Jonelle Patrick's Only In Japan
Every day, stuff you'd never see anywhere else.
DENIAL ANGER BARGAINING DEPRESSION ACCEPTANCE • How you doing, friend? (I won’t ask about your hair if you don’t ask about mine ><;;) I hope you’re hanging in there, and … Continue Reading Japanese Capsule Toys Explain the Five Stages of Quarantine Hair Grief
• I hope your own quarantining is filled with small joys every day. If you’d like more fun bits & pieces, join me here! Scroll down & subscribeヽ(*＾ω＾*)ﾉ • And … Continue Reading Gachapon animals ask their mirrors the most burning quarantine questions
If I had to nominate one artist for Most Sanity-Saving In The Time of Coronavirus, it would absolutely be @meetissai, whose miniature sculptures inspired by pet tweets never fail to … Continue Reading Artist Turns The Best Pet Tweets Into Hilarious Tiny Sculptures
I thought I’d seen it all when it comes to Japanese curry rice molds, but these two cuties redefine ADORABLE. The only problem is that it comes in both cat … Continue Reading Cutest Curry Rice Molds On The Planet
By now you probably thought you’d seen it all when it comes to Japanese facial sheet masks – from the squicky & scary to skin treatments that turn you into … Continue Reading Intellectual Animal Beauty Masks
There I was, drinking in the serene green at the Kiyosumi Garden… …when I nearly stepped on this. It’s (weirdly) classified as “invasive” (because China) and “threatened.” Which shouldn’t surprised … Continue Reading I Saw Another New Wild Animal In Tokyo!
Riusuke Fukahori paints 3-D goldfish so real you can’t believe they’re not wriggling. And I know you’ll find this hard to believe, but the exhibit of his work going on RIGHT … Continue Reading 3-D Goldfish Art: Wait, Those Are PAINTINGS?
Art Aquarium, I’m going to miss you! <sob!> Yes, this is the last year they’re going to produce this eye-popping cross between goldfish and SFX, and they’re making up for … Continue Reading The Last Art Aquarium
I was in the Matsuya Ginza food hall stocking up on peanut snacks, when I saw this. I tried to walk past it. I tried. To be honest, I was … Continue Reading Is This Mameshiba Cake Too Cute To Eat?
How did you guess that the moment I caught a glimpse of this vending machine filled with cat shaming gachagacha, all my laundry coins would be history? There was only … Continue Reading The Cat Shaming Vending Machine
I hope you’re in Japan right now, because dinosaurs are invading the Marui Annex in Shinjuku! These delightfully believable photos of the archaic denizens mingling with the good people of Earth … Continue Reading Dinosaurs Delightfully Invade The Real World
Gifting in Japan requires that the wrapping be nearly as precious as what’s inside, but I can never remember how to tie a traditional silk furoshiki without the book that … Continue Reading Japanese Gift Boxes of Overwhelming Cuteness
Sticking to the straight and narrow has never been cuter, thanks to these adorable kittycat gacha-gacha toys, and the vending machine that dispenses them on the Yanaka Ginza shopping street. … Continue Reading Move Over, Monkeys! See-no Evil, Hear-no-Evil, Speak-no-Evil Cats Are Here
The only thing in all of Japan that might be cuter than huskies in kimonos is a parade of shiba inus in kimono. Shibas are well-known for making like the Petrified … Continue Reading Dogs In Kimonos: Shiba Edition!
These days, everyone wants “experiences,” not “stuff,” so how about digging into your Santa sack for presents that deliver #youllneverguesswhatwedids that could only come from (where else?)…Japan! This year, give … Continue Reading Top Ten Crazy Holiday Gifts From Japan 2018
Sporting all the premium quality you’d expect from a ¥400 vending machine, this Santa Claws capelet just might be the perfect gift for someone who dreams of #catsofinstagram glory (and … Continue Reading Department Of Seasonal Pet Humiliation: This Year’s Santa Cat Costume
I know that you’ll be super envious to hear that my kitchen chairs are now prancing around on little cat feet! Gone are the days when the awful screeching sound … Continue Reading Cat Feet Chair Socks!
Aww, a pillow that looks like a cat, just sitting there all furry and begging to be petted. What the…! Yes, the entire purpose of this robot pillow is to … Continue Reading The Wagging Cat Tail Pillow
Finally! A series of shiba inu gachagacha toys made by an artist who understands that these devilish dogs are not just unbearably adorable, they come packed with a level … Continue Reading The Shiba Inu Vending Machine
Move over Angry Ghost Cats and Drunken Pets! The Fox Wedding vending machine takes tiny collectible toy obsession to a whole new level. Take my coin purse, foxen! Take all … Continue Reading The Fox Wedding Vending Machine
So, I was walking through the stately Ikegami Hongan-ji temple grounds this spring, and I saw this sign. I guess with the shrinking population and all, the number of regular … Continue Reading Funeral For A…What?
Who can say they never clutched the fence at their local zoo’s lemur exhibit and didn’t long to sneak over the top just for a few minutes (or, okay, in … Continue Reading Mobbed By Lemurs At The Exotic Animal Petting Zoo!
Okay, usually biting a dog butt would not be top of my to-do list, but I’d totally make an exception for these so-cute-it-hurts shiba dango! Compared to other takes on … Continue Reading Shiba Dango!
