Mini Kyary!

Cutest thing EVER. Also she sings this song the same way I do at karaoke – mumble the verse because I don't really know it, then shout the chorus enthusiastically. Her Japanese is better than mine though. And nobody has made me a Kyary outfit. Yet.

posted by Chloe (obviously)

Kanamara Matsuri – festivals, phalluses, and foreigners

This weekend we did what possibly every other foreigner in Tokyo did, and went to the Kanamara Matsuri. A matsuri is a Japanese festival and we have been to a lot of them – but never one quite like this.

We took a train out of the centre of Tokyo to Kawasaki, and then walked and walked and walked and walked until we found the Kanayama shrine in a nondescript residential area. We could tell we'd found the festival because all of a sudden the narrow road was jammed with tourists, locals, and... um... this guy:

What do you reckon this guy is dressed as? Yeah, that's right. That's exactly what it is. A giant penis. Kanamara Matsuri is also known as the Festival of the Steel Phallus, and every year several thousand people gather here to join in with the phallic festivities. 

Three giant phalluses are paraded through the streets to the shrine, where they are greeted by priests and taiko drummers. 

First comes the black steel one, standing proud is his very own mikoshi (a kind of portable shrine carried on people's shoulders):

Next comes a rather disturbingly pink one:

And then one made of, ahem, wood, and hiding bashfully inside its mikoshi:

At the shrine, the willies stand to attention while the priests give prayers and everyone claps:

Then it's off to buy some appropriately-shaped refreshments and souvenirs:

And have a bit of a sit down:

Although it's now a bit of a tourist-fest, the festival has an interesting history – the shrine used to be visited by prostitutes to pray for protection against sexually transmitted diseases, and other people went for blessings of fertility and marital harmony. There is also a local legend in which a woman's vagina was inhabited by a demon, who castrated her newlywed husband when they tried to have sex. The woman went to see a blacksmith who made her a steel phallus, which she used to break the demon's teeth. And I suppose they lived happily ever after. 

posted by Chloe 

きゃりーぱみゅぱみゅの新曲!

Kyary-chan has a new song! Hooray! And she's found a second head, dancing lions, eyelash boobs, and a very very big bow. The song seems to be almost entirely about false eyelashes (tsukematsuge).

posted by Chloe

Creepy Kewpie

Anyone who has been to Japan knows it has a multitude of weird toys. Anthropomorphic broad beans, Kapybara-san, that sinister-looking Russian one with the weird ears – you name it, Japan has probably plastered its kawaii face over stationery and moulded it into phone charms, keyrings, and bento boxes. But among the giant cast of cute characters, one's caught my eye. It's a small doll who likes to dress up in all sorts of costumes. Wherever you go, she's there, dressed up as something strange. Now, this is in a country where no toy is content without a range of strange outfits and almost all of them can be found wearing costumes, often of each other (in particular, the Monster Hunter characters and Hello Kitty share a skin-swapping penchant). But this little doll has assembled a particularly extensive wardrobe.

Among her thousands of costumes, she's dressed up as a plane...

... a bowl of ramen (I like the jaunty fishcake hat)...

...an effeminate-looking Mario...

...a member of the wartime Imperial Japanese Navy...

...and any kind of fruit you'd care to name.

I even found her dressed as the Miyajima shrine when I went to Miyajima...

It turns out she is a Kewpie doll. Kewpie dolls were first designed in the early 20th century and derived their name from Cupid, who I guess they kind of look like, albeit a fairly creepy version. The dolls found their way to Japan where they were adopted by a mayonnaise company, who still sell their mayonnaise with the doll on the front:

Which brings us to Kewpie's weirdest outfit of all:

 

What do you think she's dressed as this time? No, you're wrong. She's a codfish egg. Not content with flogging just mayonnaise, Kewpie is now the global brand ambassador for her company's tarako sauce. Tarako is cod roe, which over here you can get as a topping for just about anything. Even, um, pasta. In fact, Kewpie Co have brought out a whole delicious range of tarako pasta sauces. Here's a sample ad:

It seems to have been Kewpie Co's main marketing strategy over the past twenty or so years to make ads involving hundreds of identical tarako Kewpies advancing steadily towards terrified children. A quick  youtube search will bring up loads of videos like the one above. But it's not all tarako armies. Oh no, they've formed an orchestra as well...

And their song proved so catchy that the company hired a couple of girls to sing a human version while wearing tarako-shaped hats. (Warning: this song lasts longer than you can possibly imagine.)

Apparently this song was a hit and the Tarako Girls released an album and a special Christmas version of the song. (I won't test your sanity by embedding the video, but if the song hasn't driven you crazy yet you can watch the Christmas version here.)

Tarako Kewpie became a mega star. You can buy keychains, phone charms, and all manner of other plastic tat shaped just like her. Even MP3 players:

And if you're lucky, you might even bump into her on your way to buy some delicious cod-egg pasta sauce.

posted by Chloe

P.S. Kewpie Co's website is pretty amazing too: http://www.kewpie.co.jp/tarako/index.html