Hasta La Gadget!

2011 is the Year of the Rabbit and also the fortieth anniversary of Japanese debut of the character Peter Rabbit, much loved by locals. On top of the expected bunny-themed New Year Cards there are some other manifestations of the year’s animal making the news at the moment.

Shibuya Usagi (Shibuya Rabbit) is a bar and restaurant in Tokyo serving tapas and other cuisine that you can partly pay for using special currency called “Usagi Coins” (Rabbit Coins). Regular customers are awarded the bunny-decorated money and can then exchange them on later visits for discounts on certain menu items. If they can bear to part with the cute coins, that is.

[Images via WalkerPlus]

You might have heard about cat cafés in Japan but what about an Usagi Café? Inside customers can enjoy their drinks and snacks alongside 11 rabbits, including the inevitable Peter Rabbit-esque breeds. This new café in Yokohama does not actually seem to be the first of its kind, with similar rabbit cafés in Nagoya, Tokyo and Kamakura at least, where patrons can bring their own bunnies or play with other furry friends while enjoying a cup of tea.

[Images via WalkerPlus and Yokohama Keizai Shimbun]

The Usagi Café is only open on weekends and holidays, costing from 800 yen (about $9.60) for 30 minutes (including a drink). It is actually a kind of section inside a regular cat café (Neko Café) and during the week feline-loving patrons can play with the bunnies for an extra charge.

Following its purchase of am/pm just over a year ago, convenience store chain Family Mart has completed negotiations to take over its subsidiary’s 120 Kansai region branches from March. Following the Tokyo area Family Mart is preparing now to switch Kansai and Kyushu stores to its own brand from the next fiscal year, as part of a nationwide adsorbing of am/pm into the Family Mart chain.

[Image courtesy of jpellgen on Flickr.]

Up till the takeover Family Mart actually had more branches overseas than in Japan due to aggressive expansion in Asian territories like Taiwan and Thailand. However, its aims are set on domestic rivals and now has a combined number of nearly 10,000 stores with the new purchase. In terms of sales and market share it still trails Lawson and Seven-Eleven, which also both have more stores, leading to assumptions that indeed strength of numbers is paramount.

Convenience stores are known for their eponymous convenience of course, as well as their ubiquity. They are indeed seemingly everywhere but how important are individual brands to average consumers? Despite their attempts to create brand identities and differentiate themselves — e.g. Family Mart’s range of MUJI products, Mini Stop’s popular summer ice creams — do we really pay that much attention to which chain we are buying our snacks in? Will am/pm be missed?

When you give someone a gift card, you’re essentially putting down the cash to let them buy whatever present they want. It’s definitely one of the easiest gifts you can give, but is it a good one? More »

A showroom in Ginza recently displayed a giant banana on its facade. Now how about a Christmas present in time for the holidays?

The Mirraza building near Shinjuku station is currently lit up like a seasonal gift, a nice and fairly modest twist on the usual department store illuminations you see around Japan at this time of year.

The tall glass of the Mirraza is decorated in four colors (red, green, blue and white) by LED lighting and resembles a present wrapped up with a ribbon.

Passers-by who take a picture of the lit-up building and send it in to the campaign get a chance to win a Topshop coat and other giveaways.

The illumination has been organized Tokyo FM and Topshop, which opened its Shinjuku store in the building in September. Numerous other restaurants, shops and salons are also set to open there over the winter.

Missed out on Black Friday? Good on you. Now, still in the market for an iPhone 4? If so, you should probably point your vehicle to the nearest Radio Shack, STAT. For the first time since going on sale in June, Apple’s iPhone 4 is legitimately on sale from a retailer that actually exists and won’t sell your personal information to some goon in an offshore paradise you’ve never heard of. (No, Walmart’s $2 savings doesn’t count.) We’re told that the $50-off sale is being done to ramp up awareness surrounding Radio Shack’s (admittedly low-key) wireless business, and if we had to guess, we’d say it’ll probably work to perfection. Ever since the handset began shipping this summer, the going rate was $199 (on contract) for the 16GB model or $299 (also on contract) for the 32GB flavor; this deal hacks $50 from each, and there’s even an 8GB iPhone 3GS for $49 if you’re looking to take things even lower. Better still, The Shack‘s offering a $75 trade-in credit on any functional / non-cracked iPhone 3G as well as $125 for a 3GS in like condition, meaning that you could walk in today, hand over your 3GS, and walk out with an iPhone 4 for $25 (plus activation fees). Naturally, the deal’s only available in brick-and-mortar locations (read: not online), and the fun comes to a close on December 11th. So, who’s in?

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Apple’s iPhone 4 (legitimately) on sale for the first time: $50 off at Radio Shack originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 04 Dec 2010 14:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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