-Shop cute Japanese products and cool products from Japan. This cute blog is about Japanese kawaii, kawaii Japan, kawaii fashion, Japanese pop culture and more. It's a kawaii blog from Japan, Japan blog in English by a Japanese girl.

Tokyu Hands holds annual sales event on Wed. 25 Aug. and that lasts for a week. Same as last year, I’m planning to go to the sales, probably the Shibuya or Shinjuku one, at the early days of the event and during the morning. Last year I got a small bag, coffee maker and some kitchen tools, towels, and some cosmetics I guess.

I could shop from Tokyu Hands online store, but I usually like to check out the products as themselves to see how the weight, texture, color, smell, and etc. are. The good (or bad) thing about shopping physically is I can find things I wouldn’t buy from online shops. Sometimes I can try the sample and it can be a lot better than I imagined. Sometimes people gather at a certain product which I would never mind but while I see the demonstration I finally find out why the product is so popular. I think I like shopping, especially shopping at offline shops, even if it’s only window-shopping.

Tokyu Hands online store does not ship internationally, just as most of any other Japanese online shops. If you want me to shop something from Tokyu Hands and ship to you, take a look at Tokyu Hands online store and give me the link of the item you want. I will upload the product onto my FlutterScape account and you can smoothly purchase the item from there.

If your order is complicated, such as this and that item from Tokyu Hands and this and that from somewhere else, for example, you can also hire me as your private buyer but actually there are several options you can purchase from Japanese online stores today.

I may be able to check out some of the great devices or useful kitchen tools that I shared in this blog some time ago.

Anyhow contact me if you want me to help you purchase any products from Tokyu Hands.

One of the great things to live in Japan is that we have 4 seasons every year. Having lived in Japan for over 30 years it’s nothing new to me by now to have Hanabi season but I suppose things look so different once I fall in love with someone and go out for a date to see Hanabi together. lol Seasonal evens are somehow so much fun especially when new romance starts. What? My hubby? No, it’s too stable as we’ve been together for over 10 years. He’s like a best friend, good buddy, and even the best business partner to me by now. (It’s so far from new romance, right?) lol

No matter how you are in love with someone or not, I believe Hanabi Taikai (fireworks show) is one of the most exciting/romantic/fun events during this period in Japan. Then how do we know when these events take place?

Search Hanabi Taikai near your place if you visit Japan during summer!
-Walker plus
-Rurubu
-Jalan

Speaking of Hanabi, it’s something for summer in Japan. You may feel more familar with new year’s fireworks in your country but in Japan, Hanabi definitely evokes a summery image. Hanabi, Yukata, ping sound from a Fuurin (=wind-bell), burning smell from Katorisenkou (=pyrethrum coil), ceaseless buzz of cicadas…these are typical things that evoke an image of Japanese summer. But these days as it’s getting too hot and our city life keeps us away from these sentimental items. We live in concrete with air-con running almost 24 hours a day.

Anyhow, followings are some Hanabi-themed J-pop that the Japanese like to sing or listen to.

“Hanabi” by Mr. Children

“Kingyo Hanabi” by Ai Otsuka

“Hanabi” by Ayumi Hamasaki

“Hanabi” by Ikimono Gakari

I’d like to share the following videos that feature some well-received gadgets and devices nowadays in Japan.
The name of the products seem to be unfamiliar to most of you, because they are in Japanese, but don’t worry, you’ll see what they are!

Top10-5

No.10 Can Arc 3360yen…one-push can opener

No.9 Chin Shite Chips 1575yen…microwave chips maker
I guess I’ve seen it at Village Vanguard. It’s oil-free and healthy. Compared with normal fried ones, it can reduce 80% of calorie! Vege chips are even healthier. It’s got a sister product for 3150yen, with a cover added to have chips mixed with flavored powder, for example. This is cool, I think. We can always have home-made snack next to beer.

No.8 Cup Men 840yen…cupnoodle press
It even changes color due to the heat. (*”men” means noodle in Japanese. ) I basically don’t eat cupnoodle, and a fork maybe OK for a press, but I like this kind of humor and such a thing can be more suitable as a small gift for a friend or something, rather than buying to oneself.

