We now interrupt your regular food-related programming.... *beep* Welcome to Noodle in a Haystack's newest series: Japanese Home Hacks, or j-HACKS for short.
| The inspiration for this shiny new series came to me from having friends visit our home and being amazed at some of the contraptions we've collected over the years living in Japan. After a few years there, I sort of stopped noticing and became numb to all of these Galapagos-like tweaks evolved in their own special Japanese way. The coolest thing though is that some of these items are available outside of Japan; treasures waiting to be discovered at your local Daiso or Japanese supermarket! I'll be focusing on unique, weird, crazy, cool, and (mostly) useful everyday Japanese household gadgets that will change your life... or at the very worst, force you to re-evaluate how you accomplish the most mundane-every-day-tasks. That my friends, is the beauty of Japanese design; over-thinking, then mass producing things that you thought couldn't be thought of, but once it's been thought of you're utterly unable to un-think about doing it any other way... Wait did that make any sense...? Whatever, you get my point! |  |
So without further ado, our first j-HACKS item: the humble Japanese Nail Clipper!
 | I can still remember the first one I bought after living in Tokyo for my first whole week. I walked over to 1 of the 4 convenience stores located in a 3 block radius from my apartment and purchased a seemingly generic nail clipper, a few rice balls, Japanese potato chips, and a cold beverage. I had no expectations whatsoever. More than 6 years later, I'm still using this same nail clipper! It ranks up there as the best $5 bucks I've ever spent. So you're probably wondering what's so special about this thing? It looks like any other nail clipper. Well friends, sit back and enjoy the ride and prepare to have your minds blown by the most obvious design every conceived. |
Like most Japanese-made blades, the quality of the stainless steel is top notch, even for a 5 dollar nail clipper. The cutting edges are extremely sharp (and remain so 6 years later). It requires almost no strength to use and effortlessly cuts through nails cleanly and precisely. You won't even break a sweat slicing through toe nails.
Lets take a look at the design.
Lets take a look at the design.
 Pretty normal right? Standard nail file and the metal part seems to extend.. |  Keeps extending... |  Whoa, ok the whole thing pops out! So what's that plastic base for then? |  Any ideas? Do you see it yet? |
INSANE right?? It's so stupidly simple!! Say goodbye to searching for all those unidentified flying nails littering your floor, give a final wave to shards of razor sharp nail-shrapnel hitting loved ones in the eye, and say hello to a whole new plane of existence. Somebody send a note to Darwin, this is what evolution tastes like.
And the best thing, clean-up is a snap. Simply slide out the metal part an inch or so, walk over to your nearest nail repository, and pour out all of your clippings and spend all that time saved by doing more important things... like sharing this blog! :)