I was lucky enough to be sent a review copy of Kawaii, a new book about the history and culture of kawaii. It’s really good and I’ll be reviewing it for Super Cute Kawaii later this month (we’ll have copies to give away too!). I was especially pleased to discover a feature on Chikuwaemil. I have a few of her paintings saved but never knew who made them. Her use of colour and mixed media is really inspiring. Also, bunnies. She has some cute stuff, like the stickers above, available at Shibuya Girls Pop, and I shall be stalking her blog in the hope of seeing some of her actual paintings one day.
Here’s some more links I’ve been saving:
Die Kirschblütenfee took a ferry to Nokogiriyama, climbed the mountain and had such an amazing and exhausting time that I feel tired out just reading it. It’s really well worth checking out the whole blog using the Google Translate function – Leonie has been doing so many interesting things.
RocketNews24 tried the entire Hello Kitty range at Mister Donut. I’m so sad to miss these – they all look really good.
RocketNews24 also reports that an amusement park near Nagoya is currently hosting an exhibition of Ghibli dioramas until next year. They look amazing – you should definitely go if you’re in that area.
Muza-chan managed to spot the special 50th anniversary Green Train on the Yamanote Line. So much nicer than the usual green/silver design.
If you like the more traditional side of Japan, check out Kyoto Journal. It’s a print gone online magazine with a focus on culture, nature, poetry etc. I only read the occasional article but their review of a new cooking memoir, Zenbu Zen: Finding Food, Culture & Balance in Kyoto makes me really want to read it. It’s available on Amazon here.
I use GoodReads a lot and it recently occurred to me that I now have quite a helpful resource on books about Japan since I will basically read anything about or set in Japan. If you’ve been looking for some Japan-related reading, you can check out my recommendations, and also see which books should be avoided! Do add me as a friend too while you’re at it.
(Also, if you’ve read my Kawaii Japan book, I would really appreciate any reviews there)
