Tokyo Times

Photographs from a small group of islands

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Tokyo tobacco technique

Japan is certainly not the smokers paradise it once was, with restrictions of some sort or another now found in most restaurants and many public places, along with some cities even going as far as banning smoking in the street. A change in attitude that may well account for the number of smokers in Japan recently dropping to an all-time low of around 26% of the adult population.

Yet while this number may well continue to fall, it’s still a formidable amount of people, and as such, they are well looked after by the local authorities. For starters, there are several places for a ciggie sojourn, ranging from the supposedly stylish,

Japan smokers style

to the somewhat silly.

Japan smocar

And, with the government still owning a substantial share of Japan Tobacco, it’s still manners, more than anything, that really matter.

Japanese cigarette shop

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Japanese farting fanatics

Despite their love of costly clothing and cuteness, it’s a well known fact that Japanese girls simply fart for fun, regularly producing bottom burps like burly builders.

A practice that sadly doesn’t decrease after marriage either, with this in-depth and presumably scientific study finding that a staggering 43% of Japanese husbands had to suffer the sound of their partner’s pumping in just the first year of marriage alone.

Japanese girl farting

However, while the reeling off of raspers is far from romantic for most, one or two fellas it seems are more than favourable to the odd fart, with this young man particularly partial to them.

Japanese girls farting

And then some.

(video via the definitely not odorous dannychoo.com)

Categorized: Odd

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Japanese Blu-ray boost

The titanic but decidedly tedious battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD may have initially seemed like a foregone conclusion in Japan, with the home-grown and previously impervious PlayStation in particular playing a key role in the former’s success. Yet up to now that’s not how things have panned out at all, with poor PlayStation 3 sales and a pitiful selection of Blu-Ray titles leaving the fight far from over.

However things may finally be about to change, with even one Panasonic executive in Japan boasting that Blu-ray will win the day by early next year at the latest. Although while cheaper players will obviously be crucial, it’s almost certainly because of the recent Rats & Star release that Blu-ray — and maybe even boot polish — sales will really start to soar.

Japanese blu-ray

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Japanese-style jam?

Tokyo’s Shibuya district is hardly lacking in interesting sights and sounds, from the area’s famous crossing which is a firm favourite of the foreign media, to the (presumably) last gasp of the much maligned but unusually long lasting ganguro fashion phenomena.

Japanese ganguro

Yet despite this, nothing draws a crowd it seems like a slightly deranged but definitely dextrous game centre drummer.

Japanese game centre

This poorly shot and painfully short video — a first for Tokyo Times, hence its lousy nature — sadly offers only a teaser of his tricks, although the latter part does briefly capture the taiko master’s ability to play the game while nonchalantly not looking at the screen.