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Top Obscura
21 Amazing Bangalore Breakfast Dishes 
The Creepiest Amusement Park of All Time? 
China’s all-time favorite (and all-time darkest?) comic book: Sanmao 
Classic Chinese Torture Methods (and their cute names) 
Amazing Old Bollywood Poster Shops 
Beijing’s incredible (and completely fake) Disneyland 
Why Chinese People Eat Sea Horse 
The 38th Reich: Korean Nazi Cosplay 
India’s Incredibly Cool Hand-Drawn Movie Posters 
Prosthetic Noses, Red Wigs, and Whiteface… American Characters in Chinese Films 
Why Chinese People Eat Ants 
This Hindu God has 1,000 Vaginas! 
Castration Classes at the Beijing Eunuch Culture Exhibition Hall 
Nazi Fashion in China 
What the Fortune Teller Told Me (Hong Kong) 
Why Chinese People Eat Deer Penis 
One Ghostly Cambodian Ruin 
About Andy Deemer & AsiaObscura 
Beijing’s Single Most Horrific Meal 
The Sick Collector and His 1000 Pairs of Shoes 
The Insane Monkey Bar in Tokyo 
Whoring in Chiang Mai 
A Huge Pile of Gorgeous Old Thai Movie Posters 
Learn How to Speak North Korean 
Those Creepy Japanese Videos, Finally Explained 
Why Chinese People Eat Snake as Medicine 
The Best Place to Eat and Poop, Together! 
Philadelphia CheeseSteak Ice Cream - Awesomely Steampunk Portable Corn Roaster
Pyongyang Too: A Tribute to Guy Delisle 
A Huge New Horde of Hand-drawn Indian Movie Posters 
The New iOS Game From the Creators of AsiaObscura 
18 Terrible Moments from a Taoist Hell 
Red Onion-Flavored Red Wine 
Gorgeously Gory Paintings in a Burmese Temple 
American Imperialist Bastards in a North Korean Comic Book 
Beijing’s Dongyue Temple and Their 19 Incredible Taoist Gods 
Outrageously Cute Korean Cosplay: The 21 Favorites - Why Chinese People Eat Fried Worms
Sweet gruesome statue asking for donations 
A Postcard from Erenhot 
On Horse Meat Sashimi 
The Taj Mahal… Murder, Incest, and Fratricide 
Small Children Feeding Live Animals to Tigers in a Chinese Zoo 
A Sweet New Batch of Indian Movie Posters 
Antilia: The Most Gratuitous House in Mumbai 
Another Diana Pose at the Taj Mahal 
The Eko Nugroho Flower Suit Lives On 
Porn, Rats, and Antique Projectors at Sri Lanka’s Classic Cinemas 
Plants vs Zombies, The Chinese Knockoff Toys
Tag Archives: Japan
Shameless Promotion, Sweet Movies and Wild Books
Japanese Release of Poultrygeist
Five years later, Japan is finally releasing my film Poultrygeist. Very exciting news... but I'd kill for a copy of the poster! Are you in Japan? Can you help me get it? Will gladly provide excellent Indian posters or art (or just hard cold cash) in return! March 23 at ...
Consumerism, Cute & Kawaii
Mr. Chiizu: Great New Photobooth App
I stumbled into an old karaoke pal on twitter this weekend. He's now developing iPhone apps. His latest? A stickerbooth app for the iPhone, called Mr. Chiizu. A thing of wonder. Okay, okay, there are no stickers. But also no wading through incomprehensible directions while a Gangnam shopkeeper mocks you in sprawling Korean. No frantically ...
Extraordinary Eats
On Horse Meat Sashimi
It finally happened. We ordered the horse sashimi. "You want what?" said the waiter, unsure. "Horse meat," I slurred in Chinese, that last bottle of sake harming my already-poor pronunciation. "Raw horse meat." The waiter looked at WooLand, who wasn't listening, and then at me, and he finally shrugged and wrote it down. Clearly ...
