Bboy Park 2009

The Bboy park bills itself as Japan’s biggest block party and has been held in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park since 1997. It’s a two-day event with music, dance, and Hip-hop culture.

For me, the endlessly fascinating thing about it is the way the guys transform from aggressive, fluid, Hip-hop street dancers and rappers into ultra-polite Japanese people within seconds. One minute a guy’s doing moves straight out of Harlem and the next he’s stiff and bowing up and down like a salariman.

There was a huge dance competition that went on for most of the day on Saturday that was just amazing.

The festival is held in late August every year. Check Metropolis’ event listings or the Bboy Park Homepage (Japanese only).

Park Rehearsals

A couple of weekends ago, a TV crew from a Singaporean production company asked me if they could interview me for a documentary about love hotels. It was hard to find a good spot, and they finally decided on Yoyogi Park. Unfortunately, during the interview, we were interrupted several times by a didgeridoo player, a tap dancer, and various other people. I had never really noticed how many people there are practicing things in the park before, so I took a walk around and see what other kinds of rehearsals I could find.

There were thespians.

Ballroom dancers.

I have no idea what this thing is, but the music sure was beautiful. If you know, answers in the comments, please.

Love Hotel Car Wash

The love hotel business is a very competitive one, and they’re always trying to come up with new ways to attract customers. This love hotel in Osaka offers free carwashes to its patrons.Instead of the car moving through the car wash, the car wash moves back and forth over the car.

There’s more information about   love hotels in my new book, Love Hotels: An Inside Look at Japan’s Sexual Playgrounds. I spent years visiting love hotels around Japan, interviewing love hotel designers, owners and staff, and wading through Japanese books on sex and love hotels to bring you this book.

It’s 182 pages of information about their history, the people who design and operate them, their place in Japanese society, crime, and much, much more. There’s also a love hotel guide with information on how to get to the best hotels in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Yokohama, Sapporo, and Fukuoka.

For more information about love hotels, please visit my newly updated love hotel page at: http://www.quirkyjapan.or.tv/lovehotels.html

To order or find out more about the book, please visit: http://www.quirkyjapan.or.tv/lovehotelbookintro.htm. There’s also a smaller guidebook, with just the hotel information for 500 yen: http://www.quirkyjapan.or.tv/lovehotelguide.html.

There are more love hotel-related posts
here.

Tennoji Then and Now

This is Tennoji, Japan’s most famous slum district. I was amazed to see this old postcard on Old Japan Photos that shows how beautiful it once was.

Retro Movie Posters

In Tennoji, an old-fashioned Osaka neighborhood.