Brassieres are Un-Islamic

Brassieres are Un-Islamic
via SankakuComplex:

A hardline Islamist group in law-less Somalia has begun publicly flogging women for wearing bras, as they claim violate Islam as they are 'deceptive'.

The group responsible, the insurgent group of Al Shabaab, has sent gunmen into the streets of Mogadishu to round up any women who appear to have a firm bust.
The women are then inspected to see if the firmness are natural, or if it is the result of wearing a bra. If they are found wearing a bra, they are ordered to remove it and shake their breast, said residents.

Al Shabaab seeks to impose a strict interpretation of the Sharia Law all over Somalia have also banned movies, musical ring-tones, dancing at weddings, and watching or playing soccer. Now they declare that "breast should be firm naturally, or just flat".

A man was recently thrown behind bars after having wrestled with another man, who humiliated her sister by beating her and forcing her to remove her bra.

Recycle the Right Way

Recycle the Right Way
via Dannychoo:

Garbage separation is a big thing in Japan. Over here in Singapore, I reckon it will still take 50 more years before the people here are civilized enough to do it right.

The photo below shows a bag of rubbish thrown out without the proper separation done. The pink sticker is left by the disposal fellas which says "This rubbish has not been separated. Separate it properly and try again".
Until one manages to separated out their rubbish properly, the disposal guys will leave the bags at your doorstep, uncollected. If they find an address in the bag (e.g. from an envelop etc), then they will leave it at the address. Very soon, non-compliance residents will have a mountain piled up at their door steps.

This bag above needs the cans and bottles separated out properly. The labels and caps need to be removed and they should be raised in water too. Once separated, one should keep them at home and throw them out on recycle day.
Recycle day is designated depending on where you live, and each area usually has a chart on display out in the streets which tells you when burnables, non-burnables, recyclables, etc should be put out.

The below video shows how one should go about separating out their rubbish:

IREZUMI

IREZUMI
Original post from SankakuComplex:

Rie Gomita of Osaka recently captured the attention of the world's cameras with this extremely tasteful display of a traditional Japanese tattoo, or Irezumi. She was displayed at the recent International London Tattoo Convention. Probably the only nice bon bon walking around, as the rest of the convention displays consists of the usual tattoo maniac freak show...
Last picture from REUTERS/Andrew Winning.

Life-Size Gundam

Life-Size Gundam

Following my earlier post on the life-size Gundam completion, now they've done the head movements, sound effects and has steam coming out from the Gundam RX-78-2 ~!
Here's the youtube clip featuring the life-size Gundam RX-78-2 in Odaiba Tokyo~!


Now, all that's left is for the Japanese Military to confirm speculations that "Japan Military injects funding into research for M.S.G. technology". Mobile Suit Gundam. xD

Life-Size Gundam Completed

Life-Size Gundam Completed
Via Sankaku Complex:

Some time ago in March 2009, Bandai announced its intent to build a free-standing, 1/1 scaled Gundam in tribute for the Gundam 30th anniversary celebrations.
The giant robot wil stand 18metres tall and is set to be publicly exhibited in July 2009.
The Gundam in question is the RX-78-2 Gundam, the iconic mecha from the first series. A 1/30th scale model of the model was unveiled:The status will first be exhibited freely at a park in Odaiba, Tokyo, along with other anniversary celebrations, and will then be moved around the country.
The unit will be constructed in modular parts to enable mobility to be maintained, with a steel frame and fibre-reinforced-plastic exterior. The head will be able to move up and down and from left to right. 50 lights installed in the unit will add to the effect, along with smoke generators.

May 2009...

Construction of the lifesize Gundam model due for exhibition soon was well underway, and even partially completed the machine presents a monstrous spectacle sure to excite small children, Gundam enthusiasts, and of course Japanese men...

June 2009...

Its finally completed!
The Gundam is planned to be unveiled on July 11, and be shown until August 31st.

More information on the mecha is available at the Official Gundam 30th Anniversary Website.

Q: Now, the only thing left to REALLY celebrate this 30th Anniversary, is to have die-hard fans stage a covert ops and steal this unit from the site... like they always do...

Japanese Only

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Japan Trains

Japan Trains
Next time you curse under your breath while squeezing your ass into our SMRT trains during the evening peak hours at City Hall or Raffles Place... recall this video and heave a relief...

I remember being told before that in Japan, one of the duties of platform marshalls is to "give a helping hand" to commuters who have difficulties getting into trains...

