Japanese smash dishes for therapy

TOKYO, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- A Tokyo business is offering recession-hit customers the chance to ease their frustrations by throwing cups, plates and other fragile objects at concrete slabs.

Katsuya Hara, leader of the team of chiropractors operating The Venting Place, said customers choose their desired items to destroy -- ranging in price from about $2.20 for a small cup to about $11 for a large dish -- then they are dressed in protective clothing and taken to the inside of a van, The Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday.

Inside the van are concrete slabs for the businessmen and businesswomen to hurl their chosen crockery against.

"To break something, as all of us know from experience, is something extremely exhilarating and it helps bring down pent-up anger. We hope to become the new way businessmen and women relieve their stress," Katsuya Hara said.

Customer Masaki Ogaware, 35, said hurling a pile of dishes was a cathartic way to ease the stresses from his life as a salesman.

"Life is pretty complicated and there are a lot of things to worry about right now so this was refreshing," he said. "I now feel like I can start afresh again tomorrow."