Convenience... Japanese style.

7-11 here has everything.

Great salads, booze, cigarettes, photo printing, utility payments, snacks, quick food, your usual small size toiletries and supplies.

It also has a huge rack of magazines, from manga to porn.

This, my friends, is exactly what it looks like. The 7-11 titty mag shelf. It is, as far as I can tell, in every 7-11 in this country. Behold:

Doesn't look too explicit from here, but trust me. If anyone asks, I will try for a better shot. Please note that on the other end of this shelf I once found the Japanese equivalent of a "Chicken Soup for the Soul" book.

And what's this? Don't like to read? Well, what do you know... they rent or sell videos too!

Yeah, that's totally softcore porno flicks right above Wall-E. Is it funny or creepy? Should I cry or laugh? I couldn't figured it out so I went for 'total weirdo' and snapped a picture.

Oh, and people can stand at the shelf for a while and look through the magazines. Any of the magazines. At least once a week I walk past someone calmly leafing through a titty mag while buying ice cream. I'll let you know how I feel about it when I figure it out. Honestly, I'd be more willing to applaud the openness if I could actually find some equivocal literature, but it's all unidirectional. *sigh*