Japan’s super popular hamster-shaped monaka made into capsule toy form for all to enjoy

22:13 cherishe 0 Comments

If you can’t eat ’em, wear ’em.

Remember the ultra-popular hamster-shaped monaka snacks being sold by the 120-year old Kyoto confectionary Aoki Kouetsudo? Even over a year after its initial release, it’s still constantly sold out. Now there’s a version of it with no expiration date! Japanese capsule toy company Tamakyu teamed up with Aoki Kouetsudo to create non-edible capsule toys shaped like the shop’s hamster-shaped snacks.

▼ Just in time for autumn, when hamsters will be stocking up on nuts for the winter!

These Hamster Monaka capsule toys, priced at 300 yen (US$2) each, went on sale October 28 and can be found in capsule toy machines across Japan. Each one comes with a nut-shaped brooch inside so that you can match your little buddy.

▼ Which style would you choose?

There are six varieties of the toy split into two styles: plain and chocolate. The only difference in the hamster’s appearance between the two styles are that the eyes and ears have been filled in with a “chocolate pen”–not edible, of course. The plain one, however, is the hamster that most closely resembles the edible hamster monaka.

▼ Are you more of an almond hamster or a cashew hamster?

Besides that, each hamster is holding either a walnut, a cashew, or an almond. You can pop open the hamster like an actual monaka, and inside there will be the included brooch. Use it to store other things as well–like some edible snacks, perhaps?

Tamakyu is holding a Twitter campaign, too! By following Tamakyu’s Twitter account retweeting the campaign Tweet linked below, you can be entered for a chance to win a complete set of the Monaka Hamster capsule toys. Entries will be accepted until November 4 at 5 p.m. (JST).

Sources: PR Times, Twitter/@TAMAKYU_CP
Images: PR Times



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Hokkaido amusement park shuts down Ferris wheel for the day with mother and children still at top

21:13 cherishe 0 Comments

Top of the world, Ma!

Ferris wheels are odd attractions in that they always seem equal parts relaxing and creepy. It’s certainly nice to enjoy a slow ride that climaxes in a spectacular view of your surroundings, but this is also all while dangling in a metal box from a relatively flimsy-looking structure.

Even if everything holds together, there’s always a fear of the thing just stopping with you stuck at the very top. That’s just what happened at the Family Ai-Land You amusement park in Yubetsu, Hokkaido. However, rather than a mechanical failure, it was human error that led to a mother and her two kids getting stuck at the top.

At about 3:45 p.m. on 25 September, the park staff were getting ready to wrap it up for the day and started shutting down all the equipment, including the Ferris wheel. However, they seemed to have lost track of the woman in her 30s and two children under the age of ten who were left suspended at a height of about 30 meters (98 feet).

▼ A news report showing the Ferris wheel in question

After being stuck in the stationary gondola for about ten minutes panic began to set in, but luckily another family member was waiting for them in the parking lot at the time. The mother made a call to that person who quickly notified the amusement park office about it.

All three were unharmed but say they suffered mental anguish from the ordeal. Operation of Family Ai-Land You is outsourced to a private company by the Yubetsu city government, but Mayor Tomoyuki Karita issued an apology on the town’s website that reads: “I would like to express my deepest apologies to the family who suffered a great deal of stress from the feat and anxiety of their time left behind. I would also ask that the management take the necessary steps to prevent this from happening again and we will continue to provide thorough guidance.”

It was a nightmare situation for a lot of people that luckily ended safely. Readers of the news, however, were surprised that such a thing could happen when it was just a matter of checking to see that all the gondolas were empty.

