Fryguy is a legend. He showed up in West Tokyo before I did, as far as I can tell, hanging out with Glas and Daily and other large figures on the Bochi scene. He liked to hang out in the park late at night, and go to the races. And he shot BB guns and drank beer, just as a teenager in Fuchu was expected to. It was his glasses that set him apart from the rest of us and made him something of a legend in his own time. Davidson took them in the cafeteria one day and held them before his eyes, displaying no small talent for finding the exact distance at which they would magnify his lenses to maximum effect. He glared at us and his pupils were as big as olives, as Oreo cookies, and we rolled on the floor laughing. Except for Fryguy. He was laughing about as much as he did when we took his BB gun and gave it back only after shooting so many bottle rockets out of the barrel that the plastic had fused shut, preventing the thing from ejecting the 5mm ammo it was meant for. "Here ya go," we said. He didn't laugh. I know from stories that he was an insane skier, prone to cliff-drops and diving out of third-floor ryokan windows dressed only in a yukata. I have heard rumors that he went vegan and joined a commune. I wonder if he will see this page and check in with an update. Brian--if you are reading this, sorry about the gun. Write me. Picture #2 is of (from left) someone, someone, Bill Jacobsen, someone (maybe Matt Staples), Boyd #21, and someone that I want to call Haruki. He's got great hair and a nice sweater (purchased in Stanley, HK) in any case. Boyd is riding pine, and Coach Jake is busy toward the starters' end of the bench talking stratregy with some guys who have a chance at game time. Boyd, if you read this, let me know why you were benched for this match-up against Yo-Hi. --PRD 7/21/2001 (thanks to Glaser for the pix)
				--special today-- OKUTAMA FESTIVAL! In summers past the Bochi crowd would take weekends off, fleeing western Tokyo for evern more western parts of Tokyo. Okutama! We would head up the hill to the six-lane and hit that rental shop for tents and camping mats. It was too warm to need many sleeping bags, but we took some along all the same because of the rocks. The damn rocks. We would head up on the train--Tama Bochi Mae to Musashi Sakai to Tachikawa to Ome to Okutama. End of the line, near the tallest peak in Tokyo Prefecture, Kumotoriyama. It's a pleasant place to spend time, and many people do just that, and by the time we got there all the good camping spots were generally taken, and we would head closer to the river bank, with the big rocks. The ones that went right under our tents. The river runs cold and clear there, except when heavy rains hit the area, sweeping mud and silt off the hills and into the river. You see the results in the pictures. One result you don't see is the river rising, affecting--who else?--the idiots camped on the banks. Every time we headed up there a typhoon would hit, and up would come the river level. The loudspeakers would broadcast their message of doom: "Get off of the river bank now!" (Scary sidenote: a few years ago some people didn't, and when the dam gates were opened the water rushed down and washed most of them away.) Four fine fotos on the left. Top to bottom: (1) The crew in a lull in the rain. Me, Misa, Duke, Boyd, Beach, Sherry, Glas, and Jen. Beach is no longer with us. Jen should not have been with us at that point (but Glas insisted). And Boyd should not have been in that hat. (2) Cooling our heels, part one. Crap, now I'm in the hat. Glaser could lift a smaller one. Boyd is wondering what to do with his noodles. (3) Boyd figures out what to do with the yakisoba. Beach is less than thrilled, but the other three of us are! (4) We took a walk up the road and found a karaoke club. A fat man grilled meat on the barbecue on the balcony overlooking a branch of the river. We talked with him and his friends, drinking beer they offered us, and when we realized Boyd was gone we looked for him and found him in the bar--singing his little heart out. "New York, New York." His desire to entertain never dried up, and it has earned him an Emmy, by the way . . . Not that Boyd is a Bochi. He never spent his night on Perv Mountain. But since I am a good guy I include him on this page anyway. --PRD 7/3/2001
