Curioblog; unusual gifts, gadgets and curiosities blog

"Takemoto Piano" Advertisement

Infants less than a year old stop crying when they watch the advertisement for "Takemoto Piano"

Puppet of the singer and dancer in the ad. They play music from the Takemoto Piano ad

Many Japanese people, especial people from the Kansai region (Japan’s west), have seen this ad. It’s from a Japanese company called Osaka that buys second-hand pianos and exports them to over 36 countries around the world.

It’s a very peculiar ad: a singer repeats the company’s name over and over again, Takemoto Piano, while dancers wearing silvery outfits put on a strange performance with a rather surrealist feel to it.

Read more


on 11 Dec 2008 by Ayumi Nakai in Japanese videos	Comments Send this to a friend

Learn to Eat with Chopsticks

Hiyokomame is a kit that will help you learn to master the use of chopsticks. All you have to do is catch baby chicks.

Everything you need to learn to eat with chopsticks

Are you still incapable of eating with a pair of chopsticks even though you’ve been told how to use them over a thousand times? Holding and using chopsticks to skillfully put food in your mouth is no easy task, not if you want to do it correctly and hold them the right way.

A good way to learn is to observe how the experts do it and imitate their movements.

Read more


on 10 Dec 2008 by Marta Reig in Unusual gifts	Comments Send this to a friend

Pop Art Toaster

Creative breakfast toasts

Toast away Christmas with your kids

Some weeks ago, we mentioned Toast-it, a toaster that prints messages on toasted bread. The toast-it is a great invention and we love the idea, although it’s still only a prototype, so it’ll be a while before we can leave our family toasted messages in the morning.

Or, maybe not...While surfing the web, we found a site that is dedicated exclusively to selling toasters that will print messages, drawings, and illustrations on bread.

Read more


on 09 Dec 2008 by Marta Reig in Unusual gifts	Comments Send this to a friend

Dysfunctional Objects

Italian design studio Joe Velluto has created Adesign, an “anti-design” manifesto that propounds the creation of dysfunctional and useless objects.

Just try and sit on this chair

Reading the phrase “dysfunctional objects” invariably calls to mind Chindogus, those Japanese inventions that pretend to be practical but actually have totally contradictory results: they’re useless, impractical and a lot of fun. However, the only thing the products created by this design studio have in common with Chindogus is their absurd appearance.

The Italian products are less fun and were not created to make people laugh, rather they are meant to embody an anti-design manifesto called Adesign, whose slogan could well be, “if design follows function, Adesign follows dysfunction”.

Read more


on 05 Dec 2008 by Marta Reig in Art, design and architecture	Comments Send this to a friend

Gizmine’s Tomy Xaio

This camera was designed in Japan and combines all the charm of instant cameras with the technology of digital photography.

The king of cool

It’s been described as the 21st Century’s Polaroid, but Tomy Xaio is actually a more complete camera than the classic instant camera.

To begin with, it uses a much more sophisticated system to make prints: it has a tiny built-in printer that doesn’t use ink but instead uses a special paper made up of crystals that are inlaid with cyan, yellow and magenta pigments that are activated when you print a picture.

Read more


on 04 Dec 2008 by Marta Reig in Unusual gifts	Comments Send this to a friend

Urawaza, DIY Tips

A Japanese program teaches tricks that make day-to-day life easier

Characters from the Nintendo-DS game

“Urawaza” means “trick” in Japanese. In the Japanese program “Itou-ke no urawaza” (Itou Family Tricks), the Itou family teaches a series of simple do-it-yourself tips that make day-to-day life easier.

The program has been such a hit that they’ve even created a game version for the Nintendo-DS. The game features the Itou family and is set in their neighborhood. The goal is to discover the 499 tips included in the game by communicating with the neighborhood’s 51 characters.

Read more


on 04 Dec 2008 by Ayumi Nakai in Japanese videos	Comments Send this to a friend

Picnica

It's a cute and cuddly rabbit-shaped stuffed animal, but when you open the zipper down its back... it turns into a bag! Carry it around all the time and you’ll be sure to feel happy and loved.

