A place for all things kawaii and cute

Japanese Pasta Recipe

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Jen

Food courts in Japan are amazing. Of course, they have their usual selection of fast food (usually a McDonalds, KFC and/or Mos Burger) but they also feature a wide range of Japanese specialities, including noodles, omurice and much more. We ate lunch in a food court on our shopping day in Osaka. I was tempted by all the noodles but, on this occasion, I headed for the Japanese/Italian place for some Japanese pasta.

I was actually planning to order pasta in a creamy white sauce (like my Japanese Salmon Pasta Recipe) but I changed my mind and ordered an avocado and shrimp pasta. It’s very unlike me to choose a dish like that. I don’t usually eat avocado – I don’t mind it, but I don’t go out of my way to eat it.

It turned out to be very filling and absolutely delicious! I loved it so much that I actively went looking for it on several other occasions during our trip. I’d love to make it at home, but sadly, I don’t know how it’s been flavoured. Some kind of herb and probably some sort of oil I guess. It’s hard to tell. If anyone knows or finds a recipe, please let me know. I would really appreciate it!

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, most Japanese pasta places seem to give you a fork and spoon to eat pasta, not chopsticks. I’m not sure why. If you’re used to eating noodles with chopsticks, I don’t think pasta would be very challenging. Still, the kids sitting near us in the food court seemed to be fascinated by us eating with a fork and spoon. 🙂

Posted in Japan, Japanese Recipes | Tagged Japan, Japanese Cooking, Japanese Recipe, Osaka, Pasta Recipe, Recipe | 2 Comments

Disney Gachapon

Posted on November 1, 2013 by Jen

Gachapon are a multi-billion dollar a year industry in Japan and can be found almost everywhere across the country – in shops and shopping centres, outside game centres, at major tourist attractions and even on street corners. There are always lots of different gachapon to choose from and they change frequently. My favourite gachapon are San-X, Sanrio and Disney gachapon.

If you’re not familiar with gachapon machines, they are a little like old-fashioned gumball machines. However, instead of finding gumballs inside, you will find little toys and accessories. Usually a gachapon machine will be filled with toys from a particular set. The set might have five to ten different toys. When you put your money in the gachapon machine and turn the handle, you will get one of the toys from the set shown. But it’s a surprise. You don’t know which toy you will get from the set until you open it up.

I always try to find as many gachapon machines as possible when I’m in Japan. You never know what you might find inside them. Sometimes there might be lots of machines but no toys of interest inside them…and other times, it’s like hitting the jackpot!

I found a really fun Disney gachapon machine on our shopping day in Osaka. It featured a set of Disney sticker flake boxes. I was so excited. Silly, I know! But I love Disney and I love collecting sticker flakes! 🙂

There were six boxes in this Disney collection – Alice In Wonderland, Bambi, Cinderella, Snow White, Dumbo and Pinocchio.

I ended up playing this Disney gachapon machine five times. I was very lucky as I only ended up with one duplicate (which I gave to a friend). I was tempted to keep trying until I had the complete set, but it was becoming a little too expensive. Besides, I had the one I wanted most of all – Bambi. I also got Alice In Wonderland, Cinderella and Pinocchio.

Each box features ten different sticker flakes and three of each. Bambi is definitely my favourite, but I will always have a soft spot for Bambi, Thumper and Flower.

The sticker flakes are a little larger than your typical sticker flake but they will still fit nicely in my album. They are also quite glossy, so I apologise for the reflections in my photographs.

My second favourite set is Pinocchio. I was a little disappointed that Cleo and Figaro do not feature on any of the stickers though.

Third on my list of favourites is the Alice In Wonderland set. I particularly like the dormouse in the teapot. Teapots always make me smile as they remind me of my Mum (she collects teapots).

And finally, there’s Cinderella. I am a big Disney fan, but I’m not really into the princesses, so this one is last on my list. I do love the mice in Cinderella, but sadly, they aren’t on these stickers. 🙁

Despite having favourites, I really do love them all. I guess I love all Disney gachapon, especially when they are stickers. 🙂 I particularly like the postage stamp / snail mail theme running through all of these stickers too. Do you have a favourite? If so, I’d love to know which one it is. Please leave a comment below or Pin your favourite to Pinterest.

