When I find something that begs to be here in my closet of kawaii, I just have to buy things and share!

Shanalogic.com is an indie art place kind of like a Etsy Collective. They have cool, cute, adorable, unique things that will want to get your hands on fast. You’ve probably seen them advertising on icanhascheezburger.com and wondered what they were about. I finally clicked through one day and was impressed. Seriously impressed and said so with my hard-earned buckarooni’s which I coughed up for the following tasty goods:

I have loved and adored the new Hello Kitty Tokidoki items very much (I will discuss in a later post soon) but recently I just purchased a couple of Tokidoki purses sans Kitty and found them equally (well maybe not equally since the addition of Hello Kitty always makes anything better) kawaii and desirable. These are photos of the two purses I just got. If you are interested in Tokidoki purses be aware that there are tons of fakes. I found this article very helpful on finding legitimate sellers on ebay and how to spot a fake.

Concerto Punk Sorriso handbag

Geometric Girl Serena handbag

Tokidoki (which in Japanese means “sometimes”)  is the creation of Italian illustrator Simone Legno (he says his name this way: See-moneh Len-nyo with his Italian accent). The 32-year old illustrator (and cutie) now lives in LA and has built the Tokidoki brand into something quite formidable in only a few years. He had a personal website in 2003 with his illustrations that was discovered by the folks at Hard Candy Cosmetics who flew him to LA and said – hey let’s turn Tokidoki into a world-wide phenom! Simone said – sure – I’d love to get paid for my art!

In 2004 they started making vinyl toys and cute accessories (stickers, letter sets, etc.) and in 2006 they joined up with LeSportSac to make kawaii handbags and accessories. Hello Kitty soon followed and then a deal with Target to design school supplies and t-shirts for kids and now Simone and Tokidoki (click this link for a cool little interview with Simone) are big, big business. Yay for kawaii art!

Hiya Cutie illustrator guy! Ciao bello!

Tokidoki artwork

I am a fool for anything Tokidoki and wish I had enough money to buy one of everything! Simone keeps it fresh and I love the new directions he goes in. I just ordered some toy characters of his and I will let you know when I get them.

Tokidoki is my newest obsession so you will see lots more about it!

First photo shows the fragrance collection ( I wear G, just so you know), then Gwen Stefani with the Harajuku Girls, the snowbunny purse (one of my favorites in my collection with the koosh ball), a close-up of the adorable make-up bags (also in my collection) and the Harajuku Lovers gift box with purse and box that sings when you open it. Too kawaii!

Gwen Stefani is my homie! She is my age and still keeps her outer child on the prowl. I respect that. I love all the Harajuku Lovers stuff she offers -wallets, watches, sneaks, jewelry, hair clippies, totes, purses, diaper bags and now fragrances too (when will there be cosmetics please oh please – just imagine the packaging).

While I admit that co-opting the Harajuku “look” which is distinctively Japanese and using it for her own marketing purposes may not reflect well ( a little “Ugly American” if you ask me)I still cannot help but love the results. For most Americans they don’t even know what the heck Harajuku means so it really doesn’t besmirch the Japanese. They probably think it is word Gwen made up.

We know the real story though: (from Wikipedia)

Harajuku is the common name for the area around Harajuku Station on the Yamanote Line in the Shibuya ward of Tokyo, Japan. Every Sunday, young people dressed in a variety of styles including gothic lolita, visual kei, and decora, as well as cosplayers spend the day in Harajuku socializing. The fashion styles of these youths rarely conform to one particular style and are usually a mesh of many. Most young people gather on Jingu Bridge, which is a pedestrian bridge that connects Harajuku to the neighboring Meiji Shrine area. The term “Harajuku Girls” has been used by English-language media to describe teenagers dressed in any fashion style who are in the area of Harajuku. This fashion infuses multiple looks and styles to create a unique form of dress. One of these styles, Kawaii, came to fame in the 1990’s. Kawaii became a popular phrase that meant something was cute or pretty. Kawaii was a form of resistance in that the style and culture associated with it were not seen as attractive by an older generation.  This idea of Kawaii was a distinct youth culture separate from the traditional one in existence.

These are the real deal Harajuku Girls (who are not Gwen’s backup dancers) right on the bridge in Harajuku Station.

Although I am too old to dress like this (but don’t tell Gwen that – I guess she can because she is a pop star), I adore it. I had my time too with punk rock back in the ’80’s. We used to do cute things back then with Smurf’s, Hello Kitty, Rainbow Brite and Strawberry Shortcake. I’m not sure if the Olivia Newton-John headband from “Let’s Get Physical” could be considered kawaii but I will admit that I did have one and leg warmers that I used to wear with a pair of ripped-up jeans with a torn Flashdance sweatshirt and Chuck Taylor All-Stars.I wonder if these girls will one day look back at photos of themselves and think – oh my heavens – did I actually dress like that in public?

If you are looking for the newest Harajuku Lovers handbags you can find them at Trendy Stars and also at ebay (usually pretty good prices) and if you get lucky like I have, right at your local TJ Maxx for super cheapo prices.

I was so sad to hear that my favorite bento box provider Ichiban Kan (a Japanese dollar store in San Francisco) was shutting down its online operation. I bought many dozens of bento boxes and accessories from them and got the greatest prices ever too. Previously I had been paying high prices directly from Japan to soothe my bento madness. Ichiban Kan changed all that – I got the same great products but at low prices.

I suppose in the end it is not that sad for me since I had everything they offered anyway but still I liked knowing that they were there. I felt reassured. I used to go to the store when I lived in Japantown in San Francisco and I loved it though at the time I didn’t really know what a bento box was.

Now years deep into my bento-love I feel kind of like I lost a really good friend.

There are other cool places to purchase bento boxes and supplies but none with prices as good. I will post later about some of the bento places online where I have gotten kawaii bento goodies from.

For now though, I say goodbye to Ichiban Kan (the store will stay open in San Francisco and they are opening another retail outlet too) online and remember it fondly.

Just a few of the kawaii bento boxes I got there.