Have you ever walked into a store and thought it looked straight out of a music video set, or even from your dreams? While scrolling through Twitter, I found ani♡я, a yume kawaii-style shop that recently opened in Nagoya, less than a 10-minute walk from Narumi Station. They specialize in handmade stuffed animals and cute accessories, and everything the sell is in an adorable pastel color-block style. Seeing all of the photos and videos they posted to their twitter, it really looks like a candy shop at first glance.
名古屋にかわいいお店が本日オープンしましたーー！！🎉🎉🎉 pic.twitter.com/yql3RJmfRy
— ani♡я🌈🍼あにあーる🧸🦄 (@anirshop) January 26, 2019
The store was crowd-funded through the Japanese equivalent of Kickstarter, called Campfire. From the outside entrance of ani♡я, through the hallway to the store, all the way through to the interior, the shop is decorated in detail from bottom to top as if it were straight out of Disney World. ani♡я’s shop is decked out in rainbow dessert-themed decor, and the shelves are lined with hundreds of handmade accessories from a variety of local indie brands.
Most of the accessories look like sweets, ranging from hair clips to headbands, earrings, and necklaces, all the way to stationary and room decorations. A few handmade clothes are on sale, dangling from cute hanging laundry racks, a common motif in most kawaii shops. Looking at photos of their shop that they posted on the day they opened in January this year compared to photos posted in the past week, I could swear the cuteness of the shop is going to burst out into the street and take over Nagoya entirely.
I’ve been following one of the brands sold at ani♡я, Fancy Surprise, for quite a while now, and I think the sticky sweet style fits in perfectly at this shop. With the unfortunate death of classic kawaii brand Swimmer at the start of 2018, it’s refreshing to see the yume kawaii dream live on through shops like aniR.
5000人ぴったりプレゼント企画🎁
まだまだ先になりそうですが😂
こちらのアカウントフォロー5000人目の方にani♡яオリジナルぬいぐるみをプレゼントいたします💓
5000人目の方はスクショでお知らせください！増減があると思うので最初にご報告いただいた方で😳
近くなったらフォローし直しもOKです✨ pic.twitter.com/tphjowfypH— ani♡я🌈🍼あにあーる🧸🦄 (@anirshop) February 18, 2019
There is an online shop for ani♡я, but there’s a low chance of getting my hands on their handmade goods at the moment because every single thing seems to be sold out. With that being said, you can live the yume kawaii dream vicariously through the extensive amount of photos and videos posted on their official Twitter, here.