“I’m glad they got out safely. It’s getting cold in Hokkaido now, and it could have been really bad if they were in there too long.”
“I would have been terrified for those ten minutes.”
“It’s understandable that staff might not remember someone’s on the ride, but all they have to do is let it go around one time before shutting it down to confirm.”
“I’m really scared of this myself. I think it’s easy to happen when things are busy.”
“Isn’t making sure everyone is on and off the ride the main job of Ferris wheel operators?”
“Sometimes TV shows and movies use this situation as a joke, but the reality is not funny at all.”
“Just put some sensors on there. It’s not hard.”
“Can you imagine watching all the lights turn off and music shut down while you’re still in the wheel?”
“I kind of feel a little bad for the one person who had to wait in the parking lot.”

It was also a stroke of luck that all this happened in an age where everyone carries a phone around in their pocket. As some of the readers suggested, this all took place towards the north end of Hokkaido which currently sees overnight temperatures approaching zero degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit) so things could have gotten much worse for them had they been stuck for too long.

But in an age where everyone carries a phone around in their pocket, it doesn’t seem like such a technological hurdle to install something to indicate a person is inside a gondola. Maybe one of those new-fangled lightbulbs or something?

Source: Hokkaido News UHB, My Game News Flash
Top image: ©SoraNews24
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Two Sushiro workers form the Conveyor Belt Sushi Union, seeking better wages and more

18:14 cherishe 0 Comments

Among other grievances, workers allege that they are not paid fairly for their preparation time or labor and hours worked are unjustly rounded down. 

Sushiro, a popular chain of revolving sushi (kaitenzushi) restaurants, is in the midst of collective bargaining with employees who have formed a new workers’ union to represent workers of conveyor belt sushi chains across the country.

On October 27 at a press conference in Tokyo, two male university students employed part-time at the sushi chain announced the creation of the Conveyor Belt Sushi Union within the Restaurant Workers’ Union to which they belong. The students, an 18-year-old and a 20-year-old, work in Tokyo and Saitama locations of the chain respectively. Back on August 31, they had filed a written request with Akindo Sushiro, Sushiro’s managing company, through the Restaurant Workers’ Union to seek reform. Their demands included the following:

  • Compensation for preparation time, which can take anywhere from 10-20 minutes before the start of their paid shift when they thoroughly sanitize themselves
  • The calculation of working time, which is currently done by rounding down to the closest five minutes, in more accurate increments, as well as retroactive payment of such wages to all employees
  • Raising the hourly rate to a standard 1,500 yen (US$10.17) per hour due to the labor shortage and added burden on workers
  • No requirement to use their full names on name badges
  • Better air conditioning in the hot summer months

▼ The Restaurant Workers’ Union post about the formation of the Conveyor Belt Sushi Union

In an initial response dated September 22, Akindo Sushiro agreed to pay wages based on increments of one minute moving forward, will require only an employee’s surname on name badges, and is considering better air conditioning during the summer months. The chain has also added a uniform three minutes of additional pay for preparation time but has refused to retroactively compensate workers for rounded-down working time.

Collective bargaining is scheduled to take place on November 15, during which talks regarding the latter point and changing the hourly compensation rate are expected to continue. The new union is also accepting new labor consultations in an effort to effect change, having received approximately 20 petitions from other conveyor belt sushi restaurant workers employed at other chains such as Kura Sushi and Kappa Sushi so far.

Source: Kyodo News via Otakomu, MSN
Featured image: SoraNews24
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The Ring’s Sadako haunts one of Japan’s favorite hot springs for Halloween

11:13 cherishe 0 Comments

Sadako outbreak included free admission for cosplayers.

We tend to associate fear with cold. We describe someone as breaking out in “a cold sweat” in intensely suspenseful situations, and even the word “chilling” is another way of saying “scary.”

But recently, one of Japan’s most famous horror icons paid a visit to one of the country’s most popular hot springs, as The Ring’s Sadako appeared at Yunessun in the town of Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture.

More accurately Sadakos appeared. That’s because of a promotional partnership between the Yunessun facility and Sadako DX, the recently released latest installment in the Ring franchise, Without spoiling too much, in the movie Sadako’s curse begins to spread via social media platforms, with multiple copies of the supernatural entity popping up all over Japan. During the Yunessun event, multiple members of the staff were dressed as the character, and free admission to the hot spring facility was offered to customers who showed up at the entrance in Sadako cosplay, defined as a white dress and flowing, face-covering black hair (wigs permitted).

Yunessun also had a special photo corner (pictured above) set up where you could do your best Sadako impression, and even offered a Sadako DX Bath Powder in its gift shop, for those who wanted to feel the presence of Sadako in their baths at home too.

Along with celebrating Sadako DX’s October theatrical release, the event was part of Yunessun’s Halloween festivities, taking place from October 29 to 31. Yunessan does still have a pitch-black Sadako bath in operation, though, until November 6

▼ Sadako, inspecting the bath on its opening day

And if you’re in Tokyo, don’t worry, she’s still haunting the Sadako taxis driving around Japan’s capital…or do worry, depending on how you feel about vengeful murder spirits.

Related: Yunessun
Source, images: PR Times

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Studio Ghibli gave out Pokémon sweets and other candy to Tokyo Halloween trick-or-treaters【Photo】

08:13 cherishe 0 Comments

And it looks like Hayao Miyazaki himself might have been the one handing them out.

Japan has really embraced Halloween celebrations in the last few years, with decorations going up around town and costumed street parties both organized and unofficial taking place. Trick-or-treating at private homes still isn’t really a thing in Japan, but the number of shops and businesses handing out candy to kids in costumes is on a steady rise too.

Usually, the places giving out candy are located along a shopping street or inside a shopping mall, places that already have a lot of foot traffic. However, there’s also a business on a quiet, largely residential street in Koganei in western Tokyo that gives out candy. It’s a business that generally doesn’t have a lot of walk-in visitors, either, but it’s one that pretty much every kid in the country is familiar with Studio Ghibli.

▼ A Halloween trick-or-treater getting some candy at Studio Ghibli

In Japan, pretty much any time in late October is fair game for Halloween events, not just October 31. So on October 27, the official Studio Ghibli Twitter account shared the above photo, along with the message:

“This morning a bunch of kids dressed up for Halloween came to see us. It was so heartwarming to see them form groups and take turns shouting ‘Trick or treat!’ together.”

Of course, the heartwarming feelings then spread to Twitter commenters, who reacted with:

“So cute how the candy packs are nicely wrapped.”
“Wow, even Ghibli is getting into Halloween culture!”
“It must put you in a nice, cheerful mood all day to see those kids first thing in the morning.”
“And there’s some Pokémon Piplup candy in the bag that kid has!”
“I’m jealous of those kids! I bet it felt like going to a theme park for them.”
“This feels like the essence of Ghibli and its anime.”
“I can totally picture the kind face of the older guy giving out the candy.”
“Those are Hayao Miyazaki’s hands, aren’t they?”

The angle of the photo means we can’t see the man’s face or facial hair, but his attire definitely looks like the type that Studio Ghibli co-founder/director Hayao Miyazaki favors (the sweater in particular looks like an exact match to the one in the close-up photo of Miyazaki’s hands here).

Given Ghibli’s commitment to staying unobtrusive to the community, and the fact that they were handing out Halloween candy on a weekday morning, odds are the trick-or-treating was something planned ahead of time for local preschoolers. It’s a very sweet way, (both figuratively and literally) to give a little something back to the neighborhood, and for all of us who don’t live in Koganei, thankfully there’s another way for us to get some delicious Ghibli food these days.

Source: Twitter/@JP_GHIBLI (1, 2)
Top image: Studio Ghibli (edited by SoraNews24)
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The best cosplayers from Day One of the Ikebukuro Halloween Cosplay Festival

06:13 cherishe 0 Comments

Japanese anime characters rub shoulders with some surprising faces in Tokyo’s famous otaku neighbourhood.

Halloween is celebrated a little differently in Japan, and though the tradition of trick-or-treating may be yet to fully catch on here, one aspect of the holiday that’s been easily adopted is the custom of dressing up.

