I’ve lived in Japan nearly two decades and have seen some things that really confused me over the years. Like the odd statues of tanuki (Japanese badgers, like Totoro) displayed for good luck outside restaurants, which feature very detailed anatomical parts including huge balls and sometimes erect members, or a “graveyard of vending machines” I happened across once, with hundreds of defunct vending machines all lined up on a vacant lot. Currently there’s a popular song in Japan called Toire no Kamisama, or “God of the Toilet,” and when I heard the title of the song I had no idea what it could possibly be about. It turns out that grandmothers — who often live in the same house their children and grandchildren — tell their granddaughters that there’s a “goddess of beauty” hiding in the bathroom of every family, and girls who clean the family toilets without complaint will become beautiful when they grow up. It’s ultimately a song of thanks to the singer’s grandmother, and when the song gets to the part where she dies after saying a final goodbye, it can really choke you up.
These anatomically correct statues are displayed outside many restaurants.
