ODDITIES II

1. ODDITIES II Oddities attempts to articulate our innate sensitivity on things that do not conform to what they are supposed to be, through indulging on a number of odd things whose discussions are both timely and relevant. The selected items are specifically oddities mostly from Asia, showering ironies, paradoxes, and outlandishness as collected from the Internet. (click to advance slide)

2. Chinese Boy Clips Stuff with His Tongue 13-year-old Xiao Xin puts on a show for his family, as he clips everyday items with his tongue. The young boy from Daqing, northeast China, was born with a snake-like tongue that branches out close to its tip, allowing him to use it as a tool for clipping various things.

3. Beauty Mud Cup 2010 Held in China With the Football World Cup in South , Africa, local authorities from Changsha, China had to come up with something better, yet related to current events. Mud football, played by barely dressed models. Roars and cheers every time the girls kicked the ball through the mud.

4. The Jizo Army of Chausudake Volcano Located on the slopes of Chausudake Volcano, in Japan’s Tochigi Prefecture, hundreds of small Jizo statues make up the eeriest spirit army. One of the most beloved divinities in Japan, Jizo is seen as a savior working to ease the suffering of those serving time in hell..

5. Chinese Farmer Uses Makeshift Canon to Fend Off Eviction Yang Youd, a Chinese farmer living on the outskirts of Wuhan City, has created his very own canon, and it using it against eviction teams who seek to drive him off of his land., in a desperate attempt to prevent getting evicted.

6. Chinese Taxi Drivers Invited to Destroy Unlicensed Cabs Authorities in Chengdu, China invited 50 taxi drivers to destroy 140 illegal vehicles, captured by the police for those unlicensed cabs that are ruining perfectly legitimate companies. The Chinese taxi business is so competitive.

7. Wat Phai Rong Wua – Thai Hell on EarthWat Phai Rong Wua is one of bizarre tourist attractions. Featuring scenes of torture, performed by devilish creatures, this Buddhist temple complex is what Thais expect hell to be like. Wat Phai Rong Wua is a popular for Buddhists, who flock here.

8. The Amazing Snake Temple of Penang, Malaysia, is home to both people and some of the most dangerous snakes on Earth. Located at Sungai Kluang, on Penang Island, the Snake Temple is also known as Temple of the Azure Cloud or Pure cloudTemple in honor of Penang’s beautiful skies.

9. Public Toilets Never Looked This Good It’s really just a Chinese public toilet. This luxurious public facility was built on Nanshan Road, Xiamen, near the city’s residential area. It covers 100 square meters, offering clean, spacious toilets, for both men and women.

10. Japanese Women Slash Away the Pounds with Samurai Swords The recently opened “Samurai Camp” gym, in Tokyo, once used as deadly weapons, to slash enemies apart, Japanese Katana swords are now used by Japanese white-collar women to slash away extra pounds and cut down stress.

11. The Parade of the Lechon, in La Loma La Loma district, Quezon city, Philippines, is famous for having a pig roaster. on every street corner, on the third Sunday of May. Lechon is the word Filipinos use for roasted pigs. Derived from Spanish word “leche” that it must be a suckling pig.

12. Japanese Couple Wed by a Robot Satoko Inoue & Tomohiro Shibata both looked amazing on their wedding day, but the spotlight was stolen by the humanoid robot that replaced the priest. Inoue, the bride, works for the company that produces the i-Fairy robot, and Shibata is a client.

13. Woman Wins Bra Untying Contest During a promotional event, organized  by a Chinese department store, in Gungzhou city, China, contestants were invited to test their bra untying skills. In order to win, participants had to untie the bras of eight models, using only one hand.

14. Jallikattu – India’s Answer to Spanish Bullfighting In the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, people don’t need red capes & sharp swords to tame bulls, they do it with their bare hands, in a sport called Jallikkattu. The sport pits crowds of brave young men against angry bulls who can tear them apart.

15. Human Magnet Contest Held in VietnamTa Quang Thanh, of Hanoi, Vietnam, who managed to keep a 42 kilogram stone slab, stuck to his body, breaking all records. I’m sure you have at least one friend that claims he is a spring magnetic energy, just because he can balance a spoon on the tip of his nose,

16. Armless Embroider Heads to Shanghai Expo. Gao Baoying, of Tianjin China has no hands but has learned to use her feet to do everything we usually do with our hands, but one thing is for sure, this woman is a true artist. Gao was invited to showcase her embroidery at the Shanghai Expo.

17. Karube Shrine – Where the Japanese Go to Worship Breasts In Soja City, Okayama, Japan, Karube Shrine is dedicated to Chichigamisama, the Goddess of Breasts. A shrine dedicated to women’s breasts may sound amusing to us foreigners, but for the Japanese, this is a truly sacred place.

18. China’s Kung-Fu Barber Cuts Upside Down Wang Xiaoyu, 36, of Changsha, Hunan Province is a Chinese hair stylist, trained in the art of kung-fu and cuts hair, while standing upside down, on his head. The wacky barber has been cutting hair while doing a headstand.

19. Baby Crying Festival Held in Japan The Naki Sumo baby crying contest  is held yearly, at the Sensoji Temple, Tokyo. The baby crying festival is a 400-year-old tradition. Sumo wrestlers hold the babies high in the air, and & scare them into crying, while a sumo referee judges the match.

20. Wu Yulu, a Chinese farmer, from Beijing, has created a series of 47 robots out of scrap metal. He always dreamed of building robots that could imitate human behavior. Wu has been invited to showcase his scrap metal creations and their functionality, at the 2010 Shanghai Expo.

21. Onbashira – Japan’s Riskiest CelebrationHeld every six years, in the Nagano Japan, Onbashira Festival is believed to have continued uninterruptedly, for the last 1200 years. Onbashira, literally translated as “the sacred pillars”, symbolizes the renewal of Suwa Grand Shrine: Yamadashi and Satobiki,

22. Orangutan Boxing Matches Held in Thailand A Thai theme-park near Bangkok has become a popular tourist attraction by organizing orangutan boxing matches. Huge crowds of tourists and sport enthusiasts gather at Safari World to watch orangutans duke it out in 30 minute-boxing matches for entertainment.

23. 102-Year-Old Student Proves You’re Never to Old to Learn Ma Xiuxian,102, from Jinan, Shandong China, never attended school, as a child, but she is making up for that in her later years. She began working at a cotton mill, at 3, married at 18, gave birth to nine children, seven of which attended universities.

24. Chinese Seamstress Works with Her Feet Born without arms, Liu Jianming in Kunming, Yunnan province, China. has learned to sew using her feet, ever since she was a teenager. and creates embroidered works of art. Cannot afford to rent or buy a shop, so she spends her days working on a street corner,

25. Watch Out, Here Comes the Monkey PoliceSantisuk a 5-year-old pig-tailed macaque is a proud member of the Thai police, doing his best to keep the streets crime-free. Santisuk is a mascot for the police force of Saliburi, Thailand. He was found injured & has been adopted by local policemen.

26. Tuban – The Earth-Eating Village of Indonesia In Tuban, a village in the East Java  province of Indonesia, earth is used to make “ampo” a creamy snack believed to have medicinal properties. According to Rasima, the ampo cook of Tuban, there is no real recipe to making this bizarre snack.

27. Dress Made from One Million Meters of Human Hair Showcased in Vietnam A unique tunic-like dress, made out of countless human hairs, was presented by a model, in the center of Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi. Human hair is a popular material from Asian artists.. The 1 million meters of hair were then died and sewn into a dress, using a needle, you can see the shape of a dragon, made from long brown hair. Kim Do’s hair dress comes with a hat, also made from hair and decorated with the design of Vietnam’s Turtle Tower.

28. Mallakhamb. Mallakhamb originated in Maharastra, India, during the 12th century, as a form of training for wrestlers. The word “Malla” means wrestler, while “khamb” translates as pole. This old art had almost been lost thru the centuries, but it’s become popular. The sport of Mallkhamb has athletes climb up a wooden pole, 55 cm in diameter,at the base, and 35, at the top, and perform various poses and feats.

29. 100-Year-Old Chinese Woman Grows Horn in Her Forehead Zhang Ruifang, a 100-year old woman, from China’s Henan Province, has a strange horn coming out of the left side of her forehead. The century-old woman says her horn started growing last year, & now measures between 5 and 6 cm in length.

30. Pig Beauty Contest Held in China The Pig Contest of Guanshan, Guangdong Province, China, is a centuries old tradition dating back to the Qing Dynasty. Hundreds of thousands of tourists, from all over China, travel to Guanshan, every year, to take a look at the hundreds of pigs on display at the Pig Contest.

31. Bamboo Keyboards and Mice Are the New Rage in China Jiangxi Bamboo Technology Development Co. Ltd., the only bamboo peripherals manufacturer in China, says their products have become popular, after they’ve been exported to markets in Europe & America.

32. Make Your Own Edible Insects with GUMMIX Produced by Japanese company Megahouse, the GUMMIX kit allows kids and grown-ups to make their own jelly insects, as pranks or food decorations. GUMMIX is part of the Megahouse 2010 Shocking lineup, and consists of special gelatin powder and insect molds.

