And this list can be continued endlessly. As The Japan Times writes, it is enough to walk through Japanese shops and take a closer look at their windows and counters.
Nutria
In a pet shop located near Koenji metro station, you will find any animals - from parrots to monkeys and terriers. They are all placed in tiny metal cages, with photos of the animals and their descriptions hung nearby. As I was examining the inhabitants of these cages, my attention was drawn to a pair of animals that looked like beavers. The salesman told me that these were a very rare species of South American rodents called nutria.
Nutria is one of the largest species of rodents. Its weight can reach 16 kg, and its length - 1 m. By itself, nutria is not a rare and exotic species of animal. However, it was more than strange for me to see nutria on the list of pets.
The giant rodents were quite cheap. The store sold them for about 10,000 yen each - a tenth of the cost of an angry Vietnamese pot-bellied pig, whose tiny cage towered above the nutria.
Teacup Poodles
Another quirk of Tokyo pet lovers is 'teacup poodles.' The sizes of these dwarf poodles are so small that even adult animals can easily fit into an ordinary teacup. The size of these tiny dogs does not exceed the size of a rat. They are in great demand because they are very cute and perfectly suited for small Tokyo apartments.
'Teacup poodle' is not only the smallest, but also the most expensive dog breed on Earth. Such a poodle, weighing 1.5 kg, costs at least 650,000 yen ($5,000). Pulsing stones
If you are a man experiencing failure in love and career and suffering from lack of money, the time has come for you to purchase several 'pulsing stones that give strength.' These stones, as the advertising supplement guarantees, can radically change the life of even the most desperate loser.
'Stones are able to bring any man's desire to life!' promises the advertising brochure. It features young people who purchased these stones and instantly turned from poor bachelors into successful rich men who contracted happy marriages. Some of them are depicted lying on a pile of banknotes in denominations of 10,000 yen, others in the embrace of half-naked beauties.
The store salesman will immediately tell you about 29-year-old security guard Seiji Ishii, whose 'caricature face' long repelled women. But since he acquired pulsing stones, he has won the hearts of more than ten women and even managed to win a large sum of money in the lottery a couple of times.
The price for success in bed and in the 'pachinko' game hall is 10,000 yen - such is the cost of a bracelet with a pulsing stone. By buying a full set of six bracelets, you get a discount.
Erotic figures
Before you is a vending machine filled with rubber balls. On the panel under a certain number are photographs of young girls, usually not of Japanese but of American type. It is enough to insert a coin, dial the number you are interested in using the disc, and you will get a rubber figure of a naked girl with the face you chose from the photograph.
Rubber erotica - the purchase of small figures of naked or nearly naked young women - has recently become especially popular. I decided to check out such a machine located near one of the video equipment stores on Tokyo's Nakano Street. On the panel of the machine were photographs of five women of all ages attractive to men - from a high school girl in uniform to a blossoming middle-aged businesswoman. In the photos all women are depicted in clothes. The degree of nudity depends on the price of the figure. A naked figure of the youngest girl costs 500 yen, older women - 300 yen and below.
Cosplay
This is what they began to call outrageous eccentric clothing (from English costume play), the addiction to which has been observed in recent years for unclear reasons. It is characteristic that the craving for outrageous clothing is observed not only in Japan but also in other countries. Demand determines supply. Therefore, stores specializing exclusively in the sale of 'cosplay' are beginning to appear in Japan.
It seems that these clothes are intended for those whose aesthetic tastes raise great doubt. The artist creating such models must be a madman taking a good dose of LSD before starting work.
Such jackets and coats with huge shoulders and ornate details have become an integral attribute of the clothing of whimsical cartoon and video game characters. And all these bulky structures, which are very difficult to call clothing in the usual sense of the word, are not cheap. In the cosplay store I visited in the Nakano district, the cheapest samples cost 30-40 thousand yen.
Everything I saw made me come to the conclusion that never before has a person spent so much effort and money on the creation and acquisition of funny and useless things as he is doing now.