Snow did not stop the stretch Lincolns from delivering yankiis to Nakano’s Sun Plaza

Young men dressed in kimonos celebrate turning 20 at Nakano Sun Plaza’s Seiji No Hi coming of age ceremony. Overheard, 「お大人になちゃった。」Roughly translated, it means, “Oh shit, we’ve become adults.” As usual, the heavily inebriated youth were extremely friendly to the lone foreign lurker. Congratulations, everyone, and good luck!

Guest photo: Blonde yankii on ground outside Family Mart in Shibuya

Vivian of Lost in Translation blog generously contributed this photo of a blonde yankii sprawled on the ground. Apparently, he was shouting “majiide” to protest the photo. I think he wants a lot of attention. Summer, we’re going to miss you!

Vice Fairy offers directory of Tokyo summer fireworks

I love everything to do with yankiis. Think big blond hair and maybe too much make-up. Chunky jewelry and glitter skulls and bones. So I was delighted to see Vice Fairy brand promoting their summer yukatas with a full schedule of the Tokyo fireworks season.

The husband gagged when he saw this image. It reminds me of John Waters saying that, for him as a filmmaker, an audience member’s vomiting is like a standing ovation.

Ramen is always a holiday

I don’t usually post food photos here, but I have to make an exception for ramen. There is something so porky and so satisfying about this common food.

There must be hundreds of ramen shops in Nakano, each with its own version. My current favorite is “Yokohama” style, on south side of the JR station, and features yankii-ish young cooks who are always wear towels on their sweaty heads.

Ramen is a health food and spirit recharger. It’s like chicken soup for Japanese, only tastier. This post is timed for someone else’s religious holiday: see what you’re missing!

Festive yankii relief

After two consecutive political images– not sure which is uglier, politicians buttholes or faces– I thought this blog needed some festive yankiis to balance out the male beauty spectrum.

These guys were selling drinks and street food at the Nichome Rainbow Festival two weeks ago. I love how they combine androgyny (hair clip, check!), damaged hair, towel as scarf, and a touch of punk (lip piercing, check!).

Now we’ve all seen the future of Japan, and can rest more easily!

Heavily male Kizarazu Cat’s Eye drama

Has anyone seen the J-drama called Kizarazu Cat’s Eye?  Kathryn of Project Me wrote a wonderful review. It sounds full of boys love, yankiis, and costumes. I’ve borrowed these pix to motivate me to find this drama on the internets!

Seijin no Hi Finale: Legs Spread Wide

Alas, dear readers, this is my final Seijin no Hi photo. Perhaps the culmination of all the other photos. For reasons not made clear to this foreigner, the joyous 20 year olds are posing with one of them in the air with his legs spread wide. A particularly fetching boy seems to be reaching his hand towards legs-spread-wide’s groin.

I can only imagine how much more fun happened after they got drunker. There’s something practically Muslim about how almost all Japanese socializing is same sex. I love it!

Yankii group excitement

Soon there was a horde of hot young 20 year olds combining traditional dress with big fried hair and excess testosterone. It didn’t take long for them to start falling all over each other, lit cigarettes in hand. I hope that they needed to pose for me, as much as I enjoyed their antics. I especially like how you can see inside the fallen boy’s skirt, I mean, “hakama” (袴).

Second in multi-post series on hot Nakano yankii men!

This photo series is indebted to the chubby guy with the pink kimono who noticed my not subtle lurking and photographing. He called his friends for a huge yankii group pose on this important day that celebrates youths’ new ability to drink, smoke, get married, and other fun stuff.

Check out Danny Choo’s website for professional photos and more attention on the ladies. I focused strictly on the urban yankii male. It’s easy to be sex-specific in Japan because so many adults and teens socialize almost entirely with members of the same sex.

My first observation is that only the most bad-ass men are wearing kimonos, hakama, and haori. Many of their peers are wearing cheap suits, and spending all their vanity on their glorious hair: dyed, permed, back-combed, gelled, sprayed, and sculpted. Basically a junior salaryman look with extra attention on hair and eyebrows.

The next posts will focus more on rough-housing, misplaced energy, and male intimacy.

Back to more cheerful public vistas

I apologize to my readers for so many sad and fugly pots. It’s time to turn your attention back to the Japanese islands, and images of hope, freedom and male vanity. On Monday’s Coming of Age (成人の日, Seijin no hi) holiday, I hit the Nakano  yankii jackpot.

The location is the plaza and musical clock in front of Nakano Sun Plaza, the same site where this blog’s header image was taken three years ago. Despite the dwilndling numbers of young Japanese, these boys were very excited to pose and rough-house for the “gaijin.” I was quickly joined in the photo pool by three hot yankii 20 year old girls.

I’ll post more images over the next few days . .