Twentythree

The mysterious god even has a moving mouth, to eat the tasty anime meals on the note pads.

As ardent lovers of both Studio Ghibli and Japanese stationery, we’re always very excited when the anime studio releases a stationery collection. So when Ghibli specialty chain Donguri Kyowakoku unveiled a brand new range of memo pads adorned in food from some of our favourite Ghibli anime, plus a stand designed to look like the River God from Spirited Away, we had to stop ourselves from immediately purchasing the whole collection and share the find with you straight away.

Starting with the memo pads, there are three to choose from, priced at 770 yen (US$4.93) each, and they all look delicious.

▼ Kiki’s Delivery Service Round Memo – Kiki’s Cake

As fans will know, the cake on this memo pad is the one that Kiki receives as a gift from Madame, and it’s been beautifully recreated.

Inside the cake, you’ll find a 100-sheet memo pad, with Kiki and Madame bringing a dash of joy and warmth to each page.

▼ Howl’s Moving Castle Round Memo – Calcifer’s Bacon and Eggs

This memo pad features the sizzling bacon and eggs from Howl’s Moving Castle, which is beautifully printed so you can even see the smoke rising from the pan.

Inside, you’ll find 100 pages of Markl, happily gobbling up the meal, just as we would if it were placed before us.

▼ Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea Round Memo – Lisa’s Ramen

Sosuke’s mum Lisa makes this iconic meal for him and Ponyo, bringing them comfort during a heavy storm.

The instant noodles, topped with thick slices of ham, a boiled egg, and green onions is one of the most delicious-looking meals in the Ghibli cannon, and with this pad on the table, we’ll be reminded of its deliciousness every day.

All the memo pads above have a a distinctive round shape, which Donguri Kyowakoku says has been “born from the bookbinding techniques of skilled craftsmen”. Manufactured by Movic, which operates under the umbrella of the Animate Group, which handles the planning, manufacturing and distribution of merchandise covering the world of anime, manga and video games, each pad is carefully designed for quality and ease of use.

▼ The most exciting product in the lineup for us, though, is the Spirited Away River God Memo Stand (4,950 yen).

Also produced by Movic, this stand is like a figurine, capturing the quiet, mysterious presence of the River God who appears out of the water during a pivotal moment in the bathhouse in Spirited Away.

Here, the River God acts as a memo stand, holding memos in the clip behind its head.

Although you can clip any type of paper into the stand, we’re tempted to tear a note out of the round memo pads and write the character’s iconic words, “Well done” on it for dramatic effect.

Adding to the drama is the character’s jaw, which actually moves, so you really can feel like it’s saying “Well done” whenever you finish a difficult task.

The interactive element is a very nice touch, and as it’s made of metal and quite weighty, it’s designed to put up with all your character roleplays.

▼ The stand is as solid as the presence of the character.

So if you’ll excuse us now, we’re off to make our purchase, and if you’d like to do the same, you can click on the links below to grab your favourites before they sell out!

Source: Donguri Kyowakoku
Featured image: Donguri Kyowakoku
Insert images: Donguri Kyowakoku (1, 2, 3, 4)
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If you can’t beat them, float on them.

As in many corners of the globe, Japan has been putting up with an increasing number of previously rare weather-related natural disasters. One of the more surprising was the widespread flooding around Chiba after torrential rains fell from a line of squall clouds that inexplicably stopped moving for a while.

▼ Many people were caught while out driving and had to abandon their cars on the street after the water caused them to stall.

In addition to 13 deaths, the amount of damage it caused was massive. Some estimates say over 10,000 vehicles were damaged, many beyond repair, from being completely submerged in filthy water.

With such valuable property at risk of becoming useless at any moment from increasingly unpredictable weather, many people are searching for ways to protect their cars from flooding. One such way appeared in the form of SAM-CS (“Sam Car Sheet”).

SAM-CS works by covering your car in plastic sheets that allow the car to float when flooding occurs. It takes about 10 minutes to set up and involves parking your car on the bottom sheet, which fastens to the sides with suction cups. Then, another sheet goes over top to block rain from entering.

There’s also an optional, but highly recommended, set of straps that prevent the car from floating away or into something else that would cause damage. The product costs 88,000 yen ($560) for a mid-sized car, which seems like a lot for some plastic sheets but is a sound investment compared to the cost of repairing or losing a car.

SAM-CS was originally developed back in 2024, at which time its maker, Onoda Sangyo, was only getting about two inquiries a month. But after the Chiba flooding, they’ve gotten 30 calls in the past two weeks.

When news of the product’s recent demand hit the Internet, there was a surprising number of negative comments. That being said, many critics didn’t seem to have read the explanation fully, while others tended to lack sufficient understanding of how cars, flammable gases, or the law work.

