Tokyo Times

Photographs from a small group of islands

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Beautiful Japanese buttocks?

For the Japanese male (or indeed female) who is utterly besotted by breasts but at the same time doesn’t have a companion whose mammaries they can maul, help is luckily at hand with this previously posted breast pillow.

Japanese breast pillow

However, while that’s all well and good, for those with more of a penchant for the posterior, there was little in the way of relief, until now that is, as thankfully that has all changed with the introduction of this rather racy and real-looking recreation.

Japanese buttocks pillow

And if that wasn’t enough, it’s a product that also cleverly features a fanny, regardless of whether one speaks American, or British, English.

Japanese buttocks pillow

(click images for a bottom that does look bigger)

Categorized: Odd

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Monkey magic?

Japanese festivities, whatever their form, always boast phenomenal amounts of food as well as a considerable collection of time-honoured togs and even tattoos. Entertainment on the other hand can vary wildly, all the way from horseback heroics to massive, erm, members. Plus, for those after some recreation as retro as their raiment, there may also be some monkey-based merriment to marvel at.

performing monkeys

A practice that fortunately allows the performing primates in their pants to be just as pleased as the people who pay to watch them.

performing monkeys

Perhaps.

performing monkeys

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Mountain retreat ruin #1: Public places

The Japan BE Laboratory may well sound like a science-based business of some kind or other, but actually, this rapidly decaying retreat near the equally ramshackle hot spring resort of Atami, a couple of hours from Tokyo, was instead centred around assisting those labelled as lacking in self confidence.

A place that fortunately, like many of Japan’s ruins (or haikyo), was pretty much effortless to enter.

Japanese ruins/haikyo

Inside, however, nature and the vigour of a few vandals have really taken their toll, although considering the place’s past purpose, it’s still not hard to imagine the reticence of those reclining,

Japanese ruins/haikyo

and no doubt declining, to tackle a couple of turns at table tennis.

Japanese ruins/haikyo

And more than likely,

Japanese ruins/haikyo

far from just a few beers would have been gulped down in the hope of garnering the necessary gumption for a game of golf.

Japanese ruins/haikyo

In fact, even for the staff, an insufficiency in assertiveness wouldn’t have seemed too out of place as, with a till and telephone combination as complicated as this contraption,

Japanese ruins/haikyo

tablets may well have had to be taken.

Japanese ruins/haikyo

Quite possibly washed down with something cold from the kitchen.

Japanese ruins/haikyo

But besides competitiveness and state-of-the-art technology for its time, this semi-secluded spot did have its serious, and possibly slightly suspect, side. As, while more mundane methods such as meetings were obviously still a mainstay,

Japanese ruins/haikyo

it’s possible that other, more atypical techniques were tried out. One in particular which, while decidedly difficult to decipher, involved two windowless rooms that were sealed on one side by stainless steel doors and offered two extremely contrasting forms of expression — the more conventional karaoke, disks for which there was certainly no dearth of,

Japanese ruins/haikyo

and the rather more unusual practice of writing willy-nilly on the walls.

Japanese ruins/haikyo

The jumbled mass of messages dating from when the centre seems to have ceased operations in 1999, to some done a decade or so earlier.

Japanese ruins/haikyo

None of which really shed much light on what the purpose or procedure was,

Japanese ruins/haikyo

although by candle light it certainly seemed sinister, making the lobby appear far more appealing than it actually was.

Japanese ruins/haikyo

In part 2, I take a look at the private rooms for the patrons, and some of the belongings they left behind. Plus a couple of surprises that caused far more concern rather than confidence.

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Heroic horse homage

There are shrines all over Japan devoted to all kinds of concerns, whether it be a fat wallet or even fertility, but it’s probably worth hazarding a guess that there are hardly any that house a horse — or at least a reasonably realistic recreation of one.

Tokyo horse shrine

And this particular beast, by all accounts, is based on a mount that made a name for itself during a battle in Kamakura and, as a reward, was respectfully retired in relatively nearby Tokyo. Its reproduction and the shrine it resides in now supposedly offering support to those facing a challenge of some sort or another.

However, as the model is somewhat sinister looking, younger visitors at least may well find that their ‘challenge’ is nowhere near as challenging as actually facing this fearsome-looking filly and asking for a favour.

Tokyo horse shrine

Although that said, considering the far from fresh carrots it is expected to feast on, such annoyance is not necessarily needless.

Tokyo horse shrine