Bicyclist bares skull-patterned boxers

Where hasn’t this skull pattern been? Looking good on two wheels.

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.

Comfy-looking, patterned suit in subway

This man is clearly not afraid of patterns. What I love is how he’s matched his socks, bag, and inside of his hoodie. Ah, Tokyo. Always coordinated, and sometimes outrageous!

Keeping track of the nuclear leakage

Even in Japan, there is less daily news about the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster. That’s why it’s lovely to see this Asahi newspaper chart that keeps us up to date. I like the top row visuals which help you remember which reactor is which (this power plants is blessed with six reactors in a row).

If you’ve seen me in the past month, you know I have a serious fetish over the blue and white abstract pattern that once covered these toxic time bombs.

The other rows provide updates on current temperatures, water levels, whether robots have been sent in yet, and, at the bottom, the expected date when the new replacement cooling systems will be installed (May, July and July).

A pattern of dangerous penis-shaped technologies?

Amidst the fear over quakes, water safety, and radioactive fallout, I do not mean to come off as a paranoid conspiracy theorist, or even an antiquated “mother earth” feminist. Still, it is impossible to ignore, in all the dioramas, illustrations, and video footage all the penis-shaped technologies at the heart of Japan’s natural and man-made disaster.

Most obviously, the six reactors at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are all boxes (or were boxes, until the explosions) that cleverly conceal what appears to be a giant dildo of radioactive nuclear fuel rods, with torus doughnuts of water at the base and a steel containment vessel pointing this unholy mess of danger and energy sky-ward.

Japan’s protector/daddy/occupier the US military flew its Global Hawk man-less planes to take detailed images of the disaster. These are the drones that support the video distance warfare that delivers bombs throughout Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Libya. It’s good that these planes have some non-military uses, although I nearly spit out my drinking water when I saw on television these giant black penises flying through the air.

The storyline seems to be that we are dependent on reckless technology that happens to look like enormous penises. And that we can only contain the damage they cause by employing their similarly shaped flying cousins. We are then treated to a parade of government officials, energy company spokespeople, and nuclear epxerts– all of whom seem to be male– who promise vaguely that everything is mostly under control.

What is your favorite penis-shaped disaster technology?

Sexy bike fashion in Shinjuku

東京の格好いいチャリのファッション。

I love this sexy bike fashion. He captures many of the trends: tights under shorts, bright colors, 80s shoes, stripes & patterns mixed together, and people-powered transit. I 3> Tokyo!

JR Characters (1 of 3)

JR Nakano station is always a people-watching pleasure. Less self-conscious than Harajuku and less desperate than Shibuya, Nakano’s station attracts the hip, the funky, and the downright strange. This is the first in a 3 part series of JR characters.

I love how nonchalant is this lady wearing a sparkly pink top, fluorescent blue skirt, several handbags, and a hat that will not stop. Japanese are so polite that no one stared, and I was the only one who immediately pulled out my camera.

The hat is a marvelous creation. Perched on top of the main quilted, multi-patterned hat, which nearly obscures her (?) face, there is a blue sequin mini-hat, pink butterfly wings, many feathers, a stuffed lady bug, and an over-sized candy inside a rolled up wrapper.

What other objects do you think would go with this hat?