Sometimes it just takes a little inspiration to get me moving on a blog posting. I’d been looking for just that when trying to construct another entry on Japanese lifeguards. Yesterday Closet Conundrums posted the first two images below, and that was enough to pull it all together.

Most of these photos I gleaned from that old Japanese site I can no longer find, Yoruzu. A few of them I posted a long time ago, but have since found larger and cleaner versions of them, good enough to make some nice wallpapers.

There’s more where these came from, so stay tuned.

A long time ago, I found a proto-blog on a Japanese site called Yoruzu (which I can no longer find). I collected a number of shots from there of Japanese lifeguard competitions, and until Speedo Jack posted one of them recently, I’d never seen any of those photos anywhere else.

So here’s part of that extensive set, my favorite group, featuring the very fine, fine rear of one lifeguard, all in blue.

Wow. I’ve been looking for those small-profile, cool patterned Asian briefs, jams and leggings I’ve seen in pictures and at meets, and this weekend I stumbled on an old link I’d archived last year for Aqus, the Korean swimming online superstore, where — in addition to Arena Japan and Speedo Japan, which I knew of — I discovered swim gear manufacturers I’d never heard about: Mizuno, Rally, Nequin, Fiload, Tornado and others. Links to all of these are in the swim gear links at left. Here are some sample displays from Aqus. More on this later.

A number of photos of this very handsome Asian swimmer in blue and orange Asics speedos have appeared lately, including most recently a somewhat mischievous modified version of a close-up shot of him tugging at his suit. I’ve included all of the ones I’ve found so far in this set.

The Japanese were the first to explore the ever shrinking speedo, in lifeguard competitions, triathlons, and in the pool. Here are a few examples.

To see the effect their tiny, low-slung speedos have had on competition swimmers in Europe and the Americas already, see the next post above this one.