A place for all things kawaii and cute

Kawaii Letter Sets Swap

Posted on August 17, 2013 by Jen

Yesterday was another wonderful mail day for me as I received an envelope full of cute kawaii letter sets from my friend, Carla. They are a sweet mix of letter sets from both Sanrio and San-X…and I love them all! Thank you so much Carla!

Once again, it was too hard to fit them all into one photo. The San-X sets include characters like Toromi (the French bulldog), Nyankpuku (the lucky cat), Rilakkuma and one of my favourites, Mamegoma:

There were also several adorable Sanrio letter sets featuring characters like Hello Kitty, Little Twin Stars, My Melody and Charmmy Kitty. I have to admit that I haven’t been a fan of Charmmy Kitty for long. I usually prefer the earlier characters from the 90s (like those that came out when I was at school). However, she’s just too cute and she’s quickly becoming one of my favourites.

One of my favourite Sanrio letter sets from Carla is this sweet My Melody letter set. I just love the soft pastel colours.

Carla also included some regional Hello Kitty memo sheets. She knows how much I love regional Hello Kitty goods that are only sold in Japan 🙂 These memos look like the come from Kinkaku-ji (the Golden Pavilion) in Kyoto. I visited Kinkaku-ji many years ago in the pouring rain. We are hoping that on our upcoming trip to Japan we will have some nice weather so that we can see the Golden Pavilion in the sunlight. Fingers crossed!

Thanks for a wonderful swap Carla! Mail from you always makes my day!

Sanrio Letter Sets Swap

Posted on August 15, 2013 by Jen

Today was a fun letter day for me. I received a wonderful swap in the mail from my friend Julia. It was an envelope full of super cute kawaii letter sets, mostly Sanrio. It certainly made me smile. 🙂 Thanks so much Julia!

There are lots of different Sanrio characters in with the mix – Hello Kitty, My Melody, Pochacco, KeroKeroKeroppi, Winki Pinki, Kuromi, Usahana and so many more. It was impossible to fit them all in a single photo (I couldn’t even fit the envelopes in the picture) so I thought I would share a couple of my favourite sets with you.

The first is a Hello Kitty set. It is very Japanese in style (which I love), plus it is a die-cut set. I always love unusually shaped letter sets.

The second is a Keroppi letter set. Again, it is a die-cut set. I particularly like the pond leaf shaped sheet.

The third set features Winki Pinki, one of Sanrio’s older cat characters. Sadly, they don’t seem to have made many things featuring this super cute cat, so I am very happy to be able to add this letter set to my collection. It is quite unusual too, as the writing paper is actually made of plastic.

Finally, we come to this adorable mini letter set featuring Sugar Cream Puff. This is another rare Sanrio character that was released in the 90s. I used to love this bear but it has always been difficult to find things featuring this bear, even when it was new. This set is extra special as it was included as a gift from Julia. 🙂

Thanks again for swapping with me Julia…I hope you like the letter sets (especially the Sanrio letter sets) I sent you too. 🙂

Posted in Hello Kitty, Letter Sets | Tagged Hello Kitty, Keroppi, Letter Set, Sanrio, Sugar Cream Puff, Swaps, Winki Pinki | Leave a comment

Kogepan Letter Sets

Posted on August 13, 2013 by Jen

I’ve just been sorting through some of my vintage San-X Kogepan letter sets so I thought I would share some of them with you. They were released between 2000 and 2005.

Kogepan means burnt bread. He is a character based on the Japanese bread product called anpan. Anpan is a sweet bread roll with a filling, usually red bean paste. Kogepan’s head looks like a bread roll that’s been a little overcooked. That’s probably why he never seems to smile.

Kogepan is not the only bready character. He also has lots of bread-related friends. You can see a lot of them on this letter set:

His friends include:

Francepan – the one with the really wide head resembling a French loaf.

Kogeshokupan – the one with the box head at the back. His name means burnt sandwich bread.

Yakisobapan – the one at the back that resembles a taco. He is fried noodles bread.

My favourite Kogepan characters are the ones that are smiling. They tend to be the light coloured characters. I guess they are happy because they aren’t burnt…lol.

My favourites include Nikuman, Curryman and Anman. They are the cute little buns that always come in a bag:

I also love Melonpan, mostly because I love melon bread, but also because I think he looks like a cute little turtle. 🙂

He’s the little green one sitting next to Kogepan in the top left corner.

Of course, these are only some of Kogepan’s friends. The designers at San-X have certainly created a cute family of characters. Do you have a favourite?

Posted in Letter Sets, San-X | Tagged Kawaii, Kogepan, Letter Set, San-X | Leave a comment

Japanese Sanrio Letter Sets

Posted on August 12, 2013 by Jen

Oh my! Sanrio is just about to release the cutest ‘Made In Japan’ letter sets in Japan! I so hope they are still available when we visit Japan next month. They are just to die for!

There are eight designs in total – Hello Kitty Strawberry, Hello Kitty Mt Fuji, Hello Kitty Pink Bows, My Melody Hearts, My Melody Circles, Little Twin Stars Sakura, Pom Pom Purin Mt Fuji and Kero Kero Keroppi Pond.

I hope I can find them all, but I definitely have favourites. I always love Japanese themed Sanrio letter sets, so as you can imagine, I loooooove the new Hello Kitty Mt Fuji design:

And, of course, you can’t go wrong with sakura and Little Twin Stars! How sweet is this:

And finally, Keroppi. Keroppi was one of my favourite characters back in the early 90s when I was still at school, so I will always have a soft spot for him. It’s a shame they don’t make many Keroppi things anymore. But that’s all the more reason for me to find this super cute letter set! 🙂

You can find more details about these adorable new Sanrio letter sets and pictures of the other five designs at Sanrio.co.jp

Which one is your favourite?

