Tag: Chindogu

Skype calls, FaceTime, Zoom meetings. It goes without saying that being able to communicate with others using online video calls has made our lives so much easier. We can now socialize, work, and ...

Last year's fatal summer raised serious concerns about the safety of holding the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo during July and August. With temperatures this month already breaking records, all eyes are on ...

Back in 2010, the Internet briefly went wild about the Potechi no Te and Popcorn no Te, two grabber toys from Takara Tomy that seemed like the perfect tool for coach potatoes too lazy even to pick up ...

Nissin recently launched a crowdfunding campaign for a special type of drainer lid especially designed for its staple Yakisoba UFO instant buckwheat noodle product. If functions a bit like a ...

Japan is the land of high tech, if you discount the national obsession with faxes. And you might also be forgiven for chuckling at that reputation as you peruse the funky but quite low-fi charms of ...

Everyone's favorite creators of chindogu (strange and "useless" gadgets) have done it again: made something we didn't even realize we needed. Thanko's latest arrival is the Smaneck Smartphone ...

Kudos to Japanese electronics company Nidec for conceiving the Motorize Smart PET Bottle, perhaps mankind's most unnecessary invention since the shoe umbrella. What is it? It's a phone-activated ...

Before Netflix. Before even HBO. Take a step back in time to the early days of television with this Vintage Taste 20-inch LCD Japanese Retro Television Screen by Doshisha. It might look like one ...

Is this the most original way to stay cool this year? Quite possibly. New from Thanko, Japan's at times strangest creator of chindogu (everyday gadgets), the Electric Armpit Clip-on Cooler Fan is ...

After dazzling Tokyo with his Running Christmas Tree last year, everyone's favorite gadget-creating foreigner is back with another inventive, gaudy device. Joseph Tame's latest project is ...

Thanko has come to the rescue of people who want to cuddle up to something (or someone) during the cold winter nights and feel heat from their hug buddy. Enter the USB Heated Air Hug ...

Thanko are our favorite Japanese gadget makers, not least because their approach to the marketing is always so gleefully down-to-earth but also because they deliberately find everyday problems and ...

Spring is not a fun time to be in Japan if you suffer from hay fever, which is normally a summer phenomenon in other countries. Due to a forestation boom after the war, Japan saw a surge in the ...

There are all kinds of ways to cure stress. A nice cold beer. An hour in the driving range. Going postal. But here's a way we never heard of before and trust Thanko to be the ones to come up with ...

Working hard or hardly working. That is the question. Some people go to great lengths to construct homemade solutions to working or using your computer in a comfortable position (i.e. lying in ...