One of the most slippery and ambiguous of terms in Japanese sexuality, otoko no ko sounds like the word for "boy" but is written with in hiragana and with a final character that usually means "daughter" or "girl". In the simplest of definitions, it's a type of cross-dressing where boys dress up as girls.
This doesn't mean you are a shemale or a transexual in the western way of thinking, but it does bend the usual lines between gender, sexuality and appearance.
There are lots of clothes for cross-dressing cosplay, including stockings, bras and dresses, negligees and even wigs. ...
Yesterday Tokyo Kinky went along to the opening day of Pink Tokyo, Japan's new adult expo at Differ Ariake on Tokyo Bay.
Running until Sunday March 2nd, Pink Tokyo is a chance to interact with sex toy makers and see events with Japanese porn stars and idols.
This is the first year it has been held and it was clearly a "test", since it was smaller than we expected. We still remember the Adult Treasure Expo AET at Makuhari Messe in 2007, which was bigger, with more booths and more interesting things happening around the "fair" part of the event. At Pink Tokyo there weren't any ...
We first heard about this cosplay dream at the end of last year. Bandai had worked with Peach John -- who know a thing or two about lingerie -- to create these fantastic Sailor Moon-themed underwear sets.
And then they sold out in days.
They promised a return and more stock. They re-launched last week and we spoke to our friends at KanojoToys.com about selling them globally.
Then the Sailor Moon cosplay lingerie sold out again. In one day. In all colors.
We think the high attention might have something to do with the fact that they got sexy model Rei Yasui to model the ...
Kigurumi suits are costumes where you dress up as an animal or anime character.
They come in all shapes and sizes, but we were excited by Anime Kigurumi Suit released by our friends KanojoToys since it represents perhaps the PERFECT chance to act out those anime roleplay fantasies.
With this Anime Kigurumi Suit set you literally become a big-eyed anime cartoon girl. We've seen a fair few of these costumes at conventions and events, but this is one of the most compelling and high-quality we've ever seen available on the wide market.
Here's what you look like if you want to ...
The Japanese celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve with sex.
December 24th is the day everyone looks forward to because on that evening it is the time for couples to go out on expensive dates, and love hotels are always packed in the evening.
Basically, no one bothers with December 25th, since they do all the important stuff on Christmas Eve.
Oh, and they like to eat KFC. So chicken and sex.
Taro and I will be getting some chicken in but have gone past the time when we expect to go on dates.
That's why we were glad to have a chance to do some dressing up. Enter the To Aru ...
What were we saying yesterday about the police?
Well, now they've turned their attention to someone who has been delighting Tokyo in recent months.
Twitter has been abuzz with images snapped of an old guy wandering the city dressed in sailor school uniform cosplay and very happy to pose for pictures.
He has companions who dress up with him!
He even went to France dressed like that.
The "seeraa fuku ojisan" (sailor school uniform old guy) is actually Hideaki Kobayashi, aged around 50.
His cult has grown to the extent that he's been interviewed by the ...
These ladies look pretty hot, right?
Well, actually these are otoko no ko (男の娘), crossdressing males, photographed by Naoko Tachibana.
They feature nine crossdressers from the cafe and bar New Type, which opened in Akihabara in May 2009. Tachibana has put these together as a photo book, "Yuri Danshi", 10,000 copies of which have been printed -- that's quite a demand!
We think you'll agree that these ladies look lovely.
Otoko no ko culture -- a mixture of cosplay and crossdressing -- is huge in Japan, with its own magazines, shopping sites ...
Like girls in knee-high socks? Tick.
Like girls in swimsuits? Tick.
Then you will definitely like Underwater Knee-High Girls by Manabu Koga, a photobook that goes on sale at the end of August.
Why have one fetish when you can have two?
Koga is known for underwater photography, such as in the Mika Ninagawa film Helter Skelter.
Koga's project features around 100 photos of smiling and alluring ladies underwater while wearing the cosplayer's favorite kind of footwear.
So what do you think? Is this aquatic malarkey ...
Photographer Yuji Susaki has got together with Akihabara idol unit Dempagumi.inc to create a photo book with 100 cosplay models.
The "Dempa Models x 100 Cosplay" collection goes on sale August 8th.
We only just blogged about another Susaki cosplay photography project and it seems he is very much in the news these days.
The Dempagumi.inc girls (who include Moga Mogami and Nemu Yumemi) are featured in student uniforms, nurse uniforms and more. The publishers hope to sell 5,000 copies in the first run.
While Dempagumi.inc may not have the profile of the ubiquitous AKB48, it has ...
Next month if you are in Tokyo you should check out this awesome collection of cosplay images by photographer Yuji Susaki.
The sexy and sensual images showcase Susaki's fifteen years of work investigating the curious mixture of the erotic and the dress-up that is cosplay.
“COSPLAY made in Japan” is showing at Emon Photo Gallery August 24 to September 14, 2013.
And if you think you recognize some of the sexy ladies in the pictures, you're not imagining things. Susaki uses idols and models rather than "amateur" cosplayers, including Mizuho Hata, Ai Amano, Chiaki Kyan, ...
