I'll explain a little bit about that later on.

Unfortunately it's not sponsored or anything, but let's go take a peek.

This here is a village vanguard and if you've never seen a village vanguard before you are in for a treat today, the store does have a lot of mainstream products and there's an entire snack aisle and whatnot that we're going to check out over there later on.

But for for now, one of the things I love about village vanguard is the number of unique, weird or crazy products they have.

So we're gonna start by checking out some of those today and as we walk around the shop and try to find some some cool stuff we're gonna like, like this like magic bubble bath.

What what what what's magical about it, What is an exciting bubble camera?

I want one of these things like this, Japan's love for poop shipped products is beyond anything.

If you've ever just want to get yourself a giant squid plushy direct from Japan.

Obviously this is the place for you or things like, oh my goodness, I love this, you can grow your own little like moss garden in here.

In fact, this entire section is just little things that you can grow like up here, you can grow your own edamame or mini tomatoes and whatnot here, I think we are going to have so much fun today.

So if you've ever, or a guest never been to village vanguard I guess I'll give a little bit of a rundown on what it's like.

So village Vanguard itself.

The concept is like that exciting bookstore, like if we come over here for example, there's an entire section dedicated to books.

In fact a lot of this store is just dedicated entirely to books.

And the concept now is it's meant to be like an exciting book store.

They want to connect Japan and overseas subcultures.

I'm already so delightfully distracted by things like this.

Have you ever seen this?

There's a scoop version and a tea infuser infuser infuser version and this one is the tea infuser.

It's adorable.

It's like it's like look at it, look at it, look at this little, basically anything in the mugs and cups section is gonna grab me despite me as with probably a lot of you having way too many mugs.

Alright, I don't even have space for anymore.

Okay, moving on also, this may be my first time in my entire life to see a shoot case.

So that's the shoe cases are a thing.

You're going to find so many neat products, Village vanguard and the cool thing is they're always changing like what I was saying before about she does have a for example, it's like the subculture center of Tokyo or maybe even Japan and this particular shop because of that has a lot of pressure to keep up with the subcultures and is in a constant state of change.

Like no two visits here are going to be exactly like, especially if you open it up, let's look at this.

I love things like this.

It's a little microwave rice cooker.

All your little like mini Tako Yaki makers and whatnot.

This is such a fun place this year.

This but soap, this is soap just for your but that's a thing is but soap or right here there's just not actually so many kit.

It's like look at this, you can make your own now.

I see so many, there's actually a couple different kinds.

Even I'll get that or if you've ever wanted your own in home sushi train.

Well there it is, it's honestly almost overwhelming.

Like look at this, look at this.

I don't even, I don't even know what this is.

You can make a little poop shape doughnut esque pastry snacks is that I don't feel like that's a good way to explain.

That's the best way I'm going to be able to explain it.

Like even back here, you can get yourself an entire cotton candy maker or sandwich grills crepe maker.

Okay, you know what?

Okay, so this is all just making me hungry.

So you're moving on.

One of the things I love about village vanguard though is that each one is unique in its own way in the sense that the staff and managers of each shop actually handpicked the products that they think would be a good match for their own store and the culture of the area.

Sorry, I, I love playing cards.

I honestly, there are just so many neat cards games here that I just never ever seen.

It's kind of that way everywhere I go.

When I traveled to different places in Japan, one of the things that I've always loved doing is swinging by like village vanguard because it is different everywhere you go.

Each place has products that you won't see in others.

There is obviously some overlap, but each one is kind of themed for its location or area, but this one here in particular has one product that I really, really love and can't wait to show you.

It's right over this way.

So when we came in this morning we came in through the front entrance right there and in this area you may have noticed something, especially if you are a regular viewer.

You may have noticed that this here is a sham is and this is a shammy sen Plushy.

Look at that.

The shamisen Plushy and this item is my favorite, not just because it's a shamisen Plushy, which is amazing, but because this particular shamisen Plushy, this is mine, this is my pleasure.

I spent the last year working with designers and samples back and forth from the fact that I have, I have a Plushy, it is soft and squishy and it's going to be available in village Vanguard here in Shimo Kitazawa and potentially other major locations across Japan from like the end of this month for the next year or so and I'm just, it's just so happy.

Also since I know that not everybody is going to be able to come to village Vanguard, I will link it in the description box below for anybody who is interested and if you are interested that would mean the world to me and that's all I'm gonna say about it because there's still so much more to see.

I have shown me some plushy plushy, so this big block right here is a lot of books and manga and stuff like that.

And the area right around the cash register is actually, well, I guess cash registers are always fun.

You get a ton of interesting little products like like whatever, this is okay, he walks, that's not creepy at all.

