I remember watching a video a couple of years ago in high school about the emergence of ‘cuddle cafes’ in Japan, where you pay to sit in a small room and awkwardly hug a girl – presumably to be comforted or to intimately interact with a woman in a society that frequently prioritises work over relationships. While continuously cringing, I practically became immortal to some of the other wacky ideas that have come from the shores of Japan: love hotels (don’t even get me started), owl cafes, robot restaurants, and capsule hotels, just to name a few.  That was until the Mitsui Garden Yotsuya hotel in Tokyo unveiled its latest brilliant idea: a crying room.

Yep, a fucking crying room. For 10,000 yen (around $105 AUD), women can book one of these rooms furnished with tissues “soft as cashmere”, warm sheets and eye masks and get right into one of the 12 preselected ‘tear-inducing’ movies including Forrest Gump.  These rooms are intended to allow females to “cry heartily” in private but quite frankly, I still cant figure it out – why would someone reduce their self-esteem to that level when you can do all of these activities in a regular hotel room? Beats me but hey, after all this, I’m almost ready to go home, get some tissues, and flick Forrest Gump on the TV.

[Via.]

Luke Karakas

More defiantly bizarre Japanese inventions

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This realistic Japanese doll dispenses drinks from her boobs
Watch: Japan’s answer to fast food