I visited many crafts stores on my spring visit to Japan but on this trip, I happened upon crafty Gashapon! Gashapon are capsule toys you normally buy from vending machines. I found these at Okadaya in Shinjuku, which is one of my favorite stores outside of Nippori.

The gashapon for this crafty set had some really cute options but of the four I purchased, I got three of the same thing. This is not unusual with gashapon but I didn’t have time to try Okadaya again and even scouring every set of machines I ran across, didn’t find any more. This set is produced by Kenelphant in Japan.

The two items I got in my purchase are the clipping scissors and the thread. Each key chain came with a fold out card that described the item and its history.

The first capsule I opened was the thread key chain! It is pink and purple mini thread.

Apologies for some blurry bits in these photos, I took them on my phone and the macro isn’t so great.

The thread labels are easy to read, these are replicas of Fujix thread, a Japanese thread maker.

I can’t read Japanese but Google translate gave me gist if the paragraph. Fujix thread has been around since 1974 and is a staple of crafting in Japan.

The second capsule I opened contained the trimming scissors (as did the other two I opened).

Again, Google Translate helped me pit with the content of the insert. These little clippers are made by Shozaburo Shears & Scissors which has been in business since 1920.

This is not the first set of crafty gashapon but this is the first set I’ve found. I really, really wanted the original style Singer sewing machine but alas, these are probably the only ones I’ll find unless I want to deal with Ebay.

Updated 9/8 to add – I went to C3AFA again this year and scoured every gashphon machine and could not find any more of these around! Ebay it is.

What other cute, crafty collectibles have you seen?