				Blast from the past! This picture was taken in late 1987 or early 1988, probably. It was winter. Mr. and Ms. Glaser were out of town. And drunk Arabs were carousing in their living room. Note the big can o' beer on the right! I don't think I have any pictures of those old Suntory Penguin plastic bottles, though. I would love to see some . . . Glaser also has a baby now, by the way. A big white dog that sheds fur on the carpet. I think I have a picture somewhere--I'll post it if I find it. Puff has a real live human baby, by the way. As does Sabrina (her second). In her words: I am doing very well, spending my days at home with my new little angel--Cyrus Lachlan Storlie. He was born on April 5 and I was in labor for 21 hours. No, that's not a typing error. After 15 hours of hell, I caved and asked for the epidural. He is so damn cute and when I figure out this digital photo thing I will be emailing you pictures all the time. Your site might just turn into Durfee's friends and their babies.com. Probably so . . . waah waah, --PRD 6/10/2001
				I am still trying to think of a better picture to feature on the front page than the one of Glas and Boyd loving each other with an axe on the banks of the upper Tama. There probably isn't one, huh. The new one on the left is a 1995 snap of Duke, Yu, Duke, Durf, McNamara, and Durf. My hair does not appear in this shot, but you can see a crutch on the far right that was my support in those ligamentless days. Anyway, slow redesign of the site continues. Note the elegant fade of the background color. It’s the same beautiful green color as the ASIJ pool after the Summer Day Camp kids get through with it. Note to SDC workers: Why didn't we ever toss Totero into the pool in a celebratory manner after camp ended? We could have also poured a big tub of Gatorade (well, Aquarius) on Kappa's head after winning the league championship in silly water games. Instead we went to Kichijoji and poured Suntory on each other; much stickier. Fun, though. --PRD 5/25/2001
				Two bits of news. First: I hosted a hanami party in Nogawa Park last weekend. The meeting place was Tama Bochi Mae station. Nobody could find it. Why? It's now Tama station. Shocking photos of this development soon. Second: I can't think of anything more newsworthy than the fact that Bochi Station is not officially called "Bochi" any more. I am frankly having problems dealing with the whole thing. Third: There is no third news item. Look to the right to see some Bochis and some interlopers in Oregon in the early 1990s. Yuka, who fears me, is in the picture. So is Boyd #21. I am writing this in McDonalds on the south side of Kichijoji. Praise PowerBooks. Does reading this make you feel like you are there? Some lame muzak version of a Whitney Houston tune is on the speakers, the pimps outside are shrieking at pedestrians to get them to enter their cheap bars, and a steady stream of young kids and salarymen types are walking along that crowded street with the buses and the man blowing the whistle so you don't get hit by one. In a nod to the forces of market capitalism, McD's sandwiches are now half-price on weekdays. I had myself a filet-o-fish and a coffee to stave off hunger and sleepiness and it set me back by less than 300 yen. Things are cheap these days in Japan. Economic critics have decided this is a sign of dangerous deflation in the J. economy, but as far as I can tell this is just the readjustment of Tokyo prices to bring them in line with the actual value of flour and whitefish in the rest of the universe. I don't see the whole "lower prices spell the death of the Japanese economy" argument. I'm happy to watch them fall. I'm less happy with the muzak "Footloose" that is on right now . . . Might be time to head back out into the pitiless night. At least for the time it takes me to return home to Koganei. Soon an mp3 of "I Wish I Was a Koganei" (S. Boyd, Darren Duffy Records, 1987) will grace this site, if there is any justice on the Internet. --PRD 4/11/2001 P.S. I am quite confident that this site contains the only picture of Haruki Toyama on the WWW. Let me know if I am wrong.
