Snack Review: Horse Penis

(Blog entry formerly known as Deep, Dark, Horse Penis: Snack Review)

Japan Blogging and Cultural Decompression

Layers...

Sites that are set up well all seem to have a solid theme, whether the author is consciously aware of it or not.  And having an 'about' page is definitely helpful.
In that way, this site is not designed so well. Yet?

Eh...excuse me, but what does this or anything you could possibly write about have to do with what is mentioned in the title? 

One blog that's kept my attention is actually fairly mundane, on the surface anyway. But a mind that can put something together so well and keep ideas flowing on a fairly consistent basis...that I do notice. I felt that I had to keep looking, like there was something to be gleaned. Lo and behold, I found it! But first, let's talk about the horse's dick.

Excuse me sir, I'm leav...

Wait! I'll show it to you.

There's a catch though, it's deeper than what people might expect. We'll do a little 'show and tell' as a reward for getting this far down the screen, then we'll explain  how real this is and talk about that decompression that comes with the cultural stuff we're dealing with so far down the rabbit hole.

Okay...just show me.

But first, ma'am, you gotta promise to put down the sand-wedge...it does make me a little nervous.

(Lays it on the table)

How's anyone supposed to get excited about that?

Indulge me.

"Spring Foal"

Yeah, "Spring Foal" is the kinder, gentler name the piece was given, according to the better-half. Apparently, the local delicacy had a more vulgar name it went by until someone in 'marketing' suggested that a less offensively named sheathed piece of dark n' sweet was bound to sell.

Wifey needed a full five minutes to explain this as she sat at supper, trying to get the point across. Only, she kept cracking up. Her face was red and I thought she was drunk or maybe about to have a fit, but no...she just couldn't keep herself from laughing. Asked her to take a deep breath and try to relax. Eventually, she was able to hold it together long enough to illustrate. Eventually.

1 + 1 = 1

"Horse Penis"

馬ん魔羅 (うまんまら) ...there may be something really funny about a pun involving the name, something that's got to do with an obstacle to Buddhist practice or... whatever it is, it went over my head.

What is hard to wrap my mind around is how...in a country where a seemingly endless variation of うんち君 is proudly sold without batting an eyelid...how does this horse cock candy crack people up?

Apparently, this 'fecal matter' is normal

(photo courtesy of go my way *by my pace unless convinced to do otherwise)

Enough of dicks n' shit.

And what or who, pray tell, inspired this post? 

Here's where we wade through the cotton candy, look past all the empty calories, throw out the junk food, and take a look at something special: sustenance.

But you won't find it if you simply click here: 

100 Things About Japan

 (not yet)

Looking at the same thing, but in a different way, revealed content that felt like an emotional punch to the gut. I'm glad I stuck with this one...call it intuition.

On the right side of blog is a fairly long list of topics. I thought I'd look and decided to scroll down. While still in the 'A' section, there was a number that spiked. "Okay" I thought, "Let's see what this is about." 

'A' is for 'attitudes' of a nature that merited a mark of 35 amongst what starts out as mostly 1's and 2's.

Boom! Yeah, that boom sure went BOOM!

Buried like a treasure within one of the 35 was a link embedded in '#261 - train access blockers', a link to a familiar blog. Assuming not many people enjoy riding trains, the paragraph starts out reading like nothing special until it gets to the part that is highlighted. It says:

Japanese men will see you're in a hurry and intentionally try to stop you by blocking the stairs or whatever access-way you have

I clicked through.

When I read it, I kind of thought, "Wow...so that's how it can be. No telling how I would have reacted."  I can relate to that on so many different levels that it isn't even funny.

I went back and reread all 35 and just thought, "Damn...there's another mind at work, like a lot of others I've come across before...I still don't like junk food, but I'll have to admit where my mind was when I took a few pictures of the mundane" (hint: fourth from the top).


Anyway...


(Maybe someday there will be an 'about' page for this blog that will explain what's going on with all of the annoying extra clicks, the more or less unedited train of thought, etc...  still kind of embryonic at this point)