Welcome to another YvoCaro Plays!
As always, these blurbs are mostly about the video games I’m currently playing. Unedited thoughts that spring up in my mind, mostly game-related, sometimes not. Or a random train of thoughts starting with the game and ending somewhere completely different!
If you like these bits of gaming thoughts, you can find the previous ones here
Merchandise at Epcot in Disney World
These past few weeks I had the luck to be on holiday. A much-awaited one, as it had been postponed for two years due to Covid. But finally, finally, we went to Orlando Florida! Disney World was our priority destination, the most magical place on earth. I know, visiting theme parks isn’t a perk for everyone, but my daughter, husband and I love it. We aren’t really into the fast rides, but the shows, 4D movies and the atmosphere over there are awesome.
One of the parts that featured high on our wish list was Epcot. Epcot is a combination of attractions and the World Showcases, where many countries are portrayed around a big lake. Want to see a real English telephone box in the United Kingdom? A small Eiffel Tower in France or an Aztec pyramid in Mexico? You can, all in this amusement park. I was excited to visit Japan, as I know the store there, Mitsukoshi, has a fine selection.

Looking at the items for sale at Mitsukoshi I think a shift is taking place. When I was there in 2016, there was a section with merchandise and the store mostly stocked traditional Japanese items and products. Now, over half of the store featured merchandise: for video games like Animal Crossing and Pokémon, for anime like Demon Slayer and everything Studio Ghibli.
Kawaii Exhibit by Sebastian Masuda
Next to Mitsukoshi I found a temporary exhibit about Kawaii, made together with Sebastian Masuda. This artist and designer opened the first concept shop 6%DOKIDOKI in Tokyo in 1995. In Japan, Kawaii is getting more and more popular, but I didn’t know the term, do you? According to Masuda, this is the meaning of Kawaii:
Kawaii pop culture has been around in Japan for decades now, and it is still growing. You might think it only influences the girls who dress cute in Lolita Fashion and have bright coloured plushies in their apartment but you would be wrong. Cute and cuddly is important to many Japanese: surrounding themselves with kawaii things after a hard day’s work to relax. It is by now firmly embedded in everyday life. Almost all major companies in Japan have a cute mascot that represents the company, even the Japanese police force has one. Businessmen have a cute phone charm, and Japanese airlines adorn their jets with cute characters.

We Are Ready for Kawaii
Cute items in anime, manga and video games lead to Kawaii merchandise. If you are looking out for it specifically, you’ll be surprised at how incorporated Kawaii is in everyday life, even here in our Western society. I mean, it wasn’t so long ago that eyebrows were raised if you had Pokémon plushies on the dashboard of your car. Or drank from a thermos cup with an Animal Crossing print on it. This was something nerds did like in The Big Bang Theory or people that refused to grow up and be responsible.

I never saw more clearly how ready we are for cute, colorful and cuddly in our life. Disney is selling a huge collection of Mickey Ears, themed after their attractions. And what’s more, people were actually wearing them! Some people hadn’t bought them standard but had been creative, making their own version. LaunchFly Backpacks were a thing ( a costly thing too…), with once again so many themes that it would be hard to choose. It was such fun to just sit there and watch all the different varieties go by. I saw some plushies stuck to people’s shoulders, like a parrot with a pirate. Maybe not exactly Kawaii, but I saw so many graphic tees too. People clearly showed what they were enthusiastic about.
Find Your Inner Child
It was nice to give a name to this need of mine to go for colorful handbags, animal crossing merchandise surrounding my workplace and shelves full of Disney paraphernalia on the shelve in my kitchen. More and more people are finding this completely normal, and why not? We love going back to the things that make us happy, things from our youth. Things that make us smile during a stressful day, just looking at them and the memories they bring. It doesn’t mean we don’t want to grow up…it’s just that we can still find our inner child!

This was a very interesting! I had heard the term Kawaii (and seen the cute mascots on ramen I get at the Asian market) but wasn’t really sure what it was or knew how embedded it is in their society. Fascinating.
Also, I have to mention: According to my research, Disney World is still a place where you are likely to get at least one streetpuss if you brings your 3DS/2DS. So if you go, think about popping yours in your bag (and let me know if you got any! I love to hear stories about it still being an active feature on occasion).
I felt so too, CJ, that it was a very interesting exhibition. In recent years for example it has gotten normal to wear a t-shirts from Pokémon or an anime series or whatever. But that certainly wasn’t always the case. And it’s great, as we need more good feelings in our lives!