Located in the basement of a department store in Kawasaki, Japan, the world’s smallest escalator only has five steps and measures 83.4 centimeters (32.8 inches).

The escalator is one of humanity’s most useful inventions, allowing people to effortlessly travel between floors in places where elevators would be impractical, but the world’s smallest escalator is actually a useless oddity that holds no real purpose than to claim the Guinness record for the world’s smallest escalator. Known as the ‘Petitcalator’ or ‘Puchicalator’, this unusual contraption is located in the basement of More’s Department Store in the city of Kawasaki and is considered more of a tourist attraction than a useful piece of technology. Yes, it’s useable, but it measures just 83.4 centimeters so it offers no real benefit to whoever is riding it over traditional stairs.

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A middle-aged Japanese man known as ‘Uncle Praise’ has been making a living by standing on the street and showering strangers with praises for a small fee.

Uncle Praise first made news headlines in Japan in September of last year when Fuji TV released a short documentary on his unique “profession”. The 43-year-old man reportedly used to work for a company in his hometown of Tochigi, but at one point in his life, he got so addicted to gambling that he lost both his family and his job. His father fell ill, he lost his job and couldn’t pay the mortgage anymore, his family eventually cut ties with him, and he found himself living on the street. It was a rude awakening that helped him beat his gambling addiction and really assess his life. The middle-aged man had always dreamed of being a street performer, but he had no special skills such as magic tricks or singing, so he came up with the idea of praising people for money.

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A Japanese company came up with the genius idea of selling plastic bags of popcorn as an edible alternative to conventional cushioning materials like styrofoam pellets and cardboard.

Azechi Foods, a popcorn manufacturer and delicacy wholesaler in Japan’s Kochi City, has become famous for using and selling popcorn not just as a snack but as a cushioning material. The company’s manager, Shihoko Wada, had been struggling to promote popcorn on the Azechi Foods online store where people mainly bought delicacies when she was inspired by a laptop repair technician at a management seminar. The man used Umaibo sticks (cylindrical puffed corn snacks) as a cushioning material, and while some in attendance found it funny, for Wada it was a revelation. Not only could the popcorn be used as an actual snack after use, but it was also an incredible opportunity to attract attention.

“If Umaibo can be used as a cushioning material, then I thought the popcorn that our company makes could also be used as a cushioning material,” Shihoko Wada told Gendai Magazine. “Once it’s finished serving its purpose as a cushioning material, it can be eaten, so it doesn’t become useless garbage. Above all, I thought that the customers who received it would be happy with the surprise, they would get a sense of value, and it would also help improve the company’s image.”

Wada’s idea was to package the popcorn in a transparent plastic bag that had “not edible” printed on it, only with the ‘not’ crossed out, and then use the bags as cushioning material in the packages they sent all over the country. People loved the idea and before long, photos of the bags started going viral on Japanese social media.

Azechi Foods filed for a trademark registration and soon started receiving orders from all sorts of businesses, like a company that sells used video games, a greengrocer, a wine seller. etc. As photos of its unique cushioning material went viral online, the number of orders increased and they even got requests for coverage from national TV outlets.

Although the bags of popcorn are more expensive than conventional cushioning materials like styrofoam or cardboard, they also come with a few definite advantages: they can be eaten, and thus eliminate the risk of waste, which can’t really be said about other cushioning or filler materials, most of which end up in the trash after one use.

Azechi Foods currently offers two package sizes – 40g and 13g – but Azechi Foods hopes to start offering it in other sizes, as well as other styles of packaging to keep customers entertained.

Fillico Jewelry Water is a Japanese company known for selling one of the most expensive bottled waters in the world, with exclusive limited editions selling for up to $10,000 per bottle.

Water is one of the most basic human needs, so marketing and selling it as an ultra-luxury product is a pretty big challenge, even among the snobbiest of snobs, but a Japanese company proved it can be done successfully. Launched in 2005, Fillico Water set out to create a complete luxury experience that would make people reach for their wallets and pay obscene amounts of money to have it. Using some of the purest mineral water in Japan wasn’t nearly enough, so they put a lot of work into the design of the packaging, which was marketed as a work of art in itself. Somehow, they made it work, and today Fillico Jewelry Water is one of the most sought-after ultra-luxury bottled water brands in the world, with prices surpassing $1,000 per liter and even several thousand for limited edition offerings.