Posted in Hello Kitty, Letter Sets | Tagged Hello Kitty, Japan, Kawaii, Keroppi, Letter Set, Little Twin Stars, My Melody, Sanrio | Leave a comment

Japanese Salmon Pasta Recipe

Posted on August 8, 2013 by Jen

Last night I decided to try my hand at cooking, Japanese style. It wasn’t a traditional Japanese dish, but more a Japanese take on Italian pasta. I love pasta but I don’t eat it very often. I can’t eat tomato (it makes me sick) so sadly, most pasta dishes are out of bounds for me. When I do eat pasta, it’s usually carbonara, boscaiola or alfredo. Although I really enjoy them, I try not to eat them too often as the sauces are usually rather thick and creamy.

When they cook pasta in Japan, however, the sauces tend to be a lot lighter and very tasty…so I thought I would try to create something similar. And this was the result:

It was a big hit. Hubby loved it and I liked it so much, I ate it way too fast. 🙂

It was quite easy to make too. I based it on a recipe I found on Japan Food Addict, but I changed it quite a bit.

The first thing I did was to cook all my vegetables. I used carrot, corn, pak choy (I was going to use spinach, but my local store had run out) and snow peas.

Then, I cooked some spaghetti.

When the vegetables and pasta were ready, I heated up a big pan. I put a bit of olive oil and margarine in the pan to stop everything sticking. I then heated up some salmon and added the vegetables.

Next came the sauce. I added about 3/4 cup of light cream, ½ cup of hot water and a cube of chicken stock. I then let everything simmer, stirring occasionally. I also added parsley for extra flavouring.

When everything was almost ready, I added the pasta and stirred it thoroughly so the sauce was nicely spread. The sauce mostly evaporates, but the flavour certainly sticks…and it tastes great!

If you like pasta, I highly recommend giving this recipe a try. I will certainly be cooking it again.

Posted in Japanese Recipes | Tagged Japanese Cooking, Japanese Recipe, Pasta Recipe, Recip, Recipe, Salmon Recipe | 1 Comment

My First Trip To Japan

Posted on August 5, 2013 by Jen

Since booking our trip to Japan, I have been reminiscing over past trips. I first visited Japan in 1996. It was a three day stopover in Tokyo on the way home from Paris. I was a poor uni student at the time and travelling with my Mum.

It was a very short stay, but we still had time to visit Ginza, Asakusa and, of course, Disneyland. I even got to meet up with a penpal. It was a wonderful stay and certainly enough to get me totally addicted to visiting Japan. 🙂

Sadly, I did not have much spending money on my first trip so I came home with very few souvenirs. One of my favourite finds though was this little Pluto ornament from Tokyo Disneyland:

I also started my collection of Disney tins on this trip with my first Tokyo Disneyland tin. It’s small, but cute:

Since then, Disney tins have become one of my favourite souvenirs from Japan and my collection has grown to well over 50 of them. They are always so cute and come with various sweets and snacks. The only problem is finding somewhere to display them all. Perhaps I will share more of them with you here in future blog posts.

Since that first trip, I have found lots of fun places to shop. Ginza has some great shops for kawaii and stationery fans. I’ve included my favourite shops in my Kawaii Shopping in Tokyo guide. Asakusa is also great for shopping, although more for Japanese souvenirs and food.

We are still finalising our itinerary for our upcoming trip. It’s hard to fit everything in! Sadly, we won’t be able to visit Asakusa this time around, but we will be heading back to Ginza and Tokyo Disneyland…so I’m sure I’ll be writing about them both again soon. 🙂

Posted in Japan, Tokyo Disney | Tagged Asakusa, Disney, Disney Tin, Ginza, Japan, Mickey Mouse, Pluto, Tokyo Disneyland | Leave a comment

We’re Going To Japan

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Jen

I’m so excited! We have just booked flights to Japan! It all happened so quickly. A flight special came out late last week and next thing I know, we are going to Japan for 2 ½ weeks in September. I can’t wait!

And to make things even better, my flickr friend, Ellen, will be in Japan at the same time so we’ll be able to meet up and do some serious kawaii shopping together!

I imagine I will spend most of the next two months planning our trip. I have been to Japan many times already, but there are always new things to see and places to go. It’s just so hard to decide.

At the moment, we think we might spend some of the time in Kyoto. We have been there before on several occasions but never actually stayed there. We thought this might be a good opportunity to see some of the things we missed. It’s also a good base for day trips to Okayama, Osaka and Kanazawa. But I have lots more planning and reading to do before we decide for sure.

Stay tuned for more updates! 🙂

Posted in Japan | Tagged Japan | Leave a comment

Hello Kitty Regional Letter Sets

Posted on July 7, 2013 by Jen

One thing I love to collect is regional Hello Kitty letter sets – these are letter sets that are available only in specific areas of Japan. I have sets from lots of different regions including Hiroshima, Okayama, Okinawa, Kanazawa, Kobe, Kiyosato and lots more. And I’m always looking for new ones.

I love seeing Hello Kitty in different settings and costumes. One of my favourite sets was released in Yokohama Chinatown in 2001:

The area is famous for it’s Chinese food. I haven’t actually been there myself (yet) but I’m hoping to visit next time I am in Japan.

Look out for more picture of my regional Hello Kitty letter set collection coming soon.

Posted in Hello Kitty | Tagged Hello Kitty, Japan, Kawaii, Letter Set, Sanrio, Yokohama | Leave a comment

My Kawaii Life