Some of our readers may recall Kōsuke Saitō 斎藤公輔 (@kawausokawauso), otherwise known as NEKOPLA, the Japanese writer and engineer who enjoys creating whimsical gadgets. Last year, we introduced his nifty motorized key gadget that makes everything look like a wind-up toy.

The latest invention from this creative tinkerer has no moving parts, mechanical or electronic components. It's a clever idea for something you don't need to plug in, and would in fact be dangerous if it were: A bath tablet!

Bath tablets in giant blister packs

Taking baths is a very popular activity in Japan. Although bath bombs by Lush can also be found, effervescent bath tablets are the most common form, often with therapeutic properties intended to improve circulation, relax tension and heal sore muscles.

As NEKOPLA notes on his blog on Daily Portal Z, he loves to use bath tablets but everytime he does, he can't help but think that they look like giant medicine pills.

Here's a Japanese bath tablet on the right and a pill on the left:

"(...) I'm only talking about their appearance, but if someone told me that medicine pills grow up into bath tablets, I might believe it for an instant. That's how close the resemblance is."

So, then, his next thought was: Why not take that idea further and imagine what it would look like if the blister packs (press through packaging) in which pills are stored also "grew up" to match the size of their contents.

With that in mind, NEKOPLA came up with this design:

The giant blister pack has the onsen hot springs mark on it (a circle with three lines of steam rising from it) to show that it's a bath product, along with the indication "45 g" (1.6 oz), which is several orders of magnitude higher than the quantity typically printed on pill packs. For example, the pack of Loxonin (Loxoprofen) on the left usually says 60 mg.

As for the most prominent text, that's ニューヨクザイ nyūyokuzai in katakana, usually written in kanji as 入浴剤, literally "bath additive," a general term that covers everything from bath salts to bath bombs and tablets. Since medicine names are usually written in katakana, ニューヨクザイ makes it look like it's a giant pill.

NEKOPLA clever idea quickly got noticed, and his Tweet has garnered nearly 88,300 likes at the time of writing. Moreover, it also elicited numerous comments, such as:

To check out NEKOPLA's other cool gadgets and creations, you can follow him on Twitter. Those who live in the Osaka area can also see his gadgets in person at the NEKOPLA Expo exhibition, going on until March 27th at the Shikaku shop and gallery.