Sunday, 31 May 2015

Bottle Sized Panties


Imagine the scene. It is a humid hot day, you head to the vending machine and get a nice chilled bottle of water, it glistens, moist and sparkling in the sunlight. As you raise it to your lips for a sip you suddenly realise it is missing something...it's not wearing any panties, so lewd.
But fear not, bottles have always been naked, until now.

I recently read online that a set of 'bottle panties' or ボトルのおぱんつ was due to be released at the end of May, as a follow-up to the highly successful underwear series that was released for the iPhone's touch button. The iPhone series' of panties proved to be such a popular novelty gift, that it actually spawned 4 further series with different designs. Therefore it is no surprise that they are finding other ways to exploit the perverted masses.

Imagine my excitement this morning on the way to Costco, when I randomly stumbled across one of the panty machines. I showed no hesitation in dropping 200yen into the machine as elementary school kids were getting Dragonball toys nearby.

But what design would I get...!?

Maybe the Shimapan? (Striped Panties?)


Ta-da!! It turns out that I got the 'Frilled Lacy' panty design. As I took it out of the plastic ball I immediately felt a sense of shame and bewildered amusement. I just bought a miniature pair of panties, for 200yen. I'm actually surprised at the quality, its legit lace and the band is elasticised just like the real deal...perfect for peeling them on, and off. What. But how does it look?

Straight tea - complete with innocent frills.
When you stand the bottle up, it looks kind of ridiculous, sort of like a really feminine beer cozy. Unless your really yank the panties up, you can't really tell that it is a pair of underwear. I didn't want to give my tea too much of a wedgie though!
いやーん!そこで見ないで!

It is only when you tip the bottle backwards, feeling like a complete pervert in the process that you have the eureka moment, this is underwear. Miniature underwear, for my drinks container. I felt like one of those otaku who tilts a figure back just to see up their skirt, kinda wrong. Haha.
Although the design is meant for bottles, I was curious if it works with cans too.

Size Zero panties
It actually looked better on a can, since the leg holes were more apparent. Size zero if you will, I wonder if the plus size cans will protest against double standards.


Overall, it was an amusing and shameful experience, totally worth my 200yen, although I was hoping for the striped one as that is the anime stereotype set. You can see the various designs below, I'm really curious as to what the mystery special edition pants are but I doubt I will drop another 200yen on a pair, my lack of shame only has so much limit.


The designs are 40mm in size and you have a chance of receiving either the plain white pants, striped, polka-dot, strawberry, frilled, leopard print, or the unknown mystery set. I can imagine that this run will sell out fast, but if it proves popular enough I imagine they will release more.
These would make amazing souvenir gifts for friends back home, or just as a general joke gift. So if you have no shame, are a panty fetishist or just want a hilarious and weird experience, go hunt for a machine near you! I found mine in a specialist gacha gacha machine zone.

...Don't judge me. (>_>;)


Thursday, 28 May 2015

Corpse Party Live Action Trailer

Today after coming home from finishing at work at 11am on a Friday, my day was made even better by finding out that Japan has just released a trailer for the live adaptation of the Corpse Party horror game series!

Check it out!

 

What is corpse party?
Corpse party is a survival horror game that was originally released in 1996 and was made using the RPGMaker software, you may have seen many other games made with this becoming popular on steam. 'To the moon' is another example. Despite the simple graphics, it is possible to create an effective emotional narrative whether it is the poignant reminiscent feelings of 'To the moon' or a creeping sense of terror in 'Corpse Party'.



My first experience with Corpse Party was on the PSP, there has been several remakes since, one of which was even released on IOS! It has since led to a series of spin off games, manga and anime adaptations, now its time for a live action movie! I really, REALLY, hope that this doesn't suck. I really enjoyed the Japanese voice acting from the original game and how the characters interacted with each other. It managed to blend terrifying scenes with quirky humour, I'm intruiged to see how this will play out with real actors.

In the game there were a variety of endings, mostly bad that were based depending on the player's decisions throughout the five game chapters. Corpse Party is set in a Japanese high school that was built upon the grounds of an old elementary school that was torn down after a number of murders and disappearances took place. After conducting a ritual to ensure that a group of friends 'stay together forever', a freak earthquake transports the students to an alternate dimension where the elementary school still exists and is haunted by the murdered children. The students must find a way to escape, many of which die a gruesome death in the process.

