Sumimasen Gyaru-son!

Tokyo has a lot of “Maid Cafes”, especially around the Otaku district of Akihabara in the Akihabara Electric Town (Akihabara Denki Ga). These Maid Cafes usually have cute girls dressed in lolita-style maid outfits, and serve the customers with drinks and food. If you pay a little extra, they will even play games with you, such as Connect 4 or draughts etc. These cafes have been the province of young male otaku until now…

The Otome Road (Maiden Road) in Ikebukuro district is becoming the yaoi answer to Akihabara’s otaku centre. Yaoi is a genre of manga popular with girls that focuses on homosexual love between men and is often sexually explicit. Yaoi as a term more used in English speaking countries, as the term “BL” (or Boys Love) is used more in Japan. A restraurant has opened on Otome Road called Lily Rose, which is a BL restaurant. The restaurant’s waiters are all really attractive young men in the BL style. Well, they’re really young women, dressed as young BL guys, with male names like Kaisuke-kun (kun being a honorific like san, but reserved for younger males you’re very familiar with). Generally in BL stories, you have “seme” and “uke”. Just like in martial arts where seme “attacks” and uke “receives”. This term has been used in terms of sexual relationships for a long time, and is in no way pejorative. Seme is generally more a traditional “masculine” role, being restrained, strong and protective – whereas uke would be more andryogenous or girlish in looks and behaviour. The waiters are called “gyaru-son”, which is another great portmanteau-type Japanese joke. Gyaru means “gal” as in a trendy young Japanese girl, with the word “son”, making a play on “garcon” – French for boy.

You might think it’s a little strange for girls to come to a restaurant staffed by girls to see guys – but one patron likes it: “Because the staff are really women, I can eat without fear of a man trying to pick me up, allowing me to take in the beauty of the ‘men’ around me as I enjoy my food.”

It’s just another reason why Japan is the most fantastic country on earth (^ ^)

アリス九號 (Alice Nine)

It’s Halloween time again, so time for lots of parties. This year I went to the big party in my local rock club in the style of one of my favorite bands. Unfortunately most thought I was there as an “emo”, but not to worry. Unfortunately visual kei hasn’t really crossed over to here yet. One girl totally recognised my outfit, and made a comment, so that totally made my night! \(^ ^)/. My outfit was a pair of big-soled shoes, skinny jeans, black fitted tshirt, cross pendant and chain, and a band-leader’s jacket, along with blue harajuku/manga/visual kei hair.  The look I was going for was アリス九號 (Alice Nine) who are a visual kei band formed by Shou (将), Hiroto (ヒロト), Tora (虎), Saga (沙我) in 2004, playing at the Ikebukuro Cyber. A while ago, I was in Marui in Shinjuku, and saw a video on one of the screens and ran to one of the girls working there and in bad Japanese, asked her who it was. I got her to write it down, so I rushed off to HMV in Shibuya (well, I was heading that way so went to that one) and picked up the CD.

My favorite of their songs is Yami ni Chiru Sakura (闇ニ散ル桜) which is actually quite an old song, from about 2005 IIRC. Obviously they’re all absolutely gorgeous guys, and look amazing – which I guess is kinda the point for visual kei (visual style, or literally “visual system, lineage, group“) bands. I’ve blogged about this before – probably far to many times really – and I love to go on and on about visual kei to anyone who’ll listen, but if you’re unfamiliar – visual kei bands are usually quite flamboyant Japanese bands, normally playing rock, metal or punk, but very often any type of music. It’s really important to have really good style, and most of the bands wear amazing clothes, and have androgynous looks with stunning makeup and hairstyles. Clearly I’m bound to like bands like this! (^_-)-*

One of my other favorite bands is Malice Mizer, with the amazing and enigmatic Mana, but they disbanded a while ago now. I loved their style during the Klaha era, which was gorgeous funeral gothic style – a style still popular in Mana’s Moi-Même-Moitié clothing label.

The good thing is that I get the chance to dress up again as I’m having a Halloween party on Wednesday too – oh, and I get to dress up every weekend anyway (^_-)-*

Did you just grope me? Shall we head to the police?

