Every spring there is a festival in Kawasaki, Japan that celebrates “Kanamara Matsuri”, otherwise known as the “Festival of the Steel Phallus”. It is a celebration of the penis and fertility, and is as odd as you’d expect. If you go, you can expect to find people of all ages sucking on penis-shaped lollipops and carrying about penis sculptures.(source)
10 In Japan, black cats are actually considered good luck.Image source: favim.com
While the American superstition that black cats are bad luck was brought about because they were often considered to be the companions of witches, Japan sees them as good luck if they cross your path.(source)
11 Home to animee, Japan uses more paper for comics than for toilet paper.Image source
The Japanese are bonkers for comics (or “Manga”), with more than 553 million copies published each year.(source)
12 There’s an island in Japan that’s full of rabbits after being abandoned during WWIIImage source: www.theprovince.com
The island of “Okunoshima” was selected for its remoteness to be the manufacturing grounds of the highly toxic mustard gas during WWII. Unfortunately for our fury friends, rabbits were brought to the island to be test subjects. However, when the facility was shut down, the rabbits were released into the wild and subsequently flourished.(source)
