Right now, the “chara-ben” is hugely booming among kids!
“Chara-ben” is a kid’s “bento” lunch box with rice, sausages or cheese making shapes of those popular characters. “Chara-ben”’s pronunciation is [kara-ben] .
You can even buy the recipes or tools specifically designed for making “chara-ben”.
Hikone is a city located just in the middle between Kyoto and Nagoya. There is the Hikone Castle, which was built in 1600’s, and is now designated as a national treasure.
This year, the mascot character “Hikonyan”, created for their tourism campaign has become very popular, triggered by the video clip introduced on the YouTube. It has been played more than 200,000 times in total.
There were groups of very excited girls exclaiming “Kawaii!!!” and taking photos in front of the Hikone Castle.
I went to Isetan today and found there’s a green forest in the shop…
People are queueing to buy “Green Santa Christmas charity” BE@RBRICK.
I also queued and get them!!
I think it is very good kawaii become charity, but slightly disappointed they cut the woods for this event :(
Ningyo-yaki is a small snack cake and is made by cooking batter of flour, eggs and sugar in an iron mold. They are sold both with and without “anko(sweet bean paste)” . While many ningyo-yaki are in a traditional shape of “shichifukujin “.
I got the ones in a shape of vegetable from Taishido. I can eat them at one bite.