Friday, June 02, 2006

the gadget

I have to admit, I'm a lazy person. If I can get out of doing something, I will, especially if it involves carrying something.

In Japan, the worse thing to have to carry (besides a 2kg (4.4 lbs) bag of rice or a 6-pack of beer or both at the same time), is toilet paper. Yes, you heard read right, toilet paper(TP)--add to that the heat and humidity of a Japan summer and you've got me avoiding buying TP, until REALLY necessary!

The people who make toilet paper think that they are so clever (and they kinda are) to make these two holes at the top of the package for your fingers to carry the TP. What they don't realize though is that carrying TP using these two holes cuts off the circulation in your fingers. Yup, by the time you walk home, you have lost most of the circulation in your fingers and have switched the TP between both hands a couple of times.

I introduce you to a gadget to save your fingers. You usually get these when you buy something in a box (like a computer printer) and they tie it with string (because you'll be transporting it home yourself).

What I do, is put the gadget in the two holes. You could actually carry it like this, but remember, I'm a lazy person, so....



I then put my grocery bag strap through the gadget...


and voila!






Now, my hands are "free"--one to hold my sun umbrella and one to hold a towel to wipe my brow...more about the sun umbrella and towel in another post.

Have a great weekend!

2 comments:

Stephine Yoshikawa said...

I know this comment is way after the fact, but I just had to let you know that when I read your comment about a towel to wipe your brow.. I almost said "yes!" outloud. I visited Central and Southern Japan in August for the first time and half way into my first day in Nagoya I had TWO towels! LOL Now I know!

K and S said...

OMG Stephine! My friend also visited Japan in August and vows never to do so again. I hate to wonder what people in Thailand do ALL year long...

Take care.

Kat