Have you ever wondered what that sex position is called in Japanese? This could be for purely academic reasons, of course, if you are a bit of a linguist. Maybe you just like having random knowledge in your arsenal. Or it could be for that time when you need to explain to your Japanese partner the position you want to try next. This superbly useful guide has illustrations of various sex positions with their Japanese name, including transliterated versions if you can't read the kanji. The guide was created by illustrator Jikumaru and published online in 2019, giving kind permission for ...

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We've said it before and we'll say it again: we think shunga, erotic woodblock prints, are one of the most impressive and significant parts of Japanese historical culture, and that the government should be singing its praises from the rooftops, instead of trying to hide them and keep people from seeing them under threat of prosecution. Fortunately, we are no longer alone. Shunga has achieved global success, not least in the form of a very successful art exhibition in Britain in 2013, which belatedly came to Japan in 2015 and attracted huge crowds. Money talks. Organizers now can point to ...

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Have you always wanted to own a love hotel? Now you can! And for just ¥88 million (a bit less than an average newly built condo in Tokyo costs). The two-floor hotel, which is located a short distance from the beach and an hour's walk from Atami Station, is currently for sale. The building is 728.65 square meters (the land is a bit bigger, at 999.46 square meters), and was built in 1985, which would make it positively ancient in Tokyo but not too shabby in a regional place like Atami. Best of all, it is designed like a castle (perhaps in a Middle Eastern or Mediterranean ...

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Before we had streaming and downloadable formats, we had Blu-ray and DVD. And before that, back in some period lost to the mists of time -- namely, the 1980s and 1990s -- we have VHS video tapes. The arrival of VHS marked the full birth of the Japanese adult video industry, hence the name. The new format had incredible commercial potential for widespread distribution of content and meant hardcore porn was no longer a niche but an easily accessible, widely consumed form of porn (as opposed to the simulated sex in "pink" sexploitation, whose decline was hastened by AV). VHS was the heyday of ...

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We've written before about Yunana, the young female fan of postwar Showa-era love hotels who posts photos of her outings (alone) to these bygone dens of romance and sex. It seems Yunana's following has continued to grow, since she has just released a book showcasing her work. The book's title, In Search of the Revolving Bed, is a reference to perhaps the most famous love hotel room gimmick that is actually quite a rarity (it became illegal to install new ones after the law changed in 1985). Now aged 26, the love hotel enthusiast was recently interviewed by Bunshun about her activities, ...

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The fertility/harvest festival held annually at Tagata Shrine in Komaki, Aichi, isn't as famous as the Kanamara festival, held near Tokyo, but is another example of an ancient Shinto event in which phallic objects abound. Like with Kanamara, the Tagata Shrine honen festival makes for some very photogenic moments where a giant phallus newly carved from cypress is paraded around on March 15. This is led by the Shinto shrine's priests in all their finery. Women in robes also walk around holding smaller phallus objects. Festivals are also about making money for the shrine, and Tagata Shrine, ...

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Is it the miso, the seaweed, the tofu, or the fish? Theories abound, but one thing is certain: Japan is a nation with a high life expectancy. The average lifespan is 84 years, several years longer than Western nations. Now a cardiovascular physiologist has cut through the rhetoric to propose that the secret to longevity is actually sex. As described in an essay for aeon, Denis Noble looks at ancient Chinese poems and scrolls kept at the National Museum in Tokyo. The Ishinho set of 30 scrolls contain remedies that are exclusively herbal, nutritional, or sexual. Noble begins speculating on ...

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They say that everything is small in Japan. Small cars. Small homes. Small food portions. Small people. Only kidding about that last one. Sometimes it seems that there really are capsule toys and model kits for everything. In the latest evidence of this, renowned plastic model kit maker Hasegawa is set to release another miniature "retro vending machine" this July. And the fifth iteration (FA13) of the series of kits, following versions for ramen and udon noodles, is a porn vending machine. It's not explicitly stated as such, but the weirdly anonymous-looking design and the conspicuous, ...

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Old love hotels in Japan have long enjoyed a special brand of fandom, either for their garish visuals or their increasingly haikyo-style "abandoned" status. But a new sort of love hotel otaku is emerging. And they are young women who visit the establishments by themselves. We previously mentioned the 20-year-old student whose YouTube channel was obsessed with introducing love hotels (along with net cafes and other such places). A few weeks ago, she showcased the cheapest love hotel in Tokyo. An even more prolific profiler of love hotels is Yunana, who shares her fascinating trips to ...

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It's probably Tokyo's most famous and futuristic pieces of architecture: the Nakagin Capsule Tower. Despite its repute, it's an endangered species: demolition of the Metabolist landmark has been scheduled for a long time. People have continued to reside in the pod-like pied-à-terre living units or use them as office spaces. Or for other uses, it seems. We had never heard of this before but it seems that certain capsule rooms in Nakagin were used by prostitutes to service customers. In Tokyo, a brothel-style fuzoku service typically has its own little place with basic facilities. ...

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