In one of my blogs about Japanese love hotels, I mentioned about chikan (痴漢, チカン or ちかん) or “train groping”. Japanese transit authorities have done a lot to prevent groping of women on packed trains, such as women-only carriages during peak hours, but unfortunately, it still exists. To combat the problem, Japanese games developer Takahashi created an ‘Anti-Groping’ appli for mobile phones. It was out in 2005, but has recently climbed to number 7 in mobile phone application popularity. The application displays messages on the phone’s screen in bold print to show to the offender; “Excuse me, did you just grope me?”, “Groping is a crime” and finally; “Shall we head to the police?”.

This application shows a lot about Japanese culture (aside from the fact that Japanese are using mobile applications a lot more). I guess in the west, if that happened, then we’d probably shout about it. In Japan, people tend to not want to make that much of a scene, and women are often too embarrassed to say anything out loud. This application allows someone to get the message across to a “train pervert” without having to cause any fuss. Tokyo transit authorities have arrested a large number of people, but it’s estimated that most women don’t report incidents.

Japanese Naked Ski Lodge TV Prank

I blogged a little while ago about how strange Japanese TV can be, and also mentioned a Naked Ski-slope prank. At the time I didn’t link it, but I think it’s worth linking now

This clip has the popular habit of a superimposed person laughing at the funny parts, which not only tells you when to laugh, but makes it feel like you’re watching the TV with someone else.

Enjoy…

Dakimakura (抱き枕)

Dakimakura (or 抱き枕) are large “hugging pillows” popular in Japan, and some say a new craze. They’ve been around since the late 90’s, but are gaining popularity as covers for the pillows have been given away in a few Japanese magazines, and in stock in a lot more “utaku” shops. Typically they are slightly-smaller-than-lifesize pillows designed to be hugged in bed, and often have screen-prints of popular anime or Bishōjo Game characters. Bishōjo games (or 美少女ゲーム, bishōjo gēmu – game of beautiful girls) are video games, where the player interacts with a cute, anime-type character. Gameplay is pretty much seducing the character, leading to pornographic scenes, but sometimes these games feature characters who will become your girlfriend, and you must then interact with them to keep them happy….or maybe put out (^_-)-* They usualy fall into three categories; dating sim, eroge (Japanisation of “erotic game”) and visual novel – depending on the content.

Although dakimakura are a good way for a keen otaku to get their favorite character into bed, some go that little bit further and opt for the inflatable version, complete with…erm…’openings’. I was in a shop in Aikihabara a while ago where they had a vast range of these versions, along with outfits you could buy for them. I guess the extention to this is the realistic “real dolls” available in Tokyo, and even available to rent!

Interestingly, the idea of sleeping with something like the dakimakura isn’t a new idea, as the chikufujin (竹夫人 – bamboo wife) has been around for a long time as a hollow bamboo roll – about the size of a human – that could be slept against to keep you cooler at night. The air would flow through the chikufujin as you slept against it. Although I’m fairly sure that the blow-up versions aren’t meant to keep you cool at night!

There are lots of dakimakura , available from Mandarake in Japan, and some on J-List too.

DIY Harajuku Style

One of the major parts of the Japanese fashion scenes is customising clothes, making your own, or matching things together to make a look. CRAFT magazine has a feature on making your own Harajuku punk shirt.

Craftzine also have some designs for punk iron-on transfers you can print out onto transfer paper, but it’s always cool to combine these with acrylic painting etc.

Love Hotels

According to Japanese Love Hotels: A Cultural History by Sarah Chaplin, 1% of the Japanese population check into a love hotel (ラブホテル rabu hoteru), and 50% of all Japanese sex occurs in them. There are over 30,000 Japanese love hotels which earn more than 4 trillion yen per year, which is twice the value of the Japanese anime market. Love hotels generally offer a room rate for a “rest” kyūkei (休憩) or an overnight stay, although a “rest” is the more popular option. Generally they’re used by young couples who live with their respective parents, although they’re also used for prostitution in some cases.

