When we got to the address of the Russian restaurant it was nowhere to be found. It turned out the restaurant was on the 4th floor. Only in Japan is this possible. There were several other restaurants inside the same building. Each one occupied the whole floor.

The lady that greeted us looked Armenian. She was around 45 and had an unhappy look on her face.  I asked her how she liked living in Japan. She said it was “so-so”. She started naming every negative thing that came to her mind. I almost started believing her. Then I remembered how many times I’ve seen Russian Immigrants in Canada with the same story. There is simply no pleasing them.

Furthermore, she lived in Tokyo for 13 years. Her Russian home town was 40 minutes away by plane. So if she was still in Tokyo, it’s probably not all bad!

At one point she mentioned the Nationalist’s Vans. They drive around Tokyo and anounce nationalistic slogans over the megaphone. Something like: “Gaijins get out! Japan for  Japanese!” As soon as she mentioned it, one of these Vans began a live broadcast from down the street. This was amazing timing. She said: “they often come here, because the area is full of tourists”.

She stood around for another minute without saying a word. I thought to myself  “she’s probably thinking of another negative thing to say”. I was right. “Watch out for these Africans on the streets here” she said “They may invite you to a club then drug you. When you fall asleep they take your credit card and drag you outside.”

Day turned to night. Clubs started opening up across the street from us… It was time to see if her horror stories were true

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