Japan’s Rare Mono Shop sells far-out, amusing and somewhat useful gadgets, most of them involving USB devices. I only know because the company is poised to open a U.S. store in August and the English language catalog
is now online. I highly recommend a visit to browse products such as “bone conduction headphones,” which transfer sound through the cheekbone rather than into the ear. If you love the unintentional results of bad Japanese-to-English translations, there’s plenty to enjoy here. (“Outside sound can be heard as it does not close your ears!” reads the copy beside a male model demonstrating the headphones with ears uncovered.) The funniest mistake in translation I found was a $2,980 price tag for a combination USB hub/tape dispenser that looks to be worth $29.80 at best (or else our currency is in much worse shape than I thought). Actually, not many of the items are priced yet and the site warns visitors, “We do not accept return of the product due to misuse or misunderstanding of the product. If you have any concern, please wait until we introduce officially for international market.” That should be in August. I can hardly wait to learn more about the gold ingot USB hub, pictured, which looks like a real gold brick into which one can plug eight USB devices. Also of interest: the compact, portable USB AC charger, which powers USB-driven devices without a computer. Just plug it into an outlet and plug-in up to two devices. The Rare Mono Shop sells all sorts of gadgets to use with it, such as a USB eye warmer and USB aroma diffuser. You get the idea.












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