10 new curios and trends from Japan

On the Internet you can always find pictures of crazy Japanese products, which should be the alleged solution for alleged everyday problems. However, many of us in the West do not even know that such products are often based on the idea of ​​the Chindogu.

Chindogu is the Japanese art of inventing everyday objects that seem like an ideal solution to a particular problem, but are in fact utter nonsense and utterly useless. Most of these crazy Japanese products are so deliberately absurd and therefore a kind of real satire.

Japanese flag in the colours of spring, Hakone / Japan

But not only the absurd Chindōgu products, also all sorts of obscure trends found in Japan a grateful audience, which is not a pity for any nonsense. Below are 10 such idiosyncratic ideas from the Land of the Rising Sun.

1.) Face-lifting mask

According to the product website, it is enough to wear this mask for five minutes a day and make various faces. The facial muscles are trained and the skin is tightened, whereby wrinkles disappear. You can look forward to the first cheek six-packs.

2.) Bagelheads

Body modification (also known as “body modification” or “BodMod” for short) can take many forms – from tattoos and piercings to the desire to look through operations like a lizard or elf – and is a subculture found around the world.

In the Japanese BodMod scene bagelheads (German bagel heads) enjoy great popularity. Here, medical saline solution is injected under the forehead, creating a bump. If you press your thumb while spraying on the appropriate place, the bump receives a Kuhle, which reminds you of a bagel. After 24 hours, she has dissolved the saline solution and the bump has disappeared.

#bagelhead

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3.) Eyelid Trainer

Different cultures have different ideals of beauty. Accordingly, many Japanese girls want a “European” eye shape. Remedy promises the eyelid trainer, who is worn like glasses and produces the so-called “double eyelid”, which is a “painless and cost-effective way to shape the eyes without cosmetic surgery”.

As soon as you blink, you train your eyelid to make it bigger. Here, too, five minutes a day is enough. Although it looks “a little ridiculous,” as the product information admits, but especially for “busy women who want to work on their appearance while in the bathroom or doing other tasks,” the eyelid trainer is ideal.

4.) Decora

The name of this fashion trend derives from the word “decoration” and first appeared at the turn of the millennium. The name is in the program, as the young women decorate themselves with all sorts of colorful accessories: nose plasters, stickers for the face, glitter, hair clips, bows, bracelets, necklaces, pins, and so on and so forth.

From the actual clothes there is hardly anything left to see. There are also colorful garments such as socks, tights and arm and leg warmers, which are worn in several layers on top of each other.

5.) Lipstick template

Applying the lipstick is a challenge beyond compare. For those of you who are not in a good mood or in a hurry, the lipstick template is for you: Just put it on your lips and from now on it does not matter if you paint over it with the lipstick.

#kenjikawakami

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6.) Ganguro

To describe the Ganguro fashion trend that emerged in the 1990s, one could use the cliché of the stupid blond wearing high-heeled shoes and tight, short dresses who was definitely too long on the tanning bed. Ganguro women bleach their hair accordingly and strive for a tanned complexion.

Thanks to the latter, they are often referred to as Orange Girls (“orange girls”), because their skin through self-tanner and beta-carotene tablets just that color. Finally, the look is rounded off by eye-catching bright eye make-up.

??? #ganguro #yamanba #ガングロ #purikura #favorite

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7.) Carry backpack differently

As an outsider you do not really know if this is really serious or not: Instead of carrying the straps of the backpack over your shoulders as usual, young women are leading the straps around their breasts. This should be harmless so far and even be considered attractive by some.

8.) Kigurumi

The pajamas in animal look including hood with ears are now also available from us. But while in Germany they would only be worn for bed rest at night, Japanese men and women use the animal pajamas as normal everyday clothes and even venturing into the streets – and we’re not just talking about teenagers here.

9.) Eye drop delivery aid

Another Chindōgu invention, which could also come in the form of a Daniel Gyro Comic: A pair of glasses with two funnels in the middle of the glasses to facilitate the delivery of eye drops by the liquid through the funnel runs directly into the eye. You just have to keep your eyes open.

But maybe it’s only a matter of time until the eyelid spreader is available as a supplement to the funnel glasses.

allergy season #chindogu

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10.) The one-book bookstore

Yoshiyuki Morioka runs a bookstore in Tokyo that is nothing more than a small room. The special thing is that Morioka has only one title per week, the expenses of which are then available in the small shop.

In addition, Morioka reorganizes his business with each book of the week so that the facility reflects the contents of the book. So, when you enter this store, which is less a business than much more a weekly book recommendation, you also enter the book a little bit.

Source: Brightside, Wikipedia / Japanese street fashion

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