Published on January 2nd, 2026
Today we went to Shibuya to meet some friends, and on the way back we stopped by the HANDS flagship store in Shibuya to browse a bit and do some shopping.
In one floor (it may have been the B1F, but I'm not sure now) they had these items reproducing real manhole covers from all over Japan. They had metal and rubber coasters, T-shirts, cushions, keyholders, stickers, and I think I also saw fabric patches.
I didn't buy any, but it took some effort to resist the temptation.
And yes, many places in Japan have cute, colorful manhole covers such as these. See the last photo for an example from one of my trips to Kusatsu.