Tokyo Times

Photographs from a small group of islands

Culture

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Kit Kat comfort

With Japan now entering entrance exam season, students the length and breadth of the country are desperately tackling tests in an attempt to claim a spot at their school or university of choice. A good or bad score possibly prescribing what kind of career they can carve out, and therefore the kind of company they can conceivably work long hours for in return for little in the way of leisure time or leave.

So, with the stakes so high, many students opt for a bit of outside assistance by writing down their wishes at a suitable shrine. A practice that arguably puts the gods under even more pressure than the students, as apart from the odd regular rabbit-patterned request, the vast majority of entreaties at this time of year are test related.

Japanese shrine

With absolutely tons of them to take care of too.

Japanese shrine

However, to ease the deities drudgery somewhat, students can instead opt for the considerable capabilities of a Kit Kat, the wafer-based wonder’s similarity to the Japanese phrase ‘kitto katsu’ (definitely win) creating a chocolate covered charm of sorts.

Its combination of both comfort and convenience making it a match made in heaven.

Japanese kit kat

So to speak.

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Genuine Japanese?

With a slew of food-related scandals throughout Japan, and the nation’s pension problems persisting, the kanji officially considered most apt for this year is that depicting ‘fake’. The newly chosen symbol, as tradition demands, carefully composed by a Buddhist monk.

Japanese

A profession that rather ironically is also frequently faked for money making purposes, with ‘beggars’ near stations and outside department stores often derided as dodgy.

But that said, what percentage are impostors is probably impossible to say, as without close-quartered consideration, who can confidently conclude whether these fellas are cosplay crooks,

Japanese monk

or cloistered converts?

Japanese monk

I certainly can’t.

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Japanese bonuses, beers and bodysuits

With many Japanese workers currently receiving their well-earned winter bonuses, and the excessiveness of year end parties practically upon us, many a Japanese salary man can now legitimately cut loose from the oppressive orderliness of the office with a brief bit of unbusiness-like bawdiness.

But that said, how many bottles of beer or how big a bonus it takes to don a bodysuit as daring as this one is difficult to determine to say the least.

Japanese bodysuit

(click image for super-sized uncensored sexiness)

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Moving Japanese masks

Full-blown facial expressions are not always the done thing in Tokyo, particularly in public, but as far as festivals are concerned, it would seem that the merrier,

Japanese mask

manic,

Japanese mask

or indeed melancholy the masks are, the better.

Japanese mask

With bushy beyond belief nasal hair a rather unnecessary bonus.

Japanese mask