Whoever watched the video and pity the ladies being squeezed this bad, I thank you 50% only for your compassion; men doesn't like to be squeezed amongst men as well (at least this is true for me), pls spare a thought for us men too.

A PITY...
A pity our SMRT trains doesn't come equipped with comfortable cushions like they do in Japan... so I am 100% sure we won't catch sleeping beauties in our local trains... haiz~~

Services in Japan Part 4

services - SENTO
I wun really consider Sentō to be a service, I'd view it more like a culture thingy in Japan.

Where customers pay for entrance to use these communal bath houses, "some Japanese find social importance in going to public baths, citing the virtues of skinship in Japanese... others go to a sentō because they live in a small housing facility without a private bath or to enjoy bathing in a spacious room and to relax in saunas or jet baths that often accompany new or renovated sentōs..." - wikipedia

I would certainly love to relax in saunas and jet baths... but bathing in very spacious rooms and with other men side-by-side... HELL NO.

below: you bath yourself clean first before entering the dip... Fanservice for the ladies...
*stop staring at the asscrack!*

services - ONSEN
"Onsen (温泉) is a Japanese term for hotsprings, though the term is often used to describe the facilities and inns around the hot springs. A volcanically active country, Japan has thousands of onsen scattered along its length and breadth. Onsen were traditionally used as public bathing places and today play a central role in directing Japanese domestic tourism" - wikipedia

below: I am definitely gonna try this out if I have the chance - get a little monkey to scrub my back... these monkeys are probably the luckiest guys in the world~

If you do read the article from Wikipedia, there are outdoor onsens as well as indoor onsens; outdoor onsens are termed "Rotenburo (露天風呂)" or "Notenburo (野天風呂)". "Baths may be either public run by a municipality or private (内湯) - often run as part of a hotel, Ryokan (旅館) or Minshuku (民宿).


services - KON-YOKU
A simple google for the term "mixed bath" online and I found a very good... ahem - Weekly Playboy article by Geoff Botting, on The Japan Times Online. Full article here.

According to the article, the number of mixed hotsprings, called kon-yoku in Japanese is dwindling at an alarming rate... driving the thousand over years old tradition of mixed bathing towards extinction.

Quote:
"Keita Oguro, the author of a series of konyoku guidebooks, doesn't have the exact figures but reckons that about 50 of the 650 resorts he wrote about five years ago no longer allow men and women to mingle in the bath..."

"They have become women-only or they've put up physical (gender) barriers..."

"The magazine puts the blame on a number of factors behind the demise of the konyoku tradition. Among them is a 1991 guideline issued by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, advising hot-spring resort operators to refrain from allowing males and females aged 10 and older from bathing together..."

"As a consequence, new businesses that want to offer mixed bathing don't get approval. Furthermore, when operators transfer their businesses to their children or when the bathing areas are renovated, applications need to be filed with the local public-health departments. That's when the operators are told to stop their mixed bathing..."

...The travel industry is also part of the problem. According to Oguro, travel agents have been energetically promoting group rentals, whereby organizations or large groups of friends reserve entire resorts for themselves, thus making the baths unavailable to romancing couples..."
Unquote.

below: was emailed this some time back... was told its some Japanese firm's annual company tour as part of 'welfare activities' for their employees to get to know one another...

below: well they sure got to know one another really better after the trip...

Kon-yoku for you? The Japan association for kon-yoku here; and a pretty informative site called Onsen express here.

Quote:
"The main problem, according to Tadanori Matsuda, founder of the Japan Hot Spring Research Institute, is the lecherous attitude of an increasing number of single male bathers... "

"Such guys, he says, see mixed bathing as nothing more than an opportunity to gawk at naked women... "

"Some will position themselves facing the exit of the women's changing room and some will sit in the bath all day, carrying water bottles so they don't dehydrate," Matsuda says."

"He and other onsen watchers have noticed a sharp increase in these perverts in recent years. More and more resorts, meanwhile, have been forced to respond by setting up the gender barriers or barring men all together..."

below: if you find yourself staring for over 3.22 secs, you add on to the statistics of the increasing number of lecherous single male bathers... fanservice for the guys...

"Mixed bathing, whereby complete strangers could enjoy hot springs amid calmness and harmony, is a distinctive feature of Japan," Matsuda sighs. "It has a history of at least 1,300 years. It's outrageous that some mindless people are destroying this tradition..."
Unquote

Q: gonna get a girl fast so I can bring her to Japan for some Konnyaku (jelly) and Konyoku... (^___^)