The convenience of Japanese technology: making your life a little easier, and lazier, with every passing day.

Despite the number of Japanese people still owning old-fashioned, flip-open garakei mobile phones and an enduring fondness for fax machines, Japan is at the forefront of technology where it counts: being a lazy cyborg. While power-assisted lifting suits and controllable metal robots get all the attention, those of us who want augmentation on the cheap might think we’re out of luck. However, there are robot extremities even we can afford, in today’s case an automated dish-washing limb. Before you start the 48-hour ordeal of hacking your own fleshy appendage off with a blunt penknife though, you should know it’s hand-operated, meaning you can keep your arm and still be a super dishwashing droid.

▼ Given that the device can wash dishes for up to an hour on a single charge, you may need to get yourself some more tableware.

The rechargeable battery-powered dish spinner may look like a preying mantis with a thing for crockery, but it’s a labour-saving device that with a flick of the wrist adjusts to fit the size of your dishes, before spinning them at velocity, dirt and grease being whisked away by the integral brushes’ bristles. The articulated arms means it fixes itself to your dish or bowl like one of the original Alien facehuggers, but with soap.

▼ You’ll wonder how you ever managed to wash dishes with the lumpy meat sausage you call an arm.

The site selling the modern marvel, Thanko, explains that not only does the device save you from bothersome dish washing, it also protects your hands from the damaging effects of scrubbing. It’s also a time-saver, with each dish estimated to take just three to ten seconds to wash. In this summer season, where copious sweating is your constant companion, who will be brave enough to try the handy machine as a portable shower for a quick freshen up at the office? Our money is on Mr. Sato.

▼ Possibly the closest we can get to being like Inspector Gadget so far.

The Kuru Sara Wash, as it’s known, is available from Thanko for 8,800 yen, including tax (US$78.95), which is considerably cheaper than a washing machine or the US$125,000 you’d need for a power suit or the no-doubt more expensive dancing juggernaut. While it might not have the physical power to kill, crush and destroy your enemies, that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be useful in self-defence in a post-apocalyptic world where only the mechanically enhanced survive; washing-up liquid in the eye can really, really sting.

Source, images: Thanko