Japan: Memories of an outlaw – Part One · Global Voices
Scilla Alecci

After almost three years outside the walls, a blogger – who prefers to be anonymous  – decided to tell the story of his life behind bars.
Arrested for a crime that he says didn't cause anybody’s death or injury, he blogs ‘to re-examine a life that recently has been twisted asunder’.
By Mrhayata, CC License.
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From the fact to the arrest
I was arrested in a capsule hotel in Tokyo. Until that time I had always used false names to check in but, I don't know why, that time I wrote my real name and address. So when the hotel employee saw it, he called the police.
The Police had been checking my bank account and knew that I was on the run all over the country, so an alert had been issued to every sauna and hotel in the areas where I had been.
It was 10 pm I think, when the curtain of the capsule where I was sleeping suddenly opened and one said  “We are the Police, you know why we are here!”
There were three detectives and  a police officer in  the corridor of the hotel. As I was taken to the police car they didn't handcuff me but they held the back of my trousers very firmly. A barker from a nearby bar who had no clue of what was going on spoke to me but in that moment my mind was blank and I couldn't understand very well what was happening…
My life in the police cell
In the police cell there were, yakuza bosses, mobsters, Chinese, Iraqis, Americans and so on. The crimes were various. The foreigners and the mobsters were an uncaring bunch but the bosses were helpful. They gave to a greenhorn like me toiletries and snacks.
The police station where I was had relatively good treatment and once a week they would do some shopping for you if you could pay. I could buy potato chips, candies, juices, sweets, bread or things for one day.
What left me without words was an American who had become violent so from the beginning they put him alone in a cell for women or minors. He would scream at night, hit the police and throw shit…So  each time they moved him there needed to be three police officers. He used to say “You are being abusive to Americans because you lost the war!” What nonsense.
The interpreter had a hard time…