July 2009

Boston brouhaha ‘cooling,’ Matsuzaka to apologize

By Kenji Nakano • July 31, 2009

Daily tabloid Nikkan Gendai is reporting that the situation surrounding injured and disgruntled pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka and Boston Red Sox management has reached a “cooling point” with the right-hander set to make an official apology next week.

Desperate deri heru dames say sayonara to safe sex

By Kazutaka Shimanaka • July 29, 2009

Sex shops are offering increasingly extreme services

Gundam guards Tokyo

By CJ • July 27, 2009

Giant Gundam robot model stands guard in Odaiba, Tokyo to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the ‘Mobile Suit Gundam’ anime series

Peepers keep goggles ready for golden showers

By Kazutaka Shimanaka • July 25, 2009

In 1993, a new shop named Oshikko Kansho Kurabu (the pee appreciation club) opened for business in Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district.

Office lady pulls off big win in overtime

By Mieko Shimizu • July 24, 2009

“I get incredibly excited fantasizing of situations where I have sex at the workplace,” confesses an anonymous contributor in the June issue of Renai Tengoku, a raunchy vernacular women’s magazine. “Having experienced it once, now I’ve become infatuated. I’m constantly turned on thinking about it.”

Fire at Olympic department store

By CJ • July 22, 2009

Huge fire at Olympic department store in Tokyo’s Takadanobaba district draws hundreds of emergency service personnel and onlookers

Right-wingers at Yasukuni

By CJ • July 22, 2009

Shinichi Kamijo of right-wing group Gishin Gokoku-kai at Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward

Seen at the Sanja Matsuri

By CJ • July 22, 2009

Colorful characters at the Sanja Matsuri in Asakusa (The Tokyo Reporter, May 2007)

Hosts in Kabukicho

By CJ • July 22, 2009

Hosts look for clients near Ichiban-gai in Tokyo’s Kabukicho entertainment district. (November 2007)

Bowl battle: Japan’s lawn champs go to Scotland

By CJ • July 21, 2009

It will be a battle of the bowls, or “woods,” a reference to the former composition of the non-spherical objects, with the pair from Japan testing their skills against the best in the world during the eight-day championship — the showcase event for a sport that for hundreds of years has tested one’s ability to read the green.