Japan: Kingdom of Kawaiiness

The land of the rising sun is much more known to me as the land of Kawaiiness (Cuteness).... since my very first trip in Tokyo and Kyoto, back in 1998 - japan will always be know to me as a place where one can always feel and stay a child... through the countless of characters developed and produce year after year after year.... from cute to scary; sexy to icky; and everything else in between... such characters have invaded my world as well, as most of my friends' world... No One is safe, young or old; man or woman; rich or poor -- everyone, and I do mean everyone, falls in love with one or two (or if like me, MORE!!!) of these many characters over the years...

Kaohsiung's Dream Mall currently has a retrospective exhibition of such characters titled: "Japan: Kingdom of Characters"... highlighting decades of popular characters from the 1050's through the 2000's... as well as showing has these world of Kawaiiness has invaded the citizen's everyday life - from a child growing up surrounded by cuteness; teenage kids buying into all the cuteness and going as far as decorating their whole room in such Kawaiiness; older women incorporating cuteness to their cooking, sewing, cleaning, etc - after all, isn't it more fun to do chores surrounded by cuteness?; middle aged man escaping the everyday work life by reading MANGA, or collecting Sexy figures as a form of stress release...

All these have also been TRUE in many Asian countries I have visited, lived in... here in Taipei alone, I cannot even tell you how often I see cars, driven by adults, all in full cartoon regalia... not only the outside body painted in various cartoon characters but also inside, all accessories covered in full Kawaiiness... hanging stuff or vinyl toys on cel phones and purses (yes, even LVs and Prada bags are not safe - actually they have since jumped on the bandwagon and have produce oh so EXPENSIVE trinkets!)...

The exhibition, rather small but still was a fun one to see... especially great seeing all the ones I have loved over the years... AstroBoy, Evangelion, Galaxy 999, Pokemon, Cardcaptor Sakura & so many more... Truly brings back so much fun memories of all the Anime I watched growing up and still watches, as well as , Manga comics I used to read to pass the time away.... It (the exhibition) also invigorates to seek more of these Kawaiiness to help escape the humdrumness of everyday life.....