Don’t you just hate it when your kittehs get a touch of the walkabout? Well now you can do something about it. A quick prayer at the Tachikawa Suitengu Shrine … Continue Reading The Lost Cat Shrine
Okay, I’m going to come right out and admit I don’t actually have a dog. You would, however, be forgiven for assuming that I was knee-deep in shiba inus, on account of I own a … Continue Reading Confessions Of A Shiba Stalker
Because what nuptial event could possibly be complete without… • Read a novel set in Tokyo
I’ve seen fruit for your patootie and warriors for your derriere, but this is the first time I’ve encountered top-of-the-food-chain predators for your butt. Am trying hard not to imagine the Japanese bathroom … Continue Reading A Leopard For Your Butt
Walking down the street in Ome, I discovered something that totally flipped my three-hour trip to see a garden filled with no blooming azaleas into the win column: the tail-wagging cat clock! BEHOLD … Continue Reading The Hypnotic Tail-Wagging Cat Clock
• Read a novel set in Tokyo…
Kawanabe Kyosai. He’d have had the best instagram ever. Of course, these are just a small appetizer – the show is HUGE, and so full of great stuff, it took me … Continue Reading Why I’d Totally Follow This Guy’s Instagram If He Hadn’t Died In 1889
I don’t usually crave a quarter pounder of rice and seaweed in the middle of my day, but if I knew one of these was in my brown bag, I’d be counting … Continue Reading Shiba Inu Rice Balls
Am I right or am I right? • Read a novel set in Tokyo…
-1- Make a wish that you could draw as well as the other visitors at the anime & manga shrine Where: Kanda Myoujin Shrine (Kanda) • -2- Get your warts disappeared by the … Continue Reading 25 Obscure & Amazing Things To Do In Tokyo
So, today I came home and found THIS. I don’t know what kind of shenanigans YOUR gacha-gacha toys get up to when they’re alone in the house, but… This series may be … Continue Reading The Drunken Pet Vending Machine
High on top of a snowy mountain in Chichibu – so far from any train station that you’ll be eligible for a senior citizen discount by the time you get … Continue Reading The Werewolf Shrine
Here’s what it’s like to visit Fox Village in the snow, when the foxes are at their fattest & fluffiest! I have to confess, when it comes to which animals would get … Continue Reading Fox Village Videos!
I have to admit, I was powerless to resist going to a thing where hundreds of people dressed more or less as cats pranced down the street, some of them raucously performing musical … Continue Reading At The Crazy Cat Parade
So, I went to one of Japan’s famed cat islands…and didn’t see any cats. Well, okay, I saw a few, but nothing like the Bunny Island mobbing I was hoping for. Notes … Continue Reading The Cat Island With No Cats
Turn down the volume on your squee-meter, unless you want to lose a little more of your hearing! Check out the little prickle monsters you can snuggle up with at Tokyo’s new Hedgehog … Continue Reading A Prickly Day At The Hedgehog Cafe
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know that my sympathy runs deep for the poor toy designers who have to churn out new adorable stuffies when all the … Continue Reading Uncuddly Stuffies
Not easy, is it? The lovely specimen in the wooden saké box is a painting of a goldfish. Actually, it’s about a gazillion paintings of a goldfish. Artist Riusuke … Continue Reading Which One Is The REAL Goldfish?
Overcome with a burning need for yet more weird plastic toys (hey, don’t pretend this doesn’t happen to you!) I was poking around in my favorite Akihabara gachagacha emporium when I discovered … Continue Reading The Catzilla Vending Machine
If there was a vote on which animal is least likely to be described as “fluffy, “winsome” and “cuddly,” I think tapirs would pretty much win the internet. So why are tapirs suddenly everywhere? Honestly, I’ve … Continue Reading The Gods Of Kawaii Anoint The Most Inexplicable Animal Yet
In Japan, neko and temples go together like fish guts and beer, and every graveyard attracts a cadre of cats to guard the departed. At first I tried not to think about what … Continue Reading Temple Cats, With Attitude
I was wandering through Akihabara doing important book research SHUT UP, when I discovered the key to collecting all those damnably elusive kittehs in Neko Atsume: put out lots & lots & LOTS of … Continue Reading Gotta Catch Them ALL
I thought I’d died and gone to heaven when I finally made it to Zao Fox Village last spring, but it’s a good thing I didn’t actually shuffle off this mortal coil due to fox-induced … Continue Reading Fox Village: Even Better With Snow On Top!
Because what do snow and tropical fish have in common? They both make killer themes for a bar! Yes, this aquarium has a bar (because Japan). Usually it’s called the Coral Bar, but until mid-April, the same artists … Continue Reading Snow Aquarium
I thought I’d reached the highest level of gacha-gacha nirvana when I discovered the Angry Cat Ghost vending machine last year, but yesterday walking through what I’d previously thought of as the ninth-circle-of-hell Shinagawa station, … Continue Reading The Angry Fox Ghost Vending Machine
Middle school boys in foxface and golden skirt-pants carrying gigantic fox heads through the streets of Tokyo? Can you think of a better way to ring in the new year? Every … Continue Reading Midnight Fox Parade
I was cutting through my favorite crazy pet store in Odaiba, when I spotted what I thought was a deli counter where pet owners who had become famished while stocking up on camouflage dog strollers … Continue Reading The Deli For Dogs