I'm most intruiged by how they handle some of the more quirky dialogue scenes. The english translation was renowned for having some obscure OTT dialogue lines...the most famous of all is the 'butter up my pooper' line, which sounds completely ridiculous.


The original scene depicts one of the girls asking for medicine as she hasn't been feeling good, aka constipation. In Japanese the line can be read as "Thanks I'm going to apply some of the medicine real quick!" But the English translator decided to go with "Thanks! I'm gonna go butter up my pooper with it real good!" I mean, who says that!? Honestly?
The trailer actually seems to have a lot of potential, the effects seem a little tame so I hope they don't become too jarring against the real actors. There also seems to be a ju-on esque element too with the young children ghosts.
Pooper butter scene or not, I'm excited to see whether they can truly capture the morbid atmosphere of the games, or whether it will just turn into a generic low budget horror flick. 



Saturday, 23 May 2015

Osaka Thailand Festival 2015


May is an awesome time of year to be in Japan, it is starting to get hot without being unbearably comfortable and there are a ton of international or cultural events taking place each weekend. In Osaka alone there are a few events and festivals happening every weekend! This weekend on the 23rd and 24th May, the 13th Annual Thai Festival comes to Osaka! If you are a big fan of thai food, I highly recommend it.

It takes place in the Osaka Castle grounds so its a good excuse to enjoy the local sights while also enjoying some foreign food. Unlike other events, there is no entry fee, you can come and go as you please and there is no problem with taking out your food an drinks. Which is a blessing considering that the available seating is ALWAYS full if you don't get there early. Near the event there were a ton of people sitting on the grass and walls happily enjoying a Singha while munching on some Pad Thai.

So you enter the area and are faced with this...!




The layout of the area seemed a bit...bare to be honest. Everything was laid out in a big semi circle with food stands on the right and centre, a stage and culture related goods in the middle, and general thai stores on the left. The remaining space was filled with lines, lines and more lines, like every festival event in Japan...the line for mango ice alone was roughly 60 people long!
There were a variety of drinks available, with 3 local beers and 2 local wines, with a variety of extra cocktails too, thankfully the booze bars had the shortest lines! So stock up on something to drink while you wait for food.




As you can see here the food was reasonably priced! Comparable to local prices for food at Japanese festivals, it doesn't break the bank. Normally international events like this charge WAY more, for example at Octoberfest, they were charging 1200+ for a small selection of sausages, whereas here I can get a big packet of pad thai for 500yen, good stuff! This combined with the open entry meant that this event felt a lot more 'free' than the others which often restrict you.



The food was pretty reasonable, it obviously doesn't compare to a decent thai restaurant but if you want your fix you can definitely get it here. I don't recommend the pad thai as the flavour was lacking but the noodle curry dish above was epic, really really good value for the price. The fried goods such as chicken and spicy pork were really good too. Most of the servers and cooks appeared to be Thai which was a nice bonus!



However, apart from the food and drink, there was a lot going on...events were few and far between with long lulls between performances. The cultural stores too were located too far away from everything else and too small to actually have an impact. The one thing I did get hyped about was the Thai Boxing ring but found out that I had sadly missed the time slot!

I did managed to catch a music performance as well as some Muay Thai fighters doing a traditional dance though.




Overall I would say that the Thai Festival is worth it but don't plan on spending the whole day there, especially if you don't get there early enough for seating. It is best enjoyed as a few hour detour on a day out, due to its location you can go and enjoy the castle grounds or hop on a train to Shinsaibashi or something with a belly full of Thai food and beer!

To find out more information you can visit the official website at http://www.thaifes.com/

Friday, 8 May 2015

Nintendo and Universal Studios Japan collaboration announced!

Mario ponders about what to ride in future USJ.
This week it was announced that Nintendo will now be introducing its characters and games to Universal Studios Japan (USJ). The press release stated that“The immersive experiences will include major attractions at Universal’s theme parks and will feature Nintendo’s most famous characters and games,”. This is fantastic news because USJ has a proven track record for teaming up with famous video game and comic book company's to provide amazing attractions that bring our favourite video game worlds and characters to life.

Past attractions such as Monster Hunter themed areas as well as the spectacular Raccoon City Halloween special which included a realistic shooting game that brings the zombies of Biohazard to life. It was extremely popular with tickets selling out shortly after the park opened, every single day. Not only that, but it wasn't a casual experience either! The first iteration boasted an impressive 0% survival rate for guests, yes, zero. Some people I knew didn't even get past the first section. This year too, a Biohazard themed zombie escape again has also proved to be a success, challenging you to cure yourself of the zombie virus before it is too late while exploring zombie infested areas. Utilizing current technology such as ipads to deliver a great interactive experience.


