Cock-shaped lollipops? WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME ABOUT THIS FESTIVAL EARLIER?!?

Signed,
Slut Machine's Dog

If Slut Machine doesn't go and take picture and report back to us I'll... I'll... do something! I'll pout and write an angry email to Anna! And announce my retirement from commenting all over the site! Yeah, that's the ticket.

I wonder what that huge penis is made from

Someday I will have an outbuilding with a gigantic dick on top. Hard cocks are a perfect pick-me-up on shitty days.

Why does it seem that whenever I go to a different country I always hear about the fun stuff when I get back? No fair, I want to take my picture with a phallus shrine.

@JessicaLovejoy: Boosh and/or Kakow!: hahahahaha

Jealous...I live near San Fransisco (in the summer time) and I dont recall festivals of this type. Well, there is the gay pride parade but this Japanese one is VERY intriguing. I advocate the city provide us with some fertility festivals ASAP

Hmmm, taking a trip with your new significant other? Check on the Penis Festival, umm "sorry" "Fertility Festival". Just imagine the souveniors!

I saw an "Insomniac" episode where Dave Attell visited this festival. I thought that I was hallucinating.

I went to this festival while I was living in Japan. It is overrun with tourists who are excited and shocked by all the cocks and pussies on display for a religious festival.

Overall, it was kind of fun, but it wasn't very authentic. By the way, most of the tourists were American servicemen based in Okinawa.

I don't get this phallus thing. Isn't fertility all about the vulva? Where are the giant vulva floats and lolipops?

@tranquilmademoiselle: Smaller penises.

I live across from a park, and every so often, they'll hold a carnival there. One time, they had one of those inflatable things that kids jump around in. It had kind of a Moorish theme to it, I don't know, maybe it was an Aladdin thing. But it had a spire shaped exactly like a cock, and it was pink, and about 15 feet tall. And you could just see the head of it over my front yard fence. And everytime anyone was inside that thing jumping around, it waved back and forth frenetically. For three days, my BF and I would smoke, and go out on the porch and just laugh and laugh at that thing, which 'til this day we call The Giant Penis in the Park. The End.

@gra: Let me also add, most of them were drunk American servicemen... being obnoxious.

My grandma attended this festival every year when she lived in Japan! She has all of these pictures of her and her girlfriends sitting on giant stone penises. I actually have a souvenier arrow she got from it hanging in my dorm. It's got a huge disembodied cock hanging from it.
Also fun to note that my high school Japanese teacher refused to discuss the festival with me when I asked her about it. My professor now has no problem.

@Gingerlime: At least in ancient Rome phalluses were not only symbols of fertility, they also were a sign of good luck. That is why there are pictures/sculptures of penises all around Pompeii.

@Gingerlime: If I remember correctly, the vulva lollipop wasn't too pretty...or was that a vulva candle?

I am so going to next year's.

Oh and back when my grandma went, the penises weren't pink. They're pink now because the thing is also an AIDS awareness festival nowadays (like that even makes any sense).

Wow. That festival is exactly my family's Christmas parties.

Being a big fan of penis, this festival is quite relevent to my interests.

@tranquilmademoiselle: Broken promises.

I thought the festival was celebrating a giant metal penis that cast out a demon that was hiding in a young lady and biting off the cocks of guys who tried to bang her?
BTW they also sell vagina pops at the festival. They don't seem as popular as the penis pops though.

@Gingerlime: Oh god, can you imagine a giant pussy floating around as if it's the Macy's parade? That's nothing something that will leave my head anytime soon.

@Her_royal_Highness: I hear you, but meh! It makes teh sex all about teh menz. When was the last time a dude pushed a baby out of his peepee?

@Lymed: Think of a vulva lollipop as an edible Georgia O'Keeffe painting.

@and Begorrah: This is a work related expense, book Slut Machine's travel now!! We need a first hand blog account!

Let's all go next year. How much are flights to Japan?

@MeaniePants: When I rule the world, the Macy's Day Parade will feature a giant floating vulva balloon.

Can only see comments when I post a comment. Urg.

