NIPPON-ICHIGO

Are you addicted to Toxel? I am. It posted about treehouses, and there are a couple of interesting ones in Okinawa.

Beautiful.

The Beach Rock Treehouse was designed by Takashi Kobayashi. What’s best is this is the thing in which we’ll likely make first contact!

Kobayashi, a leading treehouse-maker, also made this:

I want it

One speculates that because of this skill, he would be the ultimate father.

A concrete Gajumaru tree.

The Naha Harbor Diner is a fun idea. It certainly sticks out. Unfortunately (but for obvious reasons), the tree is fake. Certainly looks real, though.

Now I want to visit Okinawa even more.

I loved treehouses when I was a kid, but didn’t have enough friends or siblings to warrant having one of my own. The thought of having a small house all to myself was absolutely titillating, however — I loved miniature versions of things, as I suppose some girls do, with doll houses and such. (That was back when Polly Pocket was good, and yes, I loved and collected those, too.)

Having seen fine examples of crazy treehouses from around the world, I decided to see how many notable treehouses are in Japan.

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Kawaii is more than just a word meaning “cute” to be thrown around by 14-year-old manga fans on deviantArt. In Japan, it’s an entire culture, one that has captured the hearts of many and slowly creeped its way westwards to claim others as well. Good thing, too: I’m weak to adorable and tiny things. Very weak.

Sweet lord.

Japan has pretty much cornered the market on cute. And since Japan appointed a cartoon ambassador of anime last year, it stands to reason that the next step would be appointing (non-cartoon) ambassadors of cuteness.

They're so cute it's killing me

It’s no surprise they’re already popular in Harajuku. They look like they stepped right out of anime. They might start glittering and undergo a magical transformation at any moment…and then giggle innocently, completely unaware of why you gape and stare.

Foreign Ministry head of cultural affairs Tsutomu Nakagawa said this:

“We want people abroad to know these kind of people exist in Japan and to feel close to them.”

I think what would surprise us more is letting us know that people other than this exist in Japan. Because, let’s face it — all these foreign otaku and other sorts obsessed with Japan abroad would like to think one out of every two Japanese people they would encounter would appear to be this way.

Anyway, I like it. I’m all about style, and “kawaii” never dies. Japan already has huge cultural appeal, but still seems aloof to many. This will help.

Chances are if you’re a freak like me you’ve already seen all these videos, but I’ve been wanting to post them anyway.

Old culture meets new culture – Shamisen rock from the Yoshida Bros.!

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