In desperate need for a place to stay in Japan? All the hotels are full and you don't fancy your chances with an Airbnb? Another option is a love hotel, which is often not much more expensive than a regular hotel and sometimes even cheaper.
However, many hotels cannot always be booked in advance and even ones that can are typically lacking in any services for non-Japanese-speaking guests.
Enter Rakuten, the Japanese online retail giant that counts a travel site within its bevy. Due to the ongoing tourism boom in Japan, there is a shortage of hotel rooms and Rakuten Travel hopes to make ...
A survey by Japan Pres Research Institute asked 1,000 people across various countries for their views on Japan. Part of this included naming living or dead Japanese people that they knew. The results were, to say the least, intriguing...
By default the survey became a resource for seeing which Japanese people are famous abroad. In France, America, South Korea and other places, the results were familiar: the prime minister, emperor, popular sports figures, an anime character, and so on.
But in Thailand, things were rather different:
1. Shinzo Abe (178)
2. Doraemon (111)
3. The ...
Do you want a cute girlfriend but don't have the looks, social skills, money, time, or language ability to get one?
Fear not. As we know, there are lots of virtual dating and 2D character options in Japan, from Lovely x Cation to VR Kanojo and a virtual version of the gravure idol Ai Shinozaki. Recently this has become enhanced thanks to smartphone apps and virtual reality, though we remember sims and dating characters from back in the pre-iPhone days.
Here's another possibility: Ai Furuse is a virtual female being developed by the artificial intelligence smartphone app SELF. It now has ...
Mero Imai is a former Olympic snowboarder turned nude model and call girl.
As we reported in April, the 29-year-old single mother from Osaka has also now added porn star to her cluttered resume. Her debut Snow Drop was released May 1st from Muteki, which specializes in minor celebrities making the switch to porn.
The first pictures are in, so let's take a look.
What do you think? Mero Imai has a nice body and there's always the novelty factor with a release like this, but otherwise it looks pretty banal in terms of setting and on-screen ...
Yesterday we wrote about a Japanese photographer who has turned his private house into a sex doll museum -- and opened it up to the public. Now here are three developments related to Japan's top sex doll brand, Orient Industry.
Orient Industry has released a 40th-anniversary book looking at the history of their sex dolls (also known as love dolls) and how they are made. You can order it from Kanojo Toys, though be aware that the text is only in Japanese.
The Kishin Shinoyama photography exhibition we previewed in April has now started at the Shibuya art space Atsuko Barouh Arts Drinks ...
Photographer and love doll super fan Yoshitaka Hyodo has converted his private house into a personal hihokan-style sex museum.
Located in Yashio City on the border between Saitama and Tokyo, Hyodo has even opened up his house to the public for Golden Week. If you want to visit, it is open from April 30th to May 5th. Reservations are required, though, so check his blog for more details. Admission is ¥1,000, but apparently free for people with sex dolls. Photography is allowed for non-commercial purposes.
This is the fourth time he has opened up his collection across two floors ...
We don't talk about boys' love or male-on-male themes enough on this blog, so we were pleased to stumble upon this development.
The boys' love illustrator Ebimo has created a new 112-page gay drawing manual, the "BL Poses Stretch Book".
It's a bit like a working version of the "48 Ways" (shijuuhatte), which is the de facto Japanese Kama Sutra, so you really get the most out of your relationship as well as illustration skills.
The poses -- from tender kissing to hugging and all manner of sex positions -- are included as a guide to all the various ...
Another former AKB48 idol has made her porn debut, once again proving the thin pink line that exists between the industries.
Joining numerous other ex-AKB girls who "graduated" onto to adult video careers, Ryo Sakata's first porn film was released in mid-March from the Maxing label. She has already released a second one this month. Clearly she and her paymasters want to milk her appeal, which is not hard to see.
Here are some preview images from her first release.
To be fair, the 27-year-old Ryo Sakata was only a member of AKB48 for around half a month in ...
We previously wrote about schoolgirl-themed VR Kanojo ("virtual reality girlfriend") as one of the most impressive and realistic examples of adult virtual reality to have emerged in Japan.
We then got excited in January about VAQSO, a startup that was developing a virtual reality system that combined sight with smell. The headset pumps out a variety of scents in response to the game you play. The potential for adult games and experiences are obvious.
Well, we are very happy to report that the two developments have joined forces. The VR Kanojo game can now be played with the VAQSO ...
You asked and the Shinto gods of eros delivered!
Back in March, like many others we were dazzled by the sight of I-cup gravure idol Jun Amaki modeling what swiftly became known as the "virgin killer sweater". This revealing gray outfit is backless and is so skimpy that a virgin is likely to die on the spot after seeing a girl in it. Well, that might not be medically sound but the results are amazing.
The Virgin Killer Sweater is a genuine product but the viral storm ignited by Jun Amaki soon made it unavailable to all but a few lucky early birds.
The good news is that it is back ...
