Queer Product Watch: The Door Knob Cover

That's actually what the katakana says in this photo found on <3Yen.com: Doa Nobu Kaba. This goes to my very first experience shopping in Tokyo. I had just moved into my Western style apartment in Mita, and found that the oven was in severe need of cleaning. So I took my trusty Japanese English dictionary down to the local store and trying to put together two words to create the phrase "oven-cleaner" I came up with some very odd locutions that made no sense to the Japanese. So I threw up my hands in frustration and said in English, all I want is some oven cleaner. To which the clerk said, "Ahh, obun-kureena!"

Of course, it's true the Japanese use loan words all the time. In their own inimitable way. But this product, the door knob cover captures for me the Japanese obsession with keeping things clean and germ free. And it also captures my both silly and salacious imagination as a penis cozy.

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