Ted, I have an interesting Yakuza story in the same er....uh, vein. One of the fishing boats I worked on up in Alaska had 4 Japanese trawl technicians on board. These guys were a hearty breed. One of them was ex-Yakuza--lots of integrated tats, and he even had the missing pinky finger, signifying voluntary resignation.

One night I was working in a machine room just off of the area where the techs had their showers. I was busy rebuilding a hydraulic valve, when I turned around to find that Mr. Yakuza had entered the room draped in a towel. Though he didn't speak any English, he clearly wanted to show me something in the general direction of his towel area. Imagine my concern, but he just dropped the towel and held his johnson up for me to inspect. He was proudly revealing to me that he'd had pearls sliced into half and surgically implanted all along the shaft. Apparently this is a highly sought after enhancement among certain groups in Japanese culture. I must say, it impressed the hell outta me...