Originating from “tea rooms” (chaya 茶屋) used by prostitutes, they became known as “tsurekomi yado” (連れ込み宿) or “bring-along inns” during the second world war, generally run by home-owners with spare rooms. The term “love hotel” apparently comes from an Osaka motel called “Hotel Love” which had a rotating sign on the roof with “Hotel” on one side, and “Love” on the other. The mis-reading produced the term “love hotel”, and it stuck.

Photo from Misty Keasler Photography; Love Hotels: Japan

While originally Love Hotels were just a room with a bed, the more expensive places offer themed rooms to cater for most fantasies; medical examination rooms, fairgrounds, bondage dungeons, and even subway carriages for people to indulge in “chikan” (痴漢, チカン, or ちかん), or “train groping”.

Bento Lunches

Bento (in Japanese; 弁当 or べんとう) are small boxed lunches that are very popular in Japan. Traditionally they were rice, fish or meat and carried in a laquered wooden box. In the past, they were very popular with school children, but as the children from poorer families were given lower-quality food, and the children from richer familes were given much better food, it obviously displayed your family’s status, so they were phased out in schools. Recently, they’ve become much more popular, but the same situation applies really. It’s considered a very important skill for a housewife to be able to prepare a nutritious and visually appealing boxed lunch – although now they’re packaged in plastic bento boxes, often decorated with idols, manga characters or nice designs.

Photo from Janine’s Flickr Stream

Typically with Japanese cuisine, they are presented beautifully and often the food is prepared to look like other things, such as rice balls in the shape of a face, penguin-shaped cookies etc. There are a multitude of tools available to the bento maker to prepare these, including cutters, food seperators that look like grass and little bottles for soy sauce in the shape of fish etc.

Historically they originated in the 1200’s and were a “dried meal” called hoshi-ii (糒 or 干し飯 in Japanese), although later on they were presented in the wooden boxes you sometimes see at nice restaurants in Japan. Travellers would often carry a “waist bento” called a koshibentō (腰弁当) which consisted of onigiri (御握り or おにぎり) which are small rice balls shaped into a triangle. Modern bentos often have these too, with a face made of other ingredients to make it more pleasing. Apparently onigiri were used by samurai who stored rice balls in leaves when they were out doing their samurai thing.

There are many types of bento too; choka bento (中華弁当) which is Chinese food, Kamameshi bentō (釜飯弁当) sold at train stations, Sushizume (鮨詰め) “packed sushi”, Shidashi bentō (仕出し弁当) normally prepared by a restaurant and often eaten at parties (containing things like pickles with tempura or katsu curry or sometimes western food) – and also Hinomaru bento (日の丸弁当) – one of my favorites, containing plain rice with an umeboshi (梅干) in the center to look like the Japanese flag (Hinomaru). Umeboshi is a distinctly Japanese food – a kind of plum picked in vinegar. Vinegar in Japan is often different to what the westerner would expect as umeboshi is picked in a barrel with lots of salt – the resulting juice and salt is the vinegar. It can be a shock to those trying it for the first time. It has an extremely sour and salty taste, and is said to improve health, despite the high salt content. For example, if you had a cold, you’d have “okayu” or “Japanese congee”, a type of rice porridge. Sometimes it’s put into Japanese drinks such as shochu for decoration and flavour. I’d recommend adventurous types to look some out at your local asian food store and try them. It’s a real Japanese experience!

Japanese TV

Most Japanese TV that we see in the UK is on late-night “how strange is ‘foreign’ TV” programmes, hosted by someone such as Chris Tarrant. Generally we see practical jokes played on people when they’re on the toilet, or shot, naked down ski slopes on chairs with rockets attached (honestly). There is a Japanese comedian called Yanagihara Kanako (柳原可奈子) who is really very funny. She’s not really a joke-telling comedian, but a parody of people you see in Japan.

In this video, you can see her poking fun at shop assistants for their attitude, and the ever present call of “irasshaimaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee“, when you walk in. “Irasshaimase” is an honorific expression welcoming someone to the shop. The plain form of the word itself is “irassharu”, and is an exalted form of several verbs including kuru (to come), iku (to go), and iru(for animate objects to exist). You can skip to about 1:45 in the video to see what I mean.