Despite being immensely popular the pass rate was 0% in 2014.


With Nintendo's abundant range of characters and licenses there is so many chances for exciting attractions to be built, just imagine...

  • Mario Bumper Karts / Real Kart Racing - although I guess there would be safety issues!
  • Hybrid 3D roller coasters - Similar to Spiderman this type of ride could easily be adapted to the Starfox, Metroid, Mario Kart, F-Zero, Pokemon series and more.
  • 3D Dark interactive shooter rides - These would be FANTASTIC for Starfox, although could also work for Luigi's Mansion, Metroid, and so on!
  • Interactive water rides - Pokemon Snap, Mario Sunshine, the new Splatoon series etc.
  • Platforming Playgrounds for all ages - Donkey Kong, Mario, Yoshi, Pikmin...would be great fun!
  • Themed Restaurants - Cooking Mama, Kirby, Character themed dishes and drinks.
  • Haunted Houses - Luigi's Mansion, Bowsers Castle, a montage of spooky areas from all of their games would work well too!
An on rails dark 3D shooter for Starfox would be great!

I'm personally super excited to see what they will announced. The release added that “More details will be announced in the future, as the Nintendo and Universal creative teams work to create specific concepts.” Fingers crossed they use series beyond just Pokemon and Mario. Whilst these two series would undoubtedly prove popular and be fun to visit, there is so much potential to be used from series that have been quiet as of late.

I'm hyped about the idea of a Starfox on rails shooter or 3D F-Zero rollercoaster, how about you?

The 360 degree racing world of F-Zero offers tons of potential.

Thursday, 7 May 2015

No.1 Takoyaki in Osaka!


No.1 Best Takoyaki in Osaka : Naniwa, Nagai



Most countries usually have a few signature dishes that define it's country's cuisine whether it be fish and chips for the UK, pasta and pizza for Italy or curry for India. While some regional variants are available such as Chicago Pizza or Cornish Pasties, Japan has them in ridiculous abundance! If you are a food tourist, you need to add Japan to your list. Every prefecture or sometimes city has more than one local speciality to offer travellers, these are often well known across Japan, compounded by the omiyage and package tour culture here.

I live in Osaka, Kansai and if you ask anyone what food is famous in Osaka you will probably hear "Okonomiyaki, Kushikatsu and...Takoyaki!" To be honest, Kushikatsu has been revealed by surveys to not actually be eaten much by local Osakans but is very popular with tourists but that's a discussion for another day. Today I want to talk about Takoyaki, Takoyaki's literal translation means 'grilled octopus', but its a lot more than that! Takoyaki is made with a special indented pan that is filled an egg and flour based batter with octopus slices and any additional flavourings which could include kimchi, ginger, green onion or any other variations. The pan then moulds the mixture into a ball shape as it is expertly rotated and formed by the chef. Various toppings are available but the most popular combination is Takoyaki sauce and Mayonnaise.




There are a ton of Takoyaki stalls in Japan, it's a popular street snack, according to Tabelog there is a whopping 1130 in Osaka alone! But which is the best one? Each one has their own recipe or cooking technique, I've eaten a lot of damn Takoyaki but I want to share what I, and the majority of Tabelog eaters recommend as the NO.1 place for Takoyaki!

That place is called 浪花や - なにわや、read as 'Naniwaya'. It is a small stall located in Nagai on the Midosuji line, next to Nagai park, for more in depth directions check the end of this post! If you look at the poster below they proudly announce that they are currently the no.2 rated Takoyaki store out of a whopping 1130 stores. However looking further, it was rated no.1 overall for both the cooking/taste and cost performance categories! I'm pretty damn lucky to have this place within a 15min walk from my house and have visited many times.




Naniwa is a small and humble establishment that has been running for 25 years, it offers a small seating space of just 8 seats but I have always managed to grab one as most people order to take away. Inside there is a free iced water machine which is heaven on a hot day. The store is ALWAYS serving someone, I have never seen them not busy or idle, there is a constant flow of custom which explains why they have been around for 25 years! But enough about the place...lets check the menu!


There are four variations available. 
1) Shouyu aka. soy sauce. This is included within the batter so there is no actual topping.
2) Takoyaki Sauce
3) Mayonnaise (Chefs recommendation)
4) Mayonnaise and Takoyaki sauce, my personal favourite.

