Remember those crazy Japanese inventions? Here's another.

[Shockeye]

Hubby annoying? Put him in a box
By Leo Lewis in Tokyo
May 28, 2005

HUSBANDS are such a nuisance. They hog the family computer, watch TV at nerve-grating volume, clutter up every flat surface with their hobbies and mess up a room with their very presence.
Now a Japanese company thinks it has found the solution: lock up the monster in a soundproof wooden box.

Yamaha has come up with MyRoom, a 2.5sqm den that can stand in the corner of the average-sized lounge and perform - albeit on a cramped scale - the functions of a study, cinema and shed.

The noisiest of activities is inaudible to the outside world, and even if the inside is a tip, the mess is scarcely visible through the thin strip of frosted glass.

It should come as a relief to the harried Japanese wife, as a huge number of men are due to retire next year and, from being a weekend annoyance, become round-the-clock pests.

For about $7000, presumably paid by the salaryman whose wife seeks escape from him, MyRoom has a range of options depending on its intended purpose: it can be rigged up with a desk, a surround-sound speaker system or the sort of low workbench favoured by Japan's legions of model-train, robot and calligraphy enthusiasts.

A tatami-matted version is available for those wishing to give their box a traditional Japanese feel.

The potential market for MyRoom, which comes in three colours, is huge because so few Japanese homes are large enough to have that sort of spare room.

The problem has become worse in recent years because a growing number of Japanese in their 20s and 30s are opting to live at home as so-called "parasite singles".

Their decision to remain under the family roof has shattered many a parent's dream of converting the child's bedroom into a hobby room or study.

Next year heralds the start of an era that Japanese housewives have been dreading.

The first wave of post-war baby-boomers turns 60 next year and a huge generation of salarymen will be retiring.

Women who have grown used to the serenity of days without their noisy, smoking, hobby-obsessed husbands are now desperate for ways to maintain the tranquillity.

Yamaha, one of the world's biggest makers of musical instruments, came up with the idea for MyRoom after working for 20 years on technologies for soundproofing rooms for those who want to practise the piano without enraging the rest of the household.

Other companies in Japan are rubbing their hands at the prospect of next year's mass retirement, particularly makers of small-scale agricultural equipment, which predict a sudden sales boom as seniors fill their twilight years with the popular hobby of rice and vegetable cultivation.

From The Times of London in The Australian

[Murgos]

Yamaha has come up with MyRoom, a 2.5sqm den that can stand in the corner of the average-sized lounge and perform - albeit on a cramped scale - the functions of a study, cinema and shed

I lived in Japan for a while and in my experience they have different notions of what constitutes 'reasonable' living space if they mean the box is 2.5 meters on a side then thats pretty much going to fill a whole living room over there.

If they mean the total floor size is 2.5m² then the poor guy is going to have problems sitting down in there...

[Trippy]

If they mean the total floor size is 2.5m² then the poor guy is going to have problems sitting down in there...

That's actually slightly bigger than the floor size of a capsule hotel "room" in Japan (approx 2m x 1m).

[NiX]

http://www.yamaha-yokohama.co.jp/web/shohin/avi/myroom.htm

It's not that small.

[Strazos]

From the looks and sound of it, this doesn't neccessarily belong in "Useless News"

[SuperPopTart]

I could use that as my office. Okay those boxes look awesome. My own cubicle at home!

[voodoolily]

I wonder if they can be locked? From the outside.

[HaemishM]

I think I'd go stir crazy in that. Or beat myself to death from the elbows outward as I tried to get comfortable.

[schild]

Haem...

Those titties don't look like a mullet.

[voodoolily]

I think I'd go stir crazy in that. Or beat myself to death from the elbows outward as I tried to get comfortable.

But you're like, 12 feet tall, right?

[schild]

Haemish, typically, is 3'7". But if he's in his cybernetic Gundam equipment he stands roughly 16' without heels. With heels? 19.3'.

[voodoolily]

Haemish, typically, is 3'7". But if he's in his cybernetic Gundam equipment he stands roughly 16' without heels. With heels? 19.3'.

those are some tall shoes. Does the PopTart know he's a stripper?

[schild]

I didn't even know he was a stripper. I think she does know he's an intergalactic being sent to earth to save the world with his robot suit though. But what she doesn't know is he's a transvestite once he dons the....armor.

[voodoolily]

Sister is in for a rude awakening. This has Jerry Springer written all over it.


Do you guys have Big Town Hero out there? Why are their sandwiches so nasty? Why do I still eat them?

[schild]

I wish we had Jersey Mike's. Sigh, I'm gonna go to Quiznos.

[voodoolily]

Quizno's is gute. The only toasted sammy at BTH is a fake-ass panini.

Man, I wish I had a rueben from Eidelweiss. With a mug of Spaten. Mmmmm....

[schild]

What did I tell you about making up words. There are two proper acceptable ways of spelling Good. Good and "gud"

Gute isn't a word. I'll have your tongue, wench.

[Fargull]

Haem is not a stripper, he is a professional adult artist that like to flaunt his beach towel.

[voodoolily]

What did I tell you about making up words. There are two proper acceptable ways of spelling Good. Good and "gud"

Gute isn't a word. I'll have your tongue, wench.

Gud? Ninja please. I was trying to say "good" the way Travolta's character is Pulp Fiction says it. As in "Bacon tastes gute. Pork chops taste gute". How would YOU spell it, word Nazi?

Edit: without the use of modifiers like umlauts and those little horizontal bars we have to be creative.

[schild]

Good.

[voodoolily]

No. He doesn't say 'good', he says 'goot'. MAybe not gute, but at least goot!

[WayAbvPar]

Goot is an acceptable substitute.

[schild]

This thread is going nowhere goot, dirtbags.

[voodoolily]

Thank you, moderator. Let it from this day be known:
Goot means good the way Travolta's character in Pulp Fiction says "Bacon tastes goot"!

[voodoolily]

This thread is going nowhere goot, dirtbags.

Aw....who's a Mr. Poopy Pants? Schildy is!

[WayAbvPar]

As a word of warning- basing anything on a Quentin Tarantino work is likely to give Schild an aneurysm.

[voodoolily]

What about that one movie that had Selma Hayek as a vampire? She was way hot in that.

[Shockeye]

What did I tell you about making up words. There are two proper acceptable ways of spelling Good. Good and "gud"

WTF? There is one acceptable way of spelling good. That's G-O-O-D.

Stay off the crack. Seriously. Just Say No.

[HaemishM]

What about that one movie that had Selma Hayek as a vampire? She was way hot in that.

He only directed part of that. But he did sort of star in it.

[voodoolily]

What did I tell you about making up words. There are two proper acceptable ways of spelling Good. Good and "gud"

WTF? There is one acceptable way of spelling good. That's G-O-O-D.

Stay off the crack. Seriously. Just Say No.

Oh, boo. You're no fun!