Sumikko Gurashi: Whipple

In which I try to do crafts, and we all know how that goes, but somehow things turn out pretty nifty nonetheless. Hopefully I haven’t fooled any readers into thinking I’m some sort of crafts wizard, what with my skilful application of stickers and such, but I am in fact pretty consistently bad — and […]

Candy Toys and Miniatures: Re-Ment: Uki-Uki! Sumikko My Room

In which I gripe some here and there, but ultimately love this collection. It feels like a while since I’ve written about Sumikko Gurashi! Two of my favorite things in the world are, of course, Sumikko, and Re-Ment miniatures. So it’s always an especial pleasure to open up a new Re-Ment set with a Sumikko […]

Dagashi Sagashi: Four New Snacks: Featuring Sumikko Gurashi!

In which the Sumikko toy with the basic laws of time and space, you know, as one does. And there are snacks! Aoringo means green apple—well, actually it literally means “blue apple” because what’s called blue and what’s called green often differs between Japan and America for complex reasons. Mochi is Japanese rice, uh, sort […]

Magazine: Oekaki Hime July 2020

In which we find a whole pile of Hime, and just when we can’t tell which one is which we get distracted by fun furoku. These Hime publications seem to have no end! There are so many of them, all titles ending with ひめ (hime means princess). There’s Jewel Hime, Kisekae Hime (kisekae can mean […]

The Get List: Tokyo Catch: Sumikko Gurashi Halloween Plush Mascot (4/4)

In which I’m delighted by plush quality, gender equality, and Halloween frivolity. Japanese can make it both easy and hard to guess someone’s gender in something like a manga setting. On the one hand, there are stereotypically feminine/masculine personal pronouns and ways of speaking (but these change and are complicated by things like being so […]

The Get List: Tokyo Catch: Sumikko Gurashi 80s Sailor Stadium Jacket Plush (3/5)

In which, for once in my life, I seem to have more pictures than words — and I couldn’t be more pleased with these wins! It’s ironic that these were such relatively easy wins, because they are among the most darling plush I’ve seen in a while. They are perfect! Each one measures about 6 […]