Oddity Central

Oddity Central

Japan’s Lonely Youth Turns to Rent-a-Friend Services

Posted: 04 Mar 2013 05:41 AM PST

Making friends is not as easy as most people think, but it seems that for young men and  women in Japan it’s really, really hard. According to a recent article published in the country’s biggest newspapers, some people are finding it so difficult to make people like them that they prefer to pay for rent-a-friend services.

According to surveys cited by the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, more and more young people have problem making friends in the real world, and resort to actually paying for rented friends in order to avoid being seen alone and labeled as loners by their peers. Tokyo-based company Client Partners offers a variety of unique services like hiring someone to take photos of you at an event, or paying a person to wait in line for you on a gadget’s release day, but one of its most popular is the rent-a-friend. For a hefty fee, you can choose total strangers (men or women) to accompany you and act as your friends. It’s not exactly the perfect scenario for a fun night out, but clients say it beats having to face your loneliness, dealing with rejection all the time or being looked down at by your peers. According to representatives of the company, Client Partners has tens of rent-a-friend requests per month, most of which come from lonely young Japanese who have lost all confidence.

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Photo: Client Partners

Abe Maki, who works for Client Partners, says: “These people don't have any strong sense of self-worth, so they take more care than is necessary of how others judge them. Still, more often than not, they have a lot of online friends. That's because online they have one-directional communication with people, where they don't need to the other person to think well of them”. Kuoichi, is one such person. He told Yomiuri Shimbun reporters about his experience with the rent-a-friend company: last summer he wanted to go to a popular dance club, but was reluctant to go alone and hated being turned down by acquaintances he had asked to accompany him in the past. So he called Client Partners and ended up paying 30,000 yen ($344) for the friendly company of two girls he had never met before. The bill put a big dent in Kuoichi’s budget, but he says it was wirth it. The three of them had fun at the club, and after that they chatted at a restaurant until dawn. “It's a relief that they will just accept you unconditionally. My loneliness was soothed”, the young man said. “If you're going to get hurt, it's better to spend some money instead.”

Japanese-youth

Just in case you’re wondering, there is nothing sexual about this kind of rent-a-friend service. Lonely Japanese people are just looking for someone to act as their friend in places where they feel it’s awkward to be seen alone, nothing more. It’s all about keeping up with appearances, and for companies like Client Partners it’s very good business. You may say “hey, I’d rather be alone than pay for someone’s friendship, that’s just degrading”, but apparently in Japanese society, it’s not so much about you, as it is about what others think of you.

Source: JapanCrush

Belarusian Woodcarver Makes Intricate Clocks Exclusively from Wood

Posted: 04 Mar 2013 02:41 AM PST

In this day and age, it’s hard to imagine someone making accurate clock mechanisms without using a single piece of metal. And yet, Andrey Martyniuk, a woodcarver from Belarus, manages to create intricate clocks exclusively from wooden components.

As a child, Andrey Matyniuk loved to sketch. He then got an education as an engineer, and later in life developed a passion for wood carving. After a master carpenter told him that wooden clocks are the pinnacle of perfection, he decided to combine all his skills to create artistic yet functional mechanism exclusively from wood. Bit it was easier said than done, and the ambitious woodcarver spent three years working on his first wooden clock. He tried copying the mechanism of a metal clock, but although the principle is exactly the same, there are two important things to take into consideration to ensure the clock measures time accurately – the softness of the material and the humidity of the environment. After years of experimenting, the master learned he had to increase the size of the gear teeth and treat the wood with a special compound to make it resistant to humidity. He also found that wood had a big advantage over metal – it has a much lower coefficient of thermal expansion, so it is much less affected by temperature changes than metal.

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In the 16 years since he started making clocks exclusively from wood, he has only designed and completed 20 of them. Although the time he takes to finish one of his masterpieces has diminished considerably, he still needs up to six months to make a single clock. He can’t really call it a job either, considering he sells his works for about $500, hardly enough to support a family, but he’s really happy when someone is interested in buying his clocks, because it’s a recognition of his skills. He says the price he sets for his wooden cloaks are symbolic compared to the time and effort that go into making them, but it isn’t financial gain that drives him, but his fascination with wood. The Belarusian woodcarver takes great pride in knowing that something made by his able hands will give joy to someone else, as well.

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Making beautiful clocks from wood is impressive enough, but what’s even more special about Andrey Matyniuk’s are as precise as any Swiss watch. It requires great patience and perseverence, as well as an eye for the right kind of wood – he uses up to 15 types of wood for a single clock – but after all this hard work, the woodcarver is rewarded with a unique work of art that will turn for a very long time.

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 Sources: News21, Soviet Belarus

The Indian Coin Divers of Yamuna River

Posted: 04 Mar 2013 01:09 AM PST

It sometimes amazes me how humans are able to find a source of livelihood in almost any type of environment, in accordance with their surroundings. Case-in-point, the coin divers of the Yamuna River, in Delhi, India's capital city. This unique group of men works around the year, braving the bone-chilling cold waters even during winters, to dive into the river and retrieve coins from the bottom. The same coins that are thrown into the waters by passengers of boats crossing the river, as an offering to the River Goddess. Wondering what such an offbeat job pays? Well, sometimes as little as 100-200 rupees (US $ 2 to 3) a day, and sometimes as much as a diamond ring.

22-year-old Sartaj Ahmed has been in the profession of coin-diving for the past 6 years. The brave young man says he started diving when he was just a boy, but it was only when he turned 18 that he began hunting for coins. "Some days I get 100-200 rupees but on lucky days, I can find small trinkets. I have even found a gold ring once." 34-year-old Sajad Ahmed has been at it for 20 long years. He says it gets harder and harder each other, but they really do not have any other choice. 21-year-old Amit Kumar, who's been doing this for 10 years, says, "We dive into the river and collect coins, brass, copper, sometimes even silver and gold." Diving for coins is the only source of his daily income. "What can be done, I have to do something for my living. We live here so we keep diving here."  Vicky, another young diver, says, "I dive and normally take home money for my daily expenses." Raju says that he prefers coin diving because he doesn't like working for a boss.

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Photo: Meeta Ahlawat

It's very easy work, they say, since they know exactly where the coins are. Sometimes, they actually witness devotees flinging coins, so they can dive for them immediately. And as trains pass by on the bridge over the river, they know to dive exactly between pillars numbered 8 and 9, because this is where all the devotees drop their money. The divers say it isn't bad luck for them, taking the offerings of the devotees, because they believe that the holy water neutralizes all things evil that come their way. The diving technique is unique – the go in head first with their hands stretched out and feet up. They keep their eyes closed the whole time so their hands become their eyes when they search for the money. Each diving session lasts about 20 to 30 minutes, before they come out and try again at a different spot. The coin divers begin work at 7 or 8 in the morning and go on until they break for lunch, sometimes diving from the bridge and sometimes from the banks. The hunt for treasure continues post lunch, as long as the sun is in the sky.

 

The coin divers are so skilled at fishing things out of the river that their services are sometimes employed for other purposes. The Delhi police, for instance, takes their assistance in fishing out bodies that have been dumped into the river. They've even been issued official 'diver' ID cards by the police. Sajad likes this aspect of his job. "I feel like I'm doing my bit for the dead who have been denied a proper funeral," he says.

 

Interestingly, the divers are pretty smart and have devised innovative ways to get coins out of the river. If the water's too cold and they're unable to go in, they use strong magnets tied to strings and that works really well for the newer coins. Now, there's an interesting way to try 'fishing for money'. Now, if you're ever in Delhi and desperately in need of some change , you know where to look.

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