The prices vary depending on how many you order, ranging from 8 to 24 pieces per order. As you can see it is CHEAP, really really cheap despite the amazing taste and reputation.


Myself and my partner went for options 3 and 4 which you can see below, each order comes with a side of pickles and is served piping hot, sadly my camera didn't capture the steam coming off of them!









Takoyaki is traditionally eaten with these little toothpicks, which may prove to be a little tricky for those without good dexterity! Some Takoyaki can be quite farm or even crunchy on the outside depending on the place but Naniwa's texture is pretty soft and malleable. As you can see it is kind of drooping off my toothpicks and can easily break if you randomly jab at it! 



Fortunately chopsticks are also available if you don't want to fiddle around and just want to tuck in! Much easier and can take advantage of how hot it is! The batter has a nice smooth texture and isn't 'stodgy' like most cheap places, it is satisfying from beginning to end and the pieces of octopus are of good quality. Not rubbery or chewy like cheaper variations, taste satisfaction guaranteed, at Naniwa there are also small pieces of Konyaku to add texture, they aren't really noticeable so don't worry if you aren't a Konyaku fan. I personally love option 4 as the the sauce and mayo blend well with the Katsuobushi dried tuna flakes and smooth texture to create a tangy sweet ball of awesomeness.

If you have never had Takoyaki, you are probably thinking that this sounds really fishy but it isn't at all so give it a try! Its more like a savoury tangy dumpling that happens to have some octopus in it! I highly highly recommend this place because despite the staff being busy they are always friendly, the seating area is clean, plus even with the popularity, the waiting time between order and service is really quick! Definitely No.1 in my eyes.

Where to find Naniwa: It is located about 30m from exit 5 of Nagai park, Nagai is located on the red Midosuji line that connects to Tennoji, Namba, Umeda and so on. It is just around the corner from Mister Donuts so use that as a marker point! 
It is open from 10am to 7:30pm but please note that it is closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays! I have attached a few googlemap pictures of my location at the time to help!

Naniwas official website is http://takoyaki-naniwaya.com/top
You can also view their tabelog at http://tabelog.com/osaka/A2704/A270404/27003447/

Next time you are in Osaka, come and try the best Takoyaki that Osaka can offer!





Sunday, 12 April 2015

Survarium Alpha/Beta Review

GET OUT OF HERE STALKER!



Survarium is a post apocalyptic multiplayer FPSMMO by Vostok Games, the makers of the atmospheric S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. Naturally being a big fan of the original series for its setting, atmospherics and general all round challenge I have high hopes for this new FPS. I found myself lucky enough to win a lottery for participation in the alpha and beta builds, the beta build has now been made public and accessible on steam but...is it any good?

Currently there is only a team deathmatch mode available as well as iterations of a battery gathering hoarding match type where the team with the most batteries at the end of the game wins. Future modes including free play PvE featuring mutants and an open wasteland as well as co-op modes are planned for the future. The free roaming PvE/PvP modes are the most highly anticipated by fans but due to the work involved are not currently available.


You begin with the option of a Mosin rifle or sub machine gun, as well as a pistol and jump into a matchmaking deathmatch with other fresh newbies. I would definitely advise the sub machine gun for starting out since despite the long sprawling maps with numerous vantage points that would often promote a slow tactical advance, many people are currently charging across the map to shoot each other up close in the face. The combat is fast paced with very little downtime, often concentrated in a few key areas, especially near spawns. If you find yourself exploring the many interesting locations on each map you may find yourself short of encounters, at least it gives you time to admire your bleak surroundings.



I never knew green and brown could be so gorgeous. The level design is fantastic and original, being a post-apocalyptic setting it includes all the locales that you would expect, sprawling woodland, fractured earth with flaming craters, crumbling walls, ruined building being overrun with vegetation and more. Despite the dark setting, the levels are very detailed and stunning to look at. The first time you some of the danger zones, areas full of flame and radiation, it is hard to not simply stop and admire the hazardous view. In the earlier builds, artifacts were often hidden amongst these details, artifacts give you significant stat boosts and bonuses at a radiation cost. Many of which cannot even be accessed without the appropriate equipment to protect yourself. Anomalies and artifacts that were present in the original series are going through consistent changes throughout the alpha and beta builds and are being made to have more of a presence, appearing small and non-threatening at first before expanding and evolving to becoming a serious threat. It will be interesting to see how they are used in the long term.



