Thank you very much to our top bidder and to everyone who submitted a bid.

Whether or not you participated, we encourage you to give to the American Red Cross for Japan relief efforts if you haven’t already. The situation is still desperate for so many people there and recovery will take a long time.

We love you Japan!

Japan is very special to Mochimochi Land, and so John and I have been especially worried and heartbroken to see the terrible disasters that have continued to happen there in the past few days. We’re relieved that it seems our own friends there are all OK, but the tragedy is huge.

We wanted to do a little something to contribute to relief efforts and maybe bring some smiles in the process, so this week we’re holding a silent auction. Up for grabs is this one-of-a-kind knitted toy!

This Tiny Thing Conversion Factory takes tiny trees and converts them into tiny lions. Because why not, right? I originally made it for the “Luv-able & Hug-able” plush show at gallery hanahou in 2009, and last year it caught Roger Ebert’s eye, who made it internet famous on Twitter for a day.

The piece measures about 13 inches long and 7 inches tall. It’s made of wool yarn and polyester stuffing.

We’ll start the bidding at $50. 100% of the proceeds from this auction will go to the American Red Cross for disaster relief in Japan.

To submit your bid, send an email to shop@mochimochiland.com with the subject “Japan Auction” and your bid in the body of the email. (We’ll update this post once a day with the current top bid.) The last day for bidding will be this Friday, March 18th.

Whether or not you participate in the silent auction, we encourage you to donate to the Red Cross if you can.

Our hearts are going out to Japan this week and beyond!

Normally I don’t go crazy over animals in people clothes, unless they’re cats and they’re dressed as salary men.

They’re advertising completely different things, and neither of those things are toys.

This girl and her panda puppet want you to drink Kirin green tea.

The panda seems more interested in eating the cap, though.

And this girl and her giant frog are hawking loans, of all things.

As cute as that frog is, I’m not sure if it would motivate me to take out a loan from this particular company. Then again, I’m not Japanese.

But there is good news! As the ad I blogged about a earlier this month indicated, Kewpies have morphed into a Hello Kitty-like blank canvas ubiquitous to all department stores, kiosks, and souvenir shops.

Though Tarako Kewpie is gone, we now have Mushroom Kewpie and Beer Kewpie, among hundreds of other variations. You can even get Kewpies dressed up as popular anime characters.

The craft mecca Yuzawaya now has a whole wall of naked Kewpies in multiple sizes for people to dress up as their food or beverage of choice.

I suppose you can also get these in the U.S., but it seems that the Japanese have claimed Kewpie as their own. Could it make a comeback here?