The Snootiest Club on Earth

You’ve probably done the research to know what your chosen vacation destination will look like, but how can you know in advance what it will smell like?  What if the predominant aroma at your hotel hales, not from the picturesque ocean to the west, but from the budget bait shop to the east?  Or if the clean mountain air you’re anticipating from the brochures is actually lost in the stench of a nearby landfill or pig farm?

Thanks to Japan’s new Nioi-bu (Smell Club), you can be forewarned and forearmed against such olfactory disasters ruining your holiday.  Launched just last month, the club’s website has already drawn over 200 members  who have submitted more than 160 odors gathered from 68 locations, ranging from cow dung to verbena soap.  Once registered, the user (or “Smellist”) simply clicks a balloon tag on the map to enter olfactory observations on a particular region.  The smells are ranked in terms of pungency, from light to extra bold, and include such vital particulars as the time of day/year one can expect to encounter the odor at its peak.  Residents of Kamakura, for instance, are probably surprised to learn that it’s not the tranquil incense of their ancient temples that puts them on the Smell Map–it’s the bad breath of their fertile cat population.  Likewise, surf-city Fujisawa isn’t pegged for its salty sea breeze, but rather for “the toasty odor of cow dung.”

The Smell Club’s administrators admit there is still one stink bug to be ironed out of the system, the ability to verify the claims of the Smellists.  But spokeswoman Kayo Matsubara is optimistic about the future addition of a validation process, and–as scent technology evolves–even a function which will allow the browser to sample the air of his proposed destination with the click of a mouse.