Shoestrings

Disclaimer: This video post contains frittish filming of noisy machinery. Not recommended for nature-lovers or epileptics.

Got back to Japan today. I've had plenty to blog about, but most of it involves videos or photos, and Chinese internet wasn't being user-friendly when it came to youtube or blogger. Now with the power of Japanese bandwidth, let me hit you with some posting.

Continuing the vein of Chinese factory postings, I visited a factory that make woven products this week. They were nice enough to show us around (I was nice enough to tell them their factory was clean, but they should really stop leaving products outside to collect dust and grime from the air). One of their chief production lines is dedicated to something I wasn't expecting: shoelaces. Don't know if these were Nike or what, but walking into the shoelace manufacturing room was a new experience if there ever was one. Literally hundreds of tiny machines bustling with mechanical motion, carving out repetitive actions that weave the fibres into the fat cord you struggle to knot when you're only 5 years old. As I mention on the video (though you'll struggle to hear me over the commotion, which I feel is the best word for it), "like manic typewriters". It looks down and dirty, but apparently the machines are only between 5 and 10 years old (usually with a lifespan of 15 years). Not stunning, just...mysterious. And kinda scary, in a way. The machines have such activity it feels like there's going to be a mechanical uprising at any minute.

Meanwhile, these guys also make lanyard straps. Which also involves hyperactive machinery. Enjoy.