Shirihoudai

Found more kancho related products. This time, the Kancho wasn’t as blatant as the first, but the ingredients translation confirmed my kancho finding senses.

Of coure is has the groovy characters on the other side:

Oh, and of course the chocolate filled cookies were quite tasty.

Glad to see the hot pants fad is spreading around Asia.  Last October in Japan thats all I saw around Tokyo - girls in hot pants and fishnet stockings.  Damn that was HAWT!  Well, the fad spread to Thailand but it wasn’t the reaction I was expecting.  Come on people, it’s THAILAND!  The world of champion girly-boy-muay-thai-trannies!  And they are worried about a little cheek showing? 

Thai girl band berated for skimpy New Year outfits

BANGKOK (AFP) - A Thai girl band that took part in a government push for women to avoid skimpy outfits during Buddhist New Year was Thursday berated by the culture ministry for subsequently stripping off.

Girly Berry, a four-piece outfit known for hits such as “Shake It” and “I Like Ugly Guys,” slipped into traditional Thai dress as part of a campaign ahead of Thailand’s New Year, known as Songkran, which ended Wednesday.

Days later, however, they were back on stage in buttock-skimming hot-pants and tank-tops for a performance on Bangkok’s Khao San Road, the centre of the capital’s raucous water fights that mark the new Buddhist year.

“We campaigned to promote proper dressing, including Thai-style dress, but they appeared in very little clothing on the Songkran festival,” said Chaweerat Kasetsoontorn, deputy permanent secretary at the culture ministry.

“I wonder if they might have forgotten that they were ambassadors for the campaign,” she told AFP.

The Bangkok Post newspaper reported Thursday that Anusorn Wongwan, the culture minister, had threatened to blacklist Girly Berry from future government campaigns.

Despite the government’s best efforts to convince women to cover up for Songkran, teenage girls strutted through the water war on Khao San Road last weekend in skimpy white shorts decorated with Playboy bunnies.

No need for pictures since the one in the original story doesn’t do anyone justice.

[EDIT] At the request of my boss, here is how they do it in Japan:

Photo via my original starbucks rant.

It all started with that damn holiday called Valentines Day.  For some reason, Japan thought it would be good for their economy to force the women to buy the men in their lives chocolate on February 14.  A month later they came up with White Day - where the guys who received gifts a month before, have to return the favor. 

Not to be out-done, the Koreans come up with Black Day:

Black Day for love, big day for noodles

By Jon Herskovitz Mon Apr 14, 12:40 PM ET

SEOUL (Reuters) - It was a Black Day for love in South Korea on Monday with lonely hearts trying to ease their pain by diving head first into bowls of noodles.

South Korea celebrates Valentine’s Day, where local custom dictates women give gifts to men. It has taken on a popular event born in Japan but sweeping Asia known as White Day on March 14 when men return the favor with gifts for women.

But Black Day, on April 14, is a South Korean original. It is marked by people who have not found love dressing in dark colors and commiserating over meals of black food, with the dish of choice being Chinese-style noodles topped with a thick sauce of black bean paste.

“I had a miserable time on Valentine’s Day, felt even lonelier on White Day and now I’m crying over a bowl of black noodles,” said a young women who asked only to be identified by her family name Na out of embarrassment.

“Things better be different next year.”

At universities across the country on Monday, students without lunch dates ordered black noodles, dined with other lonely hearts and searched for companionship.

South Korea marketers have hatched special days for the 14th of each month to create a calendar laden with love.

Some days have gained traction such as Black Day, while others such as Green Day in August, when couples are supposed to drink cheap liquor that comes in green bottles and walk in the woods, have yet to attract much of a following.

Black Day events have snowballed, with a major matchmaking service this year providing an evening of speed dating where the dish of choice is sushi blackened by squid ink.

An on-line company for movie tickets sponsored a speed eating competition of black noodles for those who bought single tickets for the latest films.

“It is depressing enough going to the movies by yourself,” said Shin Youn-joo of the company called Max Movie.

“We just wanted to spread a little joy to the ‘with-outs’.”

So there you have it, white day, black day, even green day.  There are still a lot of colors left in the color spectrum and I propose the following ideas:

Purple day - May 14.  Everyone drinks wine, gets drunk, and the night ends in a heap of human nakedness.

