World News: And you thought Black Friday was crazy, try shopping in Japan

BY JEFFERSON GRAHAM

Saturday, November 30

Humidifiers are popular in Japan, which has a muggy climate for part of the year. Here they come in many colorful models. These are made by Shizuku

You won't believe these crazy Japan gadgets

Huge electronics shops have everything from humidifiers to pint size toaster ovens. Locals targeted for better smelling products that need power.

KOBE, Japan — And if you thought shopping here was a trip on Black Friday, just take a walk through my shoes.

A recent visit to Japan's tech shops found that locals put a real premium on smelling nice. How else to explain all the different gadgets on display at electronics shops here that use tech to shake the odors out of your shoes and clothing?

A walk through an urban Japan tech shop is always amusing, in search of oddball products that aren't for sale here.

How do you top the rows and rows of humidifiers, in multiple hues of purple, orange, blue, tan and white, all blowing smoke (clean air) as you walk by? That will get your attention. (Yes, we have humidifiers in America but not in so many different colors, or so prominently displayed, right?)

Or how about the $240 clothes hanger that will shake the odors out of your clothes in the middle of the night? "Refresh while sleeping!" Panasonic says, touting a five-hour turnaround time.

And while you can plug it into power, this unit is also battery enabled. But will the batteries last all night while you're deodorizing your slacks?

Readers, if you're intrigued, both Amazon and eBay sell the MS-DH210 hanger and ship from Tokyo.

Finding an electrical outlet for your shoes shouldn't be an issue. Panasonic offers another oddity, the MS-DS100, again, with the same five-hour turnaround time, "to remove unpleasant shoe odors in a simple way," or seven hours for a "complete odor clean."

We found a unit for $145 on eBay, ($213 on Amazon) but, readers, note that it operates on a different electrical current, 100 volts. You'll need a converter to use it in the U.S.

The most expensive clothes hanger you've ever seen. The $161 Panasonic MS-DH210 is similar to Panasonic's Foot deoderizer. This electric closet hanger will make your clothes smell nicer, according to the company.

Jefferson Graham

Many tech products first originated in Japan, including the VCR (remember Sony Betamax vs. VHS?), the compact disc, the Walkman portable cassette player and video cameras. The still camera was first popularized in the United States (thank you, George Eastman and Kodak), Despite lower sales, local firms Nikon, Canon, Sony and Olympus still rule in cameras. And the camera sensor that's an essential component of your smartphone is primarily produced by Sony.

Seriously? 10 weird smart home gadgets you don't need

How to watch: Alexa, what's on TV tonight?

Japan doesn't ditch retired products as readily as we do. You can still find blank compact discs for sale at the local 7-Eleven, (and pre-recorded discs aplenty at the many Tower Records outlets – remember them, folks? They still exist – with over 80 stores in Japan). DVD rental shops are still here, and you can even find many models of fax machines for sale at the Labi electronics shop here.

A Sony DVR, with 4 TB worth of storage, selling for around $500

Jefferson Graham

And yes, we live here in a streaming world now, but Sony has an intriguing DVR for sale in Japan. The best I can read at the translation is that it has a whopping 4 terabytes of storage and can record shows at 4K resolution. In the U.S., most of us rent DVRs from our cable providers and are lucky to get 500 GBs of storage, if that. (That's what Comcast's Xfinity offers, or 160 hours of HD programming.)

With this Sony, you're looking at eight times the storage – or enough room to amass so much programming, you could start your own cable channel.

Of course, with streaming, we don't need to record anything because most everything is available on-demand, but some die-hards still like the old way. And this DVR really looks sweet.

Elsewhere at the electronics shop, it's hard to top the Brain and Pocketalk. Well, useful if you're traveling. And for when you can't get Google Translate to work as advertised.

The Sharp PW-556 is billed as a "brain" but there's way more to it. It's a portable dictionary translator to turn english words into Japanese. It sells for over $500.

Jefferson Graham

The Sharp Brain, or PW-556, is a portable dictionary translator to turn English words into Japanese. It sells for over $500. (My son, who lives in Japan, never leaves home without it.) Pocketalk is a more compact, $250 translator that fits in your pocket and comes with two years worth of cellular connection for the two-way chat with no service fees.

Panasonic's Air Massager Leg will massage you "from feet to calves," while also warming your feet. It sells for around $220. One of the many Panasonic products you don't see sold in the United States, but shoppers can order from Amazon and have it delivered. Panasonic is based in Osaka, Japan.

Jefferson Graham

Shopping in Japan is quite a chore. The electronics shops are mammoth and have eight to 10 floors – even the smaller ones. Toys, cameras, refrigerators, humidifiers, odor cleansing closets, phones, cases and on and on.

So what better way to end a shopping trip than with the Panasonic Air Massager. Wrap those pink socks across your tootsies and it will massage you "from feet to calves," while also warming your toes. It sells for around $220 in Japan. Sorry folks, but there's no sign of it on Amazon or eBay.

Yet.

An infected USB charging station at the airport can take over your device via something called "juice jacking."

Getty Images/iStockphoto

In other tech news this week

Twitter won't purge inactive accounts. Soon after saying that it will get rid of some accounts that go dormant or unused, Twitter decided to put a pause on the plans after receiving backlash from people who didn't want to lose tweets from users who have passed away.

Don't use a public charging station to charge up at airports. "Juice Jacking," is a popular way for hackers to send malware to your phone and hack your data, reports the Los Angeles District Attorney's office.

Cut the cord and still want the news? We did a deep dive this week, and CNN, MSNBC and Fox News don't make it easy. You can't watch via streaming without proving that you're a cable customer. Two options: get to know CBS, ABC and NBC's streaming news channels, which offer anchors, live feeds and more, or, if you can't give up Rachel Maddow or Chris Cuomo on MSNBC and CNN, tune it to their podcasts, which offer their shows as audio presentations. Additionally, streaming radio service TuneIn also has live feeds of CNN and MSNBC programming.

ICYMI: We picked Apple TV + as our tech turkey of 2019, due to its bare cupboard approach to programming. You can check the rest of the roster here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2019/11/29/facebook-apple-5-g-smart-tvs-top-tech-turkey-2019/4303720002/