Being a FPSMMO, there are now various stat and level points that you can allocate to various perks and specialisations. These can range from bleed resistance, gun accuracy to more obscure traits such as medicine and radiation specialisation. Currently due to the limited scope of the beta there isn't much use for any non direct combat perks. There are several factions within the game that you can align yourself with and get various timed missions to improve your reputation with them such as 'Kill 5 enemies with a bear trap' or 'Win 5 matches'. Upon improving your reputation it allows you to purchase additional equipment from the store such as medicine, weapons, bear traps, stimulants and more. Yes, bear traps. Upon seeing this I immediately added them to my inventory but they are pretty difficult to use effectively, they are a double edged weapon with as much risk to you and your team as to others. There have definitely been many occasions where I have clumsily stepped onto my own trap, breaking my legs and crawling around waiting for an enemy to put me out of my misery. Damage is location based, if you get shot in the arms you may find yourself unable to wield certain weapons, if able to shoot at all. Hit in the legs or a grenade lands at your feet, you might not be able to walk if you survive. These effects don't really have much of an impact yet since the current META is to simply charge around, if you get incapacitated in a way you will die a few seconds later more often than not.

You will die, a lot. The game is pretty unforgiving, it doesn't take a lot to kill someone and if you are not playing anywhere near Russia expect to be playing with a big network disadvantage. During the earlier alpha builds I was having serious latency issues, often hovering around the 500ping mark, which made it unrealistic for me to get any kills unless I really got the drop on someone. The situation has now improved considerably with server selection being made available as well as NA servers being established in the near future. The levels while, gorgeous and sprawling can quickly become unbalanced if one team pushes to the enemy spawn and it becomes a spawn massacre, an experience that can really drag due to the matches generous timer. After each round you have a chance at obtaining new equipment and weapons as well as other goodies to help improve your character.


Survarium is a game that has shown consistent improvement with regular patches and updates, the sounds are gorgeous as developers regular update us with their live sound testing of various grenades and bullets in various settings. The guns don't have that jarring 'firing in a warehouse' sound prevalent in counter strike, each weapon has definite impact. Anomalies and the stat progression have already been through various tweaks and the latency issues are improving. This game has a lot of potential if the developers continue to dedicate themselves so strongly, the amount of players has been rapidly increasing too, at first the servers would only be flooded with Russian but now its reaching out to more international players, which will no doubt increase even more with Steams help.



One important point to be aware of though is that this is a free to play game, therefore it unfortunately has the cash based incentives to buy currency to purchase higher tier equipment. It hasn't become a pay to win cash cow that Tribes 2 tragically became but its showing early warning signs that it could swing that way. Especially if any purchase packs come out that speed EXP growth as the stat and perk system could rapidly ruin the balance...fingers crossed it doesn't go that way.

Should you play it now? I would say yes, even more so if you are a fan of the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. However, play it with an open mind, it may be a little laggy and some features are missing but it is a BETA overall. Also if you don't like it now, keep checking in as the game has vastly improved over the past few months. Survarium has a lot of potential, lets hope that Vostok don't sell their souls to the freemium model and keep the core gameplay intact!

Monday, 23 March 2015

Phallic Fertility Festival Fun at the Honen Matsuri / Penis Festival!


Lets face it, to many outsiders, Japan is a crazy country that does everything a little different, has futuristic technology, interesting food, adult cartoons and an abundance of weird fetishes. Whilst these are often exaggerated massively or are incredibly niche. Certain events or sights here can sometimes fit the stereotypes perfectly. Sex sells, we all know that so the 'fertility festival' is now often lovingly referred to as 'The Penis Festival'.
豊年祭り Honen Matsuri is a Japanese fertility festival that is held on March 15th every year in Nagoya prefecture at the Tagata Shrine in Komaki. Honen means 'Proposerous year' whereas 'Matsuri' means festival in Japanese. The aim is to celebrate  the blessings of bountiful harvest and prosperity and fertility. It sure as hell beats the can drives we used to have at school. Penis over canned corn any day!

Tagata Shrine
Early morning preparations
The festival starts with celebration and preparation at 10:00 a.m. at Tagata Jinja, where all sorts of foods and souvenirs (mostly phallus-shaped or related) are sold. You can see various carts full of charms and sake barrels being pulled by high spirited (literally) festival volunteers. They even had a big pushing war, blue vs red, just outside the gates which was fun to watch.
Inside the temple grounds you can find the usual festival variety of food stalls ranging from castella, to takoyaki, grilled meats and fish and so on. Accompanied by toy stalls and games etc for the kids. However since I was still feeling fragile from a night of St. Patricks day celebrations the night before I refrained from the treats...for now.

