Japan seems to have mastered the art of growing cute fruit. Heart lemons, star cucumbers, and even the infamous square watermelons are all testaments to the lengths farmers in Japan will go to in order to provide the masses with adorable fruit. The newest delightfully deformed fruit to hit the market is a musk melon with an image of Hello Kitty etched into the rind. However only a select few who are quick (and rich) enough to snatch them up will be able to enjoy the flavor of Hello Kitty’s melons in their mouth.
Hello Kitty (Page 13)
When we heard that Mister Donut was teaming up with Hello Kitty to celebrate the opening of a new Hello Kitty cupcake ride at Universal Studios Japan, we knew there would be a sweet surprise. The result? An insanely cute doughnut range featuring Ms Kitty’s signature bow and a few unique mini cupcake-inspired creations. Plus, a Hello Kitty ribbon headphone jack charm for purchases over 600 yen (US$6)!
But what would a Hello Kitty-approved doughnut taste like? We were seduced by the cute kitten and headed down to our local store to try out her wares. Join us as we take you through the range, bite by delicious bite…
If you’re a Hello Kitty fan, here’s something that you won’t want to miss. In one of the coolest collaborations we’ve seen in a long time, Kitty-chan’s parent company Sanrio has joined paws (sorry) with quirky Japanese video site Niconico to produce a series of limited edition chocolate boxes.
We’ve brought to you many stories previously about how Hello Kitty isn’t picky at all about her jobs. Collaborating with other popular characters, operating hotels and restaurants, changing herself into various foods (and even going nude!) — you name it, she’s probably done it. Yes, she’s the internationally loved cat of all trades. And you may love her even more once you find out just why she’s been working so hard. Read More
Space: the final frontier. This is the voyage of a homemade rocket carrying the fearless Hello Kitty as its sole passenger. Its mission: to explore the effects of altitude on air pressure and temperature, and to boldly go where no Kitty has gone before… Read More
Can you tell who the character in the above picture is? She’s cosplayed, posed nude and even turned herself into various edible treats before, but once again Ms. Kitty stretches the boundaries of her professionalism, this time by turning herself into human form, and an über-hot, sexy form at that. And you’ve got to admit, she really isn’t looking too bad, to put it mildly. Read More
No one can accuse Hello Kitty of being a slacker. She’s constantly involved in projects with popular franchises, and we’ve seen her tackle an unbelievably wide range of jobs from appearing on anime-themed boxer briefs to being featured nude on a T-shirt. She’s also not averse to tolerating a little pain, having been through some baking and steaming in her line of work.
This time, our fearless Miss Kitty endures some roasting, just in time for the Thanksgiving Holidays!
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Longtime readers of our site, or anyone who follows Japanese pop culture at all, has probably noticed that two of the country’s most heavily exploited media franchises are Evangelion and Hello Kitty.
In May, the inevitable finally happened when respective branding companies Groundworks and Sanrio teamed up to launch a line of crossover products to commemorate this fall’s release of the newest Evangelion movie, Evangelion: 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo.
Now, with the long-awaited film only a few weeks away, Japanese underwear maker 3RDWARE has joined the fray to outfit your First Child with adorable Eva x Hello Kitty boxer briefs.
I’m sure most people will agree that Hello Kitty, born nearly 40 years ago in 1974, is a creation that Japan can be proud of. She is now franchised in over 70 countries around the world. And once again, our beloved Ms. Kitty, the busiest and most famous cat in the world, is hard at work, this time at a restaurant in Beijing, China.
Yes, China is no exception when it comes to Hello Kitty’s popularity, and one of our reporters from Pouch recently had the chance to visit a Hello Kitty themed restaurant in the fashionable Sanlitun area of Beijing. And just in case you’re wondering, sure, we all know rip-offs are big business in China, but this shop is a legitimate operation officially recognized by Sanrio. So, let’s see what the aptly named “Dreams Restaurant (夢幻主題餐庁)” is like. Read More
From baked goods to blue hedgehogs, there’s nothing international superstar Hello Kitty won’t do to make a quick buck.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, our beloved “Kitty of All Trades,” the face of untainted feline innocence herself, has gone full-frontal.
Just about everyone knows Hello Kitty. The Japanese born cat of Sanrio, with her simple expression and cute little bow, has reached the far corners of the world. Hello Kitty, known as Kitty-chan in Japan, has made appearances on lunch boxes, debit cards, $5,000 necklaces, electric guitars, and even airplanes.
