Purchase the book at Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0393313697/102-4784232-8293740?v=glance

http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos/ASIN/0393313697/ref=sr_aps_eb_/249-4957866-3461926

Pictures of Chindogu

http://website.lineone.net/~sobriety/

Kenji Kawakami assumes a serious expression as he brandishes an over-sized fork with an onboard motor. Carefully lulling over his words, he decides that English won't cut it and speaks in his native tongue.

http://www.stim.com/Stim-x/0796July/Phenom/chindogu.html

Inventors have been registering bright ideas with the world's patent office for over 150 years. How has technology changed the world?

http://www.designboom.com/history/useless.html

"Hello to everyone who saw us on NBC Dateline last May. Yes, this is the one and only official website of the International Chindogu Society.

http://www.pitt.edu/~ctnst3/chindogu.html

Chindogu is the not-so-ancient Japanese art of inventing ingenious everyday gadgets that, on the face of it, seem like an ideal solution to a particular problem. However, Chindogu has a distinctive feature : anyone actually attempting to use one of these inventions, would find that it causes so many new problems, or such significant social embarrassment, that - in effect - it has no utility whatsoever.

http://www.japan-101.com/culture/chindogu_invention.htm

Hey, why are the Japanese just sooooo cool? They have Chindogu! What the hell is a Chindogu?

http://home.bawue.de/~jtesch/chindogu.html

Can absurd analog gadgets help dispel the digital doldrums? An interesting two-page interview with Kawakami

http://www.japaninc.com/article.php?articleID=762

From 101 Unuseless Japanese Inventions by Kenji Kawakami

http://www.wwnorton.com/catalog/fall95/tenets.htm