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A Japanese man was recently admitted to trespassing onto other people’s properties over 1,000 times as a hobby because he found it thrilling and exhilarating.

A couple of weeks ago, Fukuoka Prefectural Police arrested a 37-year-old man on suspicion of trespassing onto a couple’s property in the city of Daizafu. Little did the police know that this had hardly been an isolated incident and the man was a serial trespasser who had done it countless times for his personal enjoyment. During questioning, the man, identified as Yuta Sugawara, not only admitted to trespassing onto the couple’s property when he thought they were away but casually told investigators that this was a hobby of his and that he had trespassed onto other people’s properties over 1,000 times. Sugawara was apprehended by the victims of his latest trespassing attempt, who saw him on their land and chased after him when he ran. The man managed to immobilize the culprit while his wife called the police.

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Shikoku Bank’s leadership has come up with a bizarre way of reassuring clients of its commitment – promising to pay with their lives if found guilty of ‘financial irregularities’.

Banking executives are always held to high ethical standards, considering that they handle the wealth of thousands, sometimes millions of people, but while they face serious punishment in case of fraud or embezzlement, they aren’t quite expected to pay with their lives. That is not the case with the management of Shikoku Bank, a financial institution whose top 23 executives, including President Miura, signed a blood oath requiring them to commit seppuku if found guilty of engaging in financial irregularities, embezzlement or other fraudulent activities. Rooted in the code of honor of Japan’s samurai era, the bizarre pledge posted on Shikoku Bank’s website went viral sparking reactions varying from admiration to disbelief.

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A 33-year-old Japanese man has been getting a lot of attention for his ingenious way of putting a roof over his head – asking total strangers to let him sleep over.

Shuraf Ishida has slept in over 500 different homes over the last five years. After quitting his job, he decided to sell all his belongings except for a few essentials that fit into his backpack and travel around Japan using his savings. Normally, accommodation would have ranked highest on his list of expenses, but the 33-year-old man found an ingenious way of putting a roof over his head for free. Every day, Ishida stands in crowded areas sometimes for hours at a time, holding up a sign that reads “Please Let Me Stay Over Tonight!” As weird as it sounds, he almost always finds someone willing to take him in, mostly lonely homeowners in need of someone to talk to.

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Osaka-based showerhead maker Science Co. has developed a cutting-edge washing machine for humans aptly named “Mirai Ningen Sentakuki” (Human Washing Machine of the Future).

At the 1970 Osaka Kansai Expo, Japanese tech giant Sanyo Electric Co., now Panasonic Holdings Corp., launched the world’s first-ever human washing machine. Its futuristic egg shape and bubble technology captured people’s imagination and drew huge crowds to the manufacturer’s booth. Yasuaki Aoyama was one of the many people who got to see Sanyo’s washing machine in action. He was only a curious fourth-grader at the time, but the feeling of awe stuck with him all through adulthood, and today, as the chairman of Science Co., a company specializing in bathtubs and showerheads, he is preparing to launch his very own modern washing machine for humans.

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A Chinese man known only by his online moniker, Sudden Fantasy, has been receiving a lot of attention online for documenting his life as a jobless man financially supported by his loving wife.

Sudden Fantasy began posting videos on Douyin (Chinese version of TikTok) roughly a month ago, but he already has over 1.4 million followers on the popular social network, mainly because of the unique topic he covers. The Chinese young man posts about his life as a kept man in Japan relying exclusively on his wife for financial support. He reportedly moved to the neighboring country about eight years ago and went to date his wife, whose Chinese name is Fenghua, after falling down on hard times. She was there for him when he needed help putting food on the table and covering his tuition, and she eventually became his wife. Despite being well-educated and coming from a wealthy family, Fenghua has no problem providing for her husband who loves sitting around playing video games.

