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As some of you know, I've been reading Inuyasha - which, of course, means that every so often some little piece of Japanese folklore pops up and I'm off on a lightening fast Internet search to learn about it. The history doesn't bother me any more, mostly thanks to my East Asian history class that I *HAD* to take, and really, the only thing I got out of that class was a better understanding of historical manga set in Japan and China. (Fushigi Yugi made waaaaay more sense after that class, and Inuyasha is cake now, and Kaze Hikaru is also loads of fun because I now know who the hell they're talking about and why that person is important.)
So, one of the recurring characters in Inuyasha is the tanuki Hachimon, who is a not-so-loyal companion of Miroku's. Off I went, researching not only about the mythical tanuki, but the ACTUAL tanuki was well - the Japanese Raccoon Dog. I DO NOT LIE. There's a whole lot of stuff about the different types of Raccoon Dogs, which tend to be native to Sibera, Japan, Korea and China, though the Japanese Raccoon Dogs are the most well known. We can thank titles like Inuyasha and the Super Mario Bros. franchise for that. XP When depicting tanuki, both real and mythical, an egantic scrotum is necessary. Because hot damn if those Raccoon Dogs don't have the biggest balls I've ever seen. Like Van Wilder's bulldog, if you've actually seen Van Wilder that is. And they are always that big.
While doing images searches to see the variety of depictions of real and mythical tanuki, I ended up on Veoh's bbs. Not unusual, as people are posting pics all the time on message boards, but one of the members had an interesting link in their sig - How Internet Friends are like Youkai. TWS applies, and so I click the link - and then promptly keel over in laughter.
Because wouldn't you know it - IT'S TRUE.
I didn't make this list,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
randomdiversion did. Also known as"CluelessinCA" on the now defunct VEOH social boards.
So, without further ado:
( How Internet Friends are like Youkai )
I found this while searching tanuki. By the back roads and scenic route indeed. XD
So, one of the recurring characters in Inuyasha is the tanuki Hachimon, who is a not-so-loyal companion of Miroku's. Off I went, researching not only about the mythical tanuki, but the ACTUAL tanuki was well - the Japanese Raccoon Dog. I DO NOT LIE. There's a whole lot of stuff about the different types of Raccoon Dogs, which tend to be native to Sibera, Japan, Korea and China, though the Japanese Raccoon Dogs are the most well known. We can thank titles like Inuyasha and the Super Mario Bros. franchise for that. XP When depicting tanuki, both real and mythical, an egantic scrotum is necessary. Because hot damn if those Raccoon Dogs don't have the biggest balls I've ever seen. Like Van Wilder's bulldog, if you've actually seen Van Wilder that is. And they are always that big.
While doing images searches to see the variety of depictions of real and mythical tanuki, I ended up on Veoh's bbs. Not unusual, as people are posting pics all the time on message boards, but one of the members had an interesting link in their sig - How Internet Friends are like Youkai. TWS applies, and so I click the link - and then promptly keel over in laughter.
Because wouldn't you know it - IT'S TRUE.
I didn't make this list,
randomdiversion did. Also known as"CluelessinCA" on the now defunct VEOH social boards.So, without further ado:
( How Internet Friends are like Youkai )
I found this while searching tanuki. By the back roads and scenic route indeed. XD
