The majority of the links are taken from http://www.cscoutjapan.com/en/, while others are from http://www.japantrendshop.com/.
I will start off with some items of comfort:
For those of us who are on our feet all day long try one of these: 'Tired Foot Care Socks'
, they bring in the idea of Asian Reflexology and are designe to stimulate key pressure points on your feet; plus apparently they are comfortable too boot when around the house!
Also, we have the 'Yubi Germa Lax' or the Hand-held Finger massager, and because it is made with Germanium, it warms up during use.
Now because A/C in many places in japan is still a rare item for whatever reason marketers have found ways to make life a little more bearable for the Common worker: 'Kuchofuku air-conditioned bed and clothing', designed to keep you cool on the move or in your sleep in the most tenuously hot environments.
Of course while being stylishly cool we should also be trendy and look like we are a million bucks even if that isn't the case; so if you can manage to scrape together $185.00 U.S. you can get a beautiful Gold pressed business card as seen here 'Custom Gold business card by Mitsubishi'. And the article is seen Here.
Now for those who look up at the stars at night and wonder what the heck is that but are too lazy to do a search on Google or Yahoo; let alone open a book. This would seem to be the perfect device for you! it is only the winter addition, (A multi-billion dollar gaming company has got to make a buck somehow...), but there are otheres for other seasons too! The 'Sega Homestar Pro planetarium Winter Edition'.
Now even though I live in Illinois we have two major faultlines that give a small magnitude shake every couple of years, but I could definately see people in California eating this one up!
the 'Gragraph home seismograph for earthquake safety', for the seismologist or nerd in you, or maybe just because you experience Earthquakes in high frequency, this gadget is definitely for you!
I know many of us here in the U.S. and many of my friends from other areas of the World can definitely relate to not wanting to get up the next day for various reasons....
And that darned standard alarm clock just cannot stand up to our vigorous attempts to shut it off in our bleary eyed sleepiness. so I have a cure well more specifically Toyo Trading Company has the answer!
It is the 'Hand Grenade Alarm Clock', it is motion sensitive so it turns off when you throw it at something, also presumed good for Anger Management, but do not throw at people!!
And speaking of things that go 'BOOM' or more or less 'POP' we have 'Puchi Puchi' Virtual Bubble Wrap and it makes a variety of noise including the infamous farting noise plua many more! The common cure for sensless boredom?
I don't know if you can drop bombs, but this thing is definitely "The Bomb" for indoor flying machines! Takara Tomy's Tomitech Division brings us the 'Autoflight Indoor Glider', weighing in at 3.7 grams, (or 0.13 ounces for us Americans). Only slightly heavier than a regular paper airplane and for all you indoor couch-flight enthusiasts this is one heck of an item!
Now I love Soba Noodles like the Next person... who loves Soba Noodles...
But for those who cannot get enough and don't want to spend a dime on all that pricey Japanese resurant food owned suspiciously by Koreans. You can make your own Soba at Home!!!!
Another great small invention by Takara Tomy! it is the 'Ie Soba' or (Home Soba); however if you have gluten allergies I would either stay far away or use this for another type of noodle, lol.
In home life, many of us have a humidifier(s) of some sort, mainly for wintery and cold dry months, but if you don't like the noise; Japanese company Mikuni has a delight for you! it is the ' Misty Garden' from the Okudake Eco series and it is a large filter shaped in the style of a Garden and by pouring water and if desired some aroma on it it will push moisture into the air ithout any loud motors or electricity for those crunching numbers at an empty pocket book!
Speaking of Eco Friendly, how about some Pure unadulterated H2O! 'Mizu No Genso' or [Elements of Water] is just that, Pure H2O and nothing else but according to the article you may want to stay close to a bathroom as it runs right through you; no pun intended.
Would you like some Deep-Fried Gold Fish? No you say? Well in Japan a current fad is having live Gold fish in a tank of water underneath frying oil at resturants. And yes the fish are ok! Better to just see than have me try to explain it, here!
If life isn't hard enough and full of some kind of drama, Bandai has come out with the ' Human Player' which is based off the Tamagotchi but it is 'You', instead of some alien looking animal! And revolves around your life and what you do and includes a personality test to make it freakishly accurate! and you can even have your human player talk to other HUman players for an enhanced experience.
So that means my Computer double will have just about as much luck trying to get other Human players to interact with it as I get People to interact with me? lol... Leave it to the Japanese...
On the techy side of things we have 'Tenori Pop'; "Overhead projectors combined with digital cameras can detect an outstretched hand and instantly beam an image onto the hand. As the hand moves, the image follows with it, and can be combined with other images to create something new." So I am just waiting to get my hands on this for the Club and Underground scene, Oh did I let the cat out of the bag?! Well right now it is a bit out of my price range
Of Course for our Mobile Phone Users we have the 'EM-ONE', old news in Japan but stateside we have a few knock offs but I haven't seen anything quite so useful as this!
Many of us know of Sparkling Grape Juice the Champaign alternative for Children, but in Japan they have 'Kodomo No Nomimono', fake beer for kids and it comes in Bottles Six Packs, etc.
May not ever grow in popularity here in the U.S. but it is definitely all the rage in Japan!
Speaking of Beer, ever want to have sweets after dinner but they usually don't go well with your after dinner Beer?! Well the Japanese have an answer for that too! 'Yebisu' Beer Jelly, similar to JELLO. And if that isn't enough to wet your tastebuds then try a Skittlebrau!
Two last things for my readers, more so the DJ's and Car Junkies who like Anime.
The 'Tenori-On' is a visual Digital Synthesiser from Yamaha, created by Toshio Iwai. Pretty much a modern day beat-box Synth that is on steroids! With all sorts of accesories hidden within it's plasticine structure.
And finally for those who have always wanted there own Mech-Unit and Life-Sized!
We must venture over to Nissan Motor Company and their 'Dualis Powered Suit', now there is very little info on this yet, so we don't know if a Human can actually get inside and power it up, but they definately put a lot of effort into it's design, probably worth a little Saturday morning or Sunday evening browsing when there is nothing else much to do.
*You may recognize it if you ever watched Ghost in the Shell, Eureka Seven: Psalm of Planets or a list of other Anime's as seen in the article for the Dualis.*
Thank you all for taking the time to read through this slight hodge-podge of items, I hope I have turned even a quarter of my readers onto something new and exciting and maybe even worth while!
R. William Holzkopf Jr.
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I hadn't checked your blog in some time, however this'n was awesome! As you might could remember, I spent about a year in South Korea. Lots of this is really cool.
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