				Not much for the April 1 update. I slept late today and missed the best day possible for hanami. Nogawa was set to be packed with karaoke-speaker-wielding freaks drinking and tripping over each other with beer in both hands. The blossoms would drift lazily earthward under the blue skies of spring. So it snowed. Anyway, I made a page introducing Bochi Web but buried the link at the bottom of this page. Have a look; it could make you a millionaire! --PRD 4/1/2001
				Two stories of Bochi Babies today. To the left is Steve Glaser's fly Rochester ride. Inset: The little touches that make life so nice. He rides this thing whenever possible, but for most of the year he keeps it in the garage where it can't get hit by snowplows, sprayed by road salt, or crapped on by geese. Below the Beemer is Matt Staples' youngest child, Buddy. The Staples live on a farm in Oregon and do actual real farm things, like raise livestock and grow healthy veggies. Probably calculus is involved, somehow, along with nitrogen, but let's hope Matt isn't blowing his brain out on the more advanced fertilizer formulae. And since you asked, yes, the kid does look more like his mother. Good thing if you ask me. Other big Bochi news: Michelle Staples (Buddy's aunt) is married to Micah Sharp, known to dozens as a Lemonade Stand wildman. The two crazy kids are set to become parents sometime this year. That's right, Buddy will have a cousin to be adorable with! No word yet on what instrument the kid will play in the band, but Lenoe is not going to give up his vocals spot without a fight. Once the young Sharples (?!) is born, I want to put a picture on this very page. The site will get a total redesign, and I will get click-through advertising from Asahi, or whatever that shoe company was that used to give Micah free shoes to play hoops in. The page will be called: WELCOM 2 CUTE PAGE! and will feature Chino in a little devil costume, Buddy wearing a little smock like a painter, and Dennis' grandkid as a chubby, rosy-cheeked ringleader in a circus of flowers and fun. If anyone has ideas about how to make things cuter let me know. Maybe decorating the whole thing with glitter pens and mailing out candy hearts to people who log on. Bochi is cute nowadays. Cherry blossoms are being pink and tumbling in an attractive manner. I'm going to sip Kirin under them one of these days. --PRD 3/29/2001
				Lemon House update: Once beer there was 50 yen a mug during happy hour (until 6 p.m.). Later this price went up, dammit, but it stayed the same all night, which is good. Now a mug of watery beer costs 180 yen. It’s not good. But once you get five or six in you . . . Other updates: Bones in Kichijoji is gone. The ribs on the staircase are still there, though. Central Park (the “let’s zapping” place) is now a karaoke joint. Kichijoji changed, man! There are good places there, though. Check out the Sometime page if your computer can read Japanese. Enough updating for one day. Time for a beer. --PRD 3/25/2001
				I write this update on a train. I am now on the Tozai line, heading home after an evening of beer and food and translation and talk. Duke gave me a fine English class when he left: Once a week, nice money in pocket, some interesting work on the side. Tonight I earned many yen to enjoy Asahi and explain a few aviation terms. Bochis know the joy that comes with a train seat when mugs of beer have taken their toll. I feel rested and at peace. Standers stare angrily (see right for illustration, though there are not so many that I feel I am taking a seat from somone more deserving. At one stop a burned brake smell wafts through the door along with cool air but I remain confident the machine will take me as far as the Chuo line. Once I head above ground again I will be colder, though. Still winter in Bochi. Still uninsulated in Japanese homes. Remember the frost on the grass before the Gazebo? Remember the bright moon above the Nogawa grass? It's all still there. I'm still here to let you know. --PRD 3/13/2001
				The fine picture to the left shows Glas on one of his recent trips to Bochi. An upstanding citizen, this young man makes the hajj about once a year. Duke comes back during the summers, but he hides out on the ICU campus and doesn't come out to rage very often. This is because he is scared of my pool skills. Adam comes back several times a year. But outside of these three, nobody seems to care any more. I am left to carry out my Nogawa patrols in solitude . . . Where did everyone go? Are they taking care of baby lambs on a farm in Oregon? Studying in Nanjing? Check in, please! Update me. --PRD 3/11/2001
				Hey you drunk, what do you think you're looking at? Not much, for now . . . but the film scanner is working and more images from our West Tokyo past are on the way. Any ASIJ types with something to share? There has been a Bochi presence on the net since August 1998. If you have any interest in being a part of that and are not already, let me know. I can get you in there. I got connections. More to come . . . --PRD 3/7/2001