Kobe eyes tattoo ban at Suma beach

This is.....absolutely ridiculous! That's all I have to say!


Kobe eyes tattoo ban at Suma beach after marijuana case

KOBE - The Kobe municipal government is considering banning people with tattoos from a beach in Suma Ward following the recent arrests of college students for alleged marijuana possession during a music event at the beach, city officials said.

The city office intends to come up with a concrete plan during this year, including establishing the rule by ordinance, but banning tattooed people from a public beach is a rare case in Japan as most tattoo bans are for commercial facilities such as saunas. The envisaged ban may prompt controversy over its possible violation of the freedom of expression as tattoos are becoming increasingly fashionable with young people, critics say.

‘‘It is our duty to make a safer environment for the citizens,’’ said a city official as senior officials of the city and Hyogo prefectural police are set to form a special team to work out details such as ways to restrict entrance to the beach.

Suma beach saw the lowest number of visitors in 25 years this summer, with about 620,000 people in 46 days. Some citizens have told the city office that they ‘‘hesitate to go near the beach’’ amid an increase in young people with tattoos, the officials said.

The city enforced an ordinance with a penalty in 2008 that forbids loud noise on the beach during nighttime, yet about 70 music events were held this summer. See original story

Back in Japan

My trip to Korea is all over and now it's time to lick my wounds and let the healing begin. Fun it was, fun indeed! Too much fun at times. A good "liver punishing" is all part of the "Korean Experience" I suppose. I was in Busan with my wife for four days and we got back to Kobe this afternoon. We had an amazing time with all of our friends. I'd have to say that there were three main highlights to the trip:

1. The Hermit Kings reunion show (that's my old band).
2. Hanging out with all of my old friends!
3. Korean food (we ate a lot of great stuff).

We were staying at the Novotel along Haeundae Beach. Although the weather was nasty pretty much the entire time we were there, it was still nice to be so close to the water.


On Friday night, the Hermit Kings had their reunion show at Soul Trane in PNU (Pusan National University) area. It was cool. It was the first time I've played drums in almost 2 years.

Of course, a major part of any vacation is the enjoyment of food. We had some great stuff and I took a lot of footage. I'm planning to start making more "foody" videos on my You Tube Channel from now on and later this week I'll post a few about some of the awesome food I had in Busan.


Check out this little treat I picked up at the duty free shop. That's right! Soju chocolate. I'm pretty sure it will be nasty, but I had to buy a box.


Here's a little taste of what I saw in Busan!

Cool Machines - Korea Short Video #2


More videos and pictures to come in the next few days!