Bagelheads – Japan’s Take on the Klingon Forehead

Ok, so they don’t look nearly as cool as Klingons, but Japanese bagelheads really do look like they came from a galaxy far far away. For some reason, injecting saline into the forehead is becoming an increasingly popular trend in the land of the rising sun.

Bagelheads have been around for years, but they recently caused international controversy after the body modification technique was featured on National Geographic’s Taboo program.

Three people underwent the bagelhead procedure in Tokyo, under the supervision of an expert and the watchful eyes of several body modification enthusiasts. They had large needles inserted into their foreheads through which saline slowly dripped forming a kind of reservoir.

When enough saline built up under the skin creating a nice bulge, the body mod master simply pressed his thumb on it to give it that coveted bagel shape. For some reason, every one of the three subjects seemed pretty happy to have a deformed head.

The bagelhead trend was brought to Japan by body modification photographer Ryoichi “Keroppy” Maeda in 2007, when he set up a team and started doing forehead infusions. He first saw the bizarre practice in 1999, at a body modification show in Toronto. He experienced it himself in 2003, and eventually asked permission from the artist who perfected the technique to bring it to Japan. And the rest, as they say, is history…

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Japanese Divorce Newspaper Lets Your Loved-Ones Know How Happily You Are Divorced

Created by Japanese divorce guru Hiroki Terai, Divorce Newspapers are gaining popularity as a quick and painless way to let family, friends and acquaintances know your marriage is over.

This saves couples the embarrassment of having to tell each one of them their marriage has failed and explain how it happened.

You know those awkward moments when you bump into an acquaintance on the street and while making small talk you courteously ask them about their spouse, only to find out they got divorced? With the divorce rate on the rise, it’s becoming harder to avoid this kind of unfortunate situations.

However, the resourceful Japanese have come up with an ingenious solution to this problem, called “the divorce newspaper”. Its creator, Hiroki Terai, got the seemingly-wacky idea after hearing many divorcees complain about having to tell everyone they know in person about their failed marriage, and wishing there was a quicker way to do it.

Sure, you have social networks like Facebook and Twitter, but let’s face it, 80-year-old grandmas don’t usually have accounts on these platforms, and a simple status change doesn’t let everyone know how you feel about the whole thing.

So Mr. Terai came up with the divorce newspaper, which offer readers a deep analysis of your failed marriage. When divorcing couples sign up for a divorce paper, they are first interviewed about their marriage, their feeling for each other, and whatever other stuff they want included.

Then all the info is compiled into the newspaper within a week, and delivered according to their specifications. Divorcees can even choose between three different formats for their divorce newspapers: Japanese “sports page” style, “English headline” style, or “South American” style.

And if you pay an extra charge , you can even have your old marriage converted into a Game of Life board and included in the newspaper. Each square represents a milestone in your relationship with the final square (goal) marked off as “Happy Divorce!”

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Its Called Yaeba Look: Japnese Women Changing Their Perfect Teeth Into Crooked Like

It may be a look more commonly associated with a vampire, but it seems crooked teeth - or fangs - are all the rage across the pacific. Japanese women are going crazy for a crowded, crooked-toothed smile with accentuated canine teeth.

The look, known as the 'yaeba' look, is well-liked by men, who find the imperfect smile they form endearingly childlike and attractive.

Popular at dentists in Tokyo, a cosmetic procedure to create the yaeba effect involves attaching non-permanent or permanent adhesive mini-fangs to canine teeth.

Yaeba literally means 'multilayered' or 'double' tooth, and describes the fanged look achieved when molars crowd the canines, pushing them forward.

The craze has been sparked by national pop stars and celebrities who have made the 'fang-look' a hit in the country, according to Japan Today.

Japanese women of all ages have been flocking to dental clinics to have either temporary or permanent artificial canines, called 'tsuke-yaeba', glued to their teeth.

Doctors are charging as much as $390 (£246) for the alteration. Such is the popularity of the fanged-looked, a girl group was even named after the procedure.

