national

Japan's sewers clean up their act with manhole art

10 Comments
By Miwa Suzuki

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© 2018 AFP

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.


10 Comments
Login to comment

I have been taking pictures of beautiful manhole covers in Japan for years. This is not new at all.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

Yeah, it is not new. The town I live in has a sister city in Australia and the manhole covers have koalas and Australian birds on them.

I really get sick seeing that flipping 'Hello Kitty' though.

2 ( +8 / -6 )

all my friends who come here take photos of them. but, ever been to kyoto in the summer when they smell so bad? i take them there, but stand 10 meters away.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

I was travelling throughout HYOGO PREFECTURE recently and these art forms are all over the place. I took dozens of photo's. Just a wonderful way to promote your city, village etc.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

"Designed manholes cost more but appeal to a Japanese sense of detail, the 48-year-old Morimoto told AFP."

Here we go... the unique Japanese senses again. No one else has a sense of detail, after all.

In any case, nothing new, really. They have lovely ones in many places, and some with color. This is the first attempt I've seen to commercialise them with Kitty Chan, though. Wonder what kind of deal is going on there.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Japan's sewers clean up their act with manhole art

That's a clever play on words because sewers are generally dirty and not clean. Bravo.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

We've got a decorative manhole cover at the bottom of our street, but I'd happily exchange it for a plain one if my town did more basic things to beautify the place. Like burying utility wires and getting rid of excess signage. Japanese may have great attention to detail but they are also highly tolerance of clutter.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

oops, "tolerant".

0 ( +0 / -0 )

From one manholer to the rest of you, finding and photographing them is one of the little side benefits of visiting Japan. I only wish those cards could be ordered online. I'd take a whole set. And it would be even better if they were postcards!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

They should start referring to the pretty, clean ones as 'shinyholes'.

I'm sure someone can come up with an original name for the dirty, soiled ones....

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites