Licca Castle Small Shop in Tokyo

Dear Readers,

Did you know that Licca Castle has opened a store in Nihonbashi, Tokyo!  It's called LICCA CASTLE SMALL SHOP and it will sell Licca Castle and Jenny dolls, shoes and outfits!  And they apparently sell rare dolls and dresses that are exclusive to that store!

Photo from Licca Castle Website

The shop has recently opened on August 1st, 2014 and I only saw a very few photos of the store so far.  But the most memorable pictures are from this fantastic Japanese blogger Kokeshi Diary !  She has an incredible collection of Licca dolls, Blythe dolls and Azone Pure Nemo dolls!  Her blog is such a pleasure to follow because of her super beautiful pictures!  It's thanks to Chloe Liu from MoonRabbit_Ly's Miniature World that I found out about the blog!

The photos I am posting here are however from the Licca Castle Official Website and are not that blogger's personal photos.  I wished I could ask Kokeshi Diary for her permission to repost her pictures here but her blog is in Japanese and I don't know how to navigate around to ask her nor can I write in Japanese :/

Photo from Licca Castle Website

So you must take a look at the Licca Small Shop on her blog entry!  Can you imagine rows and rows of dreamy doll's dresses and shoes?  It's a Licca Heaven!  

Photo from Licca Castle Website

The dolls themselves are super kawaii cute and for the fist time I am considering buying a boy Licca doll (they do exist!).  I think the pictures are showing Charles (Licca's cousin from France who has blonde hair).  I didn't know boy's outfits could interest me this much but they look fabulous on these dolls!  I found a close up photo of the boys in this other blog entry (scroll all the way down).  I am also in love with the sailor suit and dress shown on that post.  Aren't they amazing?

Oh to go to Tokyo and buy all these goodies!  One can dream.  What is your dream shop?

Licca-chan's Randoseru

Dear Readers,

Do you know what a Randoseru is?  It's a backpack that elementary school students use in Japan. The name Randoseru is from the Dutch word "Ransel" which means "backpack". If you are familiar with anime and mainstream Japanese culture, you will probably recognize the backpack. You can read more about the origin and history of the Randoseru HERE.

I first saw the iconic shape when I browsed the internet to buy Licca outfits.  I found the backpack sold  on Amazon HERE.  There are other vendors on Ebay too but the set was cheaper on Amazon so I went ahead and bought it.

The promotion picture looked so tempting!

Here is what it would look on a Licca doll.

After weeks of waiting for my package to arrive from Japan, I finally received it today!

The randoseru is simply awesome! It looks exactly like the life-size backpack with adjustable straps and a flap that you can lift up or attach down!  The bag is well-made, is easily bendable but it can somehow retain its shape.  The bag had a slight plastic scent when I opened the package but it has now dissipated and I don't smell it anymore.

Once you open the flap, you can see the name tag on the bag "Licca Kayama".  Kayama is Licca's last name.

The inside of the flap shows carvings of numbers, days of the week and other school symbols.

Here below is the content included in the package (the doll is not included) :

• 1 red backpack
• 1 empty pencil case 
• 1 case with a cardboard picture of color pencils
• 2 notebooks with blank pages
• 1 pink lock

Everything fits inside the randoseru except the small case.  Well it could fit if you remove the pencil case.

Here is my Licca-chan trying out her new randoseru.  She is 11 years-old so she is still in elementary school.  This backpack is just what she needed!

For about $14 dollars (including shipping) this was a little expensive for the amount of goods included but the bag was so well-made that I think it was worth it after all.

And let's put things in perspective: a real life-size Licca Randoseru sells for about $329   O_O

... so I think I got mine for pretty cheap ;-)