We trekked to the outer shrine, which is up a steep hill beyond the train tracks. At the top is a small temple, Shinmai sha, and beside it was the star of the show, a 280 kg (620 pound), 2.5 meter (96 inch)-long wooden phallus. If its your dream to take a selfie with a gargantuan dick like the girls below, here is your best chance. This phallus is later used for the 'climax' of the ceremony, as it is later carried down the hill to Tagata Shrine, but at that point it is swarmed by crowds. Here it was nice and quiet and people took turns to have their photo taken. There was a wall of photographers snapping away, especially so whenever a foreigner walked up!

Before the parade you can take photos at the smaller shrine with the main penis
 I also found this awesome flag nearby, by far my happiest photo of the day!

My favourite photo of the day, to scale.
AvidyaJP having a stroke with Taurinensis
 Speaking of foreigners, outside of places like Roppongi in Tokyo or Amemura in Osaka, this was by far the largest concentration of non Japanese that I have encountered in Japan. Far outweighing the national percentage, obviously attracted by the unusual chance to celebrate the D. While most were pleasant and respectful there is sadly a recognizable percentage that give a bad reputation for everyone who are loud, drunk, rowdy or just saying really ignorant comments. Plenty of exceptions though, so if you go, please respect the local customs, especially around the temple areas.

The queue to buy these banana and marshmallow dicks was, ahem, massive.
 Past noon I was feeling a little better so with another blog friend Taurinensis of Identity Gaming and his wife we queued up to get some バナチン Banachin, Bana as in bana and chin as in penis. In case you are wondering, the marshmallows act as balls. I wish I had taken a photo of the line for this because it was huge! The popularity of this stall far outweighed the neighboring food stalls that I almost felt sorry for them. For 400 yen you can obtain your very own banana penis which comes in 4 different flavours. We opted for the black chocolate ones as they looked the most authentic and 'dickesque'!
4 flavours available, including snowbitten blue dicks.
Wildly popular バナチン banana dick!
 It was pretty amusing to be walking around and seeing men, women, boys and girls alike nibbling, sucking and eating on various penis shaped bananas, candies and desserts. We couldn't resist taking a few photos ourselves although it is pretty embarrassing to do whilst a crowd of onlookers is staring at you!
Taurinensis and AvidyaJp enjoying the D
Taurinensis and AvidyaJP REALLY enjoying the D
Even I couldn't resist a sexy selfie
At 2 p.m. the parade to the Tagata Shrine started, the giant wooden penis is carried by volunteers followed by a chanting tengu and lead by chanting priests. Beautiful maidens also carry 60cm long wooden phalluses and were proving to be incredibly popular, sadly I missed my chance to take some photos for myself! Musicians were also playing tradition gaguku music. Festival volunteers also hand out various snacks and free sake to the crowd. As the phallus reaches the shrine, things get a bit crazy as the penis is span and paraded around wildly, much to the crowds pleasure! See the video below to watch the penis spinning in action!


After the penis is set down everyone gathers in the square outside Tagata Jinja and waits for the mochi nage, where rice cakes are thrown down from raised platforms by shrine officials, if you catch one it is meant to give you good luck. Sadly this is where some of the rowdy foreigners raised their heads. Often there is only enough for around 1 person out of 4 to collect a rice cake, whilst most Japanese would stand still and try to catch the cakes, some foreigners would sadly push and shove each other to get one. Later you could see some foreigners clutching 4-7 cakes for themselves and shoving them into bags, so again, if you go to the dick festival, don't be a dick yourself, there are enough on show already! The festival concludes at about 4:30 p.m.

Overall it was a nice experience, although to be honest I felt that it was a little overhyped considering how far away it is from Central Nagoya. I was expecting phalluses to be everywhere with an abundance of stalls selling related goods. In reality however there are only two small sites that display the festival items and only a couple of stalls actually selling penis shaped goods. So it was a little underwhelming initially.
But you can deny that seeing a unique festival like this is really cool, especially when you see the impressive wood carvings up close and is a great excuse to enjoy the festival spirit. If you have a chance I highly recommend it, you don't get an opportunity like this often!

The 'climax' of the Matsuri sees the penis being carried and spun.