Every country has their oddities, but Japan takes the cake in multiple categories, possibly winning the award for weirded country. You’ll experience no culture shock like you will in this totally unique and fascinating place, and these surreal inventions you can only find there prove it.
Blue Traffic Lights
Elsewhere, we have green, yellow, and red. But in Japan, instead of a distinctly green light they now have distinctly blue lights where potential driver’s test takers have to utilize blue in their vision test, not green! So edgy.
Weird Ice Cream Flavours
Chocolate, vanilla and strawberry are as crazy as we get, but in Japan, shops have flavors like squid ink, seaweed, miso, wasabi, and more. There’s even an ice cream shop with horse flesh flavored scoops. Bleh.
High Tech Toilets
This is the stuff that we dream of when we have lottery fantasies, right? These fancy and expensive toilets have warm seats, music for privacy, and newer, spaceship-like models even have an endless amount of buttons and functions to cater to everyone’s TMI needs.
Vending Machines That Sell Anything
From your childhood, you might remember getting a bag of potato chips or a stale Hershey’s bar from a vending machine, but in Japan, it’s not just limited to snacks and beverages. Many sell umbrellas, underwear (used or not), manga, canned bread, flowers, books, only chewing gums and more niche hilarities.
Elevator Girls
Elevator girls aren’t a thing in the states, but they are very much so in the land of Japan. Yup, just like the olden days, in modern-day Japanese department stores, girls in special uniforms wearing white gloves speak in a high, melodic pitch.
Adorable Construction Barriers
Yes, they actually have Hello Kitty and rainbow construction barriers along with other impossibly cute creations – who would’ve thought a construction site could be anime themed? Construction signs may appear as Japanese lanterns, tiny construction workers, or Japanese prefecture shapes.
Eternal Bubble Wrap
Eternal bubble wrap lets you pop the bubble wrap in a box… forever. Everyone knows that popping bubble wrap is the most satisfying think ever and you can do it for hours. “Eternal Poppety-Pop” is a toy only in Japan that constantly refills bubbles in a bubble sheet wrap for just 8 bucks.
Pillow Boyfriends and Girlfriends
There’s a whole subculture dedicated to men and women developing real, romantic relationships with their pillows. For men, anime depictions of girls adorn pillowcases, and they’re either an at home indulgence or taken out on real dates. For women, there is a man’s torso with a single arm created for cuddles.
Capsule Hotels
Tokyo is a packed place, and space for real estate development can be an extreme challenge. The solution? A capsule hotel was initially made for businessmen, but are now a popular fad for tourists and low budget travelers of the daring variety. 1 capsule is 1.2 meters wide, 1 meter high, and 2 meters long. Welcome home.