Over in Ikebukuro, one of Tokyo’s biggest destinations for otaku culture, the Ikebukuro Halloween Cosplay Festival is held every year over the weekend closest to Halloween, and though you won’t see a lot of ghosts or zombies at the event, what you will see is a whole lot of anime characters, with a few surprises in between.

▼ This year, the event was blessed with great weather, although on the first day of the two-day festival there was a strong wind that participants had to contend with.

The festival took place mainly within Ikebukuro’s Sunshine Square, with both cosplayers and photographers required to purchase a participation ticket. A premium ticket that granted entry from 9:00 a.m. was priced at 3,500 yen (US$23.65), while a ticket from 11:30 a.m. was slightly cheaper, at 2,500 yen.

▼ Upon entering at reception, ticket holders were handed a couple of leaflets and a mask to wear that served as proof that a participation certificate was purchased.

After returning at a reduced scale last year following a two-year pandemic-induced hiatus, this year’s festival was held without entry caps, so we were expecting it to be crowded. However, while there were more participants than last year, it still wasn’t as congested as pre-pandemic levels.

As always, though, the cosplayers who were there went all out with their costumes and poses, bringing to life a wide variety of characters. So let’s get to it and take a look at some of the best cosplayers from Day One below!

Oscar François de Jarjayes from The Rose of Versailles (Cosplayer: @roselalonde3367)

Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo from French music duo Daft Punk (Cosplayer: @_SHIKU_SHIKU)

D.Va from Overwatch (Cosplayer: @rinyanpassan)

Seiun Sky from Uma Musume: Pretty Derby (Cosplayer: @kokorophoto23)

Lucy and Rebecca from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners (Cosplayers: @xxMomoi [left] @sir00111 [right])

Umi Sonoda from Love Live! School Idol Festival (Cosplayer: @iLeylv)

Sailor Moon from Sailor Moon (Cosplayer: @vesone350)

▼ Sailor Moon was joined by fellow pretty warriors Uranus and Neptune, both of whom also appear on Japan’s infamous buff men stock photo site.

▼ Sailor Uranus (Cosplayer: @AkihitoAll)

▼ Sailor Neptune (Cosplayer: @s_ichinohe321)

Blue Poison from Arknights (Cosplayer: @yamo8cos)

Fumika Sagisawa from Idolmaster Cinderella Girls (Cosplayer: @Yukinozomi3)

Chisato Nishikigi from Lycoris Recoil (Cosplayer: @suyasuya_yuki)

How awesome were all those cosplayers? We honestly feel like the quality at this cosplay festival just keeps getting better every year.

Stay tuned for our collection of photos from Day Two of the event, and until then feel free browse through some of our favourites from last year’s festivities!

Photos ©SoraNews24
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How to dispose of pizza boxes: Life hack from Japanese garbage man goes viral online 【Video】

23:13 cherishe 0 Comments

This unusual tip will shrink your boxes, making them much easier to handle.

Dealing with household garbage is a whole process in Japan. Here, residents are required to separate burnable waste from non-burnable waste, with burnables being picked up once or twice a week and non-burnable waste around once a month, and then separate everything else for various collection dates, in categories such as plastic, PET bottles, PET bottle lids, tins, brown glass, clear glass, green glass, cardboard, newspapers, glossy magazines and pamphlets, milk cartons, oversized garbage, gas cannisters, and that’s not even a conclusive list.

With so many different categories, each with different rules for how clean/empty/large each item should be, managing your household garbage can be a hard system to master, especially when residents don’t have trash bins outside their homes like many people do abroad, instead taking their trash to a designated collection spot outside on collection day.

Here to help everyone sort their burnables from their recyclables, and everything in between, is Japanese garbage man and entertainer Shuichi Takizawa, who’s garnered a large following online by sharing incredibly useful insider hacks and tips.

