There are some 11,000 registered hostess clubs in Tokyo.
We've seen plenty of overseas interest in the life of a Japanese hostess before, such as this short video chronicling a regular 24 hours for one Tokyo lady.
But what about the foreign hostesses? As we all known, there are legions of Russian and other nationalities staffing the hostess clubs of Ginza and elsewhere, often on dubious visa statuses.
It's a bit old but we came across this 60-minute documentary about foreign hostesses working in Tokyo.
Called Tokyo Girls, it is about four Canadians whose story may or may not ...
Every now and then, Japan's character artists create something truly awesome and original, and which captures the imagination of people around the world.
Take Calne Ca by Deino, an idol with a mechanized calcium skeleton (hence the "Ca" in the name). The character -- a favorite of ambitious cosplayers -- is derived from the Vocaloid idol Hatsune Miku. Her name is pronounced Karune Shii-e.
According to the Vocaloid Wikia:
Her name comes from kara (骸) and ne (音), as well as CA (シーエ), the chemical symbol of calcium. This is due to Calne Ca being a mechanized skeleton ...
Gaycation is a new series from Viceland, Vice's TV channel, featuring Ellen Page and her friend traveling the world in search of gay stuff.
Episode 1 is Japan, especially Tokyo and Nichome.
Of course, Vice likes to veer toward the sensationalism, as its previous "schoolgirls for sale" article showed, and as such this episode does have some bad choices ("rent-a-friend agency and joining the party in the world's smallest gay bar").
It also starts with some cliched footage of Shibuya and halfway through resorts to shots of Scramble Crossing, but if you keep watching, there is some ...
The Japanese condom company Okamoto may make some of the best advertising in the industry -- from humping dinosaurs to condom-dispenser belts -- but it no longer has the crown of world's thinnest condom.
A court in Guangzhou’s Yuexiu District has said that Okamoto must stop using the label in its advertising, because the title of world's thinnest condoms rightfully belongs to Aoni condoms, which are made by Guangzhou Daming United Rubber Products.
Okamoto was a victim of its own success. If you make enough of a fuss about a claim, invariably there is going to be someone who got ...
Only yesterday we were pondering if wearing a mask makes you less attractive and then we see this!
Remember Hentai Kamen, the strange manga about the panties-masked "superhero" that was made into a film in 2013?
Yes, that Hentai Kamen where the character's groin has the power to block phone signals, obstruct camera lens and even blaze light to punish the selfish members of the audience. Well, not really. But the crime-fighting man is back.
Yes, folks, the exhibitionist pervert with muscles returns with a new movie in 2016! Hentai Kamen Abnormal Crisis opens in May.
Here's the ...
People in Japan like to wear masks, especially in the flu and hayfever seasons.
Does it make a woman look more mysterious, hiding half a face? Or is she spoiling her charming looks?
We know of a Japanese woman whose face we have never fully seen because she is always wearing a face mask. However, what we can see is always stunning, so the mask is both frustrating and tantalizing.
Apparently this is a question serious enough for academics to do research over.
Folk from the University of Hokkaido and Nagoya’s Chukyo University set out to find out if wearing a mask made you ...
What is it about Tenga that seems to inspire Japanese people to make robots?
About a year ago a minor meme on the Japanese Twittersphere involved posting self-created visions of a mecha robot that could transform into a Tenga onacup.
That was apparently (and bizarrely) related to Valentine's Day. White Day (where the men give women gifts in Japan) saw a new meme, this time mecha robots inspired by the Iroha vibrator.
Now for 2016 along comes @ZMD11S, who hasn't simply drawn or planned a Tenga robot model: he (we are assuming he's male) has built one!
Sadly it's not an actual ...
The actress and model Nanao is known for her leggy charms, "bitchy" persona that she acts up in most dramas and TV commercials she appears in, and her catchy one-word soubriquet that most people seem familiar with these days.
Her vixen reputation already seems to dictate TV drama story arcs: surely it was the reason why she was asked to pose for a long scene in just her lingerie?
How calculated are her career moves? Well, she has taken things to the next provocative level now with this share on her Instagram page, which has a million followers.
Apparently taken by her mom (okay, ...
Former SKE48 idol Momona Kito had such a hit with her first AV release that she was persuaded to make a full career out of it, releasing more films in 2016.
The one-off release on the Muteki label generated a lot of excitement last year and also placed Kito (performing under the name Yua Mikami) firmly in the growing list of AKB and sister group members who had "graduated" onto careers in Japanese porn, which given the dark side of the idol industry (mafia involvement, managers grooming idols for sex) is not such a leap in a sense.
Momona Kito/Yua Mikami has now posed for some nice hair ...
The Japanese zentai bodysuit fetish is gradually getting better known.
Here is a great way in which the originally little-known subculture can become something new.
Yuzuru Maeda is a Japanese artist living in Singapore. Despite the latter's reputation for being strait-laced, Maeda has turned to zentai to create the Zentai Art Project, a series of video and dance works that use zentai motifs.
The video document a series of happenings with performers in Lycra suits, such as this one.
Some are more like strange music videos.
Maeda also outlines a nice history ...
