red wine definitely adds romance to the evening...

i've waxed on about the strange approach to sex and intimacy in this country many times. in some ways japanese society seems to be incredibly perverse, and in others it seems to be sexually retarded in the true dictionary sense of the word. to be so peculiar about sexuality, it never ceases to amaze me that the japanese manage to stay on the cutting edge of the sex industry.

Wine bath for the nads, mud pack for the sack pledges heavenly pleasure

Japan's ever-inventive sex industry's latest innovation is an adaptation of the facial -- a mud pack for the penis, according to Spa! (3/27).

Authorities have in recent years taken a harder line on the flesh trade, prompting operators to come up with up an increasing variety of services aimed at providing pleasure but circumventing the long arm of the law.

The mud pack for the penis, which follows a wine bath for the gonads, is part of an Italian-style esthetic treatment offered by a Tokyo-based service called The Aromani.

"A whole lot of operations similar to ours sprung up in a short time and we needed to provide a service nobody else was offering and this was it," The Aromani's boss tells Spa! "Our sales point is that we also offer variations, including having the service performed by multiple workers (groups of two or three women), or you can have it performed by a shy woman or another who'll do it while talking dirty."

The Aromani's boss says the service began with the motto of "providing health and beauty to the willy and anus."

The service involves using a hotel sink or face-washing basin and filling it with warm water and wine. This is aimed at improving the circulation. Instead of inserting the face, however, the client places their bottom in the bowl, allowing the penis and anus to be soaked in the suds of their sommelier.

Spa! notes that the washing is performed by at least one woman, who The Aromani insists must be in her 20s or 30s at the oldest.

Once the basic basin service has finished, the genitals are swathed in a chunk of mud supposed to cleanse the skin. Once they are completely covered, the woman (or women) providing the service, then show their handiwork, so to speak, until the client reaches climax, or what Spa! calls the "ascent to Heaven." (By Ryann Connell)