Bullets 'n' Babes

HungFist wrote:I find it terribly amusing that while the Japanese police is arresting people who distribute software that allows breaking copy protection, the nation's biggest video rental store Tsutaya is selling DVD-R and CD-R discs at their counter

How does that work in Japan btw? Don't people there download anime? I know many of them have a DS with R4 card, or modded PSPs, so with gaming they seem to just download their games instead of buying them.

In Hong Kong you can even just go into a mall and have them mod your PSP for you. Not sure about downloading in HK. Would be nice if I could download the last season of Breaking Bad next year.

I don't really know how the gaming stuff goes. With movies and music the government is taking some drastic actions to actually put people in jail for downloading illegally.

For movies and music, though, rental stores are remarkably popular... and cheap. Tsutaya frequently has old releases for 100 yen (less than 1€) each with 7 day rental time. People go there like just like they go to grocery stores... with a shopping basket.

HungFist wrote:I don't really know how the gaming stuff goes. With movies and music the government is taking some drastic actions to actually put people in jail for downloading illegally.

For movies and music, though, rental stores are remarkably popular... and cheap. Tsutaya frequently has old releases for 100 yen (less than 1€) each with 7 day rental time. People go there like just like they go to grocery stores... with a shopping basket.

Oh ok, that's a nice deal. Still though, I prefer just downloading something, watching it, and when I liked it, I'll get it on BR when it's under 8-10 bucks.

And for anime I need to check the series first.

wow, I'm really popular with 12 year old girls

What do you mean?

Not sure if we want to see those pictures....

let's just leave it to your imagination

As long as it doesn't involve 'little' Hung.

Satellite of Love: Vanishing Beauty of Japanese Love Hotels
http://designyoutrust.com/2008/10/satel ... ve-hotels/

May be a bit odd concept for most foreigners, but they serve a real purpose* and can be insanely creative. And it's not just obscure fetish stuff that usually makes the western news (such as above), but can be very romantic like with a bed shaped as huge sea shell, and bubble bath with color lighting. A lot of girls really like the romantic ones!

* Due to the more collectivist society and generation-crossing households it's difficult to find own privacy... e.g most university students live with their parents.

Yesterday

That looks beautiful

Is Xmas a big thing in Japan?

Markgway wrote:Is Xmas a big thing in Japan?

It is considering no one here knows why it is celebrated...

The Japanese love parties, and they love importing anything foreign that is cool, so right now everyone's shopping Christmas presents, the streets are full of Christmas decoration and Christmas songs are playing everywhere. But it's maybe more like a festival than the family event that it is in western countries. While we have dinner with the family, the Japanese go to love hotel I hear

And apparently the Christmas trees fly out of the house immediately after Christmas. I don't know about the UK, but in Finland they would stay at least till the new year, and families with children might keep it well into January.

New Year, on the other hand, appears to be more a family event here than it is in western countries.

I've never spent Christmas in Japan myself, though, last time I flew back to Finland, and this time too I'm going to Finland (Christmas) and Paris (New Year) with the gf. Well, next year most likely we will be in Japan (ese love hotel )

HungFist wrote:Satellite of Love: Vanishing Beauty of Japanese Love Hotels
http://designyoutrust.com/2008/10/satel ... ve-hotels/

May be a bit odd concept for most foreigners, but they serve a real purpose* and can be insanely creative. And it's not just obscure fetish stuff that usually makes the western news (such as above), but can be very romantic like with a bed shaped as huge sea shell, and bubble bath with color lighting. A lot of girls really like the romantic ones!

* Due to the more collectivist society and generation-crossing households it's difficult to find own privacy... e.g most university students live with their parents.

That's actually really quite tragic, what's the story behind this New Public Morals Act then? Presumably there's been some unrest to lead up to that act?

let me just explain the basics for random readers who didn't necessarily read that article first

Love Hotels
Japan is a relatively collectivist and family oriented society where children live home well into adulthood, and elderly folks would rather move back in with their adult children than go to elderly home. As a result couples of all ages find it remarkably difficult to find privacy for their romantic friday night. Hence love hotels; hotels which rent rooms for either "rest" (charged by hour) or "sleep" (all night). Clearly these hotels serve one and only one purpose, hence they are equipped with all kinds of romantic extras: bubble bath, heart shaped bed, karaoke machine, cosplay costumes for rent etc. Add Japanese inventive/hentai genius and you'll also come up with all kinds of special love hotels to serve the more perverted customers; e.g. a room resembling a subway car to allow you to grope your gal without fears of arrest. In the old Japan you could find something for everyone - crazy fetish love hotels, and just very innocent romantic ones that anyone would feel comfortable going to... especially since there is usually no front desk and you never have to see any staff - you choose the room on a digital panel, and the door will lock behind you until you pay the machine to let you out.

