Kimono, rainbow face, and look who’s in the background

 

Love the kimono guy’s outfit, which included a leather strap attached to his bald head. Well done. My Argentinian friend is in the background.

I love how fantasy wedding involves no groom, no family

Why is this gorgeous woman lurking in the back seat of an old fashioned limousine? Of course, she’s promoting weddings at Meiji Jingu, perhaps the poshest place to get married in all of Japan. I love how this bride’s wedding fantasy includes no groom and no family. The perfect wedding is all about HER.

OK, ladies! Adjust your headpieces, and look sharp!

Admittedly, I am more focused on the male side of this celebration. But even I was moved to see one friend helping another with her big hair and accessories. Now that we’re tucked and presentable, get ready to review the various cliques among the 20 year old celebrants.

Old school kimono still looks shady

The husband took one look at this photo, and declared yakuza. I like the traditional kimono, the fedora, and the over-sized kumade rake. This gent seems to be preening for attention no less ardently than the male hosts.

Is sumo sport, ritual, or fetish?

Attending in person has changed my impression about sumo. It’s a parallel universe of enormous men who wear lovely colored kimono in public and ass-baring costumes in the ring. The sumo performers conduct strange rituals under Shinto banners that last far longer than the fights themselves, and their extended careers create fascinating rivalries. Oh, and it’s a sport that’s open to large men from many countries, including Mongolia and East Europe.

I love watching the sumo players moving through Tokyo and, of course, arriving at the sumo hall by taxi. I also like how the station near the hall memorializes decades of personalities, outfits, and flesh.

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).

Current Japan PM’s wife offers him tough love

The last PM’s wife claimed to have traveled to Venus and to feed daily by eating the sun with her husband. Current Prime Minister’s wife Kan Nobuko wife said that if she lived her life again, she would not choose the life she had already lived. And her reports of tough love suggest that their daily life is full of volatile policy and personal conflicts.

From the BBC News (via tipster Christophe):

The prime minister’s wife said she supported him by giving him such a tough time at home, and that he preferred going to parliament for question time.

“My husband sometimes says to me: ‘I really hate going to the Diet because everyone is so mean and critical, but it’s a lot easier being subjected to this criticism at the Diet than fighting at home with you’,” she said.

“That’s a way to get him out of the house and go to the Diet, so maybe that’s the way I can support him.”

These would be unimaginable words spoken by the Stepfordly obedient and adoring wives of United States presidents. Is this a sign of freedom and power, or something else entirely?

Unmentioned in this new story is the role that Ms Kan reportedly played rehabilitating her husband’s political image after a sexual harassment scandal in the 1990s. Others credit her outspokenness to the powerless of Japanese women, whose statements do not carry much importance no matter how incendiary.

Oh, and apparently she wear very elegant kimonos and speaks in a vulgar manner. I will try to learn more about Ms Kan.

(Don’t worry, Kathryn, there’ll be more Nakano yankii hotties soon after this political detour).

Second in multi-post series on hot Nakano yankii men!

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.

Ladies in kimono make me breathless

It’s true that most of my observation tends towards the louche, the extreme and even shocking. Yet somehow my heart is also touched by the frequent displays of stately elegance that can take your breath away in Tokyo. Recently, I saw this group of elderly ladies in kimonos and sun umbrellas arriving at Taiikukan as I left the pool. I love how five are wearing identical blue kimonos with a ginko leaf pattern, while the sixth has chosen a different color. There’s something elevated and magical about their costume, posture, and their broad formation.