Tokyo Times

Photographs from a small group of islands

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Mika Kano’s marvellous manners

Mika kano, one half of the kano sisters, a popular Japanese double act famed for its, erm, double acts,

Kano sisters

has made the brave decision, despite her knockers, of writing the book Oppai ni Tsumatte Irumono (Something beyond breasts).

Mika Kano

A surprisingly slight tome that, despite its less than weighty nature, is one that Kano-san hopes will ultimately help women, as in it she claims manners can be far more important than physical features.

Provided of course that those manners are made as immodestly memorable as is medically manageable.

Mika Kano

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In a funk funk?

Whatever passions (or indeed perversions) a prospective patron may possess, Tokyo would appear to have a watering hole kindly pandering to his or her particular predilections — all the way from the naughty to the unnecessarily nasty.

And now, to add to the seemingly never-ending list, is a snug little spot that’s ideal for having a snack, listening to some soul and sighing audibly while slumped sadly in one’s seat.

Tokyo bar

(click image for mega-sized miserableness)

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Japanese middle-class meltdown?

With the likes of Nomura Holdings and Sumitomo Mitsui currently delving into their cash-rich coffers to buy up large bits of Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs, it would seem that, for now at least, Japanese institutions may ride out the subprime storm relatively unscathed.

The tremors felt by the nation as a whole may also be as negligible, although perhaps only because the workforce has been suffering spasms of change for quite some time now. Once considered an almost middle-class mass, Japanese society would seem to be slowly fracturing, with the rift between rich and poor becoming increasingly pronounced. A situation hastened by the jettisoning of jobs for life and a rapidly growing number of part-time personnel, resulting in a worrying amount of working poor.

However, while many of these people may be anxious about missing the middle-class boat entirely, there are also now countless others who can’t even manage the most mundane methods of mobility.

Japanese homeless

Whether it be upwards or merely onwards.

Japanese homeless

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Bouncy Japanese breasts?

There is certainly no shortage of breast-enlarging concoctions on the Japanese market, with the considerably bold claims of these biscuits probably the best known.

F Cup Cookies

However, for those who like to marry their mushrooming mammaries with onomatopoeias, then BoinBoin is without doubt the only boob booster worth bothering with.

boinboin

(click images for bigger bounciness)

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Japanese rice paddy raiment

With Tokyo’s rice crops almost ready for harvest, it’s obviously imperative that the farmers protect their prize product. A process that, at least for some workers way out in the western corner of the capital, means once again wheeling out this season’s specially attired sentinels.

A varied selection of scarecrows that as well as boasting blonde bombshells,

Japanese scarecrow

and manga-inspired monsters,

Japanese scarecrow

includes blokes bothered about biscuits,

Japanese scarecrow

along with Santa somewhat surprisingly doing a bit during his down time.

Japanese scarecrow

Plus there’s the odd deranged doll design,

Japanese scarecrow

and, in a kind nod to the otaku teeming cafes of akihabara, there’s at least a meagre amount of moe, with a maid.

Japanese scarecrow

Which for one or two at least, appears to be worth a wee wave.

Japanese scarecrow

Or even a wild one.

Japanese scarecrow