too cool for school

rather disturbingly, PLAYBOY merchandising is everywhere in japan, not least when worn by an eight-year-old girl. Justify it as you might, I still find it a little odd. my neighbours' elementary school kid has been wearing jeans recently with Playboy written all over them. more commonly the cute bunny logo can be seen on junior/high school girls socks and I've seen mothers in HUSTLER t-shirts too.

but the thing is, sex, nudity and homosexuality are much more accepted as ideas here. family's and neighbours go to the local hot bath for a communal wash and chat at the weekend, leaving social rank with clothes at the door. some early shinto sects accepted homosexuality between monks and of course cross dressing in the theatre in japan is an institution. pornography, too, is very visible.

all this is surprisingly far from the ultra-conservative and polite christian ideals of the UK. people even wear Y-fronts in a sauna for gods sake. it's perhaps a pity that we lost our pagan roots to such right wing propoganda - nature is what we are. that's why these things feel natural.

I read recently, after developing an onsen habit, that until a hundred or so years ago, the japanese bathed in hot-springs together until western-imposed laws banned unisex bathing. so immoral. so un-christian. damn those early travellers and their imposing of laws. if only the japanese had come to the UK a hundred years ago and imposed their diet on us.