Cooling Foam Is Hot In Japan

While Japan, as usual, has been pumping out some crazy, questionable inventions like hug simulators, portable plastic bag toilets and poop meat, the latest must-have product that’s become all the rage is decidedly less ridiculous, if still a little weird: coolant foam. The foam comes in cans and is sprayed onto the user’s body, at which point, it slightly hardens and becomes moldable so that it can be formed into a wristband, headband, or any other kind of cool, foamy fashion accessory your heart, wrist or head desires.

Cooling foams have been around and available for use in Japan for years, but only caught on huge this summer, presumably because of increasingly pervasive idea of “setsuden” (literally “energy saving”), the Japanese equivalent of going green. If you ask me, substituting air conditioning with the liberal use of chemical foam seems like more of a lateral movement. Then again, I’m also extremely jealous that covering oneself in foam isn’t popular (or even acceptable) in my society. Whatever, I guess I’ll just go pant in front of an oscillating fan and play with shaving cream instead.

(Trends in Japan via Gizmodo)