Rilakkuma

Free kawaii wallpapers for Easter

by modes4u February 27, 2013

Soon it will be Easter, so we decided to decorate our desktops for that upcoming holiday. And we found some super kawaii free wallpapers we want to share with you. Hello Kitty and Rilakkuma are dressed up as bunnies, but there are also other cute Japanese characters. Click on the pictures below to download the wallpapers.

Hekko Kitty as a cute bunny

Wish me mell wallpaper

I love eggs are perfect for Easter

Rilakkuma and friends dressed up as bunnies

The cute flowers and bumble beans wallpaper has a great spring design

Super kawaii bunnies

flowers and bees from usacolle.com

February 27, 2013 2 comments

Rilakkuma at Hong Kong Marathon

by modes4u February 26, 2013

On Sunday 72,000 people participated in the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon 2013 through Hong Kong. One of them was Rilakkuma! To be honest, we did not expect to see him there as he is such a lazy bear and you have to be in very good shape to run a marathon. But in the end we were right, the lazy bear rather posed for pictures and TV cameras than focusing on the marathon. He is a lazy bear after all!

There were lots of people in funny costumes participating in the marathon, but of course Rilakkuma was the most popular character in the spotlight.

Rilakkuma poses for the cameras

Running a marathon is not really Rilakkumas thing – he is just too lazy (photo: hk apple daily)

February 26, 2013 0 comment

modes4u team: Rilakkuma asks……. Karen

by modes4u January 27, 2013

We’ve already introduced you to large parts of our team, but some very important people are still missing. Like our packing fairy Karen!

Hello, who are you by the way?
My name is Karen. I’m 32 years old and come from Hong Kong. I have been working for modes4u for 1 ½ years now and like it a lot. Before I had a job as an animator for many years, where I animated cartoons.

What is your job at modes4u?
I am one of the packing staff here and do everything from picking products, wrapping and packing, cutting fabrics from the bolts, sticking stamps on the envelopes to taking the packages to the post office. Of course I can’t do all of this by myself, I share these tasks with my colleagues Lok and Veronica.

We have lots of Japanese products and as I speak a bit of Japanese I sometimes have to help out Bianca, when she is describing the products and needs additional information.

What is your favourite product or your favourite category at modes4u?
I loooove Rilakkuma, so working here is my personal heaven. All the Rilakkuma products are really lovely, but I like the Rilakkuma plushies the most. My absolute favourite is our giant Rilakkuma office mascot, which is almost taller than me. Fortunately he is not for sale, so I can see him every day when I’m at work.

What do you like most about your job at modes4u?
I really enjoy the friendly and almost familiar atmosphere. And it is so cool to work in an international team, because I am super curious to learn about different cultures. I absorb all the new information like a sponge and take every opportunity to try local food from the different countries.

I also like to work with our products; it’s really fun to pack them.

You’re surrounded by creative stuff the whole day. Do you like to craft or to be creative in your leisure time?
I don’t craft very much, but express myself in a different way in my leisure time. I like to cook very much for example. As my colleagues bring delicious self-made pastry frequently, it really makes me want to bake too, but unfortunately we don’t have an oven (lots of people don’t in Hong Kong). So the other week I made a dessert called “chocolate salami”, a big chocolate roll filled with nuts, cookies and pistachios. It looked like a salami when you cut in slices. It was pastry without baking.

After work I also take language classes, I started to learn Korean last year and also took English classes to improve my English.

As happy as can be: Karen with our Rilakkuma office mascot

It really looks like salami, but was a delicious chocolate dessert – Karens yummy chocolate salami

January 27, 2013 4 comments

Christmas star Rilakkuma on the streets of Hong Kong

by modes4u December 27, 2012

What a great Christmas surprise. We discovered a giant Christmas Rilakkuma on the streets of Hong Kong. On the 24th of December the very popular shopping district Tsim Sha Tsui is always closed for cars in the evening and thousands of people walk on the streets and go shopping. But you’ll also find lots of Christmas choirs, bands and crazy people on the street. And in between all that hustle we spotted him: Rilakkuma. The lazy bear was celebrated like a superstar, he was surrounded by a crowd of people and everybody wanted to take a picture with him. Lazy as he is, he was just standing there and happy to take pictures with all the people. Of course especially all the children were super excited to see him.

Rilakkuma even wore a Christmas outfit, consisting of a Christmas hat over his right ear. We couldn’t have wished for a better Christmas surprise.

The children loved the big Christmas Rilakkuma on the streets of Tsim Sha Tsui

The bear was surrounded by lots of people, but you could already see him from far away

The lazy bear was the superstar on Christmas Eve in Hong Kongs popular shopping district

December 27, 2012 2 comments

Rilakkuma hotel room in Hawaii

by modes4u December 22, 2012

In 2013 San-X will release the new Rilakkuma Hawaii collection and they will offer a super cute add-on. When San-X visited us the last time in our office in Hong Kong, they told us that two hotels in Hawaii will offer special Rilakkuma rooms once the collection is released. And they even showed us pictures already!

So you’re getting a super exclusive preview on how the rooms will look like. From what we can see, it looks like there will mainly be tons of plush toys in every room, but it looks super cozy and inviting. You have to book the rooms in advance, because it takes some time to prepare to make them look like this. We don’t have any information yet when you will be able to book and what they really contain, but it’s a very good collaboration to promote the new collection.

Would you want to stay there?

Rilakkuma everywhere in the Hawaiin Sheraton hotel

This room will be available in the Holiday Inn

December 22, 2012 0 comment

Rilakkuma baking classes in Hong Kong

by modes4u November 4, 2012

How adorable. In one of the local Hong Kong magazines we found a big article about baking classes in Hong Kong, where you learn how to make lovely Rilakkuma pastry. One class really just focuses on baking the cutest Rilakkuma and Kiiroitori cookies, in another class, which is especially for families, you learn how to make the cutest Rilakkuma macaroons.

You just want to eat these Rilakkuma cookies right away!

In another Hong Kong class you learn how to make Rilakkuma macaroons

The Rilakkuma macaroons are really lovely

November 4, 2012 0 comment

modes4u team: Rilakkuma asks……. Bianca

by modes4u November 1, 2012

It’s time to introduce our fifth team member. And it’s getting international again, because Bianca moved from Germany to Hong Kong to come to our office every day.

Hello, who are you by the way?
I’m Bianca, 31, from Wuppertal in Germany. One year ago I moved here to Hong Kong and started working at modes4u. It’s still super exciting here; the city is surprising me over and over again. In Germany I lived and worked in different cities, most recently as a public relations officer in a ski dome. Before I was a television editor.

What is your job at modes4u?
I am the copy writer at modes4u and work with words every day. My main task is to add new products to our shop. That means every new item for modes4u.com has to pass my desk first to be measured, weighted and described.

Also I am in charge of the German and English company blogs and constantly looking for new ideas and topics to write about. In addition to that I deal with inquiries from media and journalists. And whenever a text for our website, for an announcement or for another occasion is needed, I write it as well.

What is your favourite product or your favourite category at modes4u?
I absolutely adore our Washi Tapes, which I discovered in our shop for the first time. Before I didn’t even know the cool Masking Tapes existed, now I already own a box full of them. No letter or present leaves my house without at least one stripe of Washi tape decoration.

From all our characters I am a big fan of the cute Otogicco Little Red Riding Hood by Decole. I’m always really excited when we get new products from that series. Also I am profoundly in love with our echino fabrics. Unfortunately I can’t sew at all, so the ways I can use those lovely textiles are kind of limited.

What do you like most about your job at modes4u?
There are no limits to my creativity. I have never worked in such a modern and open company. In Germany I often felt that rules and rigid structures slowed down new ideas. Here in many ways I really have the freedom to do whatever I want creatively. I can try a lot and start new things which I really like.

Our team is totally great too and the bosses really care about the well being of their employees. Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be natural in many Hong Kong companies and I also had mixed experiences in Germany about that. So I really appreciate it and feel in good hands here.

You’re surrounded by creative stuff the whole day. Do you like to craft or to be creative in your leisure time?
My creative activities always have certain phases. At the moment I’m in my Washi Tape phase; I love decorating glasses, stationery and photo albums with the adhesive tapes.

Sometimes I also design my own T-Shirts by embroidering, drawing or just applying an iron-on. In Germany I loved baking cakes and tarts a lot, but this passion is a bit on hold now. Baking is not that common in Hong Kong so a lot of times I lack the needed materials. Still my Chinese colleagues are always very excited when I bring something self-baked every now and then.

The bear and the girl – Bianca and Rilakkuma chatting

Bianca decorated all these jars with Washi Tapes

She also enjoys decorating photo albums with the colourful Masking Tapes

The office was super excited about Biancas self-baked cookies for Valentines Day

November 1, 2012 1 comment

Super cute Rilakkuma as Chicken plushie at Japan’s Lawson stores

by modes4u October 1, 2012

When we go to Japan we always bring back lots of cute items, but also magazines and commercials. From our last trip we also brought an advertisement from the Japanese store Lawson with super cool Rilakkuma plushies. Rilakkuma is dressed up as a chicken, it seems to be some kind of special edition from the newest Rilakkuma egg collection. It looks very adorable, esspecially the white chicken wings on Rilakkuma’s arms. Too bad you can only buy this stuff in Japan!

The big Rilakkuma as chicken plushie is super cute

Lawson sells lots of other cute Rilakkuma products

October 1, 2012 0 comment

New character box on our website

by modes4u September 28, 2012

We added a new feature to our shop that lots of you will like. From now on you find a box with pictures from the most popular characters on modes4u in the left sidebar on every page. When you click onto the icon you can see all the products with that character that we currently carry in our shop. Isn’t that super cool? See all our stuff with Rilakkuma, Little Red Riding Hood, Hello Kitty, Piggy Girl or My Melody and many more kawaii characters.

Looks adorable – our new character box on modes4u.com

You’ll find the character box on every page in our shop on the left side

September 28, 2012 0 comment

modes4u team: Rilakkuma asks……. Alan

by modes4u September 5, 2012

Today we’re introducing a member of our staff which has been there from the very first minute: Alan is one of the bosses at modes4u.

Hello, who are you by the way?
I’m Alan. I’m 34 years old and come from Hong Kong. I am married to Sandra, the Managing Director from modes4u.com. Together with her I build modes4u more than 4 years ago. Before I joined the company fulltime I was working as an IT specialist for different companies here in Hong Kong.

What is your job at modes4u?
I am the IT manager and responsible for everything technical at the office. I developed our packing software, our shop software and website, so I have to watch out that everything is working fine. I am constantly trying to improve everything of course, to make it easier, more user-friendly and faster. It is a never-ending story, but I enjoy it a lot.

As one of the bosses I am also busy with lots of organizational stuff, negotiations, business trips and so on. And sometimes I even am the craftsman at the office, when I have to fix or build things.

What is your favourite product or your favourite category at modes4u?
I know all our products in our shop very well, because until we hired a fulltime photographer last year, it was also my job to take all the product pictures. I like all of them, because they are so beautiful, but if I had to choose a favourite category, it would definitely be our dessert erasers. They are from Japan and made by the company Iwako. And even though Japanese products are usually very high-quality, those are the best looking erasers I ever seen; they look so real and so delicious!

What do you like most about your job at modes4u?
I have been in this shop since it started with a couple of orders a week and just two staff members, so it is very overwhelming to see how our business has developed and grown. I feel very fortunate that we have such a good team as I think the most important asset for a company is the staff. Everyone at modes4u is very passionate, hardworking and happy with his/her work. Our working environment is quite harmonized and a lot of times it just feels like a group of friends are doing something great together.

Personally, I really enjoy seeing how our products are making people happy. It might sound cheesy, but since I graduated from school I often wondered what I can do to make the world a better place. But then I see all the feedback we get from happy customers and realize that these kawaii things bring happiness to our customers. That’s a wonderful feeling and a great motivation to find new products and improve our shop constantly.

You’re surrounded by creative stuff the whole day. Do you like to craft or to be creative in your leisure time?
I like to be creative not so much in the crafty way, but in the field of technology. I love technical stuff and computers and can be very creative in dealing with them. A lot of times I also HAD to come up with ideas, because when we started to build our online shop a couple of years ago, the technology was nowhere near as good as today. I had to build most of our software from scratch, which involves a lot of creativity.

Alan is showing office Rilakkuma who is boss

September 5, 2012 11 comments