The Golden Poop Lighter

By David Ponce

This one falls squarely into the “Oh Japan… Why Do You Do The Things You Do?” category. In this instance, we have us a, er, golden poop lighter. There’s more to it than that, but I’m having a hard time understanding, let alone explaining. So, here are someone else’s words:

These droppings are meant to bring good luck to the owner, based on a play on Japanese words (and characters). There is a kanji for “un” that means “luck” but “un” in hiragana is the short form for “unko” which means “poop”. So, “Kin-Un raitaa” (Kin=gold, Un=luck/turd, raitaa=lighter) is a turd-shaped lighter that brings golden luck.

So yeah. Fun stuff. Here’s the link. And the story is VIA (who else?) Odd Things From Japan.