The first rule of Chindogu is, Chindogu inventions are essentially useless. The Japanese art of creating bizarre and funny tools for everyday life aims to solve basic problems in ways that are as impractical as possible. To qualify as Chindogu, these inventions can never be patented or sold, but they must exist in physical form, and, as rule #2 states, the creator must be able to hold them in his or her hand and think “I can actually imagine someone using this. Almost.”

Train Nap Cap

No need to worry about slumping over and drooling on a stranger if you fall asleep on the train or subway. The Train Nap Cap uses a suction cup attached to a hat to hold your head upright.

Sweep Shoes

Need to clean up a small mess? Slip on a special pair of ‘sweep shoes‘, with broom and dust pan attached. The logical next step (if logic can be applied to Chindogu) would be to take the dustpan shoe off the dump its contents, but it’s more fun to imagine the wearer contorting in ballet-like movements to empty it into the trash.

Butter Stick

To smear butter on a piece of toast, you could simply peel back the wrapper a little bit, and voila. You’ve got a butter stick. Or, you could put it in a totally unnecessary plastic tube that pushes the butter up like lip balm.

Toilet Roll Hat

Isn’t it annoying when you’ve got a drippy nose, and you have to constantly wipe it? The Toilet Roll Hat takes care of that problem, keeping wipes right where you need them. For those times when you’re so sick, you don’t care that you’ve got a roll of toilet paper on your head.

Baby Mop

What do babies do, anyway? They just lay around and get bodily fluids all over every surface in the house. Make them earn their keep with the Baby Mop. Maybe they’ll at least clean up their own messes while they’re crawling around looking for things to destroy.