Cool, Kawaii and sometimes Weird things to buy in Japan

There's so many cool and cute (kawaii) things I saw in Japan, I have to end my blog series on Japan with my top picks, including my favorite stores where you are guaranteed to find something of the cool, kawaii or weird nature.

We went in mid-October, so I want to start with the most provocative selection of Halloween costumes I've ever seen. Hahaha.

This was the costume selection at Don Quixote in Dotonbori.

That yellow thing is Don Quixote.

My hands down favorite store is Tokyu Hands. Pardon the pun, it was intentional. Hahaha.

Tokyu Hands in Shinsaibashi across the street from Uniqlo.

It's called 'A creative life store' which you can translate to mean this wonderful black hole of things you didn't know you wanted, but can definitely find a need for.

The store has 8 floors . We started with Stationary and worked our way down.

Mother-load of  Frixion pens. The erasable pens and markers by pilot.
The assortment in Tokyu Hands is best (Loft is ok too)

They have loads of washi tape (decorated masking tape)
but the merchandising in the Umeda branch is much better.

The same is true for their deco rush assortment.
I didn't even notice it in Shinsaibashi.

But we bought some after trying it in Umeda.
It's the cutest decorated correction tape,
which uses the same concept, but is just purely ornamental.

Tokyu Hands is where I first saw what Re-Ments are. I blogged about them here.

Re-ment display cases. It makes you want to own them all.

There Re-Ment assortment is actually quite slim.

These are the Re-Ment sets that I bought that started my addiction.

The fifth floor with the Party, Variety and Anniversary Cycle stuff also has a lot of cool things. If money were no object, these are the things I'd hoard buy.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie pouches

Bacon Wallet

Takoyaki Golf Balls

Hotdog Sandwich pen pouch and Potato Chips pouch.

There were so many toys I wanted to buy for Sofia.

Giant Rilakkuma. Her pick not mine. 

Some game with the cats in a bowl.

Onigiri, Cheese, Cookies 3D puzzles.

Lego-looking crayons

I wanted to buy this game. It's a shabu shabu or hot pot bowl,
and I think you try to use your chopsticks to some.
It was JPY5,000 (Php2,500) so I walked away.

They has all sorts of cute stacking games.

This looks like some kind of coffee chess.

Ady bought more nano blocks and regretted it.
(tip: because they're cheaper in Bic Camera)

They had a whole range of gorilla pods.

I was also so tempted to buy this.
The lady gaga toothbrush sings Rad Romance and Born This Way.
The song plays for 2 minutes, the recommended brushing time.

They had so much cute bento stuff.

I saw these cookie stampers in New-Style/Village Vanguard,
and I kept on thinking about it so I finally gave in and bought it.

One of our other favorite stores is New-Style and Village Vanguard in Namba Parks Mall. The two stores are beside each other and some of their merchandise is the same, which leads us to believe it's owned by the same company. 

Sofia likes it when I browse in New-Style because
she plays with the open toys.

I was really sold on buying the foodkeeper Russian Dolls,
till I realized that it just had a cover, but they weren't sealed. 

We were very intrigued by the nail art sets,
but they were also quite pricey.

Hello Koala snack, then you can go straight to sleep.

Color your own soft toys.

Sofia bought a digital toy camera with fish eye lens.
You can read about that here.

Even in Japan, they sell fake ipis.

Eeeeeew! 

These dicapitated bears are weird.
I just don't get it.

They also have the coolest thumb drives.

One of my shopping tricks in Japan, when I see something I like but I find too pricey, is I make a mental note of it, and check to see if Daiso has a more affordable version. It has proved successful for some things, so when I go back for the things that really keep me up at night, I still get everything at a lower average price.

Daiso has so much cool stuff, like Shrinky Dink generic kits. I had a phase in Singapore when I was searching all around for these things  because I wanted to introduce Sofia to shrinky dinks crafts but we just ended up making our own. You can read about that here. These are the kits that I didn't manage to find in Singapore.

A4 size shrink plastic

A smaller size that comes with the key rings.

More of the same in B4 size.

I didn't buy any because I still had some takeaway containers which I used for our Homemade Project.

Here are other things you can buy:

Travel size MSG, you can hang in on your mobile,
for extra umami taste anytime, anywhere. Hahaha.
Don't forget, it comes with a free MSG induced migraine the next day!

I'm always tempted to buy e-mooks, because I'm really a sucker for freebies.
Since I don't read Japanese, I resisted because
I didn't find a freebie I wanted to pay the e-mook price for.

And of course, don't forget to to buy  Japanese Weird Flavored Kit-o Kat-o.

The Kansai Airport collection.

The best I've tried is Soy Sauce Flavored. Hahaha. just saying.