Listed as one of CNNgo’s top 10 Japan blogs in English

Wow! This simple blog has been cited by CNNgo as one of the top 10 Japan blogs in English. I like how the CNNgo description identifies me as being “married to a Japanese man” but is indeterminate about my gender and my readers’.

“So ladies” is how CNNgo addresses my readers. I welcome female readers but don’t think that’s the total of my readers. Hello?! Isn’t it 100% clear that I am a queer guy?! Haha on CNNgo for reflecting Japan’s inability to see gayness no matter how flagrant!

Some of the other picks are my regular reading material. Congrats #1 Green Eyed Geisha for continually inspiring me. I am also thrilled to be included with Vivian’s Lost in Translation blog.

Some favorite new blogs

FuckYeahBlondKoreans: “Because they are even hotter when they go blond” A collection of blond (mostly male) Korean pop stars, including plenty of Jaejoong (aka, Tohoshinki’s Jejung or ジェジュン) and G-Dragon.

Shibuya-Nights: Blog by young European woman chronicling sexual adventures with gyaruo, hosts, yakuza, and many more.

What are your favorite Asia blogs?

200,000 Views

It’s humbling and astonishing that this blog will reach 200,000 page views this weekend. I must thank my super attentive readers who have filled in all of my pop culture gaps, sent in blog tips that I have shamelessly re-used, and otherwise encouraged this strange endeavor. Diary, document, adventure, and communication, Tokyo Moe has become much more than I expected.

Is there more of something that you’d like to see in the future?

Hot Guys Reading Books

Wow! Thanks to tipster J-son, I can share with my dear readers a new-to-me blog called Hot Guys Reading Books. To quote from the blogs mission statement, “There are plenty of attractive men in the world, but unfortunately few of them that are avid readers. Welcome to “Hot Guys Reading Books” the blog that scours the internet for examples of luscious literary men and gathers the evidence in one place.”

This is a peculiar moe that even my husband will love. I like how some of the men in the photos are photographed in public, others in more private settings. Yet all become public through this online collection. And I love the non-snarky tone, and the request to blog readers that if they don’t find the guys hot enough, they should send in their own photos. Ahhhhh, the useless pleasures of the interwebs. . .

Random men in Shibuya

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.

Love hotel Xmas

From one of my favorite ex-pat in Japan blogs, Julie in Japan:

Japan does Christmas in a Japanese way: Christmas cake, KFC, love hotels and Mariah Carey.

Gyaruo blog & more

One of my absolute favorite Japanese blogs is Love Hotel Japan, which is one filthy story after the next about a Swedish young woman who enjoys lots of Japanese men and tells!

This week she reveals more details than most people would need to know about her new gyaruo boyfriend: a  guy who wears heavy foundation & eyebrow pencil, spends an hour and a half flat-ironing his hair, and enjoys wearing pink Panther undies, blowing bubbles inside the love hotel room, and using pink egg vibrators on himself.

The detail is stunning and over-the-top. As a bonus, she provides a link to a gyaruo blog (not her boyfriend’s).

Underwear obsession

Just when I feel jaded about the blogosphere, I discovered a new blog InvisibleGaijin that mixes wicked satire and faux news with a focus on men’s fashion. Swoon.

The above is from InvisibleGaijin’s story about Japanese underwear, which connects undergarment obsession with recession and soshoku danshi (herbivores), and in part reads:

Self-professed gaijin with love/hate relationship with Japan, Fuzakeruna Konogaijinme, commented, “Japanese salarymen always turn inwards in recessions, peering into their navels in hopes no one notices they don’t do shit at work. Underwear that makes your balls feel good always sells.”

(Image from www.pants-ya.com. Almost NSFW).

How to pick koreans from other asians just by looking at them

Hilarious blog post about “how to pick koreans from other asians just by looking at them.” One of the indicators, of course, is the shaggy men’s hair-do. Although I must stay that looks like many young Japanese men’s fashion. And probably Taiwanese too (^_-)

The blog is called Ask a Korean. Discovered via Twitter’s alexanderchee.

Mrs O is Much Loved

A lovely photo by Annie Leibowitz from my favorite blog, mrs-o.org. And a gushing tribute to Mrs O in the New York Times Opinion section. Yes, Mrs O even double dutche jump ropes!