The Annual No Pants Subway Ride

January 11^th, 2015, was the day of the annual No Pants Subway Ride. This novel event, started for the first time in 2002 with just seven participants in New York City, has grown to incorporate more than sixty cities worldwide.

The premise of the event is that transit passengers ride trains without wearing anything but undies on their lower halves. The top half must be as if they were going about their normal day. No acknowledgement of pantslessness is to be made.

Growing over four years from seven riders to one hundred and fifty in New York City in 2006, but 2013 sixty cities had people coordinating the event.

The event was the brainchild of Improv Everywhere, which is a New York prank collective, whose motto is “We Cause Scenes”.  Their aim is to create joyful chaos in public places. The fact that many participating cities are shivering through winter does not dampen enthusiasm!

This year, tens of thousands of people participated worldwide – with four thousand in New York City alone. The oldest registered participant was eighty four years young, and the youngest was just seven months old. Other cities which participated include Chicago, Tokyo, Bangalore, Madrid, Copenhagen, London, Jerusalem, Hamburg, and even a pantsless ride on a ski gondola in Fukushima, Japan.

Even Australians jumped on this bandwagon (and let’s face it, our climate is much more conducive at this time of year!) Trains and trams from Bondi to Adelaide had pantsless riders.

The founder of the event, Charlie Todd, has stated that the event is now an “international celebration of silliness”.

Missed The No Pants Subway Ride for 2015? Don’t despair. World No Pants Day is still to come – held in numerous nations of the world on the first Friday in May. This previously informal, college event became official in 2000, and has been embraced in colleges and universities in the US, Canada, Sweden, Finland, the UK and Australia.

Best get some nice undies!

Japan’s “Boob Goddess”

We all love our beautiful bras, and as such we should all want to look after what goes into our bras. We all know this involves wearing well-fitted, supportive bras and regularly checking the breasts for anything abnormal. But what about breast massage?

A novel invention has recently come out of Japan (where else?). Invented by Japanese midwife and founder of the Wellness Life Institute, Takiko Shindo, aka the “Boob Goddess”, this is a modified “rake” which is claimed to firm a woman’s breasts – and to even make them bigger by up to three centimetres.

Called the Oppai Taisou Hand (which translates as “Boob exercise massage”), it is a pink hand-shaped plastic rake which is used to stroke and brush the breasts. Modelled on Shindo’s own hand, it looks a little like a blunt back scratcher. Shindo claims breast massage to be not only effective for enhancement of breast size and shape, but also to improve shoulder stiffness, menstrual cramping, menopausal symptoms, and overall breast health.

There are claims that there is “science” behind this strange invention. According to Shindo, the breast’s supporting ligaments need to move so that the naturally occurring breast fats don’t settle amongst the chest wall musculature, hence causing the breasts to sag.

Modern medicine and cosmetic surgeons tend to disagree with this theory. The fact is that ligaments do stretch over time – but unlike muscles, they never bounce back. Once they are stretched, they are stretched forever.

It’s not all bad news for this invention, though. Using the “rake” to massage and lift the opposite breast, the pectoral muscles are being massaged and exercised. These muscles lie under the breast tissues, and with exercise, they can be tightened and enlarged – providing better shape to the upper torso. It is also scientifically considered that stimulating the breasts mechanically can encourage breast growth. And better circulation is encouraged, which promotes better overall breast health.

Does it work? Who knows? But it has to be a cheaper, healthier option than getting breast implants!