Japan 下水管s clean up their 行為／法令／行動する with manhole art
Japan's sewerage 産業 has 設立する a way to clean up its dirty and smelly image: elaborately designed and colourful manhole covers with 12,000 地元の varieties 全国的な -- 含むing, of course, a Hello Kitty design
Japan's sewerage 産業 has 設立する a way to clean up its dirty and smelly image: elaborately designed and colourful manhole covers with 12,000 地元の varieties 全国的な -- 含むing, of course, a Hello Kitty design.
控訴，上告ing to a Japanese love of 詳細（に述べる） and "kawaii" ("削減（する）"), bespoke manhole covers adorn the streets of 1,700 towns, cities and villages across Japan and have spawned a collection craze の中で いわゆる "manholers."
The designs 代表する an instant guide to a place as they feature its history, folklore, or speciality goods: a 城 design for an 古代の town, a bay 橋（渡しをする） for a port and Mt Fuji for a city at the foot of Japan's iconic mountain.
The designs 代表する an instant guide to a place as they feature its history, folklore, or speciality goods: a 城 design for an 古代の town, a bay 橋（渡しをする） for a port and Mt Fuji for a city at the foot of Japan's iconic mountain
As for Tama City, 位置を示すd in the western sprawl of greater Tokyo, 地元のs are pinning their hopes on a more modern Japanese icon -- Hello Kitty -- to attract tourists, と一緒に the town's 主題 park showcasing much-loved children's character from the Sanrio company.
"We'd be happy if people come and take some time for a stroll in our town while looking for the Hello Kitty manholes," said Mikio Narashima, who 長，率いるs the city's 汚水 system 分割, after the city 任命する／導入するd the first of the 10 designed covers.
- 'Treasure 追跡（する）ing for adults' -
退役軍人 spotter Shoji Morimoto said his passion for covers was fuelled after noticing that the central city of Fukui sported two 不死鳥／絶品s on its manholes.
He later learned the imaginary birds were a symbol of the town's rise from a 1945 破滅的な US 空襲 and a deadly 地震 three years later.
"I いつかs do 研究 on why the town has that particular design. I'm impressed whenever I find out it 代表するs the town's history and culture," said Morimoto, who coined the word "manholer" for like-minded people.
控訴，上告ing to a Japanese love of 詳細（に述べる） and "kawaii" ("削減（する）"), bespoke manhole covers adorn the streets of 1,700 towns, cities and villages across Japan and have spawned a collection craze の中で いわゆる "manholers"
Designed manholes cost more but 控訴，上告 to a Japanese sense of 詳細（に述べる）, the 48-year-old Morimoto told AFP.
He has already visited all the designed manholes in his 地元の area. "Now I have to travel far," he 収容する／認めるs.
"It's treasure 追跡（する）ing for adults."
"Manholers" take pictures of the covers they visit, with the more obsessive taking rubbings.
For others, the in terest lies more in "cover bonsai", 工場／植物s growing on 国／地域 蓄積するd on and around covers.
More than 3,000 people …に出席するd a "manhole 首脳会議" in western Japan in November.
- 'Under the cover' -
And manhole covers are not 簡単に there to hide away dirty 下水管s, enthuses Tetsuro Sasabe, who is 利益／興味d in covers for telecoms 組織／基盤／下部構造.
"I'm 利益／興味d in why the manhole is there, where it leads to -- I'd say I'm 利益／興味d in what's under the manhole covers," he said.
Kawaguchi, Saitama 県, 誇るs these patterned covers 始める，決める in a very colourful pavement
He 公式文書，認めるd that there is a story even to plain covers -- such as finding the logos of now-消滅した／死んだ companies.
Given their size, the covers cannot easily be collected in the same way people hoard stamps and coins.
But to 満足させる collectors' 願望（する）, the 私的な-public GKP 網状組織 designed to 促進する 認識／意識性 on the importance of sewerage in society, has 解放（する）d 1.4 million cards of 293 different covers.
The cards are 解放する／自由な but they can only be 得るd through 地元の offices, thus working as a tourist magnet.
They are numbered in chronological order and come with the manhole's exact GPS （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） for the c onvenience of manholers.
The history of decorating manhole covers in Japan dates 支援する 40 years to a 企て，努力，提案 to 改善する the image of the sewerage system
"We believe Japanese manholes are cultural 製品s we can 誇る to the world," said Hideto Yamada, a GKP planning 公式の／役人.
And when a real cover does become 利用できる, 需要・要求する is きびきびした.
The eastern city of Maebashi held a 高度に 競争の激しい 宝くじ in October as its 申し込む／申し出 to sell 10 used manhole covers -- 40 kilogrammes of アイロンをかける -- at 3,000 yen ($28) each was 押し寄せる／沼地d with more than 190 企て，努力，提案s.
- 非，不，無-slip -
The history of decorating manhole covers in Japan dates 支援する 40 years to a 企て，努力，提案 to 改善する the image of the sewerage system, によれば GKP's Yamada.
Cover designs must have the same 摩擦 level no 事柄 which direction humans or cars come from so that people do not slip over them.
This need for 摩擦 resulted in placing extra streaks of clouds, sea waves or tiny 星／主役にするs in the background, giving birth to "condensed designs," Yamada said.
全体にわたる, there are some 15 million manholes in Japan, of which only a fraction have colourful designed covers, carefully 手渡す-pa inted.
A plain cover costs some $600 but a colourful, designed one can be 二塁打 that depending on the number of colours used and the level of 詳細（に述べる） used.
The craze has since spread online with abundant （警察などへの）密告，告訴（状） on where to find the best manholes 経由で the hashtag #manhotalk.
An 広範囲にわたる collection can be seen at Japan Society of Manhole Covers: http://sky.geocities.jp/usagigasi1f/