And of course being Japan, we have more poop shaped products are so much of that in Japan, but one of my favorites is all the snacks and what, what they have nerds I have never seen or been able to get nerds in Japan, This is a wildly wildly exciting moment for me right now, we're just gonna go ahead and put those there and look at some of the japanese snacks like these right here, incredibly spicy, Yaki soba or incredibly garlicky, incredibly great english, norm, great english and I think one of my personal favorites is he's a giant things of choco B that is just this whole area back here I believe is food and snacks and what not.

And I think that look at these party packs just gigantic.

Have you now?

These aren't actually japanese, but they're very, very popular in japan.

Have you ever had these, these are honey butter, almonds and they're actually really, really good.

Got some hot sauce and whatnot back here as well and these country mom cookies, especially these like chocolate ones are just incredible.

I love these, I love them so much and this, this is something that you wouldn't expect to be as popular as it is in japan, but Japan has gone through a bit of a phase with edible bugs, that's a thing.

I had no idea until somewhat recently when a japanese friends started talking to me about trying all these edible bugs and I was like, you're doing, you're doing what have you ever tried edible bugs?

Would you try edible bugs metal?

Do you have mito mellow mellow?

I don't, in Japan, we say metal, I don't know how I would describe, It usually comes in a powder form and you mix it up like a chocolate milk, but it's supposed to be healthier.

It's not really like a chocolate milk.

I'm doing a very bad job of explaining this, Let's just keep going.

So this is the same brand of country mom cookies and every now and then you can even find dr pepper in Japan or this heading down this way, The sticker wall is by far one of my absolute favorites, weird thing that I don't really talk about.

I have an oddly large collection of, oh, Nicky stuff like stickers and stamps and everything.

Looking at sheer volume of stickers here.

I'm coming completely honest with you.

I love being able to introduce shops like this.

It is always so much pressure because there's so much to see, like there's no way we're gonna be able to see it all in an entire day and there's no way I'm gonna be able to cover everything that everyone wants to see.

So in the end I just end up running around like a little kid showing off the things that I'm excited about, like these little Tamagotchi style things, it's still alive and well in Japan do we still have Tamagotchi overseas?

Is that still a thing?

And now this entire section here is manga, but unfortunately, I can't get a lot of close ups on the manga covers and titles and everything like that due to copyright issues and whatnot.

Kind of same with some of the other major brand products in the store.

So let's head over this way and check out some of the more unique and interesting things they have things like this.

I actually, I'm weirdly tempted to buy this today, the first time I saw it.

I was like, what is the point of this?

You just do that, you just push and pop them and then you actually do it and it's weirdly addictive and a ton of fun.

So that's a thing or things like these here, which is called apparently a handy up roller.

Do we even have these overseas?

These here are used primarily in Japan for for example, fat reduction.

They think that rolling this across like your arm or across your face will actually help narrow down their face and give them more slim.

I don't know, it's an interesting concept to me here in Japan rather than everyone wanting to have a strong jaw, they see having a narrow or thinned out face as a sign of beauty.

I don't, maybe that's normal everywhere.

How about your country, there's still so much more to see in Japan village vanguard can be that one stop go for for example, birthdays and whatnot.

If you are looking for a unique or cool or just very japanese birthday gift to get someone or even if you live in japan and you're looking for something a little more non japanese to get somebody.

Well this is obviously not an example, but these here like the instant Polaroid style cameras are still wildly popular in Japan and I haven't been back in so long that I don't really know about north America anymore.

I have no base to compare things Dude, that's why I like to go back for long trips every now and then so that I can kind of gain that appreciation for Japan and feel the gap in the juxtaposition between the countries and this entire section here.

His clothing, some of it is more branded clothing or we have entire meme based clothing, there's actually space jam clothing here, uh huh, can't say I've ever wanted a space jam shirt, but if I did now, I know where to get it and then over here you get all like for example the marvel stuff and the Stark industries and then down here, I guess the more normalized stuff like a lot of socks, this genuinely seems like a very large amount of space to allocate just two socks and I know that the clothing and the bags is also something that a lot of people enjoy seeing, but again, there's just so much to see that I almost don't even know where to start.

You know, we should probably come back sometime and do this as a livestream, I think they would let us in to do that.

So if you're interested in that, let me know in the comments down below and I will ask them, I should have the opportunity to interview some of the staff and managers as well.

So if you want to know more about the shop, maybe we can do a bit of a deep dive.

You have any questions at all?

Drop them down below.

The store is going to be opening in like 10 minutes.

So I should probably start wrapping up.

But honestly, I am so incredibly excited that I have a shamisen plus I have a shamisen plushy and it's available in village vanguard.

Again, it would mean the absolute world to me if you were interested in having one of these in your home.

So I will link them down below for those of you who aren't here or won't be here in the next year.

So thank you guys so much for joining today.

I had a ton of fun.

Let's do an even deeper dive next time.

And you guys know I will see you again real soon.

Mm hmm.

Okay.

Mhm mm.