A Rant About Japan's Obsession With Plastic Water Bottles

Yes, that's right, 11 minutes talking about water bottles. Now lap it up like a good little piggy and tell me how wonderful I am.
Twitter: / yozora_blues
Stock media provided by Wikimedia Commons.

[@magicswordz]

I'm glad that someone is talking about this. Living here by myself, I never had anyone to share in my confusion of traffic cones and plastic water bottles. My family and friends just couldn't understand what I was ever talking about. Thanks to you, I finally have a resource that I can use to properly convey these issues to them with.

[@Cvvvv684]

The most frustrating thing about this is that most Japanese people don't know even know if the "repellent method" works and just put them up because everybody does it. There's a whole parking space surrounded by them in my area, and each bottle has a little garden light stuck into it the cap. Just, why

[@Shajirr_]

have you tried telling people that placing a water bottle near a traffic cone dramatically amplifies its effect?

[@kave1445]

I moved to Japan (Fukuoka to be specific) recently and they really are everywhere. My university dorm is full of old, disgusting looking water bottles everywhere. Walking past them everyday is slowly driving me mad.

[@wally_503]

I'm ready for another rant that will make me observe random things outside as I further acclimate to life here.

[@neettsuri]

Wally in the wild

[@etothe3]

One POSSIBLE use is for watering plants. The bottles with their tops off are probably for this. People who want to take extra-good care of their plants let their tap water sit for a day or two to release any chlorine in it, so that it doesn't go on the plant.

[@devious_mud]

This channel is a hidden gem! Keep it up

[@TheLugiProductions]

I just love the videos on your channel, they strike the perfect balance between hilarious and oddly fascinating. I feel like you put a lot of work in the script because the jokes and pacing are on point, mad props. Wish you all the best, and looking forward to more!

[@thebritishhippie9735]

I find them so fascinating.

[@juunas4997]

Glad to see you've kept on making videos! They've been all great!

[@yozora_blues]

Thanks hombre, much appreciated!

[@perhapsyes2493]

I think this is one of those things that someone just started doing for god-knows-what reason, and people just started copying them, assuming "Oh that's what we do now"

[@CocoDaPuf]

This is the kind of in-depth reporting we need more of!

[@MrShtrudL]

So so glad to see and upload from you!! Fantastic video as always! Genuinely enjoyed every second, keep it up!

[@SodaScarletMachine]

Absolutely love these videos!

[@SanTM]

Genuinely love this guy's videos

[@burgesssam]

This is brilliant. Thank you for making

[@shemetz]

For anyone curious about the music - it's Dover by The Westerlies. (Excellent video, btw. Keep them coming!)

[@AntiHamAndCheese]

I love this channel so much, keep it up friend

[@declangallagher1448]

Replace water bottles with piss bottles. Amaze the locals with your Western magics.

[@yozora_blues]

If mummy doesn't buy me tendies then I'll unleash hell on these people

[@Context0233]

i laughed out loud multiple times watching this, absolutely love your videos!

[@owenwillard5409]

your videos are amazing. glad i stumbled upon your channel the other day.

[@Blueshirt38]

I found you a while back when someone posted your video about cones on reddit. This is absolutely great content. It just feels like a perfect fit to have a dry Englishman being exasperated with the absurd mysticism of Japan. In an odd way it reminds me of the early European and American accounts their experiences traveling in Asia, without the racial epithets.

[@Postbus22]

4:23 here you can see a small door behind that fridge, umbrellas, a cone and water bottles!

[@othertriangle]

time to rewatch all your videos again btw your Breaking Bad joke was amazing

[@abadstoryends]

I had no idea you could go inside that sun tower thing in Osaka. Gotta have to try it out next time I'm there, looks really cool. Great vid!

[@kunairuto]

"This one sad scene alone reveals more truth about Japan than every since episode of anime ever created" ... and it's true, I can honestly say that I've never seen a random water bottle or traffic cone, but I'll keep my eyes out for them.

[@audiencemember26008]

One time I saw a car trying to fit round a tight alley corner with a half height fence pole. The pole had three 2 litre bottles full of water around it. I heard a crush and a splash and quickly turned to see it had squished a bottle. The driver immediately stopped. The car wasn't damaged, the pole wasn't bent, and the driver had a second chance to back up and try a different angle.

[@Kaaxe]

I predict that this channel like a few other new tiny channels before it will blow up suddenly from reddit sharing it. This is quality stuff

[@TroyBrophy]

I've been wondering about this for years. I read someone's blog where they also arrived at, "scare off cats," even though that clearly there wasn't a solution.

