Japan high school girls have best scoop on m4/3 future

Henry Richardson wrote:

BostonC wrote:

Admire the workmanship of the backpacks, unlike the ones in the US.

They are called randoseru and are quite expensive. Generally $300-600 depending on exactly which one is chosen. They used to all be black and red, but these days they come in all colors and there are even designer brands that can cost even more. The kids use them usually for many years. They are ubiquitous in Japan.

Pretty good looking stuff, compared to what we had in Germany in the 50s, our 'Ranzen' or 'Schulranzen' (pronounced 'Runtsn'). Made of rather heavy leather, good for many years. And in case any seams came apart, the local shoemaker sewed them together again. My grandmother used to call these Ranzen 'Tornister', an older name, probably going back to something similar, used by the military in the days of the emperor.

An ebay pic of such an old Ranzen:

The most important thing in that Ranzen was the 'Tafel', a Schiefertafel, a plate of slate for writing, using 'Griffel', slate pencils. The front side of the Tafel was for writing exercises, the back side for math.

Again, picture source ebay:

Since these thin 'Griffel' (slate pencils) easily broke, another important thing was the 'Griffelkasten', usually a little wooden box. Ebay pic:

Two more important items shown here (pic from the web): The necessary 'Tafelläppchen', usually fastened to the Tafel via a little hole in its frame, and the 'Schwämmchen', the latter being a little wet sponge, usually in a little Bakelite-box, while the 'Läppchen' was something like a crocheted pot cloth; both items needed to clean the Tafel, i.e. delete what was written on it.

I think the best about both these Japanese randoseru and our German Ranzen is the fact, that the weight is evenly distributed on both shoulders of the kid, that way avoiding any early damage to the spine, like when carrying things in just one hand.

Liewenberger