We made our way out the Shinsekai district of Osaka to check out Tsūtenkaku (or “Tower Reaching Heaven”). This was no Tōkyō Tower, but worth a visit all the same.

Tsūtenkaku

Tsūtenkaku stands at a total height of 103 metres and the main observation deck is at a height of 91 metres. Like I said, no Tōkyō Tower which stands at just under 333 metres.

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A day trip to Yokohama is not complete without a trip to the Kirin Brewery Yokohama. The brewery is located in Namamugi, which is a short hop from the Yokohama city centre.

The tour of the Kirin Brewery was practically the same as the tour of the Asahi Brewery Osaka, just interchange the word ‘Asahi’ for ‘Kirin’ in the beer tour template and voilà – you have yourself a tour.

All was not bad however. We did get two free beers at the end. Furthermore, as Kirin means giraffe in Japanese, I learnt that the strange animal on the Kirin Ichiban label is a drawing of what Japanese thought a giraffe looked like in earlier times. Mind you, they had never seen a giraffe (apparently/hopefully) and were drawing only what had been described to them.

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Yet another post about the used underwear industry in Japan. Vending machines exist in Japan that dispense used schoolgirl underwear, elusive as they are. The sale of such garmentry, however, has been outlawed in Japan which has caused the undergarment to go underground.

Urban legend has it that transacting in used schoolgirl underwear was forbidden due to the merchants inability to prove the authenticity of the product. Whether that authenticity refers to the ‘used’ part or the ‘schoolgirl’ part I’m not too sure.

In practice, I believe that the authorities invoked an old Antique Dealings Law which prevents the sale of second-hand items without the approval of local authorities.

The video below shows where the used underwear really comes from.

Check out Mike’s post, a very good article which describes how he accidentally stumbled across such dispensers of such garmentry.

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