Consider yourself invited! Some friends are organizing this event, and I’ll be there.
Friday, December 21, from 8.30 pm
Koenji Kita 3-1-1, Asahi building 1F
Dynamo’s website (Felafel available!)
Twitter @dyanamo_koenji
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!
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).
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.
Is this new? Has anyone tried it? I was stunned to see this in the vending machine, and then read the katakana to understand that this Morinaga-brand drink is a “hotto caaki miruku seiki” (in other words, a hotcake milk shake). Please let me know if you’ve tried it! Can you taste the butter and faux maple syrup, or is it all pancake?!
From my tipster Ericthefez, with this note: “Sorry the photo is such poor quality. I found this ‘ride concept’ at San Jose’s Christmas in the Park kind of creepy. I let <my only daughter, name redacted> go on the swings, but you better believe I kept a close eye on her.”
In related Xmas news, I heard my first “Last Christmas” song over the weekend, so yes, holiday madness is upon Japan. Fortunately, what Japan lacks in memory-crushing medicinal meds, they make up for in memory-suppressing booze, love for drinking, and end of year “forgetting” parties (bounenkai, perfect for work or friends).
BTW, which do you find more insipid, the George Michael’s original 1980s version of “Last Christmas” or Exile’s more recent cover? What would the Japanese royal family prefer? Please feel free to comment (without defaming our majesties).
Tokyo Moe 