3 in 30 - 2001.07.29 Sunday
Staplers
Last week we received a series of pictures of Japanese inventions that were apparently of dubious merit. While we in Japan could see that they might be useful, they were mostly on a par with the popeel pocket fisherman and the slicer/dicer veg-a-matic. They have a place and market, but somewhat of a small, select market.
It made me think of some of the things we have come to take for granted—things that we assume are unique to Japan.
Here you see compared two office staplers. The one in the rear was a US standard at least until the mid 80s. In the front is a small Japanese stapler that uses staples about 3/4 the size of the US one. We find that the smaller staples are perfect for most tasks of holding papers together. It isn't very often that we need to use the heavier staples.
On the bottom of the little pink stapler is a handy device, a staple remover. No longer do you have to hunt for one of those saber-tooth staple extractors, the remover is attached to the stapler.
mini clothes hanger
The cost of electricity is somewhat higher than what we remember in the States, except for California, so we try to be a little ecologically friendly by drying our clothes outside on a clothes line. Small items tend to take up a lot of space and quite a few clothespins, but we found these wonderful hangers here in Japan.
The hanger is a rack that has many pins closely spaced attached to a bracket. This way, you can hang up a couple of dozen socks, or a dozen small towels, or in this case, some Tees and shorts.
If it happens that the weather changes to rain, it is simple to grab these hangers and bring them in much easier than trying to unpin 50 clothespins. They are small enough that they can easily be hung inside, in a doorway, in the bathroom, nearly anywhere to dry things inside.
gun-sox
Speaking of convenience, these split-toe socks are very comfortable and useful. Going in and out of the house means taking off and putting on footwear. Upstairs are a pair of flip-flops that have a between-the-toe thong. With regular socks, these would be very inconvenient. Downstairs, out the back door, I have a pair of geta, wooden clogs as you see here. The split-toe socks work well with these.
I have to admit that these particular socks are ones that they call gun-sox. (Pronounced "goon.") I think that generally means "service socks." They are mostly worn by laborers, construction workers, etc. The etiquette is to not wear these with geta. I don't go out in public with this combination. Just the back yard. There are some other split-toe cloth socks that are appropriate, but I save those for special occasions.
Thanks Debbie, for the idea of showing some unique, useful Japanese inventions. And Bev for these particular items.