A Student Photographed 100 Screw Heads — and Found Almost None at Disneyland

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A professor at Meiji Gakuin University *(a private university in Tokyo)* shared results from one of his recurring assignments: students must photograph 100 images of something they find completely uninteresting. The goal is to push them to look more carefully at things they'd normally ignore entirely.

One student chose screw heads — the flat, round tops of screws visible on everyday objects and surfaces. What started as a mundane subject led to an unexpected discovery: at Tokyo Disneyland, the student could barely find any screws at all. The professor pointed out the parallel to Apple products, which are famously designed to hide all visible fasteners. The thread quickly branched into conversations about design philosophy, the nature of "interest," and what it means when the ordinary suddenly reveals depth.

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Yesterday’s class was the review session for that “photograph 100 things you’re not interested in” assignment. One student shot screw heads — just the tops of screws you find on streets and around the house. Really fascinating stuff. The best part was their discovery that when they went to Disneyland to look for screws, they could barely find any.

昨日の明学での授業は、例の「興味のないものを100枚撮る」課題の講評だったんだけど、学生のひとりが街中や家にある「ネジの頭」を撮ってきて、これがたいへんおもしろかった。特に「ディズニーランドでネジを探したがほとんど見当たらなかった」という発見がとても良かった。

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I noted that the idea of hiding screws completely — treating them as something that would “break the dream” — is a lot like what Apple does with their products.

ネジを「夢を壊すもの」として徹底的に隠す、というやりかたはアップル製品に似ている、という指摘をした。

And from there we got into just how much of the world is literally held together by screws. I recommended they read One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw (a popular history book tracing the screw’s invention and its impact on civilization).

そして、いかに世の中がネジでとめられることで成立しているか、という話になり、『ねじとねじ回しこの千年で最高の発明をめぐる物語』をぜひ読んでほしい、と勧めた。

This is great!

これはよい！

Now I want to go to Disneyland just to verify this.

確認するためにディズニーランドに行きたい。

A few attractions at Tokyo Disneyland do have visible screws. Whether they’re actual functional screws or just decorative, I can’t say. DisneySea (the adjacent park with a nautical/explorer theme) actually has quite a few visible ones.

ランドのいくつかのアトラクションにはネジもある。ほんとに見た目通りにネジ切ってあるかどうかは知らない。シーは結構見かける。

Very Daily Portal Z energy to this whole thing. (Daily Portal Z is a beloved Japanese web magazine known for absurdist, curiosity-driven experiments — the “what happens if you do this completely pointless thing seriously” genre.)

デイリーポータルZみある試み。

This is so cool. Everyone should try this.

これめっちゃおもろいねぜひみんなやってみてほしい

Things I have zero interest in… women’s fashion… minivans that can’t go off-road… small dogs… watches like Rolex… melon bread… stuff like that…

自分にとって興味の湧かないもの…婦人服…オフロード走れないミニバン…小型犬…ロレックスとかの時計…メロンパン…とか…

I vaguely remember talking with someone while waiting in line at Disney about whether Phillips-head screws (the cross-shaped ones) had a center dot or not. Can’t remember where exactly.

ディズニーの何かを待っているときに、そのへんの+ネジの頭にポツがあるかないかという話をした記憶がある。どこだったかはわすれたけれど

This got me curious so I went and read the Wikipedia article on screws. Apparently the concept dates back to ancient times. So why did Disney decide to hide them? Not for historical accuracy reasons, but more like… a magic and immersion thing? (Speaking as someone who doesn’t know Disney that well.)

興味が湧いたのでWikipediaのネジの項目を読んできたんですが、ネジの概念は紀元前にはあったみたいでして、ディズニーはなぜネジ頭を隠そうと思ったんだろう？時代考証とかでなく、魔法とかの観点？（ディズニー詳しくない人間の感想）

On the topic of interiors — I read an article about 40 years ago that noted trains tend to have exposed screw heads everywhere, while aircraft have very few.

