Cezary Jan Strusiewicz

Hongofujiyama Park’s Bamboo Grove: Yokohama’s Arashiyama Voyapon takes a trip to Hongofujiyama Park in Yokohama which is a great alternative to Kyoto's famed Arashiyama.

Kyoto's Arashiyama bamboo forest is beautiful. Pictures rarely do it justice... despite thousands of people taking pictures of it every day. Arashiyama has sadly become a symbol of the overtourism problem in Japan. Yokohama, thankfully, offers an alternative:

voyapon.com/hongofujiyam...

Norman Rockwell's "Freedom of Speech" painting.

I think "Freddy Got Fingered" has artistic value. I didn't enjoy the movie like I would a regular comedy but watching a purely unfiltered vision of someone like Tom Green with no regard for marketability, conventions, or other 2001 versions of "the algorithm" is one unique experience.

Hongofujiyama Park’s Bamboo Grove: Yokohama’s Arashiyama Voyapon takes a trip to Hongofujiyama Park in Yokohama which is a great alternative to Kyoto's famed Arashiyama.

Kyoto's Arashiyama bamboo forest is beautiful. Pictures rarely do it justice... despite thousands of people taking pictures of it every day. Arashiyama has sadly become a symbol of the overtourism problem in Japan. Yokohama, thankfully, offers an alternative:

voyapon.com/hongofujiyam...

I... enjoyed Joker 2. Minus the rape.

You're being watched.

Norman Rockwell's "Freedom of Speech" painting.

I think "Freddy Got Fingered" has artistic value. I didn't enjoy the movie like I would a regular comedy but watching a purely unfiltered vision of someone like Tom Green with no regard for marketability, conventions, or other 2001 versions of "the algorithm" is one unique experience.

Danzaemon — The Story of Old Japan’s Underworld Kings | Tokyo Weekender A deep dive into Danzaemon - the rulers of Japan's "untouchable" caste in the Edo Period who became indispensable to the shogunate.

Leather and horses were crucial to samurai culture but only Japan's "many-sins" and "non-humans" were allowed to work with those, and they all answered to Edo's Underworld King. Details in my article:

www.tokyoweekender.com/art_and_cult...

Henry Schnell in kimono with katana.

You have of course heard of Yasuke, the only Black samurai, but he wasn't the only non-Japanese samurai. Other fun examples include Henry Schnell (gun merchant of Dutch descent who served in the Prussian army and was selling US Civil War surplus to Japan) or Ran Kaiei, the only Chinese samurai ever.

Japanese history is metal.

transition is a choice that anyone can make for any reason, and if I do it because of the Latent Transsexual Genes Lurking In My Head and some other bitch does it because she wants to attract lesbian librarians by bending over in a pencil skirt by the periodicals we are both right to choose it

my politics

Photo of three samurai in traditional armor. One is holding a bow, another a katana, and the third one a spear.

For every 5 REPOSTS or 10 LIKES this gets, I'll tell you 1 cool fact about SAMURAI that you may not know.

Kyudo bows are pretty big, yeah.

Sure.

Nah, tsujigiri was outlawed pretty much as soon as Ieyasu took over, almost 100 years before the events of the Yoshiwara slaying.

There are notable exceptions! Kurosawa's "Kagemusha" ends in a bloodbath of bullets. The anima/manga "Drifters" makes Oda Nobunaga's primary weapon an arquebus. I'm sure there are more.

Hojo Tokiyuki from the anime "The Elusive Samurai."

In 1335, Suwa Yorishige wanted to buy his master Hojo Tokiyuki time to escape from their enemies so he and other samurai killed themselves, with the last one PEELING OFF everyone's faces and leaving Tokiyuki's sword behind. This made the enemy army think that Tokiyuki was among the faceless corpses.

It's why I'm always doing a half-ass job with the tasks I'm given. I'm creating future global companies. *I* am the real job creator out there!

Portrait of Tsukahara Bokuden leaving a noisy samurai challenger stranded on a small lake island.

The scene in "Enter the Dragon" when Bruce Lee tricks John Saxon’s character into boarding a small boat, leaving him stranded away from their ship, was directly inspired by the legend of Tsukahara Bokuden leaving a noisy samurai challenger stranded on a small lake island.

Portrait of samurai warlord Ukita Naoie.

The first samurai gun assassination happened in 1566 when samurai warlord Ukita Naoie ordered the Endo brothers, Toshimichi and Hidekiyo, to kill his rival Mimura Iechika. They used sawed-off arquebuses to sneak guns into Mimura's camp and shot him through a paper-screen door.

Grainy photo of Okada Izo.

The Mitsubishi company only exists thanks to a samurai assassin feeling lazy. Okada Izo aka “Izo the Killer” carried out a political assassination in 1862 of one Inoue Saichiro BUT didn't feel like killing Inonue's travel companion. That man was Iwasaki Yataro, the future founder of Mitsubishi.

Toshiro Mifune with a spear in "The Hidden Fortress."

The true weapon of the samurai may have been the bow, and they def were close w/ the katana, but during the Warring States period, samurai were all about the SPEAR. After battles, the 7 best warriors were honored as the battle's "Seven Spears." The warrior who drew first blood was "The First Spear."

Appreciated!

A jitte truncheon, a short metal pole with a hook on the side.

During the (mostly) peaceful Edo Period (1603 - 1868), a few samurai became cops. There were street-level cops (doshin) and higher-rank captains (yoriki). They were encouraged to take criminals in alive so their primary weapon that later became their equivalent of a badge was the jitte truncheon.

Tatsuya Nakadai's Lord Ichimonji in Akira Kurosawa's Ran (1985).

Tatsuya Nakadai's Lord Ichimonji in Kurosawa's Ran (1985) was based partially on the real samurai Mori Motonari, a very shrewd figure who once, according to legend, tricked his enemy into executing his top general Amago Kunihisa ("the god and demon of military matters”) via forged letters.

Hiroyuki Sanada's Yoshii Toranaga on "Shogun."

During a retreat after his defeated at The Battle of Mikatagahara in 1573, Tokugawa Ieyasu, who you may know as Hiroyuki Sanada's Yoshii Toranaga on "Shogun," was chased by the army of his rival Takeda "The Tiger of Kai" Shingen and allegedly shat his pants in the process.

Reproduction off Honda's black armor with big black horns and a large, yellow Buddhist rosary hanging over its shoulder.

Japanese man holding a massive odachi sword (looks like a very large katana) that's taller than him.

During the Battle of Anegawa in 1570, the samurai Honda Tadakatsu, known for his fuck-off big horned helmet and Buddhist rosary that he wore into battle, fought a one-on-one duel with the 7-foot-tall Magara Naotaka who wielded a fuck-off big odachi sword.

Kid Rock's music is the soundtrack to a military flyover over a Walmart parking lot.

Portrait of Kani Saizo.

The samurai Kani Saizo (1554 – 1613) was also known as Bamboo Saizo (Sasa no Saizo) because he fought with a bamboo stalk on his back to make it harder to target his neck, and he stuffed the decapitated heads of his enemies with bamboo grass and leaves. He was a bit of a psycho.

The fenced-off field where the Tosho-ji temple stood.

In 1333, a general of the powerful Hojo clan betrayed them and had his men sack their seat of power. Nearly the entire Hojo clan locked themselves in their family temple of Tosho-ji, set fire to it, and committed mass harakiri. Around 870 samurai died then. The site is now a popular Halloween spot.