New Public Morals Act
I know very little about this, but the title is probably somewhat selfexplanatory. From what I can gather, sex industry is now only allowed in designated areas. And the worst thing is that love hotels, according to someone's influential grandmother, are now classified as sex industry even though all it typically involves is you renting a hotel room for you and your girlfriend to spend a romantic evening (no love hotel provides services such as prostitutes). I wonder what my mom would think if she heard I've become a devoted client of "sex industry"

If my interpretation is correct, the old school love hotel wonders are still free to operate in the above mentioned designated areas (it said there are 4 such blocks in Tokyo, a city of 13 million people), elsewhere your hotel must pass for normal lodging even when it's crearly a "love hotel", hence they have to throw away much of the creativity and odd ideas. They can still be a bit romantic, but if there's handcuffs in the locker or a rotating bed you'd have hard time explaining the officials how that is "luxury for tourists".

Japanese legislation is total crap anyway: e.g. intercourse in exchange of money is considered prostitution and is hence illegal, but blowjob/assfuck/whatever is fully legal because the law that prohibits paying for sex defines only normal intercourse as sex...

Shingster wrote:

HungFist wrote:Satellite of Love: Vanishing Beauty of Japanese Love Hotels
http://designyoutrust.com/2008/10/satel ... ve-hotels/

May be a bit odd concept for most foreigners, but they serve a real purpose* and can be insanely creative. And it's not just obscure fetish stuff that usually makes the western news (such as above), but can be very romantic like with a bed shaped as huge sea shell, and bubble bath with color lighting. A lot of girls really like the romantic ones!

* Due to the more collectivist society and generation-crossing households it's difficult to find own privacy... e.g most university students live with their parents.

That's actually really quite tragic, what's the story behind this New Public Morals Act then? Presumably there's been some unrest to lead up to that act?

Actually I don't know any details behind that, but probably it's just some bullshit by grannies in their flower hats. Like video games are being censored in Japan these days, and in the 1990's splatter films became "despised filth" because they might encourage real life crimes... in a country that has like the lowest crime statistics and the most violent movie/video game history in the world.

But this is outrageous! I can understand the controversy in issues such as street prostitution because it's in front of everyone's eyes, but love hotels for god's sake! These are hotels rooms for couples who don't have their own flat, or want to find a more exotic place! How is it offending anyone's morals if lovers go behind closed doors into a normal looking (from the outside) hotel building and have sex. Or maybe they don't even have sex! Sometimes travellers spend a night in love hotel cause you can get luxury room for cheap rates

It's really sad to see this unique part of Japanese culture toned down heavily. I can't find a single old school love hotel around here. A couple of "tasteful" sm vibed rooms is a wild as it gets. I'd love to visit a real obscure one just out of interest one time. Normally though, the more romantic the better.

The last few years it's been really sad news when it comes to Japan and these forms of censorship. Not just the banning of video games and other entertainment, but also prohibiting people with tattoos from going to the beach and now this...

It's a bit sad and tragic to be honest, and hopefully a new generation of politicians will rise up and correct the current hypocritical prude nonsense that's prevalent in many societies today. (And if history teaches us anything, it is that these eras of restrictions are usually followed by liberal eras, and vice-versa)

Yi-Long wrote:The last few years it's been really sad news when it comes to Japan and these forms of censorship. Not just the banning of video games and other entertainment, but also prohibiting people with tattoos from going to the beach and now this...

The tattoo thing is ridiculous, yet understandable. Tattoos are traditionally a "trademark" of yakuza. If you go to public bath and a tattooed Japanese man is sitting next to you, the chances are he is a professional criminal. Understandably other customers would feel a bit uncomfortable, and hence most such places prohibit entry from anyone with tattoos...

That is amazing!

WTF moment of the month: sit down in cinema to see Django Unchained and see an educational spot before the film with President Obama advising the viewers about minding their manners in the theater. "If your phone rings EVEN ONCE, trust me, I WILL FIND YOU!"

+ Yubari
Hanging out with Yoshihiro Nishimura in Japan's movie town, idol spitting beer on my face, and other typical Yubari stuff:
- viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6492

HungFist wrote:WTF moment of the month: sit down in cinema to see Django Unchained and see an educational spot before the film with President Obama advising the viewers about minding their manners in the theater. "If your phone rings EVEN ONCE, trust me, I WILL FIND YOU!"

+ Yubari
Hanging out with Yoshihiro Nishimura in Japan's movie town, idol spitting beer on my face, and other typical Yubari stuff:
- viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6492

I wish we had that advert in the cinema in the UK, not those Orange adverts or some guy impersonating Hitchcock

grim_tales wrote: I wish we had that advert in the cinema in the UK, not those Orange adverts or some guy impersonating Hitchcock

Some guy? Sir, Anthony Hopkins, some guy!?!

Oops, I didn't realise it was him

I couldnt believe it was him doing the voice, I should have guessed since he played him in Hithcock (2012)