The penis shrine (NSFW)

I had dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Tokyo last week where I was seated in front of some very interesting hanging art. It wasn't the only thing about the decor that was conspicuously phallic...

Behind a curtain in the corner of the restaurant were these Golden Ball Fortune Telling penises. Under each statue is a drawer from which you can pick a rather crass fortune that parodies the traditional New Years version that you'd normally draw at a real shrine.

I didn't take any more pictures, but there were butt cheeks and breasts hanging on the walls, too.

• [PixelFish]

  There’s a store in Chinatown where you could buy lingam. Their largest–just BARELY visible from the street window if you know where to look–was about five feet long. http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixelfish/408417330/in/set-72157594566637750/

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    PixelFish, you prat, how can you link to a picture of a five-foot cock for sale without linking to a way to buy it?!?!?

• [Lisa Katayama]

  It’s in Roppongi: http://rubyurl.com/shE8

  • [Evil Lyle]

    I thought I recognized it- very good food, very reasonable prices too.

• [Anonymous]

  can we get a little more specific info about the restaurant? the name, at least, would be helpful… some of us might be interested in seeing it for ourselves!

• [benher]

  Kintama Uranai? I find that the fortunes my testicles predict do not always lead to auspicious outcomes.

• [mjfgates]

  When you say there are butt cheeks on the walls, you mean PAIRS of butt cheeks, right? Because I don’t think I’d even know what it WAS if there was just one. I’d just be all “dang, they’ve got some really bad plasterers in this town…”

• [dero]

  This reminds me of the museum attached to (UNESCO Heritage listed) Matsumoto Castle in Matsumoto, Nagano. The town has an annual Dosojin festival featuring phallic roadside guardians, many of which are displayed in the museum. Search down this page for a rather awkward looking photo of the Festival:

  http://welcome.city.matsumoto.nagano.jp/contents08+index.htm

• [Anonymous]

  they have a pretty decent lunch special.

• [Anonymous]

  I think this restaurant either has more than one branch across Tokyo (a chain? OMG?!?), or the redecorated it with even more phallus symbols. I was in a restaurant which had this shrine and the red walls. It was somewhere close to Shinjuku station East exit. But I cannot remember that massive Penis bell

• [Khiyo]

  I wanna go there. Are you allow to touch it? Just curious :)

• [Evil Lyle]

  I could be wrong but this looks like the Chinese restaurant across from Roppongi Hills? (Although after a while all these penis shrines start to look the same…)

• [ceabaird]

  Ah, yes… Cafe 8. You also left out the sculptures of breasts and asses that cover the walls. They have another cafe in Ebisu that has some KILLER Peking Duck.

• [Anonymous]

  Is this the place?
  http://www.akasaka8.jp/

• [MelSkunk]

  And unsurprisingly the longest one has all the coins at the base. I bet they haven’t had to add new fortunes at the base of any of the others since they opened.

• [Sparrowhawk]

  The “hanging art” is a rather crass take on one of those large gongs. Remember those large temple gongs where six men swing a log to strike the gong? There’s a nice vagoo on where that penis strikes.

  • [Nelson.C]

    Doubtless, it goes DONG! when it strikes.

    (I’m sorry.)

• [SteveMcQueensgotnothingonme]

  Reminds me of Bar Turrisi in Castelmola, Sicily:

  http://www.barturrisi.com/

• [Anonymous]

  Oooo! Shiny! :D

  Tibi

• [Glindie]

  I came here from Twitter just to say that it amuses me that you have to attach (NSFW) to an article titled “The penis shrine”. I know you’re just covering your ass, so to speak, but that one should be self-explanatory. :P

  • [Anonymous]

    You never know, it may be very important to cover your ass at the penis shrine.

    Btw, my captcha is “The origami”

• [Anonymous]

  haha! i love this place. i stay around there every summer, and pretty much went there for lunch there atleast 3 times a week. main meal+soup+ all you can eat rice, desert, and tea/coffee only for 550 yen. and the special lunch menu changes weekly as well with 3-4 options as well!

• [Anonymous]

  WHY??