Posted in Japan, Kawaii Stickers, Tokyo Disney | Tagged Alice In Wonderland, Bambi, Cinderella, Disney, Disney Stickers, Japan, Kawaii, Kawaii Stickers, Osaka, Pinocchio, Sticker Flakes, Sticker Sacks, Stickers | Leave a comment

Hello Kitty Letter Sets

Posted on October 28, 2013 by Jen

Since I’ve been blogging about all this shopping in Japan, I thought I would share some more of my kawaii finds with you – five Sanrio Hello Kitty letter sets. I found all of these at various stationery and kawaii stores in Osaka and Kyoto.

My favourite Hello Kitty letter set is this sakura (cherry blossom) themed set:

I love Japanese-themed Hello Kitty letter sets so you can imagine how excited I was to find this set. Unfortunately the quality of the paper isn’t very good, but it is still super cute. It comes with 48 sheets of paper (4 designs, 12 of each), 24 envelopes (4 designs, 6 of each) and a small sheet of stickers.

I particularly like the die-cut set. So kawaii!

The other three sets are quite similar to each other, but in different colour schemes – pink, black and blue.

Which one is your favourite?

The next three sets are Hello Kitty letter sets that a friend asked me to find in Japan so I was very happy to find them. 🙂

Each set is a single design letter set with 12 identical sheets, 6 co-ordinating envelopes and a small sheet of stickers. The teddy bear design is my favourite but the other two are growing on me more and more. 🙂

The final set was also on my friend’s wish list.

This letter set was released under license by Kamio (under the name Cute Model). It features an adorable heart-shaped animal print theme. It comes with 32 sheets (4 designs, 8 of each) and 16 envelopes (4 designs, 4 of each).

These aren’t the only Sanrio letter sets I purchased in Japan, but I will save the rest for another time. I hope you’ve enjoyed this post. If you have, please pin these Hello Kitty letter sets to your Pinterest.

Posted in Hello Kitty, Kawaii Stationery, Letter Sets | Tagged Hello Kitty, Japan, Kawaii, Letter Set, Sakura, Sanrio | 3 Comments

Stationery Shopping In Osaka

Posted on October 26, 2013 by Jen

Stationery shopping in Osaka was high on my priority list for our trip to Japan but squeezing it into our itinerary was not easy. My wonderful hubby is very sweet and extremely patient with all my shopping, but he does like to go sightseeing once in awhile. 🙂 But, on our second day in Kyoto, it rained and rained…and then it rained some more, giving me the perfect opportunity to spend the day shopping in Osaka. 🙂

Before we left on our trip to Japan, I did a LOT of research on the best places to shop for cute kawaii stationery in Osaka. While researching, I came across a store called Sanseido Stationery. Unfortunately, though, I couldn’t find out anything about it– no descriptions, no pictures and no reviews. All I had was a name and location.

I really didn’t know if it was worth the time to visit, but I thought since it had the word ‘stationery’ in the name, I’d take the risk. So, we headed to Tennoji Station to have a look.

And wow! It was fantastic! I had a ball at Sanseido Stationery. I can’t tell you how much time I spent walking round and round looking at everything over and over again. There was just too much cuteness to see.

They had every kind of cute stationery you could imagine – notebooks, diaries, memo pads, pens, pencils, erasers, scissors, name cards and so much more. One of the first areas to grab my attention was the wall of stickers.

They had lots of stickers from all of my favourite kawaii brands (like Mind Wave, Kamio and San-X) as well as some brands that I hadn’t heard of before.

But what really attracted me was the huge selection of sticker sacks. I had never seen so much variety in one store. It took me forever to choose which sacks to buy.

And when I finally finished looking at those, I found some more. 🙂

Eventually I tore myself away from the stickers and moved on to looking at their selection of the letter sets.

I’m sorry I did not take more photos to share with you. I really was very distracted. I could have spent a fortune in this store, although I was trying to be a little bit restrained with my shopping here. After all, it was only the first shop of the day. 🙂 I’m not sure I succeeded though. I ended up buying fifteen sheets of stickers, five sticker sacks, two letter sets, two memo pads, two scented pens and a pair of scissors, but I will share them all with you in other blog posts.

I will definitely be heading back to Sanseido next time I am in Osaka. If you love kawaii stationery, you might like to pop in too. To get there, take the train to Tennoji Station (on the JR Osaka loop line) and head for Mio shopping centre.