[@Crystal3lf]

YES BEST JAPAN CHANNEL ON KZbin!

[@yozora_blues]

Best commenter on KZbin, thank you!

[@PerMortensen]

"I barely ever see cats around here. For every cat that I see walking around I must see about 50 bottles." See, it works!

[@rebell813]

I cannot find the reddit post again but I saw it sometime in the last month. Someone posted a pictures of bottles in the street and asked about it. The comments also discussed the cat/dog deterrence idea. Apparently this is very common in Spain too. However I recall one commenter saying that when they lived there street cats were very common and the bottles would be used to rinse the cat urine off the doors/fences. To me this was the most logical reasoning since animals do often mark on top of other's to claim territory and this could actually deter future occurrence. It is very interesting that this is an international trend. I do wonder if it started as a reasonable solution long ago but everyone forgot why.

[@Kaaxe]

Hey! This channel is like Not just bikes but for the japanese world and with more stinging humor

[@rmcauley]

I love these videos - I was told about the cat/dog theory but I never believed it either.

[@F...G...]

Look on my plastic bottles, ye Mighty, and despair!

[@otakubullfrog1665]

Maybe the hope is that, after enough time with the water bottles, the idea that you stay out of people's gardens will become ingrained in the Akashic record of all cats and they can begin phasing them out sort of like how a lot of Japanese towns had No Smoking signs plastered all over the sidewalks about ten years ago that have gradually disappeared over time.

[@xxwoman]

Here in the US, a method of repelling house flies is to fill a clear plastic bag with water and hang it by your door, so… there’s that. Also a practice in Japan you may have seen is watering the concrete or asphalt around your house to cool the area in hot weather. Maybe they’re just collecting water for that. I have this habit myself. Maybe it’s genetically ingrained in me (as a hafu ) or something but I did it for convenience. I used that water for my outdoor dog and also to water plants. I collected it from a huge bin that the outdoor faucet dripped into nonstop so as not to waste water.

[@TheKhalzone]

Yeah I've been here for almost a year and I have 0 idea what the hell is up with those god damn bottles of waters and no one I know that grew up here even knows. As an Australian, I've never fucking seen them either

[@MrJekyllDrHyde1]

Could this be due to feng shui, or similar reasons?

[@janseifertseifert7973]

Its to keep the flies away, not cats. Flies dont like the water reflection and try to avoid waterbottles. Also works with seethrough plasticbags filled with water.

[@MoonProds]

Hey, that's the first time I see someone else online mention that! For context, I live in France and I've seen these kind of water bottles forever, but much more in rural areas than the city When I was I kid, I asked my dad what they were for and he also replied that it's to repel cats. But I lived in a village with TONS of cats, and those were clearly ineffective. Anyway, after pointing that out to him, he just shrugged it off and we kept it at that. Moral of the story, cat urine smells bad

[@sweetcattv]

Thank you for this video it is very pleasant watching your analyze something so everyday. I feel the same when I visit England ( Im not trying to make fun of you now ) where they have all these signs saying don't do this don't do that, No Drones on this park, or if you want to skateboard you have to do this or a sign with an angry mans expression that read, PICK UP AFTER YOUR DOG!!!!. It just funny how people in different countries try to communicate with the so called public of their countries.

[@Swingingbells]

@7:48 if you ever see something like this in an Australian garden, it'll be some kind of DIY contraption for dispensing water to wildlife, not for repelling them. Or maaaybe for weights to hold down netting over a fruit tree to protect it from wildlife.

[@carstenneugebauer5180]

Can you make a video about the cooling packs you get in the conbini which shall keep your fruits fresh?

[@grimgrahamch.4157]

This reminds me of Korean Fan Death. An absurd modern superstition where mechanical fans can suck the oxygen out from one side of the room, leading you to suffocate. Supposed this case of mass hysteria ended, but as far as I know all fans made in South Korea still have a fixed timer on them instead of a simple on-off button.

[@Nupetiet]

hol' up, "Ever Wanted to Impregnate Your Favorite Idol?" at 8:07, what's that about

[@scottyefird]

When I was in Japan I had seen these waterbottles everywhere and I never uderstood why

[@linolafettatnet]

Content worthy for the british museum in the far future!

[@piemadd]

What baffles me the most is the fact that when cats and dogs peeing *everywhere* (and not just where they need to occasionally relieve themselves), it is usually from them being marking their territory via spraying. did nobody stop and think "hey, maybe getting more pets spayed/neutered and keeping them inside more (not to mention the native species of birds would appreciate that) would probably solve this better than, *checks notes*, random bottles of water?" this reminds me of the myth that cats dont like cucumbers and that they think humans are kittens.

