This article is reproduced from the discontinued, but much loved Mainichi Waiwai column by Ryann Connell. Read more about this at the bottom of this article. (Does anybody know when this was originally published in Waiwai? We cant find the original link. Please let us know).

A four-page article in Aera (11/7) is based on a poll of 300 married women, with more than half its space devoted to bar graphs and pie graphs — a total of 20, if you can believe it. But bear with us; there are interesting conclusions to be drawn from the “sexless” relationships that appear to plague an increasing number of Japan’s marriages.

Continue reading WaiWai: Sex? Been there, done that, say disinterested wives →

This article is reproduced from the discontinued, but much loved Mainichi Waiwai column by Ryann Connell. Read more about this at the bottom of this article.

In a land where advanced planning is as highly esteemed as it is in Japan, spontaneity is not just something that pops up out of the blue. And the bedroom, it seems, is no exception, according to Spa! (10/11).

Mood can make or break what’s supposed to be a romantic liaison between lovers. A simple slip could ruin the atmosphere and spoil the night.

Despite a widespread belief that Japanese women are passive when preparing conditions for intimate encounters, Spa! says they’re actually working like busy little beavers to make sure their trysts come off perfectly.

Continue reading WaiWai: Saucy spontaneity not just something that pops up out of the blue →

This article is reproduced from the discontinued, but much loved Mainichi Waiwai column by Ryann Connell (Article below by Masuo Kamiyama). Read more about this at the bottom of this article.

“Our inn has a large common bath, plus four smaller private spas that can be rented by guests,” says the ‘kami’ female proprietor at a ryokan (Japanese-style inn) in Shizuoka’s Atagawa Onsen. “The private baths are available for rental on a round-the-clock basis. Of late, they’ve been taken over by young couples, who are quite … noisy, if you know what I mean.”

Gracious old rural inns, traditionally, have been places where Japanese go to relax in natural surroundings while soaking away their aches and pains in mineral hot springs. But, reports Shukan Jitsuwa (10/13), inns’ clientele of late seem to have other ideas.

Continue reading WaiWai: Randy young couples play scrub-a-dub at rural hot springs →

This article is reproduced from the discontinued, but much loved Mainichi Waiwai column by Ryann Connell. Read more about this at the bottom of this article.

“I knew there was no point continuing,” a 28-year-old receptionist tells an-an (10/5), “the moment he reached his climax and screamed out ‘Mommy’ in ecstasy.”

Talk about sex lives to almost 1,000 Japanese women — as the racy women’s weekly did — and that’s the sort of thing you’ll find out.

Of the 973 women who took part in an-an’s annual survey on sex, 20-somethings averaged from 2.9 partners (from 20 to 29) to 4.5 partners (from 25 to 29) throughout their lives, while those aged 30 to 34 had, on average, slept with 4.2 men.

Continue reading WaiWai: Girls give titillating tell-all in saucy survey →

This article is reproduced from the discontinued, but much loved Mainichi Waiwai column by Ryann Connell (article below by Masuo Kamiyama). Read more about this at the bottom of this article.

“This young woman arrived at the hospital with a green pallor to her face,” recalls Masahiro Matsushima, a urologist at Tobo University Hospital. “I could tell from her face right away what her problem was. It was late at night and I suspected she had inserted something.

I took a look and there, protruding from her urethra, was a rounded glass rod that turned out to be a mercury thermometer. She had been playing with herself and it had become lodged in her urethra and she couldn’t remove it. She was weeping with shame and fear when she came to the hospital.

Continue reading WaiWai: When ‘this is a stick-up’ means you’re really in trouble →

This article is reproduced from the discontinued, but much loved Mainichi Waiwai column by Ryann Connell (article below by Cheryl Chow). Read more about this at the bottom of this article.

Wanted, graduate of a prestigious university for full-time, unfulfilling grunt work at a major corporation. Hours from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., 100 hours or more overtime per month, work on weekends as needed. Annual salary: 3 million yen.

It’s not likely that employers will put out a want ad like this, but these are, in fact, the working conditions for most salaried workers on the lower rungs of the Japanese corporate ladder, according to Spa.

Continue reading WaiWai: Salarymen slaves stiffed by ‘merit’ pay system →

This article is reproduced from the discontinued, but much loved Mainichi Waiwai column by Ryann Connell. Read more about this at the bottom of this article.

While many eagerly await the union between Takacho, the top geisha, and Takuya, the guitarist, just as many are looking back to see how much carnage the pair have caused with past liaisons.

Takacho, the Thinking Butterfly, currently commands the greatest attention of all geiko, the name given to women of the arts in the ancient capital.

But the 21-year-old superstar of the geisha world is best known for a June 2002 scandal when the tabloid sheet Friday captured her on camera as she left a hotel room.

Continue reading WaiWai: The kabuki actor, his politician wife, the rock star and their geisha →