If loving stickers is wrong, then Japan doesn’t want to be right.

Suddenly and without warning, both kids and adults in Japan have been going crazy for sticker collecting. Just check out any trendy shop at a mall, and you’ll see shelves lined with sticker displays and books of various sizes to keep them in. Or just go hang around any park, and you can watch kids huddled together, trading stickers in their books to diversify their own collections…

Actually, don’t do that last thing, or you might be reported as a suspicious person.

The point is that stickers are huge right now in Japan, particularly the ones that are really puffy. But don’t take my word for it, our own reporter Haruka Takagi is a self-confessed sticker collector and will now share what she had to go through to get some stickers recently.

Of course, stickers are sold in a lot of different stores under normal circumstances, but the craze has gotten so big that you’ll often find these places sold out. I was recently ordered by my kids to check a nearby Animate store, and all I could find were preorders for stickers that won’ t be released April.

▼ A display at a Bic Camera electronics store says their entire selection of Bon Bon Drop stickers is out of stock. Bon Bon Drop is considered the premier brand of stickers in Japan.

The other way to get in-demand stickers is to secure a spot at an event like Sticker Festival. There was one in Tokyo last December, and it was such a huge hit that it came to Osaka from 21 to 26 January. However, just to have the privilege of attending sticker fest, you have to first enter a lottery. I also did this at the order of my children, but even after making five entries with different email accounts, I couldn’t get in.

▼ The event is called “Seal Festival” (シールフェスティバル) in Japanese, because in Japan, a sticker is called a “seal,” and in the words of Seal, if you’re ever gonna survive as a sticker collector, you’ll have to get a little crazy.

Haruka, on the other hand, was one of the lucky few to win a chance to shop at Sticker Festival. Her awarded slot was on the second day of the event. While this was a fairly good position, she was no stranger to the mania surrounding sticker shopping and had measured expectations for what she might be able to get.

She arrived at the venue in Umeda’s Daimaru department store 30 minutes early, as instructed. This gave her a chance to look at the selection of stickers from the outside. Much to her surprise, the Holy Grail of stickers was for sale: Tamagotchi Bon Bon Drop stickers.

While virtually impossible to find anywhere else in Japan, Sticker Festival not only had some, they had all four types and with hundreds in stock. Luckily for her, there was a purchase limit, so she didn’t have to worry about some unscrupulous sticker fan suddenly buying them all up before her either.

They also had other types of stickers she’d never seen for sale anywhere else, like Chikuwa and Shizuku-chan stickers. These also had sales limits to prevent hoarding.

A sign out front instructed shoppers that they could only buy one of each type of Bon Bon Drop or Shizuku-chan stickers and a maximum of four packs total. For other stickers, there was also a one-type limit, but a total of six packs could be bought, for a total of 10 packs per customer.

Ten minutes prior to entering Sticker Festival, Haruka and the other chosen sticker shoppers had to line up at their designated number to get their QR codes scanned. She was surprised when the staff even asked her to scroll the screen with her code to prove she wasn’t just using a screenshot, possibly from someone else trying to sell their spot. Security was certainly on point at Sticker Festival.

▼ The designated area to show her documentation and receive her sticker shopping privileges

She was also handed her sticker shopping permit and a list of important information regarding the purchase of stickers.

Once her designated time arrived, Haruka and seven other customers were allowed entry to Sticker Festival. Everyone had just 10 minutes to choose their stickers, pay, and exit. Haruka would recommend going early and checking out the selection beforehand like she did. That way, you’d have plenty of time to make your selections.

It was certainly a tightly run ship, but as a result, the overall shopping experience was very relaxing. With only eight people inside at a time, she could move about leisurely and not have to race to get the best stuff. Naturally, she scored all four Bon Bon Drop Tamagotchi packs, which were priced at 550 yen (US$3.55) each.

Because it was held in a major department store, the payment options were plentiful, from cash and credit cards to payment apps and even gift certificates.

On the other hand, the venue was very small, and Haruka overlooked the warning that luggage or baby strollers would not be allowed into Sticker Festival. That meant she had to hold her 12-kilogram (26-pound) one-year-old in her arms for her 10-minute shopping spree. She couldn’t even take a break, because once you leave Sticker Festival, you cannot go back inside.

Still, it was a dreamlike shopping experience for a true sticker fan like her. To be able to choose from such a high-quality selection, and not have to elbow other grown men and women to do so, was a bliss that far outweighed the searing pain in her arms afterward.

At home, even the mild nerve damage didn’t dampen the pure tactile pleasure of running her finger over these finely contoured stickers.

The attention to detail was so good that even the screens on the little Tamagotchi device stickers looked just like the real thing. These truly are the Rolls-Royce of stickers. They were so nice that Haruka debated whether she should even take them out of the package. If only she could have bought a pack to use and a pack to keep…

Maybe she’ll get to try again the next time Sticker Festival rolls into town. It probably will return, considering how successful it is, but being able to get in is a whole other matter.

Photos ©SoraNews24
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