Why can’t I find it here?
On trip to Japan earlier this year I was struck with the notion about how strange it is that good inventions or designs take forever to cross the ocean, or never do at all.
15 year or so ago when I first visited Japan one of the most marvelous little things I brought back was a nail clipper fitted with little plastic guards on the sides to keep your finger nail clippings from flying all over the room. It took years before I began to find them in the U.S.
In the U.S. we have low flush toilets for those interested in saving water. In Japan most homes have a options, a big flush or a little flush. All waste is not treated equal. And on top of the toilet the water pours out of a little faucet so that the user can use the water refilling the toilet to wash their hands.
This summer I searched endlessly for a flat water bottle in New York City. The closest I could come was a flask but I didn’t want to look like I was knocking back whiskey all day. I wanted a bottle I could drop into a small shoulder back that wouldn’t horribly deform it and could carried a decent amount of water. While standing in a convenience store, my little nephew Yuuya, less than two years old, hands me a bottle of tea. My first response was, “hey, put that back” . . . then to my surprised I noticed the flattened shape. This was a new design and I was quite please to see that I was not alone in my design thinking.
I also brought back a little clip attached to a carabiner that holds a drink attached to a belt loop. It was not the most fashion forward design but I found it very useful when my shoulder bag became too full and I needed a bit more space.
I also brought back a bottle of lubricating eye drops. The bottle has a clear flat design as opposed to the opaque cylinder shaped bottle. The flat design doesn’t roll between your fingers and is much easier to control the flow of the eye drops. And it is also nice to clearly see how much product is left. A far superior design I think but for some reason this design is not common in the U.S.
And I had to throw in my nearly useless but oh so fun Mini Cleaner. It makes great fun of cleaning up eraser shavings with the automatic brushes attached to the little car’s wheels that sweep when you push it.
I could go on forever about the interesting and useful inventions that I have seen over-seas. And I could go on forever about the cool stuff that we have that they don’t embrace.
An assortment of things I have brought back from Japan
Toilets account for approx. 30% of water used indoors. By installing a Dual Flush toilet you can save between 40% and 70% of drinking water being flushed down the toilet, depending how old the toilet is you are going to replace.
If you are serious about saving water, want a toilet that really works and is affordable, I highly recommend installing a Dual Flush toilet. Caroma toilets offer a patented dual flush technology consisting of a 0.8 Gal flush for liquid waste and a 1.6 Gal flush for solids. On an average of 5 uses a day (4 liquid/ 1 solid) a Caroma Dual Flush toilet uses an average of 0.96 gallons per flush. The new Sydney Smart uses only 1.28 and 0.8 gpf, that is an average of 0.89 gallons per flush. This is the lowest water consumption of any toilet available in the US. Caroma, an Australian company set the standard by giving the world its first successful two button dual flush system in the nineteen eighties and has since perfected the technology. Also, with a full 3.5″ trapway, these toilets virtually never clog. All of Caroma’s toilets are on the list of WaterSense labeled HET’s (High Efficiency toilets) http://www.epa.gov/watersense/pp/find_het.htm and also qualify for several toilet rebate programs available in the US. Please visit my blog http://pottygirl.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/what-you-should-know-about-toilets/
to learn more or go to http://www.caromausa.com to learn where you can find Caroma toilets locally. Visit http://www.ecotransitions.com/howto.asp to see how we flush potatoes with 0.8 gallons of water, meant for liquids only. Best regards, Andrea Paulinelli
@Andrea Paulinelli Hello Mr. Paulinelli, I stand corrected on the dual flush toilets! I am very happy to know that I can get them in the U.S. But I still wonder why they are not popular here. Any insights?
I hate it too. Ihave been trying to find the water bottle holder for the longest. I remember seeing it two years ago when I was participating in an Aids Walk. A woman had one, I asked where she got it. She said back home in New Zealand. And I have been looking for one ever since then. They need to have a store that just sells cool stuff from other countries like the stores for As Seen on TV.
@rue Hey there Rue!, Much to my surprise and a little bit of searching on the internet I did find the little buggers. You can order them from Amazon. The design of these bottle carriers seems a bit nicer than the one I have.
http://www.amazon.com/Bottle-Holders-Aluminum-Carabiner-Attachments/dp/B0012F9RQK