No.7 Pitatto Speaker 2980yen…anything can be speaker, anywhere!

No.6 Hot Eye Mask 500yen…disposable steam eye mask (10 minutes)
Many people say they like it, but somehow I didn’t like it so much when I tried it some time last year.

No.5 Choi Muki 4980yen…a big peeler
To me, NO. This needs too much space and I’m not bothered to peel skin of fruits with a fruit knif or even a handy peeler.

Top4-1

No.4 Norimaki Makki~ 2940yen…Makizushi (sushi) making toy
It looks like as if one inserted a paper to type on…no, it’s not a type writer! lol It’s an easy sushi maker!

No.3 Hipparinger 3980yen…amazing laundy pinches

No.2 Wine Wizard Wine Opener 4830…easy wine opener
I like this if only it were cheaper. lol I’d keep asking my hubby to pull out a cork from a wine bottle…hahaha.

No.1 Aritayaki Fushigina Osara 3675yen…magical dish
It enables foods cooked by microwave oven to taste as if they were grilled! The curry mayo rice looks so easy but looks good~. :p
I want this because I hate to wash the fish grill after we eat fish! That’s even one of the reasons I don’t like grilled fish! Yeah, I’m not sure if I don’t like it because of its taste or because of that work!

Unlike last popular kitchen tools, this time most of the products are named in Japanese as the way Japanese would love. (You understand what I mean if you are studying Japanese. ^ ^)

Have you checked out FlutterScape before?
I’ve read about it here and there and I finally joined them as a seller the other day!!
I’d quote a post from Tofugu that explains things better than I will do so from scratch. :p

So basically it’s a marketplace where sellers who live in Japan and buyers overseas meet. I wanted to have a chance to sell kawaii stuff from Japan but eBay was not my thing. I opened my account but somehow I didn’t feel like joining them. It’s just too huge and too complicated for a person like me who is not familiar with online auctions. Then what about FlutterScape? To me, it seemed to be less complicated, family atmosphere that sellers and buyers exchange comments so casually each other just like on blogs, and more over it was run by a Japanese guy and their office is in Shibuya where I can easily visit if I needed to do something off-line.

I also once thought of making an opportunity for you to be able to purchase Decotti from me when I made my first Decotti making video but my problem was how buyers can feel comfortable about paying everything in advance when they don’t know me very well. It’s good to have a corporate agent inbetween the sellers and buyers who don’t know each other.

That’s the background I decided to join them as a seller at FlutterScape.
As always, I can be easily confused with new online systems and services, at FlutterScape, even though it’s rather simple, my confusion occurred almost exclusively. I had to keep asking questions to the staff, and meanwhile I made a first sale the other day! I was allowed to drop off the parcel at their office in Shibuya. I needed to go to Shibuya anyhow to buy some cosmetics that day, it was nice I could do both at a time. Moreover, Mr. Kakiyama, the CEO of FlutterScape was so nice he invited me to join his dinner with his colleagues and his loyal customer from the UK who’s visiting Tokyo on vacation. It was fun to see them in person off-line!

I’ll keep uploading cool stuff and kawaii stuff from Japan on my account at FlutterScape, but you can also request specific items from Japan. All the other sellers have very interesting and cool stuff that you can enjoy shopping or even only browsing. BTW, if you want to deal with me directly because you trust me and you like me so much (lol) just contact me. I am available for you at several ways from here, Tokyo.

It was around 10 years ago that deco boom started. As represened by decoden, decorating on the cell phone is still popular now. In 2009, “Uni deco” or decorating Uniqlo clothing became popular, which has been familiar if you read my blog. It was introduced in Tokyo Kawaii TV, as “Uni-kakushi” and I actually saw the booth by deco-clo at Japan Hobby Show 2010 the other day. I’m planning to make a deco T-shirt, and will be sharing my experience in this blog later.

The video focuses on the Japan Hobby Show that I also visited this year and introduces some interesting devices and goods that are invented at following companies.