This real-life site of gay worship, Eros, will be featured in the new HBO series Looking, which sounds like a gay male cross between Girls and Sex and the City. I feel like they’re filming in my “home.” Hope it turns out fun.
Awww, isn’t that romantic? Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the NY Times reports that young Chinese ladies are renting “boyfriends” to bring home for lunar new year. What greater expression of filial love than parading a fake boyfriend. And some boys apparently can’t resist free train tickets, meals and cigarettes. Nice!
Visiting a major shrine in Tokyo, I decided to stop and read some of the wishes written on wooden placards. I had thought they would all be about love and world peace. Of course, many are, but some are hilarious. Not sure if it’s bad to read others’ wishes, but they are public and I could not help myself.
Here are some of the best ones in English. Above: “I want a BMW 3 Series with real leather seats and a Bose sounds system and a GPS nav. system with a cute Japanese girl voice and seat warmers so my butt stays warm in the winter.”
“Simon has clear direction in his life and is determined to be + stay debt free with a house that owns . . . . He understands that it is all down to him– go for it tree!!!”
“Wish my daughter Linting (?) come to her senses + break away from Dario completely and never see him again. Wish good health, safe . . . Heal me + let me live a long healthy happy life.”
Below is what all the cards called ema in Japanese look like underneath the giant tree.
More wish cards after the jump.
According to a survey by Japanese toilet manufacturer Toto, 33% of Japanese men sit to pee at home. The numbers are almost 10% higher than five years ago. Reasons cited include “ease of posture” and “to make cleaning easier.”
Takuji Yano, Toto’s public relations staff, explains, “It seems that people are tending to be more conscious about the bathrooms in their home, such as equipping washlet attachments to the toilet and trying to keep them cleaner.”
Could this be true? Is this self-reported or observed research data?
An illuminated pig guards the entrance to our home. お母さん、ありがとうございます！
In Ni-chome, two friends and I discovered this misspelling of a restaurant sign. “Me Room” indeed!
Shibuya is an area that I avoid, especially on weekend nites. My husband describes this busy neighborhood as full of “horny hetero teens” mostly from outside Tokyo and aspiring to big city life. A recent dinner with work colleagues found me there until close to last train time.
Poking around, we saw this incongrous juxtaposition: back-lit photos of sleazy girls next to “Baby Doll” puppies. Were these innocent puppies a metaphor, a bait-and-switch, a euphemism of some sort?
Tokyo food is great, and we eat out a lot. Still, it’s always fantastic when Shu cooks dinner at home. Last night we had three vegetable dishes with rice. The vegetables here put California produce to shame, and Shu’s a gifted cook.
Below is a restaurant window display. As attractive as the pig with the gun is, we didn’t eat there.
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Tokyo Moe 