His latest hack involving what to do with used pizza boxes has recently gone viral, so let’s take a look at what he recommends we do with the bulky boxes.

Takizawa’s tweet, written in English, is in response to him often finding used pizza boxes put out with the recycling, alongside regular cardboard.

With Takizawa reminding us all that pizza boxes can’t be recycled as they’re stained with cooking oil, what are we meant to do with them once we’ve finished eating our pizza? Pizza boxes are large, and you can accumulate quite a few of them after you’ve had friends around, so they’ll likely be taking up precious space inside your home, seeing as you have to keep your trash inside until collection day in Japan.

Takizawa has a useful hack to help us out, saying there’s an easy way to discard of the boxes without having them take up room in your house until trash day.

That’s right — Takizawa suggests soaking your box in water so you can crumple it up into a ball that’s much smaller and more manageable than a bulky box.

Domino’s Japan even came out endorsing Mr Takizawa’s advice, releasing this video showing how the method allows you to condense three boxes into three easy-to-manage balls that fit into the palm of your hand.

Could this really be the answer to all our bulky box dilemmas? Our Japanese-language reporter Mr Sato decided to find out by trying the method for himself, and sharing the results with us all.

After placing three boxes in the sink and dousing them with water until they were soft and fully soaked, Mr Sato folded each box over and over again to make them as small as possible. They weren’t quite ball-shaped like the ones he’d seen in the videos online, but they were much smaller than they used to be.

▼ Then he squeezed all the water out of them, and placed them on his balcony to dry overnight.

In the morning, the pizza boxes were still as small as he’d left them, and he could now fit all three of them in the palm of his hand!

The hack worked just as well as it did in the videos, and Mr Sato was incredibly impressed by the magical shrinking ability of the boxes. You’ll want to be careful to dry them overnight in a well-ventilated area, or in a sunny spot during the day if it’s cold or wet at night, but if you follow these steps, you too, can become a pizza-shrinking pro!

If you’re looking for another tip to help you deal with your trash, don’t forget to keep particularly pungent items like banana peels in the freezer until collection day. Or you can invest in a trash can that freezes your garbage for you.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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Secret staff cafeteria at this Japanese train station is still open…for those in the know

20:13 cherishe 0 Comments

Eat where the rail employees eat, at super cheap prices. 

With the price of everything going up these days, we’ve been looking at ways to tighten the purse strings and eat out on a budget, and one of the best ways to do that is to make use of staff cafeterias.

While these cafeterias are designed to feed employees, they’re also open to the public, but a lot of people don’t know that. After eating at one catering to staff at Osaka Airport recently, we were dismayed to find it would be closing at the end of September, so we made it a priority to revisit one at Osaka’s Nankai Namba Station to find out if it was still operating.

This staff cafeteria is a bit tricky to find, so you’ll want to follow the steps below to get there. First, you’ll need to head to the 2F Central Gate and speak to staff at the Koya Line ticket gate.

Here, you’ll have to tell staff that you’d like to use the cafeteria, with a phrase like “shainshokudo wo riyoushitai desu” (“I’d like to use the staff cafeteria”). Then they’ll hand you an admission pass that lets you enter the area beyond the ticket gates without having to pay the usual 160-yen (US$1.08) entry fee.

▼ Don’t forget to hold on to this pass as you’ll be required to hand it to staff when you want to get back out of the area.

Make your way to the stairs leading to platform three and four, where you’ll see a sign for the 2F South Gate. Head towards the “2F South Gate” sign next to the stairs (pictured right, below), walk beneath it, and ahead of you there’ll be a corridor.

▼ The corridor is behind the stairs.

Walk down the corridor and along here you’ll see a door that says, “Entry prohibited to those who aren’t staff or cafeteria patrons“.

▼ The sign on top indicates that the cafeteria is currently open.

It looks like a door that shouldn’t be opened, but don’t worry — once you push it open, there’s a sign directing you to the cafeteria down the corridor, along with a printout of the monthly menu.

