This is Megan Greene with another Postcard from Asia from the KU Center for East Asian Studies.

Is there a human on earth who doesn’t enjoy popping bubble wrap? The satisfaction of the squish and the snap of a bubble breaking between your fingers transcends cultural borders. The problem is then you have bubble wrap without the bubbles making it just garbage and no longer even an environmentally questionable packing product. Leave it to the Japanese to create a chotchka that gives you the satisfaction of the snap without wasting the bubble wrap itself. Puchi puchi is a small plastic box that clips on to your backpack. Rows of little buttons are set into one side. When you press these, they snap and crack just like bubble wrap. So goodbye bubble economy. Hello bubble wrap economy.

With thanks to Randi Hacker for this text, from the KU Center for East Asian Studies, I’m Megan Greene. Wish you were here.