Funny items on online shop

Ohhh, the future we envisioned in the movies will soon be realized. Look at this! 'Wearable Motorbike Makes Batman's Toys Look Pedestrian.' Cool!

I found this post about a Japanese product: 'Flower Fire Extinguishers.' Hmm｡ﾄ it's funny, isn't it. So today, I picked some funny products that I found on Yahoo Shopping. They are not joke items; they are all real (and serious) products.

Nagashi Somen machine: Nagashi Somen means 'flowing Japanese noodle.' To make flowing somen, somen is put in water flowing along a long, open bamboo tube. You catch the noodles with your chopsticks, dip them in a cool broth, and eat them. It's a sort of summer event. But you can do it on the table at home by yourself with the machine. (At any rate, I don't need it!! )

Girls' fundoshi underwear: I picked this item last month. Traditionally, Fundoshi is guys' underwear. When we say 'Tighten your fundoshi!' it means to 'be prepared and do your best.' I don't know why we have these girls' fundoshi this year.

Laundry cover for rainy days: I guess this would be funny to Westerners. Japanese people dry their laundry outside like on the porch or in a garden on sunny days, and dryers are not so popular yet. But people trying to do their laundry got annoyed by the continuous rain. Then this product came along so you can wash clothes even on rainy days! (I don't have a dryer, but I don't need this, I will go to the laundromat near my house)

Eel bones: Eel kabayaki is usually an expensive food in Japan. Eel restaurants always give off very delicious smells! Actually I think there's a rakugo skit in which a poor guy eats a bowl of rice in front of an eel shop so he can smell the kabayaki cooking. We eat eel pie and eel bones as snacks, and we also eat eel offal yakitori-style. Fried eel bones are very crispy and delicious.

Nori cutter for lunchbox: I sometimes picked the topic of chara ben (lunchboxes with character motifs) before. I thought that some artsy moms made such lunches for their kids, but chara ben has become more commonplace (yes, kids always want the same ones). So this cutter can cut Nori into heart, bear, and star shapes for garnishing lunches.
This is another chara ben item: 'Nori Tsukudani Pencil.' Nori no tsukudani is Nori paste mixed with soy sauce. We usually eat it with rice. This is a Hello Kitty chara ben kit, which includes a mold, a nori cutter and a vegetable cutter.

T-shirt folding pad: This is a funny one. You can fold all your T-shirts into the same size with this. You know, the Japanese T-shirt folding video is well known on Youtube. I guess that Japanese people like to fold T-shirts neatly.

We have more and more strange stuff on online shops: Sushi cooking box, Jumbo Takoyaki machine, 3way relaxing cushion,
Japanese Arita style mousepads etc. etc. I will pick more products on another day.

Comments

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[Gloria]

When I make bento and need to cut nori shapes I use the scrapbook paper cutters. It looks like the nori shape cutter there. But I think it might be cheaper. =)

[mari]

wow in England do you hung clothes outside!! I stayed my host house a long time ago, they use dryer, so I didn't know that.

[Joe]

In Britain we hang our clothes outside to dry too :)

[Jojo]

I know that 'f' and 'h' are often a problem for Japanese English students, because those letters are almost the same in Japanese.

Please note:
'hold' = 抱く
'fold' = 畳む
Of course, 'T-Shirt holding pad' (Ｔシャツを抱くボード) sounds very strange both in Japanese and English. :)

Thank you for the very interesting post!