Odd

Sep 21 2004 3 Comments

Soporific shopping

I’ve heard the expression, I’m so tired I could sleep on a washing line many times. Although admittedly not recently. Is it still in use?

Anyway, considering the width of a washing line, the man pictured below might not have been quite that tired. But at the same time he must have been more than a little bit sleepy. And if his precarious sleeping and balancing act wasn’t enough, the photograph was taken in the middle of Akihabara on a Saturday afternoon. Which for anybody unfamiliar with the area, is incredibly noisy and busy to say the least.

Sep 20 2004 Leave a Comment

High school hoax

School is not everybody’s idea of fun, but rather than feign stomachache, or simply skive off and spend the day down at the local game centre, a 16-year-old high school student made a bomb threat in a desperate attempt for a bit of time off.

The unnamed student hit on the idea after having one of his classes cancelled when the train line his school is situated on temporarily suspended services due to an accident. And with this in mind, he sent an e-mail to the Seibu Railway Company saying, “I’m going to blow up a station on the Seibu Line between September 14th and 18th. I have already planted the bomb. You’ll never find it so don’t waste your time.”

This resulted in the police and railway officials searching all 92 of its stations. An unenviable task to say the least. Although how this affected services, and whether the young prankster managed to miss any classes wasn’t disclosed.

But, as the old saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining. The school-hating hoaxer was arrested on Friday, meaning he got at least one day away from school.

Sep 17 2004 Leave a Comment

Mildly amusing product names #1

Forget Viagra (no matter how cheap those friendly e-mail vendors may be offering it), as for a measly 135 yen you can now simply buy yourself some Horn.

And as you can see by the display, sales were expected to be brisk.

Sep 14 2004 5 Comments

Rockin’ roses

Pictured below is Let’s Corp. president Masumi Gotoh. But don’t be fooled for one minute into thinking that Gotoh-san is a keen botanist, as what he’s actually demonstrating is his company’s Ka-on. A device that turns the petals and leaves of flowers into audio speakers.

The name means flower sound, and the contraption consists of a donut-shaped magnet and coil that sits at the base of a vase and can be connected to a CD player, stereo, or TV. Then all you need to do is place some flowers in the vase, and the magnet and coil relay the sound vibrations up the stems and through the plant’s water tubes.

Ka-on vases and amplifiers come in various sizes and prices, the most expensive set retailing at 35,000 yen (175 pounds). Which it has to be said is a lot of money to have the sound of your favourite albums destroyed by playing them through a flower.