The expressionless white cat’s overwhelming popularity has spread throughout the world, prompting the creation of the Hello Kitty Cafe franchise in South Korea with locations in Seoul, Incheon, and Sinchon. One of our reporters, enamored by the cuteness that Japan’s most famous cat exudes, decided to pay a visit to Hello Kitty Cafe’s Seoul location.
It seems there’s never a shortage of character-themed steamed buns (niku-man in Japanese) coming onto the market in Japan. In the past, we’ve seen buns modeled after Hatsune Miku, Spiderman, slime from Dragon Quest and Puyo Puyo to name a few. So who’s the newest character to be steamed into a tasty little bun? It’s none other than our beloved “cat of all trades”, Ms. Kitty! Read More
As you probably are already aware, Hello Kitty is definitely one very busy cat! In some of our past posts, we’ve seen her being baked into golden brown treats, or collaborating with Sadako from the “Ring” series. This time, Ms. Kitty will help make your shopping experience at the supermarket more environment-friendly and hassle free (on top of adding an element of cute, of course), with the new “Hello Kitty Premium Basket Cooler Tote Bag“. Read More
What ever happened to the days of cars that weighed several tons, burned obscene amounts of fuel and had some style and personality to them. Most cars these days look like blandly colored Tylenol gelcaps devoid of any of the raw machismo of their forefathers.
That’s why Mitsubishi’s third annual My i-MiEV Design Wrapping line of i-MiEV electric cars deserves applause for bringing some personality and more importantly testosterone automobiles once again.
You may have read our previous report about Ms. Kitty taking on the tough job of being baked into small golden brown cakes. Well, it appears she was just getting warmed up for a huge number of engagements in the Shibuya area this week. When yours truly, a humble Hello Kitty fan, found out that Ms. Kitty would be appearing in various edible forms at the food department of the Tokyu Toyoko Department Store in Shibuya, I knew I just had to go and see Ms. Kitty hard at work. And wow, has she been keeping herself busy! Read More
We’ve said before that Hello Kitty doesn’t appear to be too picky about her jobs – she seems willing to take on an awfully wide range of engagements upon request. Well, we’ve recently discovered that Ms. Kitty, as we sometimes like to call her, now has an amazing new job. This time, believe it or not, her job involves being baked whole and then sold as kongari-yaki or “golden brown baked Kitty”. What will become of our beloved Kitty? Will she come out of this endeavor unscathed? Read More
What happens when you combine one of the cutest, most beloved mascot characters in the world with one of the most terrifying characters in modern Japanese fiction and cinema? You get “Sadako Kitty”, or Kitty dressed up as Sadako, the character from the hit Japanese horror series “The Ring”. Of course, it’s Hello Kitty, so she’s still cute, but she does look quite different from her usual self. Read More
Most of the world is familiar with Hello Kitty as she puts her stamp of cuteness on backpacks, shirts, posters, and the occasional jumbo jet or hotel room. But how much do people outside of Japan know about her personal life.
As the Japanese lovingly refer to her as Kitty-chan she is also occasionally known by the name she uses on her British passport, Kitty White. This info is provided by her owners at the Japanese company Sanrio.
However, when we look at Hello Kitty’s bio on Sanrio’s Taiwan website, we discover that Japan may have been wrong all this time. Their translation of the infamous cat’s real British name is not Kitty but in fact Katie.
Readers of this website are likely to be familiar with nikuman, the steamed rice pastry often made with meat filling. In the past we have reported on the delicious slime shaped nikuman and Puyo Puyo themed nikuman. One thing to note about nikuman is that their name is made up of two parts niku (meat) and man (steamed bread) so that if you change the filling the suffix remains the same giving you pizzaman or curryman.
Universal Studios Japan took notice of how this is linguistically similar to the suffixes often used for superheroes in English and developed Spiderman (here the man would be pronounced kind of like a Jamacian accented mon).
So you’re taking a vacation to Japan via the Hello Kitty Jet to buy some Hello Kitty stationary, knick knacks, clothing, and accessories, but you don’t have a place to stay? The Shinhankyu Hotel in Osaka has got you covered!
Starting March first they are making Hello Kitty themed Prince Kitty Rooms available, each decorated wall-to-wall with the infamous kitten along with her childhood companion Dear Daniel. Everything in the room from the curtains to the sheets to the cushions is touched with the pink and white essence of Japan cutest cultural icon, all of which are exclusive designs for this hotel.


















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