Grab and go …

You see strange things on the streets of Osaka. A professor of art once told me that a defining characteristic of Mexico City was its surrealism. So far in my experience, Osaka hasn’t matched El Districto Federal in the surrealism department, but sometimes it comes close … like the time I was walking through the suburbs surrounding Kansai University and witnessed a man taking a walk with his calico cat … on a retractable leash. He did this without a hint of self-consciousness. But the truly strange thing was that the cat accepted this situation as a completely natural circumstance. Of course, Osaka Ali took this event as proof positive of the imminent end times. Sorry readers, I didn’t have the guts to take his picture and post it here. Perhaps next time.

On the other hands, ummm, hand, I did have the cojones to snap a shot of this:

Easy rider …

Quite a handful an eyeful. Did Salvador Dali design this bicycle seat and forget to license it to Avocet? Well, it appears to be a beautiful accessory attached to an attractive custom “Von Dutch” style pinstriped cruiser bicycle. From what I could tell, the material of this saddle was a black polyurethane surface. I don’t think that it had inscribed handprints and fingerprints, so it wasn’t totally realistic, but I guess it was satisfactorily realistic enough for the owner to install it and presumably ride it. Notice the conveniently placed beer can. Do you think that the bike came from the factory with this seat as a standard option? All that I can say in hindsight *ahem* is that this bicycle seat gives new meaning to the word, “ergonomic”.

Does any reader know who manufactures this saddle?

This artifact was found at approximately 34.706561,135.499287

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