Artists from 38 countries collaborated with local residents and urban supporters to create over 350 artworks in rice paddies, abandoned houses, and closed schools etc. Check the event’s official website for more pics and details.

Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial, Japan from YeinJee's Asian Journal

The above video [credits to garyjpn@youtube for the upload] is probably from Hiroshima in 2009; there are other slightly different format in other places, including in Tokyo where some real sumo wrestlers were involved.

Nakizumo – Japanese baby crying festival from YeinJee's Asian Journal

Founded in October 2005 by ex-French drag queen Adrien Le Danois, Tokyo Decadance had the goal to mix all the most creative, flashy, crazy, exaggerated, extreme, bizarre styles of the Tokyo streets.

The event is now the rendezvous of gothic, cyberpunk, fetish, manga heroine, lolitas, yamanbas, ko gyaru, drag queen, punk, Tokyo jet-set, partymonsters, and also salaryman and ‘normal people’.

The wild party is occasionally on tour in some European cities beside the monthly show in Japan [check out Decadance' Myspace]

Tokyo Decadance – wild Japanese club event from YeinJee's Asian Journal

The 7.2 metres robot was on of the biggest attractions of Roppongi Art Night (2009) in Tokyo, Japan. Not really sure what the designer means, but a fire spitting giant robot in real action is always a win in any events…

Giant Torayan, fire-spitting baby robot from YeinJee's Asian Journal

Contrary to most anime conventions, TAF doesn’t allow public cosplay (it’s a trade fair afterall), but the booth babes were probably doing enough to pull in some big crowd. Sharing some photos taken by Exoduz during the TAF 2009…

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Tokyo Anime Fair 2009 – booth babes from YeinJee's Asian Journal

Hina Ningyo, Japanese ornament dolls (Image by Shigemi)

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Hina Matsuri – Japanese Girls’ Day and Doll Festival from YeinJee's Asian Journal

A Seijin Shiki (成人式; coming-of-age ceremony) is normally held in the morning at local city offices where politicians and academicians will give speeches reminding the new adults of their social responsibilities. The Shin Seijin (新成人; new adults) would often visit a shrine after the ceremony to make their wishes and go for parties later on.

Young ladies are often seen in traditional Furisode on the day, while guys in business suit or traditional Hakama. Sharing a few 2009 pics by Dannychoo the Stormtrooper in Tokyo; obviously a paradise for photography geeks…

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Seijin no Hi – Japanese Coming of Age Day from YeinJee's Asian Journal

Fukubukuro (Image by Nathan)

According to Wiki, Fukubukuro was originated from Ginza’s Matsuya Department Store in late Meiji period (1868-1912) and has since become a widespread custom in Japan. The practise was probably first used to offload excess merchandises, but has now evolved into marketing and branding campaigns.

The items in the Fukubukuro is not quite as random compared to early days… lots of the lucky bags these days are themed accordingly (gadgets, apparels, toys etc) and sometimes offered by a particular brand. The shoppers have a good chance of getting what they want, or at least not totally unwanted items.

Fukubukuro – Japanese lucky New Year bag from YeinJee's Asian Journal

Wanko-soba is a famous delicacy in Japan’s Iwate Prefecture; contrary to most soba dishes, wanko-soba is served in small portion… roughly 10-15 bowls of wanko-soba make up a standard bowl of soba.

The contestants had 15 mins to eat as much as they could… Hatsuya’s time was reduced to 10 mins as handicap for being the reigning champ; but she still managed to defend her title rather easily… [via Japantoday and Japanprobe]

Japanese woman ate 383 ‘bowls’ of soba in 10 minutes from YeinJee's Asian Journal

The theme of TIFF 2008 is “Ecology = Preservation of Earth’s Environment”, and the organiser replaced the usual red carpet with a green carpet made from recycled plastic bottles to exemplify the theme, which I doubt could bring any meaningful effect.

A total of 315 films from around the world will be shown during the nine-day event. Chinese movie “Red Cliff”, directed by Hong Kong director John Woo, was selected to kick start the screening; would be cute if the stars wore some green outfit during the green carpet to echo the theme lol.

The main cast of Red Cliff at TIFF 2008… (L-R) Vicki Zhao, Chang Chen, Takeshi Kaneshiro, director John Woo, Tony Leung, Zhang Fengyi and Lin Chi Ling (Image from Udn)

Tokyo Film Festival 2008 opens with eco-theme from YeinJee's Asian Journal

WSC is getting bigger every year with thousands of cosplayers from around the world joining the party; it’s becoming so popular that the Japanese government is officially endorsing it.

Visit Tv-achi for more WCS info; Stephen’s Flickr set for more WSC cosplay photos

A cosplay contest was held in conjunction with the event since 2004. 14 teams from 13 countries participated in the 2008 contest; two teams from Japan and one each from Brazil, China, Germany, Denmark, Spain, France, Italy, South Korea, Mexico, Singapore, Thailand and USA.

The Brazilians won the contest this year.

World Cosplay Summit 2008 from YeinJee's Asian Journal

A ‘ninja’ enjoying the free ride (Image from Reuters)

Iga is a city 450 kilometres from Tokyo and known to many Japanese as one of the traditional home towns of the ninjas.

It should be quite a scene when the festival reached its peak, with all the ninjas wandering around.

Free ride for ninjas in Japan from YeinJee's Asian Journal

The festival was once popular among sex workers praying for protection against sexually transmitted diseases. It’s also mentioned as divine protections for business prosperity and the clan’s prosperity, easy delivery, marriage, and married couple harmony, etc. Today, the festival is used to raise money for HIV research. [Wiki]

Basically it’s a festival where you can see penis everywhere… on the mikoshi (portable Shinto shrine), pictures, foods, candies and merchandises. It might sound gross for some people, but the festival is on my wish list as one of the must go event in my life… seems fun for me.

I am so going there lol (Image by Triplexpresso)

Kanamara Matsuri aka Festival of the Steel Phallus from YeinJee's Asian Journal