This story is super old now but we wanted to blog it anyway because it's important.
With its low use of condom usage, Japan is a bit of an HIV time bomb -- something the gay community is more proactive about. Complimentary condoms are frequently available at bars and clubs, and HIV awareness posters are also displayed in gay nightlife areas.
However, one HIV awareness poster was too much for the authorities and locals.
Designed by illustrator and animator Poko Murata, this billboard was hung in Shinjuku Nichome, Tokyo's main gay district, from December 2013. Its design soon became ...
We're on a bit of a cross-dressing roll at the moment. After blogging about a major new josou club and bar in Osaka we now want to introduce a new photography exhibition at Ginza's Vanilla Gallery.
It features portraits Tachibana has made over six years of newhalf (shemales) and josou cross-dressers.
The exhibition is called "Traces of josou and the Theory of Happiness". Tachibana runs a studio that specializes in portrait photography for cross-dressers and shemales, as well as hair and make-up services. She has worked with top idols to old-timers in their seventies -- more than ...
It's high time we talked about otoko no ko (also written otokonoko) (男の娘). The name of course is a play on the word for "boy" but whose characters mean "male daughter". As we know, the word for daughter (musume) is also employed a lot to mean "cute young girl", and that's the nuance here.
The phrase has been used since the 2000's. A otoko no ko is a cross-dressing cosplayer, who dresses as a girl for certain occasions. It's an unusual combination of cosplay culture, sexuality, and (in a way) otaku culture (it's quite geeky as subcultures go). It took the world of men dressed as ...
Not all Japanese sex toys are for the boys, you know.
The Atushi Japanese Male Body Dildo is a flatbed-style torso body dildo. It gives you a muscular, sexy Japanese man's chest as well as an erect cock and balls for you to ride.
The title is a cheeky reference to Atsushi, the hunky guy from the idol band EXILE. Japanese sex toys often use wordplay and parody in their titles, often riding along a thin legal line in the process. We wonder what the real Atsushi would think of this tribute?
Actually, though, this is for the boys as much as the girls, since there is an anal hole ...
Who has given you the best blow job?
You know, you might be missing out. There's a world of amazing head waiting for you... in Shinjuku's Nichome.
For the unenlightened, that's Tokyo's biggest gay district and it's a lot of fun to go drinking there whatever your sexual proclivities.
And then when we and KanojoToys heard about the Takuya Cho-teku Blow Job Masturbator, it confirmed everything we thought -- that Japanese sex toys will go to all kinds of lengths to get the best result.
Takuya is a veteran bar owner in Nichome. The 38-year-old has nearly 24,000 fans on Facebook ...
These ladies look pretty hot, right?
Well, actually these are otoko no ko (男の娘), crossdressing males, photographed by Naoko Tachibana.
They feature nine crossdressers from the cafe and bar New Type, which opened in Akihabara in May 2009. Tachibana has put these together as a photo book, "Yuri Danshi", 10,000 copies of which have been printed -- that's quite a demand!
We think you'll agree that these ladies look lovely.
Otoko no ko culture -- a mixture of cosplay and crossdressing -- is huge in Japan, with its own magazines, shopping sites ...
Why should the men have all the fun when it comes to sex dolls?
Sure, there's a zillion different kinds of blow-up dolls, plush dolls, hug pillows or luxury silicone dolls. But it's rare to hear about male ones.
What do I mean? I mean dolls of men, not for men.
So I was very happy when I got invited to try out the Love Venus Japanese Men's Body Plush Doll, a foam doll for girls who like Japanese male bodies -- or of course, guys who like (Japanese) guys.
Of course, I don't need to use the masturbator space. Instead, I can just use a vibe or strap on with the doll.
Gay guys, ...
The discovery of one picture on the Internet has led to speculation that now Japanese schools are brimming with boys and girls who kiss each other for fun.
Well, that of course sounds like a perfectly ordinary school activity.
But the "school rule" is that you can only kiss members of the same sex.
The picture, which seems to be the sole source of the discussion, apparently summarizes the rules and the experiences of some kids with "kiss friends" -- but where it came from is anyone's guess. Is it from a magazine?
Personally we think this is total crap, and the surprised or ...
Shotacon or Shotaro complex (正太郎コンプレックス) is a tricky subject to get into and we have been hesitating for a while, since we know it might get a harsh response from some.
On the surface it looks like a gay fantasy, describing an attraction to young boys and their wily charms.
But nothing is quite so straightforward.
We often bang on about this but ambiguity is such a strong part of Japanese erotica -- there are no clear definitions.
Japanese fans of shotacon are probably not definable just as "gay" and in fact much of the fantasy seems to involve boys who are possibly ...
Japan frequently -- hell, basically always -- pushed the boundaries and definitions of what is expected and accepted.
We think of AKB48 and we think of cubby otaku geek men who can't get a girlfriend, jacking off and then heading to the meet-and-greet scrums with the stars, the spunk still dripping from their hands. (Seriously, there are stories like this.)
Think again. AKB is also popular with cross-dressers! Yes, there are guys who find it erotic to dress up as one of the diminutive Akihabara idols and imitate their skimpy, sexy skirts and uniforms.
For precisely these chaps ...
