doraemon

At RocketNews24, we love seeing well-known characters indulging in a bit of fun cosplaying. Last month, we showed you Hello Kitty turning herself into a Thanksgiving main dish, and it appears she’s not the only one transforming into food form. This time, Doraemon has made himself available in a mochi (rice cake) costume for the Japanese New Year, and darn it, he actually looks cute doing it!

To be precise, Doraemon has dressed up as a kagamimochi, a special type of ceremonial rice cake used traditionally in Japan as a New Year’s decoration. What makes kagamimochi unique as a decoration is that the hard mochi can be broken into pieces and eaten afterwards. For those of you not familiar with Japanese New Year’s customs, mochi is one of the “lucky” foods that the Japanese traditionally eat in the New Year as, along with soba buckwheat noodles, the way it stretches when heated is thought to be symbolic of a long life stretching ahead of you.

This is what an actual kagamimochi (albeit a very nice one) looks like:

kagamiochi 2

You could say that Doraemon actually has the perfect physique to wear a kagamimochi costume, since the traditional decoration consists of a small round piece of mochi placed on top of a larger one. Although the new Doraemon kagamimochi isn’t edible, he should serve quite well as a decoration that puts smiles on people’s faces. And in Japan, we say that “good fortune comes to homes where there are smiles and laughter”, so this may be the perfect way to bring in good luck for the New Year.

If you want some of that luck this Doraemon may bring you, he’s available through the official Doraemon online shop, Doraemon’s Bell for 3,800 yen (US$46), and he’s 23cm (about 9″) x 19cm (7.5″) x 20.5cm (8″) in size. Unfortunately, though, it seems they don’t deliver outside of Japan at this time, so you might have to lean on any friends or family you have in the country to send one over.

Well, regardless of the decorations you may celebrate with, we hope the coming New Year brings you much happiness and good fortune!

Source: ITmedia (Japanese)
Doraemon’s Bell (Japanese)

Top Image: ITmedia
Other Kagamimochi Doraemon photos: Doraemon’s Bell
Photo of actual kagamimochi by: zaimoku_woodpile

▼Here are some other pictures of Doraemon as Kagamimochi: doraemon top

▼The mochi hood actually comes off doraemon 3

▼And here he is seen from the back. Cute, right?doraemon 4