Is it just me, or do you think this is a fashion crime committed in broad daylight on the airport tarmac? How can the First Lady of Mexico greet the pope in a matching outfit? I am thrilled that she won’t cede all the spotlight to the creepy guy with the gold cross.
Demure, feminine, and yet not unlike wearing a white lace gown to a wedding where you are not the bride.
I love how Japan is always pioneering feminine entertainment. The Party is Over is a new TV series about five fantasy dates with intensively groomed men.
For the past week, Tokyo’s JR stations have been blanketed with advertisements for this new series available only on the mobile phone channel Bee TV. They are bringing the ikemen of television onto the pocket screen.
Surely one of my readers is watching this feminine entertainment? The first date is with Narimiya Hiroki 成宮 寛貴, the last with my favorite canned coffee idol Koide Keisuke 小出 恵介. The husband likes best Takaoka Sousuke 高岡蒼甫 (his birthday is tomorrow!), he’s date #3 or top right in the photo below.
Here’s the online version of the billboard at the top of the post. It’s brilliant that the image is arranged to focus your attention only on the men. Doesn’t it help you feel like these are *your* dates?
This Seoul bus ad was spotted by a reporter based in Japan, who tweeted the photo with the message, “Just saw this at a bus stop in Seoul. Would these boys make you want to visit Japan?”
Was she joking?! Of course, these heavily groomed boys and their matching outfits will lure foreign tourists and their money.
It’s a two-way street now between Japan and Korea with boy bands being the enticing candy that drives commerce. “Endless Discovery” seems to be a win for the feminine publics!
It’s common in Tokyo to see menus with Ladies’ Lunch (redi-su ranchi or レディースランチ). Italian, Indian, Japanese and other restaurants routinely offer this ladies’ choice.
Somehow I still get excited to see the sign, imagining all sorts of feminine indulgence. In reality, it just means a lunch menu set with one fewer course than the regular set menu, at a slightly lower price. And, yes, guys can order the “ladies set,” too, but maybe the owners hope men will want to order more.
“Does this skirt make my butt look big?”
How is it that the wonderous Japanese male gender-bending, almost all in the name of heterosexuality, keeps getting bad press and moral condemnation. Another foreign article in Times Online profiles men who like to eat cake, a feminine past time, and dream of becoming house-husbands.
Rather than celebrate freedom and variety, the phenomenon of herbivores and ojo-man has alarmed sociologists who predict the demise of the Japanese nation. One pompous sociologist is quoted with this fearful prediction:
“I worry that herbivorous boys are the future of Japan . . . As young Japanese men become more timid and more averse to taking risks, it will affect the energy and vitality of the society.”
Who knew that a skirt and feminine aspirations could be such a powerful threat to the survival of a proud people? Are girly men Japan’s terrorism?
Update: CNNGo has a profile about Japan’s first men-only nail salon, in Osaka only for now.
A TV version of the manga Otomen is starting soon in Japan (August 1, 11.10 pm, Fuji TV), as revealed by this Omootesando billboard. The story centers on high school junior Asuka Masamune: manly man and judo/karate/kendo master on the outside, lover of caramel macchiato, shōjo manga, sweets, and pink things on the inside. Apparently he romances a (female) classmate by teaching her how to do girly stuff.
I first heard of this term from my otaku and moe language teacher Bangin. He prefers this term over “soshokukei” (herbivores). Otomen, he defines, as young men who like BL and otome stuff (note the pink flower in the billboard which refers to girls’ anime styles), who are skilled at domestic crafts, and who act manly in public but are secretly feminine.
Thank you, Japanese television. Anyone else looking forward to this show?
Tokyo Moe 