Nihon no Kinyoubi (4)

Nihon no Kinyoubi (Japanese Friday) is a new feature here at Brizmus Blogs Books inspired by French Friday, which is a weekly feature hosted by Charlotte at the Book on the Hill. Charlotte features French bookish things, and I plan on featuring Japanese bookish things, though I won't limit myself if I find something non-bookish that I think will interest you guys.

So, living in Japan for three months now, I have come to discover that the Japanese are absolutely ADDICTED to cute. I knew this before I came, but I think that, without living here, it's impossible to really understand the true extent to which they are, as I said, absolutely and utterly addicted to cuteness.



And one of the cute things that Japanese people seem to love is Rilakkuma, which basically means lazy bear. And that is exactly what Rilakkuma is. He is this adorable little bear that seems to spend all of his time lazing around eating. One of the things he especially likes to eat is mochi (basically glutionous rice), and in some of the most adorable pictures of him, he has a cheek full of the sticky, glutionous mochi, and is pulling out the gooeyness.


Basically, you can find Rilakkuma EVERYTHING in Japan. They have key chains and stuffed animals and notebooks and clothes and umbrellas and, really, if you can dream of it, they have it Rilakkuma.

Which means, of course, that they also have Rilakkuma books.　　Well, more manga than anything else. I haven't read one yet, but, as I've been seeing Rilakkuma everywhere, and as he really is adorable, I find myself falling more and more for him. Especially when he is eating strawberry cake and is thus surrounded by pink. And so, I really want to read one of the books. They're also, for the most part, in really simple Japanese, so maybe I would actually be able to understand! I'll be sure to post a review if I ever do get around to reading one.

Hopefully, I'll be featuring more cute Japanese things here in the future. I hope you guys will love them all as much as I do!