Tokyo's gay community puts in own bid for 'dream' park slated for Olympic games
Some fairies at the bottom of the garden are providing a somewhat, well, queer stumbling block for Tokyo's bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games, according to Shukan Shincho.
Tokyo's Yumenoshima Park is slated to be used for gymnastics and archery if the capital gets the Games, but there's already plenty of gymnastics going on and arrows being fired at the park before any facilities have even been built.
"Yumenoshima Park is one of Tokyo's few pickup places for gay men. In July, there was a group of four high schoolboys arrested for mugging a guy in the park that they had deliberately targeted because they thought gay guys were less likely to fight back. The kids said they figured the guy would be too ashamed of being exposed as a homosexual to report the incident to the police, so there may already be many more victims who haven't spoken out," a reporter covering the police beat tells Shukan Shincho. "There were other muggings in the park about six years back, too."
Tokyo's gay quarter in Shinjuku 2-Chome provides gay men with their best chance of picking up, but Yumenoshima is preferred by many who like a thrill with their pursuit of a partner.
"Yumenoshima Park gained recognition as a pickup place in the early '90s after a gay guy posted a bulletin board message singing its praises. The park is located in an industrial area, so it's pretty quiet and far away from prying eyes," a member of the gay community tells Shukan Shincho. "Many gays go to the park to meet up even in broad daylight and lots have recently started crossing over the road to go for strolls along the nearby canal."
A typical scene at Yumenoshima Park has near naked guys lying down on plastic sheets, clad only in bikini briefs, loincloths or nothing at all, the weekly says.
"Most guys spend days working on their tans, look for a partner in the early afternoons and then move into the toilets or the trees," the gay community member says, adding that when the guys go off into the forest it's usually to touch wood. "The Keiyo Line runs right alongside the park, so you can see everything that's going on in the park from the train as you ride past."
Many of the gay men frequenting the park are aware that they're exposed to commuters and some take advantage of the situation to do a little exposing themselves, gyrating their hips at trains as they pass. Others clearly make it known that they're excited to be at park by standing to attention, so to speak.
"Cops are at a loss about what to do with the park, from the point of view of morals and public safety," the police beat hack says. "They just hope that the park doesn't harm the Olympic bid."
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government takes a much more enlightened approach.
"We had no idea Yumenoshima Park was a gay pickup place," a metropolitan government spokesman tells Shukan Shincho. "When we went on an inspection of the park the other day, the only people we saw were families. I suppose things will change over the coming 10 years."
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