Everyday Cuteness in Japan

I think most crafters are familiar with the word 'kawaii' as a genre of cutesy japanese craft like amigurumi crochet and hello kitty. It is a japanese word that basically means "cute" and is used extensively by young women. Before I came here I used to pronounce it 'kai-why' but it should be pronounced 'ka-why-ee'. One of the things westerners notice as soon as they arrive is no matter the seriousness of the situation, there is always an opportunity to advertise or warn against it using a cute character.

Don't get caught in the train doors:

Watch out for trains when you are texting or drunk on a platform:

Stop! A police sign.

There are even more examples in everyday life. Labels:

Traffic cones:

Clothes:

But, despite being bombarded daily with cuteness (even the spam porn pop-ups I get when downloading things are kawaii manga style), I was still taken aback by the kawaii nature of the bag of salt I bought for dyeing with.

So cute! And only about 70p/$1 so not even an expensive bag of salt. Of course I shouldn't be surprised considering that below is the first salt I bought when we moved here and I've been refilling it ever since.

Kawaii Panda! Because of course you cannot use the word 'kawaii' without using at least one exclamation mark. You should try to work that into any pronunciation of the word too, otherwise you risk sounding like a tourist.