It seems to be a law of nature - everything is cuter in Japan. And It's strange but somehow it makes life just a little bit better to be surrounded by that cuteness. You can just tell that the cuteness wants no harm in the world to anyone. (Yeah I know it's a biological thing - cute things look like babies and so on.)

Just look at the fiery Firefox fox who on his travels to Japan transformed from a stylistic logo into a huggable fluffy ball of cuteness. With some mandatory cherry flower petals on the top.

If you like him as much as I do you can even build your very own version of him:

Remember the educational video on how to eat sushi in Japan? It was brilliant stuff, from the beginning with its a-bit-to-screechy instrumental sound and onwards. Turns out there are more videos in the series, here we get a basic lesson in using chopsticks. Don't be alarmed that it's all in Japanese though, give it a couple of seconds and you'll get to the good parts where everything is perfectly clear.





Nowadays I imagine almost everyone know how to use chopsticks, at least that's the way it is here in Stockholm. I always felt like I didn't really deserve all the praise when someone complemented me for being able to eat with chopsticks in Tokyo.

How do they get so good at creating concepts in Japan? I've never really even seen the anime. But just the concept of Panda-Z makes me unable to resist buying stuff. Useless but wonderful stuff like miniature figures. Just show me a small panda that controls a giant ROBOT panda from a cockpit in the robots head - and I can't help myself apparently. I bought at least five in the series when I was in Tokyo.

And then I haven't even mentioned any of the pandas friends. There are lots of them. For instance, one that has a telephone receiver for ears. I feel a bit sorry for him.