hug pillow

Stay warm with a USB-powered, inflatable hug pillow heated to exactly human body temperature

The problem with traditional hug pillows is they just can’t mimic the warmth of a human body. But now, with a new USB-powered hug pillow from Thanko’s Raremono shop, you can enjoy the feeling of cozying up to a perfectly-heated, just-slightly-under-body-temperature 36 °C warm body. And, because it’s inflatable, it’s also very light (740 g [~1.6 lbs]), for all those times you need to roll it up for travel, or you want control over the firmness of your pillow.

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Now trending in Japan: Duct-taped hug pillows

Back in my teaching days, some of my more hormonally afflicted students would take great pleasure in asking me whatever inappropriate or perverted questions popped into their heads, often wrongly assuming that I wouldn’t understand what they were saying. Sometimes they’d even break out some crude English with questions like (pointing to my crotch) “Sensei, are you long boy?”, “Do you play sex?”, or “How about Japanese adult video?”

One question that came up curiously often, though, was whether I was “esu” or “emu“, or in English: “Are you a sadist or a masochist?”

I’ve never really thought of myself as either, but chats with a few of my Japanese coworkers soon led me to believe that a surprising number of people here consider themselves to be one or the other. Can you guess which group the owners of these gagged dakimakura belong to?

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Win a chance to sleep with a cockroach!

Gokiburi Kujo Maisuta (Cockroach Control Meister) is a service that helps provide estimates for the removal of terrifying cockroaches in the home. Thousands rely on them to kill off the shiny black terrors in kitchens and bedrooms across the country.

However, the company has apparently felt a pang of guilt recently. They feel that the roaches have done no wrong and are simply trying to exist just like everyone else. And so, the company has created Itsuki Kurohane: the cockroach moe girl to help combat the centuries of vilification unfairly handed down to these creatures.

Over the next month Gokiburi Kujo Maisuta is holding a contest to give away five Itsuki Kurohane hug pillows, but there’s a catch – besides her being a half-roach-half-human thing.

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