Can there ever truly be too much male vanity?
More Shibuya fried hair
fried
Doesn’t matching fried hair prove that their love is real?
Flamboyant straight men are what I love the most about Japan
Until recently, Japanese gays seemed content to fade into the background: a performance of normality bordering on boring. Not so for the straight men of Japan, who are truly some of the world’s most magnificent peacocks.
I love the attention to detail: the rolled up hem has a fruit pattern, zebra print can be fused with jungle print, hair fried and stiff, skin is kept eerily dark and flawlessly unblemished. Sitting hip-to-hip challenges no one’s masculinity.
When I feel frustrated about various aspects of a foreigner’s life in Japan, I look around the train and feel uplifted, inspired, and very much in love.
Fried hair super-heroes at the beach
Red, platinum, and tiger hair. Did these guys coordinate their looks before going to the hair dresser? They look like super heroes united by hair color and deep tanning. Is this the oasis I’ve been looking for?
Giant Ebi Fry at Rainbow Pride parade last week
The giant fried shrimp in the center of this group portrait was my favorite costume at last week’s Rainbow Pride parade. The event’s theme was the vague “the power of the rainbow.” I think there’s more power in platform boots and sky-high head sculptures!
Too cool for school
The mayor of Aso City stuns 20 year olds at Coming of Age Day (Seiji no Hi) by singing and pantomiming a hit from AKB48, the 4 dozen popular faux school girls who are Japan’s most popular band and advertising monster. The mayor’s singing and emoting strike a stern warning to the young things to never become adults. Poor 20 year olds of Aso City! (Source: Neojapanisme)
I had a much better time greeting and mingling with the 20 year olds celebrating today outside Nakano Sun Plaza. The girls were a riot of faux rabbit and pink/orange/red kimonos and complicated updoes. Many of the boys fried their hair and en-bigg-ed it, paired with shiny suits evocative of men’s host clubs and mid-tier salary men and occasionally traditional men’s kimonos, one in shocking pink. More pix soon. Here’s last years’ photos!
I also met a very handsome Korean photographer, and realized I wasn’t the only one who came to gawk!
Goodbye Xmas
After the weeks of muzak build-up, Japan retires Xmas with merciful speed. On the night of the 25th, the last Xmas cakes are discounted and forgotten. I kind of miss the US tradition of witnessing the first Xmas tree junked on the curb. The closer to the 25th the public abandonment, somehow the more worthy of attention. In Tokyo, I guess I can safely forget about the close association between Jesus’ birth and the by-reservation only consuming of fast food fried chicken. If any aficionados are reading this blog, please let me know how Mos and KFC and others compare.
That’s how the KFC becomes finger licking good
Christmas in Japan means fried chicken, strawberry shortcake, and hotel sex. Famed (non-gay) blogger Danny Choo posted this photo, with the headline, “A guy queuing up at KFC in front of me. Is this where “Finger Lickin Good” comes from?”
Festive, isn’t it?
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).