内装の話だけど、鉄道はネジ頭丸出しが多いけど航空機は少ないという記事を40年くらい前に読んだ

In early Showa-era (roughly the 1920s–30s) buildings, Phillips screws hadn’t become widespread yet, so flathead screws were standard. Whenever I spot a flathead screw in a modern building, I get weirdly excited.

昭和初期の建物にはプラスネジが普及しておらず、マイナスネジが使われてましたが、近代建築でマイナスネジを見かけると興奮します

Screws and emergency buttons should ideally be easy to find when you actually need them — yet both tend to get hidden or camouflaged.

ねじや非常ボタンは本来わかりやすい方がいざという時嬉しいのにカモフラージュされがち

Side note: at Disney, even the railings that look like solid metal have bendy tips.

ちなみにディズニーは金属に見える柵も先っちょが曲がる。

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Given all this, I was a little shocked when I once spotted plastic cable ties used to secure a rope on a boat at a certain well-known fountain area… the illusion broke a bit.

こんな話があるくらいやから、某泉のとある船上のロープに固定用の結束バンドが見えてたのはちょっとショックやったんよね…

Even if you start out uninterested, I’d think the act of photographing something makes you observe it closely enough that interest starts to develop. So is it like, a “game over” rule if you start finding it interesting? Or is it fine to just shoot 100 disconnected photos? I want to know how it actually works. Can I join the class?

最初は興味がなくても、撮ってるうちに（対象を観察するから）、興味がわいてくると思うんですが、面白味を感じたら負け、的なルールなのか、または、内容に一貫性を求めず100枚バラバラでもいいのかとか詳細気になる。学生さんに混ざりたい

I mean, if you decided to photograph screws, doesn’t that mean you were already interested in them? Feels like it might technically disqualify you from the “uninteresting things” assignment…?

これはネジを撮ろうと思った時点で興味が湧いてるんだから興味の無いものという課題には対象外ではって気がしちゃうんだけど違うのか

What a brilliantly designed assignment… There are two kinds of “uninteresting”: things so far removed from your life they feel like another world, and things so ordinary and close that you’ve never consciously noticed them. When you try to fill 100 photos, you’re basically forced to choose the second category.

素晴らしい課題の出し方だなぁ…ひとつは自分の生活とあまりにかけ離れている別世界のもの、もうひとつは身近でありふれてるはずなのに意識してないもので、100枚撮ろうとしたら後者にせざるを得ないのか…

The moment when something uninteresting becomes interesting — that’s the best part of being a teacher. Humans don’t go looking for things they don’t know exist. But once they know, they can’t stop looking.

興味のないものが興味のあるものに変化する瞬間は、先生として最も楽しい瞬間です「知らないものは探さない」のが人間だが、「知ったら探したくなる」のもまた人間

I feel like around photo 50, you’d start genuinely getting interested in whatever you chose, and the whole premise of the assignment would collapse.

50枚くらい撮り終えた頃から対象に興味が湧いてきて課題が成立しなくなりそう

Just the act of framing a shot requires you to pay attention to something… feels like a paradox.

撮るために興味向けてそうで難しい……

This is great. Shoot enough photos of anything and you’ll probably start caring about it.

これ面白いなあ 100枚も撮ったら興味湧いちゃうものもあるよね

Reading stuff like this suddenly makes everyday life feel full of angles you hadn’t considered. Focus on screws and you realize they’re everywhere — which makes the Disneyland thing all the more striking.

こういうの読むと急に日常の視点って色々あるなって思えて、ネジに着目すると至る所に使われてるのが分かるし、よほどディズニーには無いんだなって気になってくる

My take

There's something quietly profound about a class that teaches you the world has more depth than you've been noticing — and all it takes is looking closely at something you'd usually walk past without a second thought.

#Surprising #Culture #Society

Source & translation note

Comments loosely translated for tone. Reactions collected from Togetter and X threads.

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