The sturdy metal dispensers appear without rhyme or reason, cropping up anywhere from temples to train stations, sidewalks to cemeteries. Two machines down, actor Charlie Sheen smiles from a cigarette machine, urging folks to give into their yen for a smoke. A local brothel has become a unique solution to the overcrowding that has accompanied the Olympics for Mike Fitzgerald of Minneapolis and 12 of his colleagues who had to find housing at the last minute. But Fitzgerald, a husband and father, is quick to point out that the one ingredient missing are the young women who until recently plied their trade in the Red Light District in the heart of this industrial city. Always conscious of the Olympic image, the city authorities ordered the prostitutes removed from their places of business through the duration of the Games.
Prostitution is legal and controlled in Japan.
Someone told him about the possibility of staying in the abandoned brothels, and he jumped at the chance. Fitzgerald, by the way, is a speedskating enthusiast who once aspired to an Olympic berth. His father, Robert Fitzgerald, won the silver medal in the 500 meters in the 1948 Olympics. During the recent World Cup season, the four doubles sliders wrote to Nixon asking him to be the honorary team captain. Nixon accepted, and wrote the rock anthem.