In the summer of last year, my wife told me (in Japanese) “We need to buy a magic bottle.”

“A what?”

“A magic bottle.”

“What on earth is a magic bottle? and why do we need to buy one?”

Magic Bottle

The word in question here is 魔法瓶 (mahou-bin). The first part 魔法 (mahou) means “magic”, as in Harry Potter magic. The second part 瓶 (bin) means “bottle”. What is a magic bottle? Simple, a thermos.

A Thermos?

Yup, the good old vacuum flask invented by James Dewer in 1892 - the one that keeps hot liquids hot all day long - is known as a “magic bottle” in Japanese.

Why is it called “magic bottle”? Are the Japanese superstitious? Turns out it’s just a bit of marketing. The thermos was introduced to Japan in 1909. Two years later, an Osaka company produced a domestic version and called it “magic bottle”, but they forgot (or just didn’t want to) to register the trademark. The name stuck and now any old thermos is known as a 魔法瓶 (mahou-bin). (Source: wikipedia japan).

Pretty cool huh? Btw, the reason my wife wanted one is that we had a baby on the way. A thermos is a good way to carry around hot water for making baby formula on the go. Ours has a picture of Miffy on it, and is Thermos brand :)

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