Blue Day - June 14.  Girls get to tease the guys but don’t offer themselves up in the end.  aka blue balls.

Yellow Day - July 14.  Girls set up lemonade stands and the guys must buy a glass of lemonade.  The only trick is that one of the glasses contains pee.

Brown Day - August 14.  Guys return the favor but instead of making lemondade, they bake chocolate cakes.

Ok, i’m just getting gross now. . .

What an odd story on Mainichi today. 

Average age of socially withdrawn people passes 30 for first time

The average age of people who isolate themselves from society has climbed past 30 for the first time, according to a survey on a group supporting family members of socially withdrawn people.

The finding was made in a survey that experts conducted on members of Zenkoku Hikikomori KHJ Oya no Kai. While there is a base of young people who shut themselves off from society, the latest survey highlights the definite increase in people in their 30s and 40s who have kept themselves isolated and have not managed to make a return to society.

The survey found that the average age of people isolated from society was 30.12. By gender, the average age for males was 30.35 and the corresponding figure for females was 28.87. The youngest person withdrawn from society was aged 13, and the oldest was aged 52. The average amount of time they spent withdrawn from society was 8.95 years, and the longest was 25 years.

The poll has been conducted every year since 2002. In that year, the average age of people who isolated themselves from society was 26.6, and in 2006 it was 29.6, showing that the age is increasing. The average age of parents of people who shut themselves off from society, meanwhile, was 63.23 years for fathers and 58.28 years for mothers.

When respondents were asked, from the viewpoint of family members, what support socially withdrawn people wanted, “financial support” was the most common answer, accounting for more than 50 percent of responses and surpassing the answers “counseling” and “diagnosis from a doctor.”

In a section that allowed people to freely state their opinions, one of the respondents wrote, “I want a system in place so that I can die in peace, “and another said, “I want a social security system to be founded, showing that parents worried what would happen when they were gone.

The representative of Zenkoku Hikikomori KHJ Oya no Kai, Masahisa Okuyama, said that a safety net would provide security for people.

“Concerns by socially withdrawn people and their parents are leading to family breakups, and we’re starting to see terrible situations in which people kill their parents, carry out murder-suicides or take their own lives. If there was some kind of safety net, that would give people a sense of security.”

The survey was conducted by a team including University of Tokushima Associate Prof. Motohiro Sakai between November 2007 and January 2008. Members of Zenkoku Hikikomori KHJ Oya no Kai were asked to fill in questionnaires, and officials analyzed the responses from 331 people.

I did come across my share of weirdos in Japan and the good vs bad reasons for them to be socially isolated probably even themselves out.  The first theory that popped into my head was the proliferation of the internet and the ability to hide behind a false e-personality.  I’m pretty sure the increasing ways in which one can interact in their virtual world and with their “friends” whom they’ve never met face to face has something to do with the inability for people to interact with humanoids in the real world.   Society on a whole is moving in a direction of antisocialism whether we are aware of it or not.  The inventions that are making our lives more convenient are perhaps somewhat to blame for the increased inability (of some) to function in our changing society.

text messaging vs calling on the phone

emailing vs writing a letter by hand

calling someone by phone vs talking in person

talking to someone vs punching them in the face

but I digress. . .

Don’t you hate theories that pop into your head after reading a simple news article?  As comedian Chris Rock said, “What ever happened to just being crazy?”  I agree.  “Socially withdrawn”?  Nah, that person is just crazy!

image via random google search

 AKA Kanamara Weiner Festival - the celebration of ugly trannies and horny tourists.  This is still on my list of things to see in Japan as I love a good freakshow.  Women straddling the 6 foot rocket penis. . .

and 70 year old tranvestites. . .

what more could you ask for at a spring festival?  Phallic shaped candies? You got it!

As quoted from the Mainichi

Kanamara Matsuri, literally the Festival of the Iron Penis, had its beginnings in the Edo Period (1603-1868) with the prayers of women called meshimori onna, according to Wakamiya Hachimangu, the Shinto shrine in Kawasaki where the event was held.

Meshimori onna were women employed by the Shogun rulers of Japan during the feudal era to serve travelers along major roads such as the Tokaido that ran from Edo (modern Tokyo) to the ancient capital of Kyoto, with Kawasaki serving as a lodging spot.

