An ''urawaza'' (裏技, meaning "secret trick")
is a quirky, ingenious technique that optimizes an everyday activity like cleaning up spills, preventing odors, or folding laundry.
In
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, urawaza have been shared by word of mouth and passed down to descendants for centuries.
In the aftermath of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, urawaza helped the population make best use of scarce resources, like using
alcohol instead of more expensive household solvents for cleaning.
Lifestyle urawaza were popularized in the Japanese television series ''Ito-ke no Shokutaku'' (''The Ito Family Dinner Table''), incorporating many viewer-submitted tips.
The term itself became globally popularized when
video game
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...
rs in the 1980s began sharing their game-related urawaza online.
Many cultures and countries outside Japan have similar
folk wisdom
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging fr ...
under different names. American columnist
Heloise has published many such tips in her column "Hints from Heloise".
Modern urawaza include chilling a
cellphone
A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...
to increase its battery life,
keeping
sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...
dry by adding grains of uncooked
rice
Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima
''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...
,
and practicing one's
bowling
Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...
throw with an
iron
Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...
(pointing to a specific target) to develop aim before getting used to the weight of an actual
ball
A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but can sometimes be ovoid) with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used f ...
.
References
External links
*
www.chiebukuro-net.comYouTube search for "urawaza"Japanese game show in which contestant uses numerous urawaza techniques to go from asleep in bed to full ready for work in under five minutes(broken)
Everydaytrick.com Blog collecting and classifying numerous urawaza tricks from all around the web.
Japanese words and phrases
{{culture-stub
ja:裏技