Random Japanese Artifact!

[jaxx]

ive been to ask this for ages, but in my car i found a small plastic thingy with a japanese cyrillic character on it, and im really curious to know what it is!

heres a really terrible picture...

its about an inch and a half long, made of plastic and the character is embossed on the end shown??? ill try and get a decent pic of it

im stumped and just found it in the sunnys box thing when i first had it?

[dicey2k]

How weird's that?? Maybe its a good luck charm, like the fortune cookie of the Toyota world... B)

[Bibbs]

I've a peice of paper with their hyroglyphs all over it. Found it is the seat pocket. Scared to take it out.

[Caz SR]

Looks like a seal stamp (for letters etc).

[jaxx]

it does to be honest thats what i thought it could possibly be (if not a little boring)

ben - lmao

[Caz SR]

Yeah - it is a little boring and you've got to wonder why it's in the car

I remember Lee finding all sorts of things in his White Supra... oh yes and then there's the wierd wooden 'sewing box' thing that was included with the Lucida (originally screwed between the two front seats)...

What's the green bit on it?

[jaxx]

its a little sticker, kind of faded, looks like it *was* a smiley face...

[Caz SR]

Maybe it's not for stamping 'letters'...

[JAHill]

Just worry if you find one of those! :)

[jay dh]

Just worry if you find one of those! :)

looks like a tissue box thats found on the parcel shelf of family cars

[JAHill]

looks like a tissue box thats found on the parcel shelf of family cars

I think there's just some Japanese guy thinking... "Hahaha. This will totally **** with his head!"

[jaxx]

is that a 'Hellraiser Box'

this is a slightly better shot of the 'lettering'

[jay dh]

dont show it to us, ull prob remove the curse of it off u and onto us...

[JAHill]

is that a 'Hellraiser Box'

Hellyes :)

edit: Meant to add that I've got some Japanese dictionaries and books somewhere. I'll have a look when I've done a bit more work! ;)

edit2: Can't find it in either of the books I leafed through. It looks like a couple of Kanji characters. I think the image next to your (total beast of a) PC should be rotated 90degs CCW. I wonder if it's a name.

[Demonic Angel]

Maybe its for a wax seal of some description? Where you put hot wax on an envelope and seal it with your family crest, or whatever! They did it in the 1800's

Those were the days before gummed envelopes obviously - and in all fairness Rob, I doubt your car is that old!

Thats what it looks like though, but could just be a name in Kanji as well I guess.... but why is it on a stick and why was it in your car?

[alanbradley]

IIRC... The japanese use these little sticks as a sort of signature - they willl have one carved witht he appropriate name and then you get various stick and inkpad combinations soyou dampen it on the pad and stamp the ink on to the document or whatever.

I remember reading about it in "Hokkaido Highway Blues" by Will Ferguson, a book about hitchhiking the length of Japan following the cherry blossom - a good laugh and well worth reading.

A

[Gareth B]

Actually, isn't that the symbol that the Yakuza (Japenese mafia) stamp on the forehead of there victims after a hit!

If you turn it counter-clockwise 90 degrees from the image in your pic you will see that it is indeed a one finger salute with knuckle duster.

Or do I just have a wild imagination!!

(This post is not intended in anyway to offend any Yakuza members - only joking fellas)

[JAHill]

I wonder if the UK Toyota dealers know about this?

Owner : "I've got a rattle coming from somewhere in my car."

Dealer : (looks at car details) "Yeah, that'll be the Hello Kitty doll that the Japanese chap left in the oil sump for good luck."

Owner : "Oh... right... Okaaay then."

[big_bad_ant]

haha! what ever it is, put it on eBay and sell it....

you'll prob get silly amounts for it..

[jaxx]

to be honest it does have some form of red resedue, maybe wax? ink? blood?

its 'solid' though, a stamp would surely be a rubber compound?

ant... good idea might try it!

oh and this is the PC... so far worlds biggest MP3 player

[JAHill]

Sound! *groan*

I've got all my MP3s on my tower PC so I can share them over the network to my laptop, which I can plug in to the stereos downstairs, plus the laptops got pretty good sound as it's got a mini subwoofer!

Your artifact certainly sounds like a letter seal though. Especially considering the solidity of the markings and the fact that there's a residue. Put it on eBay and say that since it's removal, you've noticed a 10bhp decrease from your engine so it must be a +10BHP Japanese ECU Fetish.

[MIP]

Thats one crazy looking artifact. It looks like you could smoke it...