Although the meshimori onna were supposed to serve only food, they also served themselves for a price, and it was their custom of praying to the gods that led to the festival as it is today.

Kanamara Matsuri is said to have positive effectives on business and fertility, increases the chance of an easy birth, heightens the possibility of finding a partner, boosts marital harmony and wards off sexually transmitted diseases.

So you see, there is a reason for all the madness.  In addition to helping solve  Japan’s declining population, the festival serves many purposes - increasing the population, helping the local economy, AIDS awareness, transvestite tolerance, uncensorship of genatalia in public places. . . the list goes on and on.

(photos via Mainichi)

They even posted a video of the phallic fun here

Ok, so I was driving back to work from a Costco break - had to take a break because someone was microwaving a tv dinner that had cheese and it stunk up the whole office.   But anyway, I was driving back and noticed one of my favorite cars in back of me - an old school Charger.  Jet black with chrome, and approaching fast behind me. . . . As I was admiring the car, I noticed the driver was a hot chick that kind of looked like mma fighter Gina Carano.  Get to a red light and I’m looking in the rear view to get a better look at this lovely girl and then. . . . <gasp>

image via solarnavigator.net

She proceeds to do the two-handed fingernail zit squeeze on her right cheek!  It’s like a sudden train wreck - you don’t want to look, but you do.  There she goes, right elbow pointing up to the sky, the other hand in front of her mouth.  Not sure if she got it but I can verify she tried to pop that bad boy at least two times at that signal.  It just totally ruined the mood, but will provide me laughs the whole afternoon.

I might be the worst pen spinner whose ever tried, but these guys are incredible!  The link below is for a pen spinning tournament website (in Japanese).  They take pen spinning way beyond human levels.

http://ptj2008.pen-spinning.org/

1.  put hands together as if praying - haha very signifigant when I think about it

2.  intertwine your middle, ring and pinkie finger so your index finger is pointing straight out.

3.  wait for unsuspecting victim to walk by

4.  find victim and position oneself behind them in a crouching position

5.  when you sense their most moment of relaxation, scream out a “kiyaaaa!” and ram your index fingers into their backside.

6.  obtain Kancho enlightment.

 Ah yes, the kancho.  So much fun for the giver, and not so much for the receiver.  Not sure where its origins began, but I too have had my experience with Japanese schoolkids trying to violate me.  It usually ends with me holding them upside down and threatening to throw them off the 2nd story balcony.

I thought that returning home, I’d be safe from the kancho, and I was. . . up until a recent visit to a Korean supermarket where I found this:

Notice how happy the person giving the kancho (bow in hand) is and the arrows are tipped with hearts signifying love is on the way.  Pink and green (horny) hearts floating above its head.

Also notice the one who has just been kancho’d has a frown on its face and a broken bottom LEAKING CHOCOLATE!  They had to have known the symbolism there.  And what is that symbol behind him?  Looks like a heart with eyelashes?  NO, its a butt in the middle of a target with pain ‘lines’ shooting out of it!

Flip the box over:

So sweet, getting kissed after getting the rectal trauma of a lifetime symbolized by the now BLUE heart floating above her head.   Looks like he is going to cry, right?  Yes, tis the story of the kancho.

Amazon is having a sale on Chocolate items with checkout code CLEARMAR. 

Check out the aStore for tons of chocolate goodies.

Ah yes, I searched and searched and finally found it in Narita airport.  The OPPAI STRESS BALL!  What more realistic stress relief do you need for the workplace without getting in too much trouble?  Its a good thing that I’m already known to bring back weird things from Japan and my actions are almost always tolerated.

 Normal view of stress ball as it sits on my desk:

Happy view as you turn it over.  Notice the fine details. . .:

Stress ball in action take 1:

Stress ball in action take 2:

The only drawback of this stress relieving device is the smell.  No, I did not put it in unmentionable places, it has a very strong rubber odor that stays on your hands even if you just touch it briefly.  I guess its a good way to figure out who has been playing with their desk oppai. . . .

 To find this great device in Narita Airport, in Terminal 1, just follow the row of shops until you get almost to the end of the terminal.  There is a gift shop there and you’ll find it next to the other kids toys.