Last weekend I went to Hyper Japan at The Earls Court Exhibition Centre in London, an event that celebrates J-culture. There were numerous stalls, contemporary and traditional exhibitors and many people dressed up in cosplay.
さいたまチェーンソー少女
Saitama chainsaw girl
Saitama Chainsaw Girl was an ordinary school girl by the name of Kirisaki Fumio, who after finding out that the boy she liked was interested in someone else went on a killing rampage, culminating with the taking of her own life, harakiri style with a chainsaw. Did I mention she’s a fictional Manga character.
Below is The Fat Princess, eyeing the food items in front of her lustfully. At least I assumed it was the Playstation game character by that name, but thought it best not to ask her.
Here are some other characters present at the event.
There were numerous Japanese culinary delights on sale, including Takoyaki (see below), which have octopus (Tako) in the middle.
(Courtesy of http://recipe4you.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/takoyaki-cute-balls-from-japan.html)
To date eighty different flavours of KitKats have been created in Japan. Personally I am of the opinion that the original version would have sufficed.
Below is a photo of a shelf of KitKats from one of the stalls.
Each variety of KitKat represent different prefectures.
Top Row (left to right) is Azuki beans (Tokai), Blueberry Cheesecake (Koshin) & Sweet Potato (Okinawa).
Bottom Row (left to right) is Wasabi (Shizuoka & Kanto), Apple (Shinshu) and Strawberry Cheesecake (Yokohama).