▼ The no-frills cafeteria.

Although members of the public are allowed to eat here, it is ultimately a staff cafeteria, so there are signs around the place reminding diners that rail staff are given priority, both in terms of seating, in the unlikely case that they’re full, and service, seeing as employees don’t have the luxury of being able to eat a leisurely lunch.

Rail staff are also able to enjoy lower prices that are around 20 yen less than non-employee prices, as indicated by the different buttons on the ticket machine.

Set meals change daily, with prices going up to around 520 yen (US$3.51) for a ramen set meal, although most are priced at 470 yen. You can also purchase dishes separately, with prices starting at 50 yen for a bowl of miso soup.

▼ There are two set meals to choose from, known as “A set” and “B Set“, with different ones available at lunch, from 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m., and dinner, from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Once you’ve picked up your meal ticket from the machine, grab a yellow tray — the colour for non-staff diners– and head over to the food counter, where you’ll hand your ticket over in exchange for your meal.

▼ We chose a bowl of ramen, which cost just 280 yen (260 yen for staff).

We took our meal over to a table close to the entrance, but when we went to sit down, one of the staff behind the counter called out to ask us to sit up the back, seeing as the three rows closest to the entrance are reserved for employees.

Understandably, the staff here are looking out for employees who are on the clock and need need to able to eat and go with minimal fuss, so we happily sat at a table further back. It felt strangely exciting to be eating amongst rail staff and get a taste of what fuels them during their workday, all at budget prices.

▼ It’s hard to believe this bowl of ramen costs less than two bucks.

The meals here are all no-fuss, but the noodles were fantastic for the price. There were plenty of ingredients like char siu, wakame seaweed, green onions, bamboo shoots, and naruto (processed fish roll), and the pork bone broth had a subtle yet lovely taste.

With prices this low, we’d happily eat breakfast, lunch and dinner here every day if we could, and with meals changing daily and the cafeteria opening for breakfast from 6:30 a.m.-10:00 a.m. it’s a feasible option for those on a budget.

So next time you’re visiting Osaka, you might want to keep this staff cafeteria in mind for a quick and cheap meal. And if you’re in Tokyo, you can always stop by the equally cheap school cafeteria for adults.

Images © SoraNews24
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The Ghibli theme park’s food looks good enough to be a reason to visit all by itself【Photos】

19:13 cherishe 0 Comments

Ghibli Park’s restaurant has a mouthwatering menu with food culture both from around the world and right from its local community in Japan.

Like most theme parks, Ghibli Park is going to have an on-site restaurant where guests can grab a bite to eat while they relax and recharge before seeing the rest of the attractions. Inside the Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse section of the park, the Transcontinental Flight Cafe (or Cafe Tairikuodanhiko, to use its Japanese name), may not recreate the food from any specific Studio Ghibli anime, but the menu is made up of exactly the level of eclectic, original, and beautifully presented fare that you’d expect of the esteemed anime studio, and even includes a few creations specially crafted as salutes to the local food culture of the part of Japan the park is located in.

As the name implies, the focus is on light, easy-to-eat selections, just the sort of thing a pilot could chow down on before hopping in their flying machine and taking to the skies. Some of them, like the BLT above or the ham and cheese sandwich below, are solid, familiar options.

By the way, the cafe says the cool little flag illustrations were drawn by “Miyazaki-san,” without specifying whether that means father Hayao or son Goro.

But in keeping with the air of adventurous air voyages, the Transcontinental Flight Cafe also makes use of less orthodox sandwich elements, as in its hummus and tandoori chicken sandwiches, the latter of which looks to have saffron rice too.

As for the local Japanese cuisine options mentioned above, Ghibli Park is in Aichi Prefecture, whose capital city of Nagoya is famous for miso katsu, a pork cutlet slathered with miso sauce. Miso katsu is usually served with white rice, but the Transcontinental Flight Cafe has adapted it into a flatbread pizza.

