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"  The Festival of the Steel Phallus \u2014 which is a real event that takes place annually on the first Sunday in April in Kawasaki, Japan \u2014 is like if the nuttiest (literally) (ha?) bachelorette shower you ever went to was put on steroids and then multiplied by 50 and then exploded inside a factory made of penises. And, uh, it&amp;#039;s actually a pretty awesome event: The penis is the central theme of the festival, focused at the local penis-venerating shrine which was once frequented by prostitutes who came to pray for business prosperity and protection against sexually transmitted diseases. Today the festival has become a popular tourist attraction and is used to raise money for HIV awareness and research. Um, Cosmo road trip next year??     Follow Laura on Twitter. Photos via Getty "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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