World's Oddest Museums

by Erik Olsen on

Ah, the great museums of the world: the Louvre, the Met,
the Hermitage, the Sulabh International Museum of
Toilets. What? You’ve never heard of the toilet museum? And you call yourself cultured. Pshaw.

OK, I’d never heard of it either. Nor several of the other rather odd museums mentioned in this piece by Jason
Volker. Volker covers a lot of territory, spanning the globe in search of the weirdest places that people have
collected weird things and put them on display for (let’s admit it) weird people.

Also making the
list is the Meguro Parasitological Museum in Japan, and the
British Lawnmower Museum in Lancashire, the kind of place that Monty Python
fans would most definitely feel at home. So next time you’re in India, drop in on the toilet museum. I’ve always
wondered where all the toilets in India went.

Tokyo's Strangest Neighborhood

by Neil Woodburn on

It’s no secret these days that Japanese teenagers are the center of the universe when it comes to
outlandishly bizarre fashion style.  The Japanese capital of this strange universe, the epicenter of style where
soft-porn meets anime, is the Tokyo neighborhood of Harajuku.  According to USA Today,
this is the place to go to pick up the latest French maid outfits, piercings, catholic school girl uniforms, pasty
makeup, Lycra, hot-pink lipstick, and miniskirts.

The style, known as Kosupure (an abbreviation of
costume play, or cosplay) combines all of the above and more as school girls transform anime-inspired
animals and characters into real life.  One of the more eye-catching fads is GothLoli, which combines white, ghoul-like make-up, dark
eyeliner, and jet-black hair with a traditional French Maid outfit and a touch of Lolita.  It is a head-turning,
when-worlds-of-fashion-collide, extravaganza. 

I’ve never been to Japan but when I do go, you can bet I’ll be popping over to Harajuku for some
serious people watching.  I’ll be the out-of-place, tall white guy mumbling, “Those damn kids…
when I was their age….”

Friday Funny – Videos

by Erik Olsen on

Thought I’d throw a couple of tummy
tickling videos at you for today’s Friday Funny. It’s a rather diverse lot, but I think you’ll enjoy them all.

First up, we have Samurai Panda, a video from
Japan that is a mixture of Quentin Tarantino, saucer-eyed Anime and . You” never look at the pandas in the zoo quite
the same way again.

Next there is this very quick, but hilariously painful video of a woman punching
another woman. One word: ouch.

And finally, another one for animal tricks lovers, a minute long vid showing a skateboarding dog.
Now this is entertainment. Someone send this on the folks at Letterman.

Beautiful Cities in Dreams

by Adrienne Wilson on

Isn’t funny how our dreams can
capture places we’ve never been, yet only seen on TV or in some glossy magazine with such detail and color, that you
would wake having sworn you had been? For some of you, your journey to Paris or Prague will only take place during the
dark hours of night, while others will twirl pencils for moments on end, daydreaming about being anywhere, but in the
office. Then there are the very lucky few who will one day be actually strolling down a bustling Tokyo street on a
beautiful morning to later stumble into the Watari Museum of
Contemporary Art. Photography, sculpture and installation enthusiasts will be happy to find and to know that they
are neither sleep walking or in the Twilight Zone, but at I Love Art 8’s "Beautiful Cities in
Dreams" exhibit running for another 52 days in Tokyo.

Over 100 works by 13 photographers will
allow visitors to the museum to encounter cities from which they’ve probably dreamed about at least once or twice and
if they haven’t before they’ll be dreaming about afterwards. Some of the artists include August Sander, Man Ray, Diane
Arbus, Robert Frank, Andy Warhol, Olaf Nicolai and more.Sounds like an awesome little event to explore while in Japan
and if you’re hip to the lingo you’ll find more details available at the museum
website, but only in Japanese. Check out Tokyo Art Beat
for a few more details to better help you if you’re around the town.

via Tokyo Art Beat

Torekimi Japan Photos and Links

by Adrienne Wilson on

As curious as
you are to know what we here think is cool enough to blog about on travel (or lame enough to question) we’re just as
interested in knowing about what you guys think, where you travel, or just nosy enough  to spend several hours
gawking and envying your totally awesome photoblogs online. (Okay, I speak for myself and not all the contributors
here.) Anywho – It was me who noticed the recent comment of a reader and decided to dash off to their site though it
indicated nothing about travel and man was I ever glad that I did!

This torekimi.com site is a photoblog featuring some incredibly cool shots of Japan that
get my heels clicking and feet antsy as ever to finally make a trip over to Tokyo – if only for a weekend. Temples,
gateways, zoo-trips, elephants, city lights and a variety of everyday shots
of life in Japan can be found here. Just as I was tempted to share one of these spectacular works of art with the rest
of you here I noticed she said she would send some folks from the Staatsanwaltschaft (a word far too foreign and large for me
to fool around with) after me. To divert my attention and tempting hands from doing such things she’s listed some
equally exciting links on Japan like this Quirky Japan website. They’ve got
some pretty nifty photos online as well and since there was
no threatening message attached I opted to display one of them here. It is a picture of an old fashioned brothel in an
area called Tennoji.

In summary – two fantastic Japan sites to most definitely check out.