I've read that prositutes used to pray at the festival to protect them from STDs.

@Cam/ron: I worked on that show! This was one of the coolest places we went. My favorite part of the festival wasn't the three cocks (one black, one wood, one pick), or the cross-dressing dads. It was the old ladies in kimono whittling gourds and radishes into cocks. Sweet memories.

@La Madrugada: pink. Not pick.

My favorite Japanese festival is still the local one, where they build elaborate fish-shaped floats, then shove them into a river, then set them on fire.

Let's remember that Kanamara festival is not the only day to show your love for cock, we should all love it for the other 364 days of the year...Is there a festival for the vazhin as well?

[mdn.mainichi.jp]

"A highlight of the festival involves transvestites and transsexuals carrying a penis-shaped portable shrine (called "Elizabeth," incidentally, after the name of the Tokyo gay bar that originally donated it to the shrine) and screaming out a chant of "Kanamara, dekai mara (Iron penis, whopping penis).""

I was watching all about this festival on the National Geographic Channel one year and my husband came into the room without announcing himself. He was so shocked at the picture of an eight foot penis being paraded down the middle of the town that he ran out of the room, stubbing his little toe on the couch. I heard the bone snap from where I was sitting and he spent the rest of the evening in the ER, his foot swelling completely. We still talk about the "sacrifice" he made to the Kanamara gods.

Good times.

Waahhh, my boyfriend missed this event by a week. He's going to Japan next week for a business trip. He's also half-Japanese and fluent, so he'd be able to understand all the craziness.

HOW DID I NOW KNOW ABOUT THIS?!

totes booking flight for next year's festival right now.

GIANT.PENIS.FEST. awesome. I take it all back: I love you, Japan.

that has to be the biggest dildo i've ever seen. then again, i haven't spent any time in the prop closets of the adult entertainment industry.

now i know what to use my frequent flyer miles for.

@Cam/ron: from the article "The Kanamara festival, dating back over three hundred years when ladies of the night asked for protection from an epidemic of syphilis..."

You mean all you have to do to prevent STDs is throw a big party? This abstinence-only education is really holding back vital information.

Well, being as it's a fertility festival, I certainly hope they include some tanuki (aka Japanese raccoon-like dogs that have gigantic testicles).

[en.wikipedia.org]

I was there on Sunday and it was interesting to see people of all ages enjoy the penis goodies that were available. One family was passing around a large chocolate penis-on-a-stick. The giant pink one paraded through the street is a beautiful sight!!!
There were some vagina goodies as well, but this day was all about the penis!

Love this pic...carving penis radishes!

[mdn.mainichi.jp]

Lots more pics, and an article, here:
[mdn.mainichi.jp]
[mdn.mainichi.jp]

And, um, off topic, but I was browsing the headlines on that site, and I came across this:

[mdn.mainichi.jp]

"the family that slays together, stays together"

there also seem to be a disturbing number of teenage suicides

@SaturnEyes:
Haha I was just in Shiga which is like tanuki capital and I could just not get over the fact that every single statue of on had balls. Is it really necessary now?

How do you say 'Respect the cock!' in Japanese?

@gra: My least favorite thing about living in Japan was the disgusting behavior of American men. Asian fetish, anyone?

(Has anyone read Mr. Charisma?)

yes, I love this article - I depend on new penis festival pictures each spring.
The origins of the festival is prostitutes asking to be spared from a syphilis epidemic. Now everyone asks for STD protection.

I really think Jez should have an annual meet up there. I'm dead serious - I'll start saving today.

@pennycandy: I'd go! I've always wanted to go to this festival. Perhaps Dodai and Slut Machine can "chapperone" the group?

@zivah: I was an English teacher and the vast majority of the other teachers were men. Most of them were there to seek out hot Japanese women. Also, I will say that it wasn't just American men that behaved badly. Most of the guys I worked with were Australian and English.

You know, as a lesbian feminazi bonerkiller, this offends me. I am offended. Also, how come the giant cock is pink? That also offends me. It should be rainbow. Better yet, a massive hypercolor cock. I might be slightly less offended.