Today in my series of small things about Japan, I'm just going to mention various small things which while quite common in Japan are no where near as common or non-existant elsewhere in the world.
Plug-in Keitai(mobile phone) chargers, both with replacable batteries and with single use battery cells. All you do is connect them to your Keitai and you can use it, keep it in your pocket or bag and it will charge while you go. I don't remember seeing these in Australia(although it might have changed), but they've been in Japan for ages and any convenience store or the like will have a small collection with ones for use with different models and with different charge speeds or use with different amounts/sizes of batteries. This picture is of the one i'm using currently, it takes 2 "3" size batteries(equivalent to Australian "AA") and as you can see it has a "Nightmare before Christmas" theme, the attachment can be used to clean the Keitai screen.
When you think of Toilets in Japan the common perception is of the squat toilets and these to exist but mainly in older buildings(20 years or so), in the last 15 or so years the standard toilet seems to be a western style sitting toilet which when you flush it produces water in a basin at it's top so that you can wash your hands(very convenient). In the last 5 or so years super high tech toilets with heated seats and multiple button controlled flush options have become the standard. Above is a wash basin toilet(mine in fact) and a high tech toilet(which I found the picture for online).
Folding bikes, the standard bicycle in japan(known as the Mamachari) is a incredibly simple affair and looks similiar to what would be called a "womans bike" elsewhere. Racing bikes and Mountain bikes while existant are expensive and uncommon. More common than both put together(while still substantially less common than the Mamachari) are folding bikes, 2 small wheels 2 poles(one for seat, one for bars) and a rectangular bar between the wheels, which folds in the middle. They are small lightweight and easy to take around with you, you can buy them for under 10000 yen($100) at cheapest(although the better ones get very expensive). The picture is of a fairly standard design(although for some reason it's a chevy bicycle).
Parking Lifts, car parks which stack cars on multiple levels lifting them up. People may have heard about this in terms of huge cities like Tokyo(and i've heard they also exist in big north american and european cities as well), but cities of any size in Japan(including ones like Kumamoto, where I live) have them. They range from fancy undercover ones, which can be very high tech with revolving garages and robotic controls allowing you to park, have your car hidden away and then recover it easily later, to much more simpler outdoor ones which are basically a few levels of steel girders with hydrolic lifts, where those who park first and have their cars on the top level, leave last(or need to get the others below them to leave). The picture above is of a fairly standard undercover model.
An additional note on Japanese parking, unmanned pay carparking lots in Japan have a useful anti theft device, a metal traffic bump is in place about a 3rd of the way from your back wheels when parking and after you pay(electronically) it will rise to a level where it is impossible for your card to be driven out(with wheels intact anyway). I'm not entirely sure but I assume if you want to leave early you can key in some sort of code to lower it.
I hope people enjoyed these small things and pictures today. Tommorrow i'll be doing my weekly update post.
BTW I am now on Facebook, I know i've been pretty slack not joining up much earlier(this is due to a strange aversion I have to the new "big thing on the net" when I did not discover it prior to it becoming big), however I am now "Facebooking it up"(horrible use of gramma intended as a joke) and anybody who knows me and I haven't managed to find you yet please look me up.
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