“Won’t it just float away?”
“Looks like a pain to set up.”
“By the time you realize you need it, it’d probably be too late.”
“What happens if it drifts away and damages someone’s house?”
“They should make machines that you drive through to wrap your car like this, like they have with car wash machines.”
“I would just pump air into the car until there’s so much pressure the water can’t get in.”
“We should just fill the tires with hydrogen and make cars float that way.”
“Once the car stops touching the ground, ownership rights transfer to whoever takes it. You could just go around collecting cars.”
“I’d rather spend the money on a Switch 2.”

Most people probably would rather spend the money on a Switch 2 than a car condom, but there often come times in our lives where we have to decide between what we want and what we need. And since GTAVI is still unconfirmed for the Switch 2, it’d probably be more prudent to opt for the protection against debilitating vehicle damage.

Source: TBS News Dig, My Game News Flash
Featured image: Onoda Shogyo
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Riding the waves and eating the sweets in Asagaya.

It’s been said that you can learn everything you really need to know in life in kindergarten, but that’s obviously oversimplifying things quite a bit. Adult life presents problems far more complex than the topics handled in a curriculum designed for five-year-olds. For example, from a young age pretty much everyone gets taught not to play with their food…but what do you do when the people who’re giving you that food not only encourage you to play with it, but outright challenge you to?

That’s the philosophical question represented by dessert cafe Tokyo Taiyaki Mania. There’s a lot of accuracy in that name, as the shop is indeed located in Tokyo (in the Asagaya neighborhood, to be precise), and the staff is passionate about taiyaki, the traditional Japanese desserts of fish-shaped cakes filled with anko (sweet bean paste) or other sweet stuff.

And yet, Tokyo Taiyaki Mania’s name isn’t completely thorough. It leaves out roughly half of the menu options: the gelato that Tayaki Mania (as we’ll call the place for short) produces in-house, using an ice cream-making machine imported from Italy.

This brings us to another temptation to go against something we were taught as kids: Don’t spoil your appetite by eating too many sweets. As adults, though, we’ve learned that eating double desserts isn’t “spoiling your appetite” so much as “using your appetite’s full potential in the most joy-inducing way possible,” and thankfully Taiyaki Mania agrees and recommends treating yourself to both a taiyaki and some ice cream at the same time.

In turn, this, leads to the natural compulsion to combine the treats, and once again, Taiyaki Mania isn’t about to try to talk you out of that. As a matter of fact, the cafe’s website invites customers to take the “naminori (wave-riding) challenge” by balancing their taiyaki atop their swirl of gelato and snapping a photo of the surfing-style sweets.

This was a challenge our taste-testing Japanese-language reporter Yayoi Saginomiya was happy to accept, especially since she’d opted for the photogenic and appropriately colored Blue Ocean flavor of ice cream.

That said, balancing the taiyaki is easier said than done. The gelato isn’t watery, but it’s still a creamy dessert, so it’ll start to melt if you wait too long. For best results Yayoi recommends standing the taiyaki more or less upright at the top of the swirl, evenly distributing its weight over the densest concentration of ice cream.

▼ Success!

OK, so the wave-riding taiyaki combo looks great, but how does it taste? Yayoi says she was very impressed. In terms of ingredients. Taiyaki Mania does things differently than conventional sweets shops, using no wheat flour in their batter. Instead, the cake is made from a mixture of rice flour and tofu, and the anko inside contains beet sugar instead of refined white sugar. Similarly, their gelato is gluten-free and entirely non-dairy.

Whether Taiyaki Mania’s ingredient philosophy is attractively health-conscious or a form of sweets sacrilege is a matter of personal perspective, but Yayoi found the results quite tasty, producing a light and straightforward sweetness with a clean finish. The flavor of the Blue Hawaii ice cream, like many blue desserts in Japan, is what’s called “soda” in Japanese, referring not to cola but to a light apple citrus cider, and it also has a pinch of salt to give it an extra maritime-evocative element.

Taiyaki Mania’s prices are on the premium side, with our mini taiyaki costing us 378 yen (US$2.40) and our gelato 918 yen. As an added bonus, though, Taiyaki Mania is also a little more stylish than the typical taiyaki stand, and it’s located along a covered shopping street that’s fun to stroll along and get a peek at daily Tokyoite life.

And don’t worry, neither they, nor we, will tattle to your mom about you playing with your food.

Cafe information
Tokyo Taiyaki Mania
Address: Tokyo-to, Suginami-ku, Asagaya Minami 1-36-18
Open 11 a.m.-6 p.m.
Website

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