Category: Japan

Dekotora Event

A truck is a large motor vehicle, commonly for carrying goods and materials, and also sometimes as a platform for specialist equipment

The Dekotora or Decotora (デコトラ), an abbreviation for “Decoration Truck”, is a kind of loudly decorated truck most commonly found in Japan. Dekotora commonly have neon or ultraviolet lights, extravagant paints, and shiny stainless or golden exterior parts. These decorations can be found on both the cab and the trailer, and not only on the exterior but also in the interior. Dekotora may be created by workers out of their work trucks for fun, or they may be designed by hobbyists for special events. They are sometimes also referred to as Art Trucks (アートトラック).

Musical Memories of Summer in Gunma

A Musical road is a road, or part of a road, which when driven over causes a tactile vibration and audible rumbling transmitted through the wheels into the car body in the form of a musical tune. As of 2016, there are now over 30 Melody Roads in Japan, [including] one in Hokkaido, another in Wakayama (where, at 40km/h, a car can produce the Japanese ballad “Miagete goran yoru no hoshi wo” by Kyu Sakamoto), and a third in Gunma, which consist of 2,559 grooves cut into a 175 meter stretch of existing roadway and when driven over at 50 km/h, produce the tune of “Memories of Summer”.

National Route 401 is a national highway of Japan connecting Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima and Numata, Gunma in Japan, with a total length of 171.1 km (106.32 mi).

Located in northern Gunma, Katashina is bordered by Tochigi Prefecture to the east and Fukushima Prefecture to the northeast. Much of the village is within the borders of Oze National Park. Katashina is not served by any railway lines.

Gunma Prefecture (群馬県, Gunma-ken) is a prefecture of Japan located in the northwest corner of the Kantō region on Honshū island. Its capital is Maebashi. One of only eight landlocked prefectures in Japan, Gunma is the northwestern-most prefecture of the Kantō plain.

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.