Ningen Gakki

Way back in 2011 I was in a music store and I attempted to try out this cute little toy. It's a Ningen Gakki which translates as "human instrument".

There are three modes. The first plays up to ten popular Japanese songs. Mode two is sound effects - animal noises, telephone rings etc., and the last one is a drum set.

To use it you hold one of the metal contacts on the little guy's hands or feet, and touch another person somewhere on the skin, even their face. One is a lonely number, and so using this by yourself is pretty useless.

Fast forward to today I was perusing one of my favourite Hardoff stores and I saw it in one of the junk boxes in its original box with the instruction booklet. Actually truth be told, I actually saw it the last time I was here, and wisely thought it was something I didn't really need. This time I was not so wise and decided to grab it.

It's made by Takara Tomy and even won some kind of toy of the year award here. I can imagine this would be fun to use after a few drinks, and a good excuse to poke people. I got it for a giveaway price. It's still available from Amazon Japan here.

Here's a good demo of it here. It's in Japanese but the way it works is pretty clear.