The humble manhole cover. We see them all over the place. We take them for granted. They’re just there. Or at least they are most of the time. In Japan though, they take manhole covers more seriously. A lot more seriously.

Take these sewer and drain covers for example:

Ichinomiya City  Kinosaki TownYamanashi Prefecture  Kuwana CityYakage Town  Icinomiya CityOsaka City  Ojiya City

Pretty cool indeed, I think. Urban beautification taken to its extreme. Think of the pride the people who live in these areas must have for their surroundings if they are prepared to put in so much care and artistic effort into their sewer and drain covers.

Could you image something similar happening in any South African cities?

See more examples of amazing manhole covers at Work Killer.com, and read about them on the Japan Visitor Blog. Another article, which has the crude sounding title of “The Art of the Japanese Manhole” but isn’t crude at all, is also worth a glance.

Arigato, oyasuminasai and sayonara!

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