This post is a submission to TripBase’s My 7 Links initiative after receiving nomination from Todd’s Wanderings to participate. The process is simple. Nominated bloggers identify posts that meet seven specified criteria and share them with readers. In turn I have the opportunity to nominate 5 bloggers, listed at the bottom of this post, to participate.
Most Beautiful Post
Tokyo Rockabilly Club
A dying breed of big fifties revivalists, the Tokyo Rockabilly Club have attained cult icon notoriety for their highly distinctive combination of Elvis hair, yakuza tattoos and predisposition to publicly jive to 50s rock ’n’ roll. Their classic greaser look is inspired by the Japanese street culture, known as “rokabiri-zoku” (the rockabilly tribe), that is modeled on the American rock ‘n’ roll movement of the mid-1950s.
Most Successful Post
Weird Japanese Foods
If you are feeling hungry and adventurous then take a peek at Weird Japanese Foods which, as the title suggests, is a top list of Japanese culinary weirdness such as fugu, raw horse meat, aquatic insects, grasshoppers and more. The post caused some minor controversy by listing nattō, a powerful smelling, strong flavoured, sticky web of fermented soybeans, as a weird food.
Most Controversial Post
Japanese Penis Festival Souvenirs
Shinto fertility festivals held annually in Japan are penis-venerating celebrations that involve phallic processions and penis parades. Japan hosts a number of unusual and notorious festivals including the Kanamara Matsuri and the Hōnen Matsuri. While the main event at a penis festival usually involves the parading of a long phallus carved from Japanese wood, this post presents to you the festival foreplay.
Most Helpful Post
Tsukimi
Tsukimi is the custom of honoring the autumn moon. Meaning “moon viewing”, it is the autumn counterpart of hanami (cherry blossom viewing). Originating as a religious observance of farmers praying for a plentiful harvest, today the season of tsukimi is a mid-autumn festival held in appreciation of the harvest moon involving moon viewing parties where revellers gather outside in celebration to witness the full moon.
Most Surprisingly Successful Post
The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife
The first instance of tentacle eroticism (aka squid porn) is largely attributed to legendary Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai who created an erotic woodcut of the ukiyoue (‘pictures of the floating world’) genre around 1820 called The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife (aka ‘Pearl Diver and Two Octopuses’) depicting a woman entwined sexually with a pair of frisky molluscs.
Most Attention Lacking Post
The Japanese Peruvians
The Japanese Peruvians are Peruvian citizens of Japanese ethnic origin. They constitute around 0.3% of Peru’s population (estimated at nearly 90,000 in 2008) which is the second largest population of people with Japanese ancestry in Latin America after Brazil. Back in 1899 the first wave of 790 Japanese immigrants arrived in Peru spawning the Nikkei ethnicity in Latin America.
Most Proud Post
Publicly Sleeping Salarymen
Salarymen are the Japanese corporate livestock. They are the thousands of faceless, suited, white collar office-workers. Dutiful conformists whose lives revolve entirely around work. They work long hours and when their day is over, they are found spending their evenings in local izakaya plying themselves full of sake until the last train. Publicly Sleeping Salarymen features images of those who made the last train, and those who didn’t.
And now to hand the baton over to five more nominees to participate in TripBase’s My 7 Links initiative:
Find out who the other nominated bloggers are: My 7 Links: Bloggers Nominated So Far
Billy
lina
aidan bob
C Ohara
chris
Goukaseishi
Hello Beautiful
Japan Australia
Jen
Ken Seeroi
