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Kristel Nicole Eniego asked:


Creativity knows no bounds. Let us take the Japanese for example: the gadgets they come up with are amazing. Some are useless but then again, it takes a lot to think of something and then actually pull through with it. Only the Japanese have the guts to conceptualize strange gadgets like that and then actually produce it. For that reason, I’m putting the spotlight on several strange gadgets.

Here are a couple of favorites:

1. Noodle Eater’s Hair Guard

Do you have long hair? Does it annoy you when your hair suddenly falls and dips in your bowl of soup? Being primarily a country who takes pride in their noodles, it’s only natural that the Japanese are starting to get annoyed at that experience. So what do they do? They invent! Basically, the Noodle Eater’s Hair Guard is a pink rubber gadget that fits snugly just around the face. It’s similar to a dog cone actually, only it doesn’t cover the whole head but just the face. In any case, when you wear it, you’d still look like you’re wearing a dog cone. This peculiar gadget is not only strange, but of all colors it just had to be pink.

2. Nap Alarm

This is particularly interesting for me. The Nap Alarm is the perfect gadget if you find yourself sleeping in between classes, lectures or even driving. You place the Nap Alarm just over your ear and through its electronic motion sensing feature, it calculates when you’re about to nod your head off and then it sends a loud sound right in your ear if it senses that you’re about to fall asleep therefore saving you from embarrassment or even death. (Though I doubt that an alarm would make the fact that you’re about to sleep a little more discreet)

3. Plunger Helmet

When the Nap Alarm fails, you can always use the Plunger Helmet. Not when driving of course. The Plunger Helmet is a gadget you use when you fall asleep on the train. It basically looks like a hard hat; the typical helmet construction workers use, but then it has a plunger attached to the back part of it. The plunger keeps your head in place. It is actually more helpful for your seatmates rather than yourself as this prevents you from swinging madly from side to side. Perhaps if you’re going to buy one, you’d rather use it on a drowsy seatmate than yourself.

4. The Amazing Shoe Umbrella

For people who buy designer shoes and wouldn’t dare have anything soil their footwear, the Japanese thought of something that would aid them. It doesn’t matter if your whole body gets wet, as long as your shoes remain untouched. How this amazing umbrella can fit into your shoes without destroying it is an unknown fact but as long as it keeps water out of the shoes then the inventors are satisfied.

These are just four of a lot of Japanese gizmos and gadgets that made its way to the market. The conceptualization of these gadgets seems to be logical. The addressing of a simple need is what propelled the invention of these weird gadgets. Isn’t that what consumerism is all about though? Isn’t it all about the creation of something that satisfies a simple need? If that’s the case then we can safely say that these gadgets fulfill those needs. Perhaps what we should laugh at is how absurd our needs are. Not the gadgets that are made to satisfy them.



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