[@RevolverPicturesYT]

Oh fuck yeah here we go again

[@StuRap]

Speaking for Australia, you do occasionally see bottles placed on the front verge lawns of houses. The belief being (or so I was always told) is that dogs wont shit near water and therefore wont shit on their lawn. But you rarely see it and it's usually older generation people who do it. I feel it's pretty much dying out here otherwise

[@TheHollandHS]

Practical reasons : 1. Deflect animals from shitting / pissing the environment 🐈 2. Emergency to extinguish fire or burning wounds in an situation 🔥 3 . Used to put warning signs or advertising 4. Potential flash Cones to guide peoples directions in the dark 5. Used to create obstacles on trespassing 6. Quick plant water feeding 7. Used for liquid cleaning at an house or street I know its not charming these bottles in the street and a urban cultured person in paris or london might found it unpleasant and inappropriate controlling , but it shows how japanese people decide by the locals themselves instead of authority to do "efficiency". Like a overtraditional and overfunctional german village

[@brainout5852]

Japan needs to learn about microplastics. They'll stop this pretty quick once they're aware of the microplastics problem..

[@svverri]

Is this some Kyoto thing? I don't remember seeing this in suburban Tokyo or in Hokkaido; maybe I was just not paying attention. I do remember seeing a surprising number of traffic cones however.

[@sutibun-kun]

my state in India have water bottle with red dye in them to keep monkeys away

[@yozora_blues]

Wow, how that does that work??

[@reddcube]

It's obviously bear repellent. And it's super effective. When was the last time you seen a bear wondering the city.

[@noobiusmaximus6314]

Is it possible for the bottles near the plants are there so they can quickly be watered, if need be? I don't know the hose situation in japan. Maybe it's also a case of "maybe the bottles do deter animals, maybe they don't, either way, it's easy to recycle them this way". If you saw plastic bottles outlawed in japan, I somehow doubt you'd see glass bottles take their place.

[@ogrish15]

this seem more effective to repel flies than cats and dogs.

[@whattheysayk9558]

you got way too poetic just to say idk 🤷🏾‍♂️ maybe cats are the reason bruh this was so deep

[@1BipedalApe]

I am sure someone started this as a joke. "Worried about a cat entering your beautiful garden? Then just cover your garden with half full plastic bottles".

[@alocino96]

thanks for another bomb, yeah i really can't understand why people do this, i think at this point is more of a tradition than anything else, like grandma's remedies, some are useful but some we keep doing just because

[@ryanabc12345]

I don't know how people skirt the immense embarrassment one should feel in doing random shit like this with no further thought or inquiry. How do you explain this level of lunacy to yourself???

[@demontedd8619]

You referenced Breaking Bad’s, Walter White. But called him Malcom’s dad from Malcom in The Middle. Those are 2 completely different shows 😂

[@VanadiumBromide]

That's the joke.

[@Whydotheyalwaysgetma]

you dont piss where you drink water from.

[@rashadb954]

It baffles me how the Japanese can be so orderly and clean in so many aspects of life, yet their neighborhoods are just filled with junk and crisscrossed with ugly powerlines!

[@Pr0d3gi]

its the zainichi koreans and chinese tourists that did this

[@puyu8621]

That test didn't seem very well thought out unless you cut it in a misleading way. When cats want food they'll be way more aggressive than when they want to wee. From my experience cats usually want a bit of privacy for their business and the bottles could disturb that for all i know. That test didn't prove anything about keeping cats from peeing/pooping at a place. All it did was show that cats will go for food even if there are bottles nearby.

[@multiverse-UFO]

So what is this video about? Do you even need 1 minute to explain the phenomena? While wasted me 5 mins for watching nothing more than photos, from an environmentalist's point of view, the good quality Made In Japan plastic bottles, if they have hardship in recycling all of them, can be sent to remote villages in Iran, for the local kids to store and drink fresh water. Plastic is not quite appreciated in modern days, but aside of the problems they've caused, it's actually a useful material that is light-weighted, long-lasting and unbreakable. Just need to take care about sanitary, as the interior of the bottles provide good conditions for bacteria growth. If using as bottles, need to dry it well before another use.

[@Bnio]

I'm not sure if they actually keep cats away, but your argument that it doesn't work because in your neighborhood you see far more bottles than cats...is an argument that the bottles work my dude.