Somewhat Perverted
Those Creepy Japanese Videos, Finally Explained
If you've been wondering about the creepy Japanese videos I've been posting -- videos of girls staring blankly at the camera for a minute, then uttering a single short phrase -- I'm finally ready to offer an explanation. They're called "ミテルだけ" (pronounced "miteru dake") which means "Just Looking" or "Only Looking." I first heard about ...
Cute & Kawaii, Extraordinary Eats
Soy Sauce Kit Kats (and other awesome flavors)
I was a little confused about the Tokyo airport when I flew through there a few weeks ago. It seemed so... rundown. Ceiling tiles missing, chairs blocking entrances, stores closed. And then I saw this sign. Uh-oh. What had I missed during my media blockout? Turns out the third reactor was ...
Cute & Kawaii, Somewhat Perverted
And we’re back…
Sorry for the silence. China got wise to the VPN, and issues had to be resolved. But we're back. Hopefully for a while, at least.While we pop the bottles of silkworm baijiu and seahorse bourbon, here's a photo from last night's dinner at Beijing's newest maid cafe. (Sure, Japan had sexy 19th century French maids ...
Extraordinary Eats
The Most Divine Piece of Sushi
This was something I've never seen before. I found it in Hakone, a small mountain town. (Across the road from 7-11. Sliding slat door, with no windows.) Maybe the roll was called Namaji Rasu, and maybe it's called Shirasu. But either way, it was incredible, deliciously sweet, and so unbelievably weird. Tiny fishies, with big eyes, ...
Uncategorized
Old Pirate Ships in Old Japan
After the insanity of Tokyo, I really needed a break. So, on the advice of a teenage stranger at a sushi bar, I bought a 3-day pass to Hakone. And what a break it is. A mountain town, there's almost nothing to do here. No madness, no crowds, and certainly no stress. Just groups of ...
Cute & Kawaii, Somewhat Perverted
Hunting French Maids in Tokyo
Fashion: Pink is everywhere, lace is everywhere, it's the Lolita look. But the real style de saison is dressing like a 19th Century French Maid. It's weird, but it's everywhere! Even white girls are buying in! And so, of course, a world of maid-staffed businesses have appeared. They have maid bars, maid cafes, even ...
Extraordinary Eats
Sucking on Sour: The Miracle Berry aka Miracle Fruit
Tokyo Mission #2: Miracle Fruit! I'd heard about Miracle Fruit at a hipster science conference in New York a few years ago, and had dreams of them ever since. History: in the 1700s, an explorer moved into a West African village. Everything was great, except the food -- it was horrible! Sour, disgusting, ...
Offbeat Museums
Tokyo’s Creepy Parasite Museum
You might think it a bad idea to eat all these weird and raw meats -- like diaphram. I did, too. So I trolled the streets of Tokyo until I found the world's only Parasite Museum. Sadly, everything was written in Japanese, and I couldn't find a single employee to translate. ...
Uncategorized
Eating Diaphram in Tokyo
Another of Tokyo's "best meal" contenders was Toraji Param, a Korean hormone restaurant on the 500-something-th floor of some fancy Tokyo building. As the elevator flew up the 5000 flights, my ears popped. At our table, floor-to-ceiling windows showed off all of Tokyo. It was jaw-dropping, to put it mildly. And then the ...
Uncategorized
Hayao Miyazaki’s Breathtakingly Awesome Ghibli Museum, Tokyo
To be honest, I came to Tokyo for only three reasons. Each had been percolating in my mind, independently, for years. Each seemed to be something I needed to do. Each of these demanded a pilgrimage. And each of these would be difficult. I first read about The Ghibli Museum in a ...
Extraordinary Eats
The Insane Monkey Bar in Tokyo
I came to Tokyo for three pilgrimages. The first, a trip to Miyazaki's Ghibli Museum, left my cheeks wet with tears. The second, lunch at a Miracle Fruit Cafe, had me giggling aloud, the juice from an inedible umeboshi plum running down my chin. And the third? It was to be ...