I found really funny things from Japan today that I’d like to show you guys.
Snack? Or..What?
There is a really popular chocolate mushroom-shaped snack in Japan called “きのこの山” (the mountain of mushroom). Look at the picture put right. It looks so cute, right?? The thing that makes this snack popular is its unique shape. The upper part, which is the mushroom cap, is made of chocolate, and the lower part, which is the mushroom stem, is made from biscuit. It looks so cute, but not only the appearance but also the taste are great. It is one of my favourite childhood memories:)
So… Now, I hope you guys understand what the snack is, but the point of being so funny about Japan is… that they are making earphones shaped like this snack!! Look at the picture left! It looks perfectly the same as the snack, isn’t it? Is it only me who feels a bit strange to put this item inside your ears…? Anyway, it looks really charming and unique, isn’t it?
It looks so unique, but these wireless earphones actually work as translators. WHAT THE JAPAN!
WHY did it become real?
So.. How? Why? and Who? made this product??
First, Meiji is one of the biggest companies in Japan, making snacks, dairy products, medicines, etc.
In July 2023, it was just a unique idea posted on X by the Meiji official account, as shown in the left picture. It was created by a creator, and a lot of people reacted by showing interest in buying the unique earphones.
As a response to the big interest from consumers, Meiji decided to make it a real product. It explained the reason why they decided to make this a bit of a unique product: they decided to produce the earphones as real earphones with a real translation function rather than fictitious goods, aiming to create a bilingual product to enable different people to communicate. The product will therefore support 127 languages worldwide. It will be available in ‘speaker mode’, which converts speech into a foreign language (voice), and ‘simultaneous translation mode’, which translates both languages in real time by wearing one earphone in each ear.
WHAT THE TECHNOLOGY!! 
I love this feeling of imbalance between the charming appearance of the products and their usefulness.
As a Japanese, I was impressed by the high responsiveness to the reactions from consumers of the company and how crazy they are.
When? and How much?
I am thinking of buying them seriously. How about you? Do you want it too?? It will start selling this product in spring 2024!! I cannot wait!!! There is no information about the price for now. I will update as I get more information about this product! Wait for me!
Thanks for reading my blog! I appreciate it! I hope to see you soon:)
