Japan loves its "Days" with several holidays and other notable days scattered through the year. Yes, America has plenty of them, but the ones in Japan are just more fun!
Case in point, February 2nd may be Groundhog Day in the US, but 2/2 represents twintails, those two bunches of hair that hang on either side of a girl's head, should she choose to wear her hair that way.
These can take several forms, from the standard pigtails look below, to a more "shrimp" appearance above, to the dual ponytails that seem to be most popular.
The day isn't just about girls putting their hair into two bands, though. There is a romantic side as well!
Today is a day where guys can profess their love by giving their lady of choice a pair of hair bands. Should she accept his love, she uses those bands to put her hair into a pair of twin tails!
Japan has a youth-oriented culture, and despite your feelings about that, many ladies choose to look more youthful by wearing their hair in twintails. And in summer, it really helps girls keep their necks cool in the humidity.
After living in America, where so many women shun femininity in the name of feminism, Japanese women's interest in looking like women is a welcome change. And I've seen plenty of women who can be plenty powerful and feminine at the same time.
But today's about hair bands. And love, I guess.
Dafuq? How did I never hear about this custom during my six-year stint in Japan?
ReplyDeleteYou should have stayed in Japan! It got official recognition in 2012.
DeleteThat is a pretty cool holiday, and I agree that it's okay for women to act like women from time to time. When you say, 'But's today's about hair bands,' I do not think of dual ponytails. I think of Bon Jovi and Poison.
ReplyDeleteOn an unrelated note, what can you tell me about True Heart wrestling cards? I got a bug in my ear over on the Blowout Cards forums and I need to know more, but there isn't much information available online. At least not any that I can locate while browsing at work.
What a wasted opportunity - an 80's power ballad about scrunchies!
DeleteTrue Heart is an annual set that features woman wrestlers. It's been a pack-based set since at least 2012 - at first glance it looks like it could have been a boxed set in 2011 and earlier. But sets are 100 cards or larger for the last five years. I've never really put too much thought into it, but like all BBM sets there are some inserts and limited cards, plus autographs. I'm not sure there have been relics.
There were women's wrestling cards before that, but I don't know anything about them.
Any specific questions about the sets? I can probably dig up a bit more.
I'm not sure what exactly I want to know about them. I guess one of my curiosities is which wrestling leagues are represented. Is it just a compilation of all wrestling leagues, or a certain group of them. That way I could do research (watch wrestling videos on Youtube or something) on them.
DeleteAnyway, I ordered boxes of 2014 and 2015 from a store on the Rakuten World Market site, and got a call from my credit card's fraud detection department about the foreign transaction. I'm not 100% sure what actually comes in the boxes or whether I got a good deal, but I suppose I'll find out soon enough.
The True Heart sets span several women's promotions, they're not just connected to one. Since 2012, the cards don't identify the promotions on the front, but in 2011, the set covered these promotions: Stardom, JWP, Pro Wreslting WAVE, SENDAI Girls, Osaka, Ice Ribbon and a few others. I'm starting to add some of these sets to TradingCardDB.com.
DeleteThat's something I would love to see in the US, a wrestling card set spanning multiple companies. I would love if it Topps (or someone) would do a "minor league" wrestling set every couple of years spotlighting maybe 10 or so wrestlers from independent and regional promotions. It is a crime that there aren't 10+ years worth of cards for Christopher Daniels, A.J. Styles and Bryan Danielson, and "minor league" cards of guys like The Undertaker as Mean Mark Callous or even American Dragon way back when he was still wearing a mask.
Raz, I wonder how you did with your boxes. I don't really know anything about the wrestling leagues here, though I do know there must be a lot of smaller leagues given what I hear about it.
DeleteI wonder how well niche card sets like that would do in the US. They're relatively successful here, since BBM churns out those 3000-print run box sets pretty often for sports like badminton, gymnastics, and beach volleyball. Let's face it, card sets for even minor league baseball teams are pretty much niche sets these days.
I am planning a post / series of posts about them, but there is sorting, scanning, editing, and writing to do. I think they are pretty cool, but I can't read a word on them and that hamstrings the process a little bit. It's hard to find good resources in English for relatively small Japanese wrestling promotions. I'll probably be ordering more, though. They're a fun diversion from the same old stuff I get from Topps and Panini.
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