Is this my future? At least us oldies and wierdos visiting the Emperor for his new year’s declaration don’t need to be bothered by “normal” families and young people.
Alas, this is the end of the Imperial Palace visit series when my ostensible purpose was to listen to the Emperor’s address and admire the princesses. Mostly, I watched the police and felt communion with the assorted freaks and foreigners in attendance.
Posted in men, Public space
Tagged foreigners, freaks, future, Imperial Palace, Japan, new year, normal, oldies, sacred, sun, wierdos
Known in the US as *the* new year’s song, in Japan this song gets played whenever any place of business is closing for the day: sento, supermarket, public garden, really anywhere!
Here’s Mariah Carey’s new version.
And the classic Disco version from Salsoul Orchestra (via JoeMyGod).
Posted in Public space, Uncanny
Tagged any, Aulde Lang Syne, business, closing, disco, JoeMyGod, Mariah Carey, new year, Salsoul Orchestra, song
Awww, isn’t that romantic? Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the NY Times reports that young Chinese ladies are renting “boyfriends” to bring home for lunar new year. What greater expression of filial love than parading a fake boyfriend. And some boys apparently can’t resist free train tickets, meals and cigarettes. Nice!
On January 2 and December 23, the Imperial Palace opens its moated gates to the public, who are given plastic flags that are later recycled. A mix of monarchists and the just curious are herded in front of the largest ceremonial hall to witness the emperor give a five minute speech where he solemnly informs us that he is praying for our health and for peace.
What of course no one tells you is that this is the ultimate police fetish event of the year! So many types to choose from: Palace guards, regular police, policemen on step stools (a personal fetish of mine), police in boats, black trench police in front of numerous buses, even some uniformed horse rider. Here’s some of my best shots.
Many, many more police images after the jump. Mark your calendar for the next display of police authority!
On New Year’s day, beginning just after midnight, many Japanese visit shrines, provide a small contribution, pray for less than 30 seconds, and buy a fortune. My friend took me to Adachi in northern Tokyo to a famous shrine the evening of January 1. You can see above that if you don’t like the fortune you receive, you can fold it up and tie it on a special stand that contains all the bad and just mediocre fortunes.
I left my fortune. And, under the guise of being a foreigner observing local customs, I couldn’t help but take this image of a Tokyo yankii leaving his fortune at the shrine. His mane of distressed hair, the fake fur sweatshirt color, the glitter, lack of warm clothes on a cold evening, and exposed backside somehow all added up to a good omen for the new year and new decade.
Oh, and inside my fortune, I found a (fake) gold plated trinket. Mine is considered especially lucky, a rake that symbolizes I will be “raking in” the money this year. I hope so!
In keeping with the moe theme of this blog, I would like to end this year with a completely shamelessly, inappropriate and vulgar medley of random Shibuya men. With 10 minutes to spare for a business meeting at Hachiko, I turned my new Canon S90 on the crowd.
The photo above is perhaps the best: the central subject fetishized, the public zipping by, and one woman in the background smiling knowingly towards the lens.
If you asked me what is my favorite Japanese uniform, I would say the mask: ubiquitous, a sign of danger inbound or outbound, of dubious functionality, and quintessentially Japanese. Above this boy rocks his mask with ipod, shaggy orange perm, and the skinny pants tucked inside some girlish boots. I am slayed.
Continue seeing and reading more after the jump.
Posted in fetish, JR & Tokyo Metro, male fashion, men, Public space
Tagged advertising, barrel, blog, crowd, danger, Disaster, fish, focus, Gorgeous, Hachiko, hair, happy, head, lady, love, mane, mask, men, Moe, new year, orange, perm, random, seductive, shameless, shaved, Shibuya, shoot, uniform, vulgar
My resolution for the start of the new decade is to improve my Japanese. The husband suggested keeping a daily diary in a notebook, that bound thing full of paper. Which he will correct later. So we went to Family Mart and bought an adorable 100 yen Muji notebook.
Here’s my first sentence, timed for tomorrow night’s bounenkai with Green Eyed Geisha:
はい。ホストクラブでだまされないようにする。
(As preparation for the long anticipated trip to the heart of male vanity, I have been watching Suddenly Last Summer on Youtube. GEG, out of kimono, will be my Liz Taylor. I hope that our elaborately coiffed hosts do not consume me like the cannibals who “devoured” Liz’s cousin. Liz is not only gorgeous, but this role foreshadows her real life career as beard to Montgomery Clift, Rock Hudson, and Malcolm Forbes. Katherine Hepburn plays the perfectly in denial mother, and Liz truly “chews the drapes.”)
Tagged beard, bounenkai, cannibal, coiffed, decade, denial, elaborate, Family Mart, first, Green Eyed Geisha, improve, Japanese, kimono, Liz Taylor, Malcolm Forbes, Moe, Montgomery Clift, mother, Muji, new, new year, notebook, resolution, Rock Hudson, sentence, Suddenly Last Summer, vanity
My posts about Japanese male hair are always popular. In an elegant neighborhood close to Kokyo, I was drawn to this poster and its English caption “2009 New Hair.” The Japanese says, “It’s OK to be selfish, more mysterious and elegant.” So true, no?
And apparently the model is Daigo, a Japanese tarento, singer and grandson of a former prime minister. He’s now in a television soap Love Shuffle, about boy-swapping.
Do you think this image adequately sums up the new year in Japanese male hair? I am always happy to see no effort being spared for male vanity! What do you think?
Posted in men, Public space
Tagged 2009, boy-swapping, Daigo, elegant, hair, Japanese male hair, Kokyo, Love Shuffle, male vanity, mysterious, new year, selfish, tarento
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