Not into golden showers? How about a golden bath?
With the cooler autumn days sliding into Japan, the enjoyable pastime of taking a hot bath has come back into fashion. No one is happier about this than our bath toy correspondent Masanuki Sunakoma.
While in search of some bath salts for his next big soak, Masanuki spotted something at the drug store that simply demanded to be bought: the Bathtime Manneken Pis water gun for 398 yen (US$3.50).
Although it looks like a simple child’s toy based on the famous Belgian fountain, the package also said it comes with a “citrus scented” bath salt, so Masanuki was sold.
▼ Like many kids toys, the Bathtime Manneken Pis randomly comes in one of five colors.
The surprise color might make you want to rip open the package right away to see which one you got, but be careful! There’s also a convenient bullseye target that you can cut out from the back, and you wouldn’t want to tear open the package too hastily and ruin that.
▼ Masanuki: “Oh, what’s this?”
▼ Masanuki: “There’s something under this flap…”
▼ Masanuki: “Pffft, BWAHAHAHAHAAAA! They’re peeing.”
Yes, the Bathtime Manneken Pis was certainly full of surprises, but the biggest ones were yet to come.
First, our reporter was pleased to find that he got a conservative white colored one. Grey would have been more authentic, but the red, yellow, and blue one’s were simply ridiculous.
Also included in the package was a pump and tube, as well as the citrus bath salts.
After starting the bath, Masanuki cut out the target.
He then put the hose on the boy’s connector nozzle, which was placed in a very unfortunate location.
By this time the bath had filled up, and Masanuki prepared to put in the bath salts.
▼ Masanuki: “…yellow.”
Of course, it was only natural that this bath salt be yellow colored. After all it was citrus scented and many citrus fruits are yellow.
He dumped the powder into the bath and watched the yellow cloud slowly diffuse through the water.
Despite the pleasant smell, it wasn’t the most inviting bath he’d ever seen.
Another thoughtful feature of the Bathtime Manneken Pis is that it has a suction cup on the bottom so you can firmly set it on the rim of the bathtub.
It wasn’t until he set it up that Masanuki realized how small it really was at only eight centimeters (three inches) tall.
The way it works is simple: just submerge the hand pump into the water and squeeze it until the water travels through the hose and back out the boy’s pee-hole.
However, our bathtime correspondent was not prepared for the sheer might of Manneken Pis’s stream. It was so powerful that pee even seemed to be coming out of his butt.
▼ Masanuki: “Damn, man.”
Bathtime Manneken Pis’ stream was so strong, it could reach clear across the bathtub. Masanuki crunched a few bathtime numbers and determined that if Bathtime Manneken Pis were a full-size adult, he could probably pee clear across an average urban two-lane road with enough force leftover to knock a paper target clean off its perch.
Even more impressively, he loses very little accuracy over such a distance.
However, this could be seen as a design flaw as the Bathtime Manneken Pis is better enjoyed while you’re sitting outside the golden yellow waters of its bath. Especially since this product is for children, the force of the boy’s pee could be potentially dangerous for them. To be sure, Masanuki took one in the face for the team.
While it’s probably safe, he wouldn’t advise letting kids put their faces directly in the line of Manneken Pis’s blast, and recommends this toy only be used under adult supervision.
And no, the drink pouring Yumiko Shaku doesn’t count as adult supervision, because she’s just a robot.
Photos: ©SoraNews24
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[ Read in Japanese ]