August 28, 2007
Donald Richie on love hotels
"one research project has calculated that half of all sex in Japan takes place in a love hotel, and that consequently a large part of the country's offspring is conceived in one"
wow!
Posted by tony at 11:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 25, 2007
Jikaktabi
Cute article on Pingmag about jikatabi
Reminds me of something that happened to a friend from Kyoto. He wanted to buy some plain blue jikatabi for hiking (good for scrambling). The guy in backstreet shoe shop he visited flatly told him, "I can't sell these to you because you are not a shokunin (craftsman)".
He should have gone for a pair of these.
Posted by tony at 02:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 12, 2007
maternity marks
nice article from the fantastic Ping Mag on the maternity badges Japanese women wear to try and get a seat on crowded trains.
As I noticed when my wife was pregnant though, unfortunately commuters are often to engrossed in their manga comics (or too asleep!) to see the little badge.
On time there was a young man snoozing in the "priority seat". I tapped him on the shoulder and pointed at my wife. Never seen somebody move so fast!
Posted by tony at 11:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack