Every time you walk through Hong Kong you discover so many cute things, even in places you would not expect it. When we passed a store for bathroom interiors the other day, we couldn’t believe what we saw: adorable Hello Kitty tiles. So we stopped and took a look. The designs were really cute and actually quite discreet with lots of red, black and white. The suggestions on how to arrange the tiles and pictures with examples of Hello Kitty bathrooms and kitchens looked very nice, even for people who are not hardcore Hello Kitty fans. Isn’t it a funny idea to have some rooms covered with Hello Kitty tiles? Would you want it?

Lovely Hello Kitty tiles displayed in a shop in Hong Kong

What a wonderful place to work. This month’s U Travel magazine – a Hong Kong magazine for mainly young people writing about good travel opportunities in Asian countries – has a huge cover story about Sanrio, the home of Hello Kitty. As the Japanese headquarter in Tokyo is moving, they used this occasion to open the company doors for an exclusive insight. It is a huge cover story with lots of colourful pictures and information… all in Chinese of course. But it’s definitely worth checking it out.

The adorbale cover of Hong Kongs U Travel magazine

It’s all about Hello Kitty on these pages, that’s for sure. The photos of all those pretty details in the Sanrio building are just amazing.

It will be Hello Kitty on the next 12 pages as well

It probably is the dream of every kawaii Fan. When you work for Sanrio you can’t escape Hello Kitty. Employees get drinks in cute Hello Kitty bottles, they can play Hello Kitty videogames on adorbale machines, there are amazing interactive Hello Kitty installations on the floor and big Hello Kitty walls next to the elevators.

Look at all those cute pictures of the Sanrio interior - it is a dream come true

Of course the article also includes a Sanrio history. Did you know that the company started out as a greeting card company in the 1960s? In the 1970s then they developed the Hello Kitty character and this is when the success story really started.

A brief Sanrio history - Hello Kitty made them famous

Hello Kitty in the course of time. Fortunately the cute cat hasn’t changed much. Sanrio just knows what’s good.

Now and then - Hello Kitty has not changed much. We like it!

Japanese designer Yuko Yamamoto invented Hello Kitty. When asked what is her favourite Hello Kitty character she answers that she is still working on it. So we can look forward to much more cuteness.

Hello Kitty creator Yuko Yamamoto answers questions

Most of our business partners are located in Japan or the US, so it is always very special when they come to our office in Hong Kong during their business trips. This week Shigeo from San-X visited us. We have known him for many years already, but of course we don’t see him a lot in person, so it was nice to meet him again. It was the first time he saw our current office and was very impressed how big it is. Of course he also enjoyed seeing how many San-X products we stock and took a lot of pictures of our warehouse. The next time we visit Japan, Shigeo wants to show us the San-X warehouse. That would be totally awesome and a dream come true for us.

And as we thought it should be kind of mandatory for a San-X employee to take a picture with Rilakkuma we photographed Shigeo, Sandra and Alan with our huge office mascot.

Alan, Shigeo and Sandra with our huge Rilakkuma office mascot

Shigeo from San-X takes picture of our warehouse

Awww, this is just adorable. The convenience store 7-Eleven in Hong Kong just started a new Rilakkuma promotion this week. Now the whole city is covered with gigantic Rilakkuma stickers and posters on all their shops. During the 7-Eleven x Rilakkuma Forest Collection campaign customers can get seven super cute plush charms with suckers by collecting stamps. For every purchase worth 20 HKD you receive one. Once you’ve collected 15 stamps you get a charm for free. If you can’t wait just add 12 HKD when you have 5 stamps and get one too. Rilakkuma, Korilakkuma and Kiiroitori have super kawaii forest designs, which all you Rilakkuma fans know already. There are toadstools, capes and squirrels involved. The charms look totally adorable and are pretty big. Which one do you like best? Unfortunately we couldn’t touch them yet to test their softness, as the 7-Eleven stores just display them in glass boxes. But we’re pretty sure they’re super soft and extremely squeezable.

Super kawaii 7-Eleven shop front with huge Rilakkuma stickers

Rilakkuma, Korilakkuma and Kiiroitori on a sticker flower meadow

Big pictures of the 7 plush charms of the 7-Eleven x Rilakkuma Forest Collection

Inside the stores you can take a look at all the charms - behind glass unfortunately

One of the official photos for the Rilakkuma promotion

Hong Kong is full of surprises. It could even happen that one day you share the elevator with a giant tortoise that is just being taken out for a walk by its owner. Yeah, sounds pretty unlikely, doesn’t it? Still it happened to our team member Bianca. Not only was she quite impressed by meeting such an unusual pet, but also by the routine of the situation. Because the tortoise goes for a walk every day and knows exactly what to do: Ride the elevator, ‘run’ to the exit and wait for someone to open the door (or just run against it until somebody does). As soon as it is outside it can stroll around, always watched by its owner, who doesn’t have a very hard job in doing so. And getting its picture taken didn’t disturb the massive reptile either – it’s probably already used  to being a little celebrity.

It was an encounter of a different kind but definitely unforgettable – at least for the humans involved.

The giant tortoise heading from the elevator to the door

That was such a pretty sight. On the 15th day of Chinese New Year the Spring Lantern Festival is celebrated, which is also popularly referred to as Chinese Valentine’s Day. In Hong Kong you will get in touch with that tradition mostly by visiting one of the special evening celebrations organised by the government at various places throughout the city.

We took a lot of pictures at the ‘Lunar New Year Lantern Carnival Amazing Maze’ in the district of Tsim Sha Tsui, where you could find beautiful lanterns and lots of activities on February 6th. There were performances by dance groups, stalls with folk craft like paper cutting or dough figurines, Cantonese Opera, interactive games and fortune telling. But of course it was all about the lanterns, there were beautiful installations everywhere. One the one hand you could see a lot of peacocks with heart embellishments which probably referred to Chinese Valentine’s Day. On the other hand there were a lot of lanterns referring to Chinese New Year depicting important symbols and the 12 Zodiac Animals. As it is the year of the dragon, a gigantic dragon lantern was the highlight and centre of the whole carnival.

Of course people went crazy, everybody wanted to take a picture. So there were large crowds in front of every lantern and it was almost impossible to get a photo without people in it. We tried our best to give you an impression of what it looked like. The festival marks the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations. We couldn’t think of a more beautiful way to end it.

Lots of lanterns at the entrance of the Spring Festival Carnival

People want a picture with the cute lantern guy wishing good luck in Chinese

Colourful peacocks everywhere

They are embellished with hearts - maybe for Chinese Valentines Day

Everybody wants to take a picture with the lanterns

Beautiful lantern installations everywhere

The huge dragon lantern is the highlight of the carnival

2012 is the year of the dragon

Lots of Chinese symbols and zodiac animals surround the dragon

Chinese heroes riding on tigers that they fought before

The snake is one of the 12 Chinese Zodiac Animals depicted in the carnival

Every now and then you see cute Hello Kitty food in the supermarkets of Hong Kong if there are special promotions or holidays. Then you’ll find Hello Kitty sweets, cookies or even whole food series like pasta or sauces. But now we discovered the little cat on an item that couldn’t be more typical for Hong Kong: Cup Noodles. Instant Noodles are sooo common and popular in Asia, every supermarket has large shelves with lots of different flavours and brands, every convenience store holds at least a small selection of instant noodles. And now we found cute Hello Kitty Noodles with soy sauce flavour. Do you think the noodles will be shaped like Hello Kitty? If we get some we’ll let you know.

what a nice sight in the instant noodle shelf of the supermarket

cute Hello Kitty instant noodles

this one has soy sauce flavour

The Chocolate Trail 2012 is open. Doesn’t this sound like heaven on earth? At least for chocoholics. Hong Kong’s mall Harbour City started a special chocolate promotion for the third year in a row. Until February 19th everything will revolve around that tender brown sweet. Throughout the whole mall you find super big installations of macaroons and chocolate that look extremely tasty. Unfortunately they are not edible, otherwise probably many people would have taken a bite of that huge macaroon tree already, which is several meters high. Apart from the installation at the mall there is a photo exhibition and live “sweetheart” demonstrations with chocolatiers from the world’s biggest chocolate manufacturers. And of course chocolate to buy. Sounds good, huh?

Chocolate is currently a big topic at our shop too, as we just recently added many products of the new Rilakkuma Chocolate and Coffee Collection. If you prefer pastry, we also have a whole lot of stuff with macaroons. One way or the other, it stays sweet.

Official poster of the Chocolate Trail Promotion at Harbour City

Tasty and huge macaroon tree

there are even funny chocolate puzzle stickers on the floor

this huge macaroon looks a bit like a burger

tasty pink macaroon XXL

Yes, we have been posting quite a bit about Chinese New Year in Hong Kong already. But there is just so much to see that we can’t stop. Until now we mainly focused on showing you stuff related to cute characters that we love so much. But of course there is a lot more to this super important Chinese holiday. So we thought you might be interested in getting some impressions of what everyday things look like at the moment. Because in every place you go and every store you enter you will find some Chinese New Year decoration or special products to buy. So take a look at some more general pictures about Chinese New Year.

a stationery shop with CNY decoration in Tsim Sha Tsui at nighttime

everywhere you look it is red, red, red

decorations with dragons are really big, it is the year of the dragon after all

Chinese New Year lights covering whole buildings at the New Mandarin Plaza

CNY decoration in a Wellcome supermarket

big tables full of candy

most stores now have a whole section with Chinese New Year stuff

Now is the time to buy a mandarine tree - it stands for good luck

the entrance of a regular appartment building with decoration

Chinese New Year is almost there and even if you don’t have a clue about it, you can definitely tell that it’s a big thing. At least if you live in Hong Kong, because by now - one week before the celebrations – the whole city has turned into a place of red and gold decorations. And as we have entered the crunch-time of preparing for the festivities, we found a lot of stuff we want to share with you. Because a lot of our favourite characters appear on Chinese New Year decorations.

Especially on Fai Chuns – paper decorations with good wishes that you can hang in your home – you can find cute characters like Hello Kitty, Rilakkuma, My Melody, Mickey or Minnie Mouse. Often the characters are combined with other symbols important for Chinese New Year such as mandarines, ingots (gold nuggets) or dragons (2012 is the year of the dragon), which mean good luck or prosperity. Fire cracker decorations (of course no real firecrackers) are also really popular as a Chinese New Year decoration. And the red envelopes or red packets must not be missing either. Those little paper envelopes are passed out during the celebrations filled with money. Usually married couples give them to unmarried juniors, adults give them to children too.

cute Hello Kitty Fai Chun in rectangular shape

Rilakkuma and friends also wish good luck for Chinese New Year

Disney Fai Chun with Mickey Mouse holding a typical ingot gold nugget

Hello Kitty Fai Chun on a Dragon

more Rilakkuma, Hello Kitty and My Melody Fai Chuns

cute plush toy Rilakkuma decoration with mandarines for prosperity

Hello Kitty & My Melody fire cracker decoration - no real ones of course

very important for Chinese New Year - red envelopes

a mandarine tree made from paper, including cute mickey mouse heads