Goodbye summer and men in yukata

One of the best parts of summer in Japan is men in yukata, a light-weight summer kimono. The funniest thing is that when young guys wear them in Tokyo, typically they choose dark and understated ones like the one worn by Tamaki Hiroshi above.

It’s a rare moment for the Japanese peacocks to choose restraint, and the girls in summer wear the most garish colors and patterns on their yukata. At least, as you see in Tamaki-sama’s photo, he hasn’t eschewed the fancy hair-do and extraneous jewelry (including ankle bracelet?!).

Numazu’s infamous “rabu hoterus” (love hotels)

“Come in lovers,” Numazu’s Jump Hotel beckons. This post is a photo essay on the over-the-top “rabu hoterus” (love hotels) that surround the Numazu bizen ceramics studio. On one side of the studio is a large forested hillside, populated by birds including the lovely uguisu.

The other three sides are dozens of short-term stay hotels, with garish neon, absurd names, columns, statuary, fountains, tikki lights, plastic palm trees, free Wii, and abundant car parking. All of this looks worse in daylight.