Miraculous Japanese contraptions

After having some durian today, Mom told Dad to "wash" his hands with a stainless steel "soap" bar. Normally, after using one's hands to eat this fruit called durian, there would be a pungent durian odour emitted from one's hands for a day or so. However, after using the stainless steel bar of "soap", the odour was significantly reduced. I even tried it for myself and it worked. Mom has tried it for fish and it worked too.
Apparently, it works for other pungent things like garlic or onion!
Check out Wiki for more details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stainless_steel_soap

Mom had bought the bar of "soap" from DAISO, a Japanese 2-dollar shop. DAISO is not just a money-saving aid to me... every trip there is also an adventure and an expedition in which I frequently discover something new, whether it's new facts, concepts, designs or even solutions (to problems I never realised I had). They have really neat and sometimes weird stuff there. I guess it's all reflective of Japanese culture.

I guess even if the stainless steel solution to odours wasn't a Japanese thing, I doubt I'd have found out about the tip through any other source and I certainly don't think there'd be another shop out there selling a lump of stainless steel as "stainless steel soap".

Another mighty useful product is the "micropore" sponge. I'm really not sure what it's made of and whether the name "micropore" is a misnomer, but it scrubs stains and burnt material off steel pots like nothing else I've ever used, in a few strokes and applying relatively little strength. They sell a whole bar of it (about 1 foot long), enough to make 7-10 sponges, for just SG$2.