The ballad of Noriko “Noripi” Sakai or “That’s why you should always use a condom!”

I’ve been holding off on blogging about it since I think that there are better blogs and people out there to comment on current events in Japan , but the whole "Noripi" drug scandal is just too much entertainment for me to not talk about. First of all, as soundtrack to this post, you should open this hit by her in another window!

The basic story is that a now 38 year old former teen idol but still very famous, got caught up in a drug scandal where some form of stimulant drugs has been used. The whole drug scandal is from a European perspective pretty petty and nothing that I get worked up about. However, what I find really entertaining here is the relationship between Noriko “Noripi” Sakai and her husband, self proclaimed “pro-surfer” (there is no indication that he actually makes any money out of surfing) Yuichi Takaso, which seems to be pretty complex. They married in 1998 after she ended up pregnant with his baby.

Let me give you a break down of this entertaining event as they occurred.

Aug. 4 – Noripi’s husband gets caught by the police for behaving strangely and possibly under the influence of narcotics. He also refuses to show the contents of his pockets and states that the police “better let him go” since he’s married to a celebrity. He calls her up and makes her come to the scene where she tries to argue to the police that her husband is fine and that he can’t show the contents of his pockets because he’s embarrassed since he has medicine for problems with sexual performance. The police aren’t too impressed with this and formally take him in and search him and find… metamphetamine… Meanwhile, Noripi mysteriously disappears.

Aug. 5 – 7 – The news hit the media, a search is conducted of the home of the husband (they live separately) and more drugs are found. Noripi has dropped off the radar with her 10 year old son and people are worried about her, fearing that the shock of finding out that her husband is a horrible drug user has gotten to her. However, pretty quickly Yuichi start ratting his wife out, telling the police that she does at leas as much drugs as him and a search of her apartment follows, where, surprise! More drugs are found. Meanwhile, Noripi has dropped off their son at a friend, who turned out to be the mistress of husband Yuichi and once again disappeared from sight. An official warrant for her arrest is issued by the police.

Aug 8~ - Noripi turns herself over to the police (just about the time when any drugs would've gone out of her system showing negative results in tests...) in the presence of her lawyer and admits to having used metamphetamine “a few times”, encouraged and introduced to the drugs from her loving husband. Her husband states that “a few times” is pretty far away from the truth and that was indeed her who introduced him to the drug. Poor little Noripi changes her story from “a few times” to “around 10 times” but still claim that her husband introduced her to the drugs. As an extra twist, Noripi’s little brother gets arrested on drug charges as well and rumours of her brother being involved with “violent criminal organizations” (read: Yakuza) also start to circulate.

Apparently, neither her, nor her husband are adherents to the “you snitch, you die” philosophy that such a large portion of the honorable criminal world seem to embrace. Aren't they cute in this picture? They must have such a great marriage and relationship!

For me, the lesson to be learned from this sordid mess is pretty simple; use a condom! If Noripi just could’ve avoided getting banged up by this no good slacker snitch dude, she wouldn't had to marry him and she could’ve done her drugs in peace and quite.

Meanwhile, the story of the actor who did ecstasy together with a “hostess” after which she ended up dead in his apartment and he delayed calling an ambulance, instead calling his agent (If I was an agent, the 3am “Hey, the whore I brought home seems to have died on me, what should I do?” is the call I would dislike the most). But yeah, Noripi is the bigger star so she gets the headlines, you go girl!