Funny little things that seem to work.

I talked about many little quirks that make it so fun to live here. I know, that there is a high demand for stories about toilets, technology and food but trust me those will be coming soon. Oh yeah.. Dick Tracy bedsheets.

Instead, I thought I would write about the little inventions and quirks that I find here and there that make me stand back and say "wow that's so simple yet it makes total sense". I gave one example at the beginning of this month with the story about the elevator. I mean seriously: why don't we have that? The picture you see here is one I took while in suburban Kyoto. It was at a train platform. I suppose it means "ask assistance in retrieving objects from the tracks" instead of you going and killing yourself. But the picture just makes me laugh. Yes, I think its a giant claw.

How about this piece. What you do is put your wet umbrella into the top of the box. There are little bags underneath that are attached to the top opening. What really blows me away is somehow a new bag is opened and set in the right place as you remove the previous bag. The idea is to not walk around with your wet umbrella and not leave it somewhere to make a mess. Instead keep it with you in a umbrella bag.
I took this picture in front of a hospital .


This one is gold on many levels. First of all "please pour your leftover drinks into the side funnel". I remember when I worked at the movie theater and I had to walk with the bags streaking behind me because of all the liquids. Think of all the floors that had to be mopped or the carpets that had to be replaced and the overall sticky feeling that could be avoided with this concept. Maybe people would just not bother to do it. Maybe they would.

I know that most countries do not permit smoking indoors anymore. Yes this is one thing that Japan is lenient on. The good thing is that there are not that many smokers to begin with. It's not very common here. So if you want to smoke in the smoking section of the McDonald's then you can get a clean ashtray and when you're done you can discard it to the dirty pile. If the ashtray was on the table then it encourages you to smoke so they put it on the side and just like the beverages, there is a hole for your ashes. Brilliant.

Next up is another ashtray. It says "I threw my cigarette butt into the drain. That is to say, I hid it in the drain." It's probably there to guilt you into putting your butt here instead of littering. Also there is a little picture of a rat in the drain that seems very confused by the butt. So for the sake of the animals don't litter, Put your butt here.
I thought it was cute because I haven't seen an ashtray like this since I was a kid. It was between two elevators.

Even though the L in Clock is a different font it does read Clock man rather than what I saw from a distance. This is a clock without any indications of the time anywhere on it except inside its circuitry. That's a clock without anything to tell you the time. What's the point? According to the video I watched, the function of this thing is to complain to you. When it's time to go to bed it tells you that it's tired and sleepy and cries like a little baby. It does the same for all kinds of different alarms. Wake up calls sound like yawning and it says phrases like "lets' go eat". If you tip it on its side it's like pressing snooze. After 5 min it pushes itself back up and starts talking again. Yes the mouth moves too. You may think this is cute but trust me it's evil.


Not sure what these guys were doing, but they're very pimp. There were a few more of them but all those colours made the pictures blurry. I have no idea what kind of motorbikes these are anyway.

This thing poops out batter right onto the little rings which are right on the hot plate. The inside ring is hotter then the outside ring. After one rotation the machine flips the little cookies from one side to the other. After one more rotation it pops them out of the ring, takes the ring back into the system and drops the cookie into the basket for the dude to review. You can buy them hot right there. I pretty sure that the machine makes the batter too.

Rather than an underpass filled with bums (which Japan is seriously figured out because they are not common at all. Compared to Paris, this is huge change) gangs, garbage and possible other dangers that needs to be patrolled, they made an overpass for pedestrians. No one bothers to climb all the way up there, but that's not the point.


I know they're apartment buildings and all but I never felt more like more a little worker ant working for society than when I looked at this building. Every room is the same, every part is the same. No I don't live here but at least 1000 identical people do. Yey communism!

FYI: I got away with 6 objectionable words in this blog. If used correctly they can come off as being innocent. :P