33. Chinese Use Fire as Medicinal Treatment, Setting a man on fire isn’t a bad thing, it’s actually considered curative. This strange medical procedure, fire treatment is very popular during the winter months, in traditional hospitals. They believe this will keep them safe from illnesses like the flu & common cold.

34. Japanese Invent Bionic Potato-Chip Grabber Potechi (Japanese for potato chip) is a device made by Takara Tomi, that grabs potato chips. Technologies like NBCS (No Broken Clutch System), NTTS (No Touch Table System) and FECS (Finger Easy Cleaning System) allows you to pick up potato chips.

35. China Opens Chocolate Theme-Park in Beijing Located inside the Olympic Stadium in Beijing, the World Chocolate Dream Park is an Asian version of Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Chinese chocoholics is open to the public, features a number of China’s historical and cultural symbols.

36. South Korean Balloons to Free North Korea To undermine Kim Jong Il’s in North Korea, members of  South Korean nongovernmental organizations send baloons filled with leaflets to North Korea. Activists for freedom from Paju, 51 km north of Seoul, regularly send these helium-inflated balloons.

37. Tibetan Sky Burials Are Super-Creepy Funerals are sad and creepy, but they’re way better than feeding the corpse to a bunch of hungry eagles. Sky burials are practiced in the mountains of Tibet, for religious & practical reasons. The corpse is sliced open in various places, to attract the birds of prey.

38. South-Korean Special Forces Winter Training Every year, South Korean special-forcesundergo winter training to strengthen their minds & bodies & to make sure the cold doesn’t affect them on live missions. Rangers take part in the grueling winter training session, in Pyonghang, 180 km east of Seoul.

39. Mass Ice-Fishing at Hwacheon Ice Festival Hwacheon, South-Korea, draws over one million people to the Hwacheon Sancheoneo ice festival, held on a frozen river. Festival hosts sledding, ice-soccer and snowman-building events, but the highlight of the event is the ice-fishing for fresh mountain trout.

40. Korean Winter Camp Turns Kids into Men Located 25 miles from Seoul, the Ansan military camp gives civilians the chance to strengthen their minds and bodies, by training in extreme conditions. The camp is ran by retired Korean marines , they’ll have you carrying logs and exercising half naked in the snow.

41. Finally, a Women-Only Car Park Some women have been known to have trouble parking, but the Chinese did a pretty sexist thing here. At Wonder Mall, in Shijiazhuang. The parking spaces in the women only car park will be one meter wider, so they can park without damaging neighboring vehicles

42. China’s Most Graceful Ballet Dancers Not exactly members of the Balsoi ballet, but fat guys never looked better in a tutu. In an effort to raise awareness to the protection of Pinglu Wetlands, five Chinese members of the workers’ union dressed in ballet costumes and danced gracefully in front of the cameras.

43. Boxing on Floating Ice A group of winter swimmers entertained passers-by during a series of boxing matches performed on a block of floating ice. Held in Harbin City, China, the wacky competition had contestants punch each other with sized boxing gloves while struggling to keep their balance on slippery ice.

44. Heineken Presents Tastiest Christmas Tree Heineken unveiled its original Christmas tree, made out of 1,100 full beer bottles, in Shanghai, China. Created by stacking Heineken beer bottles on a custom-made armature, the beer-bottleChristmas tree has Nanjing Street passers-by drooling.

45. The Wishing Spheres of Singapore Every year, the people of Singapore celebrate the coming of the New Year by launchingwishing spheresin the Singapore River. People travel from all over the world towrite their wishes for the new year on a giant white sphere and throw it in the Singapore River.

46. World’s Largest Solar-Power Hotel Opens in China Built by Himin Group, China’s leading solar products manufacturer, Solar Valley Micro-E Hotel opened in Dezhou, China. It covers 75,000 square-meters & features thousands of solar panels, heat pipe collectors that store energy for 70% of the hotel’s needs.

47. World’s Fishiest Wedding Cake A wedding-planning company in Kanagawa, Japan has been offering tuna fish instead of traditional wedding cakes for over ten years now. The couple opted for a 100 kg-heavy Big Eye Tuna as treat for their guests, but clients have a wide range of packages to choose from.

48. Man Sleeps with Dead Wife for Five Years Le Van, 55, from Quang Nam, Vietnam, lost his wife. He couldn’t go to sleep at night without hugging his wife, he slept on top of her grave for about 20 months. When he couldn’t stand the rain & wind anymore, he dug a tunnel into the grave, so he could sleep there.

49. Nail Art at Tokyo Nail Expo 2009 At the Tokyo Big Site, on Odaiba Island, the Tokyo Nail Expo featured some of the most amazing fingernail artworks. The nail industry is big in Japan, so it’s no wonder they’ve organized an exposition where nail artists could showcase their latest masterpieces.