But I cannot stop thinking that you are a condescending son of a b*tch. You write very poetically, but with the poetry, you catalog, discriminate and denigrate people left and right.

You side with the “intelligent”, “employed” and “educated” people, and judge a lifetime by looking at a person and not even talking to them. And I love your discriminatory descriptions of the Chinese prisoners. Wow. You are a prejudiced type. You even try to demean the police officer who tried to help you out, as “overplaying his GOOD cop role”. Crap, maybe he was trying to help your gaijin ass. What an arrogant prick.

And now matter what you say, try to rationalize, or look for good excuses, you took the cell phone, left the cab without paying and pummeled a skinny 58 year old cabbie. You are a drunk bastard, and no matter how you try to justify it, you committed a crime. I know you admit to it, and you apologize for it, but you still try to demean the experience “as if this should not be happening to such an educated chap, with a family, a job, and money in the bank”.

I hope this was a humbling experience, and I hope you do not beat on people who try to take you home at night, in your drunken an violent way.

You obviously don’t understand life in Japan as well as you think you do because a lot of people end up this way at no fault of their own. The education system in Japan is a complete nightmare, children in this country get pushed into cram school at too young an age to know what it is to enjoy life and a lot of them are permanently ruined because of it. But then again you don’t teach in a public school so I guess you wouldn’t know this.

While the guy that was staring at you for a long period of time does indeed seem like a messed up fellow, by your description at least, which I will take as the truth because I don’t get the sense that you are lying, HOWEVER I don’t see how his having “girly wrists” is relevant in any way. Maybe you are going to tell me that Ghandi was a pussy because he too was skinny?

I’m glad that you at least admit your own fault in the incident unlike most big proud men such as yourself, but I question your ability to make sound judgments above your PC’s. As it was said before the taxi driver was obviously trying to provoke you, and if you had behaved in a manner half as smart as you classify yourself, you would have paid him the fair up to that point and proceeded to find another driver. Being drunk isn’t an excuse.

The next time you decide to write about such an important issue, stick to what is actually important and not how malnourished people are somehow malcontents.

then later hands himself in – doh!

and after that complains about being treated like a criminal and idiot when he himself acted exactly like one and stupidly went and handed himself in to the police?? idiot!

But seriously, be a good ambassador.

In any case, this is a really good read. I can say from experience that the American justice system can be a lot worse. Especially here in Texas. Just recently the media uncovered over 700 complaints of guards raping children in the state’s youth corrections facilities. Cops here also play the “trump the charges” game as well unless you can afford a good lawyer. With the harsh sentences, one really has no choice but to plea guilty.

Now my State is being scrutinized by CNN’s Anderson Cooper who argues that an innocent man was executed. He was found guilty on obsolete scientific evidence, heresay, and a one-size-fits-all motive.