The kawaii characters of Japan – Gudetama

When visiting Tokyo with Jinn in May we learned about a very popular character in Japan that was showing up almost everywhere. His name was Gudetama. There were Gudetama keychains, Gudetama plushies, Gudetama socks, Gudetama towels and even a Gudetama themed café! The Gudetama fever was strong 😀

Gudetama plushie

Gudetama merchandise

Gudetama plush toys

So much Gudetama stuff!

Gudetama on beef

Gudetama socks

Kawaii Gudetama

Gudetama rocking shades

So who is Gudetama?

Gudetama is an egg yolk. A kind of depressed egg yolk. “Gude gude” in Japanese is used to describe someone with no energy or strength and “tama” probably comes from “tamago” which means egg in Japanese. Gudetama is a character that was created by Sanrio back in 2013, the same company that made Hello Kitty many years ago. Right now Gudetama is extremely popular in Japan, and we couldn’t help but to fall in love with him as well ❤

We visited the Gudetama café in Osaka and it was so adorable! You could get all kinds of foods and desserts all looking like Gudetama 😀

Gudetama café in Osaka

Jinn at Gudetama café in Osaka

Gudetama paintings

Gudetama food

Gudetama’s butt in macha latte

Gudetama café in Osaka

Gudetama even has his own anime with over 500 episodes! The episodes are very short though, usually less than a minute long. They are also a bit depressing, because the episodes usually end with Gudetama turning into some kind of food… but they’re strangely amusing. Absurd and cute in a very Japanese way!