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A small Japanese clothing store has gone viral after its sign featuring a cute baby turned into a horror attraction due to the intense heat and sunlight over the last couple of years.

Hangai, a clothing and miscellaneous goods store in Nagahama City, Japan’s Shiga Prefecture, has had the same sign board for 10 years – an adorable baby with a speech bubble that reads “We have lots of good, cheap things”. However, last year, after a particularly hot summer, the sign changed into an eerie sight, with the baby’s eyes and mouth becoming pitch black. Due to the intense heat and direct sunlight, the dark colors of the sign became charred, creating a terrifying sight. Things got even worse this year, after another scorching summer. The heat made the once-adorable store sign even scarier, with the baby’s entire face now strangely dark, as if it had come out of a fire.

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Kinmemai Premium is a selection of hand-picked artisanal rice that holds the Guinness World Record for the world’s most expensive rice ($109 per kilogram).

Rice is one of the most nutritious yet affordable foods on Earth, but if you’re looking for an exceptional selection of some of the world’s best rice varieties, look no further than Kinmemai Premium. Produced by Japan’s Toyo Rice Corporation, this exclusive rice selection features hand-picked grains from five varieties of award-winning Japanese rice varieties flavor-aged for six months using the company’s proprietary rice-buffing technology developed over 17 years ago. Kinmemay Premium rice is said to have superior nutritional values compared to conventional rice, as well as a delicious nutty flavor. The grains themselves also look like tiny diamonds thanks to the patented polishing process that removes only the inedible wax layer.

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Photos of white-yolk boiled eggs have gone viral on Japanese social media, with thousands of people asking whether they are real or just digitally altered.

It all started with an X (Twitter) post by Tsuda Junko, the editor-in-chief of the online magazine Design no Hikidashi, featuring a photo of a boiled egg cut in half. It doesn’t sound like the most exciting post ever, but it ended up going viral for a very intriguing reason – the cooked yolk was about as white as the egg white around it. Junko himself expressed his astonishment, claiming he had heard about this variety of Okinawa eggs with white yolk but never imagined it could be this white.

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A 38-year-old Japanese man was recently arrested for phone-stalking his own wife, calling her over 100 times a day anonymously and saying nothing until she hung up.

On July 10, a 31-year-old woman from Amagasaki, in Japan’s Hyogo Prefecture, started receiving strange phone calls from someone who would just remain silent until she hung up in frustration. This went on for weeks, because the calls came from an anonymous phone number, so the young woman couldn’t just block the calls. On most days she would get dozens of phone calls, but sometimes, the phone stalker would ring over 100 times per day. Luckily, the phone never rang during the night or when she was playing video games on her husband’s phone, which ultimately got her thinking about who the mystery caller could be…

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Boost Noodle is a new type of Japanese instant ramen designed to be consumed with one hand by simply sucking the contents out of a small pouch.

Instant ramen is probably the most convenient food money can buy, but one Japanese company has found a way to make it even easier to eat. Nippon Ham recently launched Boost Noodle, a type of hearty pork ramen designed for gamers who want to curb their hunger without having to take a break from what they love most. Boost Noodle ramen comes in a convenient plastic pouch and can be consumed with one hand, by simply sucking out the contents. Boost Noodle consists of a special type of yam noodles, chashu pork, menma (fermented bamboo shoots), and a mix of pork stock and seafood broths. Each pack of Boost Noodle also contains 35 milligrams of caffeine.

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Hirase Airi, a social media influencer from Japan, spent over 20 million yen ($140,000) on plastic surgery to completely alter her appearance and change her life around.

Seeing photos of Hirase Airi from before she began her plastic surgery journey, you would swear they were two different people. The difference in appearance is like night and day, and the young influencer admits that without the work she has had done over the last few years, she wouldn’t be where she is today. Apart from boasting over two million fans on various social networks, she appears on television shows and also works as a ring girl at fighting events. She is living the life she has always dreamed of, and it’s all thanks to her drastic physical change. She is now an advocate for cosmetic enhancement, claiming that she is living proof that it can completely change a person’s life for the better.

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