Here it is !! My Japanese adaptation of a French comic song "J'aime les moches", by Max Boublil, finally recorded and youtubized ! Please have a look and share !

I think that the song perfectly matches the current Japanese social situation : three months ago, a respected economist called Takuro Morinaga very seriously proposed to settle a new tax - a quite heavy one - to be paid by hansome men only, in order to prevent them to become in the same time hot AND rich, attracting to them the favors of all the ladies who are looking for a husband. Because that's the problem : the Japanese ladies now want to get married with rich and sexy partners, or they don't get married at all. And so Japan is full of single guys craving for a slave a nice wife at home while wealthy playboys have several girlfriends. According to him, such a tax would balance the society between common/ugly rich guys and hansome poor guys. So ladies, it would be time to make a serious choice.

To "classify" men into the right category, a jury of 5 women, randomely picked up, would judge the hotness of every man and determine forever if the poor guy will be a working-class hotty or a rich big fish. Like, seriously.

Japan is the only country where people have such ideas. Of course it doesn't mean that the people are massively following the principle or that the proposition will ever be considered on the legal plan. But still... helloooow ?

Anyway : I'm not for this tax, really. But if the situation is so terrible, why not promoting ugly guys instead of punishing the hansome ones ? That's the purpose of Dasai Danshi ! have fun !

Kanamara matsuri is THE festival that attracts a maximum of foreigners in Japan. We are so pervert. Pervert enough even not to have this kind of festival at home. Thank you Japan to offer us the opportunity to celebrate even penises. Yes, penises.

A long, long time ago in Kawasaki Daishi (30 minutes from Shinagawa by Keikyu Main Line and Kawasaki Daishi line), too poor young men were unlucky enough to meet a demon that was hiding into a young maid's vagina (a demon with sharp teeth), and they had their penises cut off. Ouch. So, the local shinto shrine immediatly built a giant iron phallus which has been venerated as a "kami" (spirit) since. Once a year, the first Sunday of April, people come and celebrate life / sex / couple harmony / health and so on, because it's fun and because this is not everyday you can openly thank penises to exist in this world.

By the way, the main part of the money raised goes to HIV reasearch. But surprisingly, no condoms in sight. All taboos can not fall in the same time...

The crowd following the great "chinko" (penis)

The shrine of fertility

Nice part-time job, isn't it

Sex toys and "penis energy" marketing

At Kanamara matsuri, it is fashionable to suck penis-shaped candies. Little by little the whole crowd turns into a polite bunch of cocksuckers. This is amazing how everyone (both women and men) is enthusiastic about having one of these candies, and it even doesn't look like a massive porn movie. Once again, the Japanese are able to do anything with such an innocence... For me, I am not sure I look so ingenuous ; several Japanese guys asked me if they could have a picture of me with the candy - and I accepted. I don't want to imagine what they intend to do with the picture...

Let's have a candy, sweetie

Ok, that's enough with penises. Kawasaki also have very beautiful pagodas next to the shrine. It worth to go and have a look !

Daruma-men on the street... I love the way Japanese guys can forget their ego for a while...

That was Kanamara matsuri's fun ! Or how image-freaks Westerners can get inspired by the Japanese and enjoy ridiculous things too, sometimes...

I got free tickets for Thai Fight Tournament at Ariake Colosseum, Odaiba, Tokyo - a nice opportunity for me to go and see what it looks like...

The Opening Speech has been said by Mr,Suwat Liptapanlop, former Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand - boxing seems to be a serious matter, in this country !

I was surprised to see that a Thai Fight Tournament are actually something very beautiful to watch (I don't talk of bodies only). Check it out :

Then, I have the feeling that in Thai Boxing the aesthetic performance is almost as important as the sport itself. We had a wonderful "Thai Fight Dance" to start, with an exciting warrior choregraphy and people jumping in the air :

The Fight itself : two teams (Japanese team and Thai-French International Team), 5 victories for the International. Sorry, Japan !

• Match 1 : Saiyok Pumpanmuang VS Koh Suman (Thailand wins)
• Match 2 : Fabio Pinca VS Yamato Yuya (France wins)
• Match 3 : Yodsanklai Faitex VS Shirasu Yasuhito (Japan wins)
• Match 4 : Sudsakorn Sor Klinmee VS Nishikawa Tomoyuki (Thailand wins)
• Match 5 : Buakaw Por Pramuk VS Makino Tomoaki (Thailand wins)
• Match 6 : Yohan Lidon VS Gohno Akihiro (France wins)

Funny detail : see on the left, there was a portrait of the King of Thailand, and the Thai Fighters went and bowed in front of it before entering the ring. Taiko for the atmosphere. Very impressive.

Here, Yohan Lidon, 73 kg French Thai Fighter (winner) :

Final victory of the Thai-French Team

Final Ceremony

The valiant Fighters

Eye of the Tiger !