Lolita, Zoku and the Western Confusion

Japanese fashions – not unsurprisingly – are really inventive, creative and categorised. In the west, we have the goth scene, which people sometimes mistake for the gothic lolita scene in Japan. In fact the goth scene in Japan is relatively small, and doesn’t have anything to do with the gothloli scene at all. The gothloli term is used to describe a fashion that’s not “gothic” per se, but rather cute and pretty Victorian style. Hair is worn in styles such as bangs, a fringe, ringlets etc – and with a head dress or top hat. Parasols, are often used, as are frills, lace and detailing. Pale skin is preferable, but not required. Generally clothes are black/white, with petticoats, knee-length stockings and ruffled Victorian blouses that are quite prim and proper. The Gothic Lolita Bible is important reading for fashion tips and clothing patterns – as with most other creative fashion scenes, customising or making clothing and accessories is common. There is a fashion scene; “ero-loli” (erotic lolita) but this isn’t gothloli, as this is generally more sexually provocative – at odds with the gothloli cuteness. Similarly, gothloli style is different from “sweet loli” style, which tends to turn up the cuteness a lot. Oh, and it’s perfectly ok if you want to wear lolita fashions if you’re a boy, but as long as you take steps to fit the feminine style; shaved/waxed legs, (tasteful) makeup, lipstick, and mascara.

Some different types of lolita fashion styles are; Ama Rori 甘ロ (Sweet Lolita), Hime Rori 姫ロリ / Ouji Rori 王子ロリ (Princess Lolita & Prince Lolita), Classical Kei Rorita クラシカル系ロリータ(Classical Lolita), Panku Rori パンクロリ(Punk Lolita), Ero Rori エロロリ(Erotic Lolita), Kantori Rorita カントリーロリータ (Country Lolita), Gosu Rori ゴスロリ (Gothic Lolita), Gero Rori グロロリ (Grotesque Lolita), Wa Rori 和ロリ (Kimono Lolita), Itai Rori 痛ロリ (Hurt Lolita) and huge amounts of other sub-sections, such as pirate, aunt and sumo lolita. Often these sub-sections are all placed under the “gothic lolita” category, but as you can see there are a lot of different lolita fashions. Also, often, Lolita fashion will be termed “cosplay”, but the serious lolita fashion follower who wears this fashion every day will tell you that they’re not cosplay.

Often Decora fashion is mistaken as lolita fashion too. Decora or Decora-chan is another street fashion, but uses colourful accessories, traditional Japanese clothing and plastic accessories – often pop-culture toys. This is sometimes incorrectly called “fruits” or “fruits-style” from Shoichi Aoki’s Fruits photographs, published in magazines, and a series of books.

One of the biggest differences in western and Japanese scenes are that generally Japanese fashions are based on visual identity rather than music/literature tastes. Of course someone is more likely to listen to punk music if they wear the Panku Lolita style, but what is “punk” in Japan is much more broad than in the UK. We’re just as bad for categorising music as Japanese are for visual kei (visual style) as there are defined and definite genres of music, but in Japan a band might have on their album a mix of j-pop “boy band” style and doom metal styles tracks. The desire to preclude types of music outside your own chosen genre doesn’t really exist in Japan. People are open minded, but this is because of the emphasis on visual identity. Much the same as most sub-cultures, it’s about identity and belonging to a “tribe”. Zoku (族) is the term meaning tribe or clan, and used to describe Japanese sub-cultural groups and phenomena such as; Bara-zoku “Rose tribe” (gay subculture), Dobunezumi-zoku “Sewer-rat tribe” (company employees in dull clothing), Hashi-nashi-zoku “Chopstickless” (foreign tourists who cannot use chopsticks), Shinkansen joso-zoku “Bullet train girl-tribe” (crossdressers), Hotaru-zoku “Firefly tribe” (smokers/office workers on their smoking break) and Sumaafu-zoku “Smurf tribe” (obscure Japanese specialty workers) along with countless more.

As with everything, it seems on the face of it that the Japanese fashion scene is something otherworldly and strange, but of course it’s just belonging to a group – something which we all do.