I thought Thanko represented the weirdest gadgets Japan had to offer until I heard about Chindogu, a concept that describes that special kind of gadget that defies all description.  You read about one such gadget right here with the Baby Mop, a onesie that featured dust mop fibers, allowing your baby to crawl around freely and clean the floor while doing so.

Another Chindogu gadget is the Hay Fever Hat, a picture of which you can see directly above.  It’s basically a toilet paper roll mounted to a hat, so that the toilet paper flows down your face and allows you easy access to a way to blow your nose, as well as possibly being able to block sneezes.  It’s enough to make you wonder if someone’s just trying to pull one over on us.

As useful as it is to have an easily reached quantity of nose wipes handy, especially during hay fever season, there’s no way to avoid the fact that anyone wearing this hat winds up looking like a complete tool.  That and the paper in question is actually toilet paper, so you’re basically wandering around with a roll of toilet paper on your head, plus the hat is chinstrapped into place, so now you need a chin strap to cart around your roll of toilet paper.

This kind of thing apparently only happens in Japan, because I’ve never seen anyone walk around with one of these on their head, and I visit Wal-Mart on a regular basis.

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