Remember the Japanese hotel we told you about that offered discounts to bald guys? Well, once again Japan is leading the charge in celebrating baldness, this time with the Tsuruta town's annual "competition to choose the strongest baldie in the country." To win the competition, bald men play a creative game of tug-of-war by attaching suction cups to their heads, connected by a red string. The winner is the one whose suction cup remains attached.
The fact that the competition is held in Tsuruta is no coincidence - it's a play on the Japanese phrase 'tsuru tsuru' which means 'smooth and shiny.' See what they did there?
The reigning champion of the competition, 82-year-old Akio Narita, is one proud baldie. "When I was young, I used to feel embarrassed about my hair. But now I can make people laugh with it, and I'm happy."
And that's the whole point of the competition - to bring a lighthearted perspective to baldness. The Tsuruta Bald Men Club was founded in 1989 with a mission to "view baldness in a positive manner, to have fun, and to brighten the world with our shiny heads."
Teijiro Sugo, the club's chairman, hopes to broaden the reach of the club in the future. "I want all the bald men all over the world to gather here so we can organize a bald men's Olympic tournament," he told Megumi Lim of Reuters.
So dust off your domes, baldies... We're going to Japan!