Japan Time

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Japan...the land of cuteness.

There are so many cute things just waiting to be bought in Japan. 100 yen stores (the equivalent of dollar stores back home...only much better) are filled with adorable little trinkets that I can't help but admire every time I visit one. Little anime characters with big blinky eyes are around every corner...usually cute, sometimes a little creepy.
I myself fell victim to cuteness yesterday while perusing a cheapy clothing/random stuff store:

Seriously - it says "photographer" AND has a cute monkey thing holding a camera - how could I resist?
While in Hiroshima, I became acquainted with another one of Japan's cute cartoon characters, Mameshiba:
Mameshiba is a little bean/dog that tells gross trivia facts so that people lose their appetites and Mameshiba doesn't get eaten.
We discovered him in an arcade in Hiroshima and made it our mission to try and win Mameshiba memorbilia like phone straps (crazy popular in Japan) or little stuffed animal Mameshiba. We had little success in Hiroshima, but in Himeji, we completely cleaned house in another arcade and walked away with an entire Mameshiba family of about twenty-five phone straps, key chains, and other various Mameshibas.

Yes, I used to think phone straps were utterly insensible, but now I have fell victim to the trend. Turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese. I really think so.

Check out Mameshiba's commercials - he really is quite cute. And these have English translations:

2 comments:

Laura Pelz said...

Michelle and I may have watched that commercial all the way through and started singing the la la part at the end. Thanks for sharing a part of your life ,It was fun to read and watch.

Wendy Min said...

Those commercials were amazing!