Ghibli faces at the baker's shop

Sandals are not sexy. Sandals are not glamour. But sandals are funny. And how can you make sandals even less sexy, less glamour but definitely funnier ? Adding unexpected accessories, of course.

Hotflops for Laforet Harajuku

Golf is obviously popular...


Martini and olives, champagne and bubbles, tennis balls, grape and ananas...
there were some more, but I have been asked not to take pictures anymore...

("J'aime la sensation de la mayonnaise qui me nappe les orteils"
"Dariaaaa ! Ce que tu dis est abominable !")

(More pictures by Attila & Melinda in the ETP Japan photo album !)

It's almost Christmas and it's time for regression. So it's time to go and visit the Japanese version of the Disneyland Resort. We went to Disney Sea because it seemed to propose a few new things compared to our Disneyland Paris. The two parks (Land and Sea) are situated in the Easter surburb of Tokyo. You can acces the place easily with the JR line connected to Tokyo station or Shin-Kiba station, on the Yurakucho line.  It's a simple, easy, fast and cheap journey - first good surprise of the day.

Mysterious Island

Arabian Coast

Mermaid's Lagoon

Mediteranean Port

American Waterfront

TomorrowLand

I went several times to Disneyland Paris and I have to say that I definitely prefered Disney Sea Tokyo. Let me list the nicest points of Tokyo's park :

- It's quiet. The kids are patients, calms and nobody rushes to the attractions. No stress in the waiting lines. When you lost your friends because you were busy to take a picture, people kindly make some space in the line to let you join your group. As a result, the day was very relaxing - something that you can't expect from Disneyland Paris where kids are shouting at every corner and their parents insulting them in all the langages of the world...

- It's clean. Another difference from Disney Paris. Almost everyone is carrying a pop-corn bag but nothing falls on the flor and if it happens, a nice cleaning person immediatly appears to clean the place. So Disney Sea really looks like another planet where everything is pretty and easy-going.

- It's details-oriented. Inside the attractions, the level of attention to the details of the decoration and so on is really, really amazing. Nothing compared to the cheap Pinocchio/Peter Pan/etc. attrations I was used to. The journey to the Center of the Earth is properly a piece of Art, as well as the 20 000 Under the Sea and even Indiana Jones - the special effects are really high-standard and you don't regret the time that you spent waiting for it ! And I understand now why the Japanese are so crazy about Disney stuff - the park as a whole is really, really impressive. There are little rooms everywhere, full of stuff and decoration ; the music on the alleys is well-balanced with noises effects etc... How can you resist to the magic ?

Special mention to the Kingdom of Triton, it was so beautiful that I could have spent the hole day to watch the scenary... And there was the real Mermaid's cavern !!!

- It's not so full of tourists. We barely met something like ten gaijin groups or couples. All the staff workin at Disney Sea is bilingual but people seemed sincerely surprised and happy that I could question them politely in Japanese and two of them thanked me for my "kirei na nihongo". As a result, you don't have the feeling that the park is a "tourists thing"but a kind of part of the modern Japanese culture.

- The restaurants are not only fast-food spots, even the middle-range ones. You can have spicy food inside he Volcano, arabian pastries at the Arabian Coast and pasta at Little Venice. I didn't tried any restaurant but families have more choice to feed the kids than in Paris.

- The goodies are not so expensive. I didn't buy anything because there was no reason to but if you like to bring some stuff back to your friends, I suppose that you feel relieved about the range of prices.

- You can see Fuji-san from the water-front ! It's the fist time that I could see it so clearly !

A few strange things, anyway :

- In the Little Mermaid's show, after meeting the Witch, the mermaid finally decides to stay in the Ocean with her fishes-friends. Ok, they had to find a way to close the show, but personnally, I was shocked. The mermaid, in Disney's version, is curious about the world and wants to get out the protected familial area to make her own experiences. It's a metaphore of the way you become and adult, and make a step into a foreign world that you don't controle - the way you accept to take risks... It's really Japanese to prefer an ending where the mermaid stays with the people who look like her and rejects the dangers of the "outside world". Welcome to the Japanese society.

- You can GET MARRIED at Disneyland Tokyo... Oh my.

- For the strong sensations inside the attractions, prefer Disneyland Paris. I am not in this case but if you like adrenaline, you would be desappointed by the softness of the Japanese "fast-pace" experiences.
But I liked a lot the Tower of Terror... You are in a elevator suddenly falling from the highest floor. I really felt myself falling from high.

Tower of Terror

A really good day at Disney Sea !

For my friends who would plan to have a quiet, relaxing time at the hot springs during the holidays : don’t underestimate the sense of humor of our dear Nihonjin. You could regret it.

このビデオを見て、今温泉は怖いと思います。