Mio shopping centre is two separate buildings. They are right next to each other and are right above Tennoji Station. Sanseido Stationery is on the 9th floor of the main building. If you end up in the wrong building, you will soon realise your mistake – the second building does not have a 9th floor.

I hope you have as much fun stationery shopping in Osaka as I did. If you found this post interesting, please Pin this to your Pinterest boards Thanks. 🙂

Posted in Japan, Kawaii Stationery | Tagged Japan, Kawaii, Kawaii Stationery, Kawaii Stickers, Letter Set, Osaka, Sticker Flakes, Sticker Sacks, Stickers | 7 Comments

New Sentimental Circus Collection

Posted on October 24, 2013 by Jen

Sentimental Circus is my favourite character from San-X so today I thought I would share some of the latest range with you. I picked these items up in Japan last month, but I’m sure anywhere that sells San-X will have them in stock soon.

I love this range. The style is just gorgeous! Of course, it helps that my favourite colour is purple. 🙂

First up is a collection of memo pads – 2 regular sized memo pads and 4 mini memo pads. The large memos each have five different designs inside and twenty sheets of each while the small memos each have two different designs inside and fifty of each.

Some of the memos feature Shappo with a moustache. I’m not really into the latest trend of putting moustaches on everything, but it does look quite cute on Shappo.

The pink memos focus primarily on circus-related imagery. I particularly like the colour scheme used in this line. It adds an element of class and seems to make it even cuter. These are two of the designs from the large memo pad:

And these are two of the designs from the pink mini memo pads.

The purple memos follow an artistic theme. They feature several images of Shappo and his friends painting Sentimental Circus posters. I adore this line. It’s just so cute! These are two designs from the large memo pad:

I particularly like all the animals falling asleep from all their hard work. 🙂

And these are two of the designs from the purple mini memo pads.

The large memo pads also come with sticker sheets. Yay! More cuteness. 🙂

Of course, memo pads are not the only items San-X released as part of this Sentimental Circus collection. They also released letter sets, notebooks, pens, plush toys, towels and other stationery and household items.

They also released two new sheets of stickers with the gold accenting.

And some adorable little tins. There are eight different designs in total, but this is the one I choose. I like the artistic theme.

It’s even cute on the bottom.

Of course, I won’t be able to fit very much inside (it’s too small), but I’m sure I’ll find some use for it. 🙂

I’m looking forward to seeing the next Sentimental Circus collection from San-X. I have yet to see one I didn’t like. 🙂 If you like this Sentimental Circus collection, please Pin this to your Pinterest boards and share this with your friends. Thank you.

Posted in Kawaii Stationery, San-X | Tagged Kawaii, Memos, San-X, Sentimental Circus, Stickers | 1 Comment

Sentimental Circus Gift

Posted on October 23, 2013 by Jen

This morning a wonderful surprise package arrived on my doorstep from my friend Linda. It was wrapped in adorable Sesame Street wrapping paper and I couldn’t wait to get it open. 🙂

It did take me a little while to figure out how to open it. It was so well wrapped and covered with tape…but working out how to open it was half the fun. 🙂

Inside I found a sweet belated birthday card.

And, an adorable San-X Sentimental Circus mug. I guess it’s no secret how much I love Sentimental Circus and I particularly like the moon and stars range. I’ll be using this mug for sure. It’s a great way to add a little kawaii to my days. 🙂

Thanks so much Linda! You’ve made my day!

If you like these Sentimental Circus gift pictures, please pin them to Pinterest.

Posted in San-X | Tagged Kawaii, San-X, Sentimental Circus | 2 Comments

Kyoto Yodobashi

Posted on October 22, 2013 by Jen

Yodobashi Camera is well known for their huge computer and electronics stores all over Japan. They have branches Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and lots of other cities around Japan. Usually when you see them mentioned on a travel blog, it’s because of the gizmos and gadgets you will find inside and, on the surface, they appear to be of little interest to kawaii lovers. However, if you venture inside, you will soon find it is a kawaii paradise.

I love Yodobashi Camera and try to visit as many locations as possible. They are always open late (usually until 10pm) so it’s a nice way to finish off a day. I always spend an absolute fortune there and have a lot of fun. 🙂

On our first night in Kyoto, we visited the Kyoto branch. The plan was to grab some dinner and then shop. It didn’t quite work out that way though. We got so distracted by the shopping that we forgot to eat, so dinner ended up at McDonalds. Lol. In fact, we were enjoying ourselves so much that we seemed to forget that we had landed in Tokyo only that morning and we were supposed to be exhausted!