Also an Aichi specialty is an butter toast, a sweet snack or morning eye-opened of red bean paste and butter melting into a thick slice of bread. At the Transcontinental Flight Cafe, their take on this is an an butter dessert sandwich.

Another sandwich adaptation is the Napolitan pasta sandwich, which is Ghibli Park lead planner Goro Miyazaki’s favorite item on the menu.

Oh, and getting back to the pizza lineup, in addition to a more or less traditional margherita

…the chefs will also be happy to whip you up a dessert pizza, with apple year-round or seasonal fruits, which promises to be full of melty, fruity sweetness.

Rounding off the sandwich selection are the spice shrimp

avocado guacamole

spinach mushroom

…and mortadella ham.

On the pizza list, there’s also a pancetta

caponata stewed tomato

…and four-cheese.

Finally, as extra incentive to save room for desserts (yes, multiple ones), here are the seasonal fruit and banana chocolate dessert cream sandwiches.

The Transcontinental Flight Cafe also has a full drink menu, with both soft drinks and alcoholic beverages. It lists its red wine as “Kernai no Buta” (meaning “Crimson Pig,” and also the Japanese title of Ghibli’s 1992 anime Porco Rosso), and it appears to be a joint venture between Studio Ghibli and French winemaker Lou Dumont. The cafe’s beer, on the other hand, is listed as Moretti, not the Valley of the Wind beer served at the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo.

The food items range from 350 yen (US$2.40) for the banana chocolate sandwich up to 900 yen for the miso katsu pizza, reasonable rates for a cafe in Japan and without any of the price-gouging one might expect at a theme park. And for those who somehow don’t see anything to their liking here, be aware that outside food can’t be consumed inside Ghibli Park, but even then, they’ve put together an illustrated visitor guide with maps and recommendations for places to eat a bento boxed lunch elsewhere in the larger park that Ghibli Park is located inside.

Source: Ghibli Park, Twitter/@ghibliparkjp
Images: Ghibli Park
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Tokyo real estate agency sends beautiful women with you on apartment visits for date-like mood

11:13 cherishe 0 Comments

Girls Chintai wants to help customers make the right chintai choice.

There’s a company in Tokyo called Girls Chintai. Chintai means “rental” in Japanese, so you might think that Girls Chintai is an escort service, but chintai here is referring to apartments, and Girls Chintai is a real estate agency.

So why “Girls?” Because…

Girls Chintai’s staff is made up of fashionable young ladies, who accompany clients on their visits to apartments they’re thinking about renting while creating a “date-like atmosphere.”

▼ Riri Sakino, one of Girls Chintai’s agents

The company’s website asks:

Have you ever had these kinds of problems?
● “I wish the person showing me apartments were a beautiful woman.”
● “On my day off, I want to look for an apartment, but I also want to go on a date.”
● “I don’t know what sort of apartment women want a guy to have.”

In keeping with that third point, Girls Chintai seems to focus on smaller apartments, of the size a working adult might be living alone in, but also having a romantic partner come over, and possibly spend the night, if and when he finds one. However, the company says that it welcomes both male and female customers.

▼ Some of Girls Chintai’s recent videos have a Halloween cosplay theme.

In Japan, it’s common in Japan to have a real estate agent guiding you around on apartment tours. Japanese landlords generally don’t handle leasing themselves, and instead register their property with one or more agencies. So when you’re looking for a new apartment to move into, you start by looking through an agency’s listings, pick out a few that look appealing, and then go with the agent to visit the apartments before making a decision.

▼ This one-bedroom apartment is an eight-minute walk from Shibuya Station in downtown Tokyo.

Girls Chintai’s “beautiful young women” angle is unique, though, but it’s appealing enough to keep them in business for close to two years now. In addition to Tokyo, they also handle apartments in the neighboring prefectures of Kanagawa, Saitama, and Chiba.

Related: Girls Chintai
Source: Girls Chintai via Otakomu
Images: PR Times
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