A Japanese man who spent a whole year fishing small pebbles out of the soles of his sneakers may have inspired a new bobby in his home country.
Neruno Daisuki, an illustrator and manga artist from Japan, recently got his five minutes of fame on Twitter after showing off the collection of pebbles and glass fragments he fished out of the soles of his shoes over the last year. You know, small stones get stuck in the grooves of our footwear soles all the time, but who would ever think of collecting them? Well, this guy did, and after a year of painstaking work, Daisuki showed off his collection of 179 pebbles, 32 glass fragments, and 1 nut.
Photo: Neruno Daisuki/Twitter
“When I was removing the pebbles caught in the groove on the back of my newly bought sneakers, I felt that it was a waste to just throw them away, and I thought, ‘It would be interesting to collect them,'” Daisuki told IT Media.
The Japanese collector revealed that the stretch of road between his home and the convenience store was his most productive proving ground, as that’s where most gravel would get stuck in the soles of his sneakers. Getting them out was not as simple as you might think though, as pulling too hard with toothpicks could catapult the small fragments too strongly and he would lose them.
Photo: Neruno Daisuki/Twitter
Neruno Daisuki started collecting sole pebbles last June, as a way to pass the time during the SarsCov2 lockdown, but the bizarre hobby grew on him, and he managed to keep it up for a year. He recently showed off his stash, with rocks and glass fragments separated neatly on grid-like boards.
While some wondered why anyone would spend time on such a thing for a whole year, the general reaction to Daisuki’s collection was very positive, with most people admiring his patience and his ingenuity, and some even declaring themselves inspired to start their own shoe sole gravel collection.
Photo: Neruno Daisuki/Twitter
“I want to use this idea for the summer vacation of elementary school,” one Twitter user commented, while another wrote: “I really like this idea!”
As for Neruno, he wants to keep growing his collection for a while, and is considering separating his collection between his right and left shoe soles until he comes up with a more interesting project.