There are three main areas to look for inside Yodobashi. They usually have descriptions of each floor in English, so it’s easy to find the area you are looking for. The first department I head for is the toys section. Here you will find all sorts of toys, character goods, stickers, jigsaw puzzles and more.

I usually head straight for the character goods. Usually you will find a nice selection of San-X goods (especially Rilakkuma) and Sanrio goods (usually Hello Kitty and Jewel Pet).

The Kyoto Yodobashi store even has Studio Ghibli collectible figures.

Yodobashi is also a great place to pick up cute jigsaw puzzles. They usually have a good range and they are cheaper at Yodobashi than at any other toy store. They have all sorts of characters to choose from including Disney, Sanrio, San-X, Snoopy and Studio Ghibli.

I was planning to buy a new Sentimental Circus puzzle on this trip. I did find some cute ones, but in the end, I decided on this adorable Winnie the Pooh puzzle. I can’t resist anything with Eeyore. 🙂

You can also find Re-Ment and other blind box toys at Yodobashi. Sometimes they even have some of the old lines on special.

The second area I look for at Yodobashi is the Gachapon toy machines area. There are usually a few machines outside the store, but there is often a huge selection somewhere near the toy department too.

You never know what you will find amongst the Gachapon machines. I usually look for the Disney, Sanrio and San-X machines, but there are plenty of other cute, kawaii toys to choose from too.

Since it was only our first night in Japan and I knew I was going to be seeing a lot more of these machines, I only played two of them. Both of them were San-X phone accessories. The first is a Sentimental Circus phone charm and the second is a Nyanpuku mini stylus for use with a touch-screen phone.

The third and final department I look for at Yodobashi is the stationery department. This area is much bigger in some stores than in others. The Kyoto branch had one of the best stationery areas I have seen so I spent quite a lot of time there.

When I visited, they had a lot of the latest San-X stationery, especially the Rilakkuma marching band range.

They also had a particularly large selection of kawaii stickers.

I spent AGES looking through all these stickers trying to decide which ones to buy. I will save my choices for another blog post, but here’s a peak at a small range of stickers that were tempting me.

One of the unusual things about the Kyoto branch of Yodobashi is that the Yodobashi store itself does not take up the whole building. It does take up several floors but you will find other stores in the building as well. And if you love kawaii, you will love the basement. There you will find a craft store (where I picked up a cute stamp), a 100Y store (where I found some cute Hello Kitty letter sets) and a candy store (where I found delicious and adorable Hello Kitty and Rilakkuma snacks).

And when you are finally shopped out, you can stop by Baskin Robbins. If you’re really lucky, they’ll still be serving their yummy watermelon ice-cream with chocolate chips to represent the watermelon seeds.

Yodobashi is a great place to shop, no matter what city you are in. I highly recommend checking them out if you are in Japan.

If you enjoyed reading about Yodobashi, please Pin this page to Pinterest. I’d greatly appreciate it. Thanks so much!

Posted in Japan, Kawaii Stationery, Kawaii Stickers | Tagged Disney, Hello Kitty, Japan, Kawaii, Kyoto, Rilakkuma, San-X, Sanrio, Stickers | 1 Comment

Hello Kitty Meets The Simpsons

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Jen

Have you heard the news? Next year Hello Kitty will collaborate with The Simpsons for the first time and release a brand new line of products to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Hello Kitty and the 25th anniversary of The Simpsons.

I’m not sure what to make of this announcement. Of course, I love Hello Kitty and I do like The Simpsons (I was a big fan when I was a teenager), but I’m not sure what they will be like together. Still, the picture does look cute so maybe we are in for a real treat. Pity we have to wait so long to find out though. The new line will not be available until late next year.

According to USA Today, the new line of products “will target collectors with limited-edition collectibles, while offering something for all fans.” It also suggests that Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie will be cutified (is that a word?) to match the kawaii world of Hello Kitty.

I’m looking forward to seeing what they come up with. I’ll let you know if I come across any more updates. In the meantime, what do you think of mixing Sanrio’s favourite kitty and the comic world of The Simpsons?

Posted in Hello Kitty | Tagged Hello Kitty, Sanrio, The Simpsons | Leave a comment

My Kawaii Life