Ever wanted someone to do a really small job for you but you were afraid or too embarrassed to ask? There’s a service for that in Japan and it’s called Coconala. If you’re familiar with the English language-service Fiverr, then you’ll have a good idea what Coconala Tokyo offers. While all the freelance services on Fiverr cost $US 5, everything on Coconala starts at 500 yen.
Typical services include translation, narration and production of simple graphics. However, as long as it doesn’t break the law, sellers can be as creative as they like with the services that they offer for 500 yen. Here are some of the more amusing services that we managed to find—all for only 500 yen.
1. Provide you with an alibi
Do you have a secret that you’d like to keep? This guy (no longer available) will provide you with an alibi of your choice. He’ll tell whoever you like that you were together drinking or that you had a meeting. Presumably he won’t vouch for you down at the police station but he probably won’t ask questions either.
2. Send an email and call when you want to get out of a meeting
This provider (no longer available) will email and/or call you (presumably with something really urgent) if you want to get out of an interminably long meeting so you can go home, or if you need an excuse to turn down an invitation to a really boring after work party. Curiously, the service is offered free so you have to wonder about what their motivation really is.
3. Write your significant other a Swedish love letter
That’s not a euphemism for anything deviant, this vendor is offering to write an actual love letter in Swedish to your special someone. Presumably this is intended either as a narcissistic show off of your prowess in a foreign language by giving your beau or belle a message that they will almost certainly never be able to read, or perhaps it’s just to impress a Swede? If it’s the former, we’d suggest another useful service to go along with this, entitled “Translate my Swedish Love Letter into Japanese”.
4. Get yourself an NSFW anime-style narration from a voice artist
Perhaps you’re making your own anime porn or you’d like to hear an alternative x-rated dialogue for Sazae san? Actually, we’re really not sure why you’d want this, but if you do, yu88088 is offering it from 500 yen. Perhaps you could create a really different ring tone or answer phone message?
