Tokyo Times

Jun 29 2009 9 Comments

All you need is love

Spread around the country there are temples and shrines for all kinds of things, from not failing a test to fertility and phenomenal phalluses. Yet even in Japan, where babies aren’t exactly bountiful, Jishu shrine’s offer of everlasting love still seems more unlikely than landing a little ‘un.

Not, or course, that such cynicism stops young hopefuls from nervously tackling the task of navigating their way between the temple’s two presumably super-powered stones with their eyes firmly shut.

As a successful bid, hence their struggles, is said to bring a life filled with happiness instead of heartbreak.

Which these two, perhaps foolishly, think they’ve found.

Laughably believing that love is all you need.

Jun 28 2009 8 Comments

Magnificently proportioned melons

Every year it seems, the media happily mentions the arrival of the season’s first gorgeously un-globe-like members of the gourd family, complete with a picture of several Japanese ladies happily handling a plethora of marvellously proportioned melons.

However, seeing such beauties in the wild as it were is still relatively rare, but they are indeed real,

and really not very round.

Jun 26 2009 8 Comments

Inconceivably colourful car

Despite there being no shortage of variations to pick from when purchasing a new vehicle in Japan, a huge number of cars — approximately 78.56% at a rough count — are somewhat insipidly either silver or white. A decision that apparently has something to do with these two colours being easier to sell second-hand, which may, or indeed may not, be true.

However, regardless of the possible reasons, for some at least this kind of favouritism is unfathomable, with one or two even going as far as countering such conformity by not only opting for a less common colour,