Category: Culture

Toroko-buros cleaned up to become Soaplands

A Soapland (ソープランド, sōpurando) is a a type of brothel in Japan where male clients can engage in sexual activity with female prostitutes, although officially the clubs do business as places where the client is bathed. Soaplands began when explicit prostitution in Japan became illegal, as a simple form of bath where women washed men’s bodies. They were originally known as toruko-buro, meaning Turkish bath. Following a campaign by Turkish scholar Nusret Sancakli denouncing the use of this name for brothels, the new name “soapland” was the winning entry in a nationwide contest to rename them.

Capsule Hotels are a Perfect Fit

A capsule hotel (カプセルホテル, kapuseru hoteru) is a hotel system of extremely dense occupancy. This style of hotel accommodation was developed in Japan and has not gained popularity outside of the country, although Western variants with larger accommodations and often private baths are being developed.

Akihabara (秋葉原, “Field of Autumn Leaves”), also known as Akihabara Electric Town (秋葉原電気街, Akihabara Denki Gai), is an area of Tokyo, Japan. It is located less than five minutes by rail from Tokyo Station. Akihabara is a major shopping area for electronic, computer, anime, and otaku goods, including new and used items.

Saison Judo

「技はいろいろ、カードはひとつ。」 “Many techniques, one card.”

Judo (柔道, jÅ«dō), meaning “gentle way”, is a modern Japanese martial art (gendai budō) and combat sport, that originated in Japan in the late nineteenth century. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either throw one’s opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one’s opponent with a grappling maneuver, or force an opponent to submit by joint locking the elbow or by applying a choke.

There are a variety of techniques recognized by Kodokan (講道館) judo (柔道) and other budo (武道).

Credit Saison Co., Ltd., commonly known as Credit Saison or simply Saison, is a Japanese financial services company affiliated to Mizuho Financial Group. Founded in 1946, Credit Saison is the 3rd largest credit card issuer with over 20 million cardholders in Japan, behind JCB and Visa Japan.