Customer Reviews

101 Unuseless Japanese Inventions

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Some say that laughter has curative properties. I highly recommend this book as a gift for sick people. I enjoyed it so much myself that I gave a copy to a friend in the hospital for major surgery, warning her not to read it until her stitches could bear the strain of laughing, and it was a tremendous hit. I am ordering more now for other ill friends. None of the inventions are commercially viable; the book says that if any should come on the market, they will be removed from the "chindogu" list. Nevertheless, there is a certain silly logic to them that makes most of them hilarious.

I like the Chindogu concept as much as I like the inventions themselves! Before reading, please read the 10 Tenets of Chindogu!

From time to time, it's good to see people who are willing to make a huge effort for absurdity's sake. Even the text is painstakingly worded to maximize the humor of each invention--I ate up the words like they were sushi.

If you are the kind of person who is into prop conversation pieces, this is a good addition if you don't already have it. Perfect for rescuing yourself from awkward moments, as well as delighting others with many hysterical laughs. And I wonder how many true "useful" inventions have been born out of contemplating these "unuseless" ones? (Probably not TOO many!)

This book is the funniest one on our shelves. The pictures and text are hilarious. It is great to get it out every now and again and laugh yourself silly.
My descriptions will not do the book justice [you will need to see the pictures to appreciate what I am saying], but here are a few of my favourite unuseless inventions featured in the book:
Duster Slippers for Cats [socks for your cat, with little mops attached, so that the cat dusts the floor as it moves around]
The Backscratcher's T Shirt [which has a grid on it so that you can tell people exactly where to scratch]
The Hydrophobe's Bath Body Suit [so that you can have a bath without getting wet]
The Heavy Smoker's Mask [so that you can smoke 14 cigarettes at once]

Highly recommended

This book is so hillarious. I love it! It can really cheer you up

I love this book, if your interested in the japanese or like inventions of many things this book is for you! some of the coolest things out there are in this book, you should check it out yourself. its really worth it

This is a great book that lists 101 un-useless inventions (aka: Chindogu, '¿"¹<ï). A Chindogu is an invention that did not get any sales (except for the finger toothbrush and soap recycler), due to various reasons. Some of the inventions are funny (and that's why I liked this book), like the noodle-cooling fan to cool Ramen noodles that are too hot or cockroach-swatting slippers that can extend to kill cockroaches. Some inventions are actually practical (like hand-protecting fake silicone hand for cutting food with a sharp knife or lipstick seal to prevent staining for females who wear lots of lipstick), whereas some aren't practical (like ice-stopping nets that prevent ice cubes from touching lip and nose (since you can use a straw) and the heavy smoker's mask that allows you to smoke 14 cigarettes at once (since it wastes expensive cigarettes and does not make up for the cigarettes you didn't smoke so well)).
Therefore, if you like a style of humour similar to YouTube fail videos and such and such should consider buying this book and spreading this book around.
KM

The inventions featured in this book were invented for the sake of the book - they are not actual products for sale in Japan. There are a lot of wierd and interesting products for sale in Japan (e.g. paper shredders for kids, or water tanks to place in front of your TV for video fish), and a catalogue of them would make a great souvenir, but don't buy this book if that is what you are expecting. The items featured here are funny and creative nonetheless.

This book has the funniest ideas ever! We've paged through it several times and it still cracks us up -- the inventions featured are so stupid that they're hysterical!

Yeah they make great computers, I like to drive thier cars, They have rad VCR's, and those watches always have the right time, and one more thing I love the food, but man they make some stupid things there in Japan. Great book Great reading and Pretty pictures of what the Japanese are making to take over the world !

This book is great. It shows many inventions that you might want. Some of the inventions I even have made my own of because I think it would be very useful. There is only one reason why I only rated this 4 stars, The book is not very long I finished reading it in 2 hours while even doing other things at the same time....