The group was called TYB48 (tsuke-yaeba48), and they held their debut concert in Tokyo last April. Clinic director Taro Masuoka came up with the idea for a pop group based on the term tsuke-yaeba.

He told Japan Today: 'Yaeba’ give girls an impish cuteness. 'It’s a sense of beauty unique to the Japanese, but ‘yaeba’ can be an attractive feature on women in their teens and twenties.'

He offers a half-price discount on the procedure for middle school and high school students - as long as they have ID. Some women change their minds and decide to have their 'tsuke-yaeba' taken off - for which they pay the same price.

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Japanese Restaurant Uses Dirt as the Main Ingredient For Its Expensive Dishes

Next time you eat something that "tastes like dirt," it may very well be. Ne Quittez Pas, a Southern France-inspired restaurant in Japan, is now serving a $110 menu with dirt as the main ingredient.

RocketNews24 put the menu to the test, documenting each course. The menu includes a potato starch and dirt soup, a salad with dirt dressing, sea bass with dirt risotto, dirt gratin, dirt ice cream and dirt mint tea.

Chef Toshio Tanabe was trained in France and worked at several Michelin-starred restaurants. He opened Ne Quittez Pas in 1994.

The restaurant uses soil from Sri Lanka and India sold by the company Protoleaf. The soil is tested for safety and purity. Would you try this menu?

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Japanese Cuddle Cafe Lets You Sleep with a Girl for $80

And when I say sleep, that’s exactly what I mean, you pervert! The Soineya “co-sleeping specialty shop” gives customers the chance to sleep in the arms of a beautiful girl, no strings attached.

Like RocketNews24′s Steven Simonitch notes, sometimes there’s nothing more comfortable that crawling into bed with your better half and falling asleep in their arms. But what if you don’t have someone to cuddle with? Don’t panic, we have some really good alternatives. One thing you can do is hire a professional cuddler for $60 an hour, or if you happen to be in Japan, you can visit the newly-opened Soineya cuddle cafe, where you can even choose the girl with whom you which to spend the bed with.

Soineya opened its gates on September 25, in Tokyo’s Akihabara district, ground zero for electronics and pretty much anything nerdy. According to the unique establishment’s home page, it aims to offer customers “the simple and ultimate comfort of sleeping together with someone.” There’s even a list of things you’re allowed to do at Soineya, and their respective prices, because cuddling with a stranger isn’t free. Let’s take a look at the “menu”:

The standard cuddling course costs:

• 20 min – 3000 yen ($40)
• 40 min – 5000 yen ($65, only 3000 yen for first time visitors)
• 60 min – 6000 yen ($77)
• 2 hrs – 11000 yen ($142)
• 3 hrs – 16000 yen ($206)
• 4 hrs – 20000 yen ($258)
• 5 hrs – 25000 yen ($322)
• 6 hrs – 30000 yen ($387)
• 10 hrs – 50000 yen ($645)

Clients at Soineya (which literally translates as (literally, “sleep together shop) can also fork out ¥1,000 ($13) to pick out the girl they want to cuddle with, and and extra ¥500 ($6,50) for every hour of cuddling. And if simple cuddling just isn’t enough for you, there’s always the optional menu:

• Customer sleeps in girl’s arm (3 min) – 1000 yen ($13)
• Girl pats customer on the back (3 min) – 1000 yen  ($13)
• Customer pets girl on the head (3 min) – 1000 yen  ($13)
• Customer and girl stare at each other (1 min) – 1000 yen  ($13)
• Girl changes clothes (1 time) – 1000 yen  ($13)
• Girl gives customer foot massage (3 min) – 1000 yen  ($13)
• Customer gives girl foot massage (3 min) – 2000 yen  ($26)
• Customer sleeps with head on girl’s lap (3 min) – 1000 yen  ($13)
• Girl sleeps with head on customer’s lap (3 min) – 2000 yen  ($26)

Add the ¥3,000 ($40) admission fee and you’re basically paying close to $80 just to lie in bed with a total stranger. Considering weird cafes tend to be pretty successful in Japan, the Soineya cafe could be yet another hit.

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