Picnica in black, brown, grey

It’s a shiny, cuddly rabbit made of durable nylon and, above all, it’s very cute. It’s compact and measures only 25cm. Because it’s made out of nylon, its long ears and legs have a definite shaped as do the face and cheeks.

However, this is more than just a cute toy. If you open the zipper on its back, you’ll find a bag inside!

Read more


on 04 Dec 2008 by Ayumi Nakai in Japanese Culture	Comments Send this to a friend

Tenugui, Winter-Spring 2009 collection

A Tenugui is a traditional multi-functional Japanese towel. It's use and design have been reinvented with innovative patterns. It's the perfect thank-you gift.

Tenu-col vol.2 2009 Winter-Spring

What is a Tenugui?

A Tenugui is a traditional multi-functional Japanese towel. It’s made of very absorbent cotton and it’s a little bigger than a scarf, yet not quite as bulky as a normal towel. It’s the perfect size.

The Japanese have always used the Tenugui. Aside from using it to dry their hands or wipe off sweat, in the old days, they would cover their heads with it to protect themselves from the sun and wind, use it as a washcloth while taking a bath, or as a mat, or to cover Tupperware Obento.

Read more


on 03 Dec 2008 by Ayumi Nakai in Japanese Culture	Comments Send this to a friend

Unconventional Christmas Trees

They don’t need to be decorated or given a special place in your living room.

Poster-tree, it doesn’t get any easier

Christmas seems to arrive sooner every year. Years ago, the tree was decorated two weeks before December 25th. Now it’s an oddity to see the streets of a large city still “bare” at the end of November.

We also keep buying more and more gifts, eating more food, and decorating more rooms in our homes with balls, lights, stars, ribbons, and tinsel.

Read more


on 02 Dec 2008 by Marta Reig in Unusual gifts	Comments Send this to a friend

What would an orchestra sound like inside a giant bag of helium?

A 24-hour television fund-raising program presents this interesting experiment

The Japanese love to take part in extravagant experiments that are really over-the-top. On this particular occasion the experiment involved a giant plastic bag full of helium. We all know that when you inhale this gas your voice comes out with a very high pitch. But, what would happen if an orchestra played inside this bag? What would it sound like?

This experiment was done on a TV program called “24 jikan terevi” (24-Hour Television), which is broadcast once a year for 24 uninterrupted hours dedicated to fund-raising for charity.

Read more


on 02 Dec 2008 by Ayumi Nakai in Japanese videos	Comments Send this to a friend

Pages 34

Subscribe to Curioblog

1 . Gift Shops in Madrid

2 . Gifts for Photographers

3 . Gifts for Female Friends

4 . Concurso de diseño de camisetas en Pampling.com con la colaboración de Curiosite

5 . Make Your Girl Very Happy This Valentine’s Day

6 . Los juguetes con los que jugaban nuestros padres

1 . Products Used to Discharge Static Electricity

2 . "Doctor Fish, please do my pedicure”

3 . Home Cotton Candy Maker

4 . Christmas in Japan

5 . Micro Pets-i, Intelligent Pocket Size Robots

Art, design and architecture

Gadgets, inventions and prototypes

Japanese Culture

Japanese videos

News and curiosities

Unusual gifts

Nota...

- Luis,

22 May 2013

Genial!!!

- Luis,

22 May 2013

Cosafe

19 May 2013

I can't find this anywhere :(

- Karen,

11 May 2013

COMPRA DE MAQUINA DE ALGODON

- ALEJANDRA,

08 May 2013

About us Privacy Security Help and FAQS Press office Sell your products at curiosite.com Contact us

		©2010 Curiosite. Regalos originales y gadgets. Curiosite es una producción de Milimetrado diseño y producción multimedia S.L. Inscrita en el Registro Mercantil de Madrid el 07 de Septiembre del 2006. Tomo:23.137. Libro:0. Folio:10. Seccion:8. Hoja:M-414659 CIF:B84800341 C/ Corredera Alta de San Pablo 28 Madrid, Spain