend of mine when I lived in Tucson had a rammed earth house that had these gorgeous old carved wood front doors reclaimed from an abandoned convent in Mexico. That’s more what I meant, like some kind of company that could go in and salvage some of the gorgeous tile work (like the big mosaic murals behind those weird steam chairs.) Some of it, I’m sure, isn’t really worth much and would be easier and cheaper to just reproduce, but some of those mosaics looked interesting.
Anyway, I was just curious if the had the same fad type companies over there. It’s been super popular here for a while now and I’m always interested in seeing if fads translate to other countries.

Well thanks again, and I’m definitely glad to hear you’re going to think about those masks! Keep up the great work – I love the blog! You’ve definitely got a new devoted reader.