Somewhere or somehow, there is a person living in this country who knows the real answer to this mystery. As far back as I can remember I've been intrigued..., well maybe intrigued is too strong of a word, It's not like it's on par with Stonehenge or Easter Island or anything. Maybe you could say that it bothers me slightly when I have nothing else to think about, like when I'm writing blog entries for example.

That's right, it's the ol 'water bottles displayed all around the house phenomenon' (for lack of a better expression). Is it art? Some kind of superstition? Does it serve some actual purpose in people's lives? I think we can probably rule out the art idea. It's true that some modern art can be really weird and ugly, but a bunch of 2 liter water bottles displayed in various ways seems to do little for the imagination. Anyway, the Japanese are much more into impressionist art like Monet , Renoir, or Cezanne.

So superstition or purpose? After polling a number of Japanese about it, (who themselves seem to be unsure what exactly is going on) I've compiled a list of various theories and ideas.

1- To keep cats away. Don't ask why, but apparently cats are deathly afraid of water bottles twinkling in the sun. Has anyone seen this theory in action? Has it been properly tested on a number of cats yet? This is by far the most popular answer, but nobody could confidently assure me of why cats would really care a fig about some dirty old bottles on the street.

2- To water the plants. Not a common answer but looking at the pictures there does seem to be a high incidence of the bottles near plant life. Still, I've never in all my time here seen anybody acutally use or touch one of the bottles, much less open one to feed a plant. Conjecture only.

3- For use in an emergency. For example a major earthquake which would disable the water pipes. This makes some sense in a way, but on the other hand, those bottles are not new. They've obviously been opened and refilled from tap water then left to sit there for years. In case you didn't know, water actually goes bad if left sitting for a long time. However I suppose if there's nothing else available, you'd pretty much drink anything. Again just an idea, not proven.

Any experts out there who wish to enlighten us? Other theories or ideas are welcome.

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