Bumper Book of Un-useless Japanese Inventions
By Kenji Kawakami
Translated by Dan Papia
from Cheng San Library

Chindogu means weird tool in Japanese or an invention that is not particularly useful, yet is not useless either. Confused? You can find out more at www.chindogu.com. The first time I ever came across such a book was at PL library. My friends, xuan and weiie, and I were very amused. *Haha..imagine a school library having such a book? It was very funny because a lot of the inventions were really quite dumb. The funniest thing was how the people in the photos had this serious, deadpan look, as if what they were doing is as normal as taking a walk down the street. Actually, I don't think that this book is very great because a lot of the chindogu were repeated from the previous book - 101 Japanese Un-useless Japanese Inventions. It would be interesting if it's your first time. Frankly speaking, I've seen some of the inventions being sold in shops. Like the umbrella one can wear on the head. And some of the ideas actually seem quite feasible and useful, few though.

The book definitely leaves a deep impression on those who have read it. This morning, I was asking Xuan if she remembered that book, which we'd read about 5 years ago. She promptly replied that I needed the Hay Fever Hat (because my nose was giving problems again). *Haha..