Jun 18, 2008

Strange Souvenirs: Autopsy Cell Phone Straps

Cell phone adornment is a big deal in Japan. Extremely popular are cell phone straps or keitai straps (keitai is Japanese for cell phone). Like a key chain they have trinkets attached. Ketai straps aren’t just objects of desire for trendy youth. You’ll see them dangling from the phones of people of all ages and both sexes.

The range of straps is enormous. Many feature characters such as the ubiquitous Hello Kitty and anime (Japanese animation) characters. While designer straps exist, most don’t cost more than the equivalent of a few dollars.

In Tokyo I kept coming across these “autopsy” cell phone straps exposing the innards of various creatures and landmarks.

This is called Edible Horse.

Here you see the Inland Chicken.

Those who are squeamish might prefer Mount Fuji.

The perfect gift for the iphone owner who has everything, no?

Previous Posts In This Series:
Emirati Family Dubai
Cultural Revolution Kitsch China
Hezbollah T-Shirts Lebanon

8 comments:

GMG said...

Hi Wendy! Sorry for having taken so long to get back here again. Another hectic week…
Amazing straps as well as an incredible mermaid parade... ;)
And you're lucky to find coal vendors in the streets of Beijing's hutongs; not for long I assume, except in the «preserved Hutong" to show future tourists...
Thanks for your comments at Blogtrotter, still in Santiago de Compostela, now inside the Cathedral… Hope you enjoy, and have a nice weekend!

Wendy said...

Hi Gil,
Welcome back. Hope you have a great weekend as well.

Anonymous said...

How would they fit that inside their purse? I mean......umm...interesting. I appreciate my discreet little black strap now. But each to their own....you are a font of such fascinating and curious facts :) Thank you!

bella x

Wendy said...

Hi Bella,
It is a wonderful, wacky world we live in.

Prêt à Voyager said...

Too funny. Guess it just goes to prove that you can make anything stylish!

Anne

Wendy said...

Anne,
I appreciate the sense of humor involved in these trinkets.

Anonymous said...

Love them. They're much more interesting than the Hello Kitty baubles that you typically see. Though I'd be interested to see what Kitty's insides look like...

Wendy said...

Hi Janelle,
Autopsy Hello Kitty, perhaps there is a market for this...