It’s Labor Day weekend over here, a nationwide holiday during the first Monday in September dedicated to the American worker! Of course, that means we get the Monday to relax from all the hard work, so that means I have more time to blog – and sleep!
Anyway, I know my blog gets super plushie-centric, so it’s time to spice things up with some Rilakkuma literature!
Especially since it’s currently storming, so snuggling up to a good book seems like a pretty good idea right now!
It’s the 10th Anniversary Rilakkuma Fan Magazine!
Inside, there are beautiful full-page illustrations of the Rilakkuma Wonderland Series.
There’s also a really great broad overview of Rilakkuma plushies over the years!
The magazine also came with this neat looking bag. Hamburger Rilakkuma plushie not included haha
The bag is also reversible, and features a white marching band print on the other side!
And the back features two marching band Rilakkumas holding paws!
San-X released this in late July 2013 – they called it the Rilakkuma Fan 10th Anniversary “Mook” (magazine + book) hahaha I suppose that sounds a little better than a “boogazine” (or does it?). In addition to the bag, the mook also came with a sheet of stickers featuring past Rilakkuma series!
Even though I only took photos of 2 pages, there really is a ton of content inside – from plushie history, to collaborations, and even current Rilakkuma news!
The only real bother is that the mook was attached to the box with the bag inside, and it was tough to remove. I’m not really sure if I was “supposed” to remove the mook, but I wanted to read it without having an empty box attached to it.
Speaking of magazines, check out Rilakkumagazine Vol. 2!
It’s Wonderland themed!
The magazine folds out and features a lot of different things like a quick run-through or Rilakkuma history as well as a feature on the Wonderland products. I personally liked the illustrations the best!
Though they’re really more like pamphlets, these Rilakkumagazines are super fun and cute to collect! And they definitely give my Rilakkuma plushie shelf a little bit of diversity.
San-X began this Rilakkumagazine business starting with the Aloha Rilakkuma series – Rilakkumagazine Vol. 1 earlier this year (February 9). They’ve only come out with 2 so far, so I’m at 100%! I wonder if they’ll release a new Rilakkumagazine with every major series? Let’s see how long I can keep this going haha.
I love collecting these books/magazines, but it’s also a little silly of me because I can’t actually read Japanese… but I really like looking at the photos and illustrations! The pages are pretty easy to follow since they’re photo-heavy, mostly series I’ve seen before, and there is a little English sprinkled in. Maybe one day I’ll be able to read the words haha
Not literature, but still Rilakkuma-related – check out these little extras that came with my order!
Rilakkuma+Korilakkuma pen toppers and a Rilakkuma keychain!
Eeee so adorable! With all of my 22cm plushies on my shelf, it’s so nice to get some variation to mix things up a bit :)
As before, thanks so much to Ariel (Rilakkuma Desu) for helping me out with getting all of these as a part of my super-big order last month! Definitely read her blog; she just posted a huge 3 part series on all the great new Rilakkuma x Lawson campaigns/releases!
Hope everyone has a relaxing Labor Day weekend! Simon and I will be going out for steaks to celebrate!
RilakkumaLifestyle 
I love that mook! Hm, looks like I’ll have to ask Ariel to help me get my hands on it XD
Out of curiosity, how thick is the magazine? It looks pretty thin in the picture but I just want to make sure before I start harassing Ariel to get it for me ;)
The magazine is awesome, it’s extremely compact also so you can just slip it anywhere :) Enjoy your Labour Day! I’m going to spend mine taking pictures for my new blog post and shop, and probably doing some house cleaning.
The mook itself is a little under a centimeter thick, but it comes attached to the box for the bag. I had to use a knife to carefully free it from the box so I’m not so sure it was meant to be removed hmm. The box itself is around 3-4 cm though. But anyway, it’s a really cool item – even though none of the content is really new news, it’s still super fun to flip through!
Ah I love labor day, but you reminded me that I need to do some housecleaning too haha.
Hi Richelle, I ordered mine from the Kinokuniya web store for like $20 dollars, check it out if you are interested ^_^
I hope there is more kuma literature, especially with short stories about kuma lifestyles!
I liked the story about the oranges.
I love kuma lit! Except I feel like I’d get more out of it if I could actually read the words – I kinda use them like fancy picture books right now haha
I’m sure with all the Japanese Magazines you’ll be able to read soon enough and get practice in ;) I love the Hamburger Rilakkuma he’s just too cute!! You’re getting so many rare ones :D Oh yes hope to see the Sandwich as well~Yay I’m glad you liked them!
Yeah, I love everything – thanks so much again! I “read”/flip through the magazine when I’m tired about reading my stuff for class haha. Man, the current Sandwich auction ends in a few days – 4th time’s a charm, hopefully haha.
Oh so THAT’S what that thing was. I saw it in the rilakkuma store and I was trying to read what it was but I was so confused. I went to the Umeda store recently and saw they had other Rilakkuma books too! Like actual little picture books that told stories….so tempted to buy them but I should really be spending my money on plushies haha.
Also I was wondering which Japanese websites you get your information from? I’m trying to get a list of sites I can bookmark to make sure I’m on top of all the latest information from Lawson, San-X, Mister Donut, or any other collabs they might do. I missed the date for the Oden preorders and I’m kicking myself right now because they sold out within a day :(
Yeah, the “mook” is really confusing because it’s contained in a box haha and it comes with a bag (pretty sneaky) so it doesn’t really look like a magazine/book at all. I love the little picture books they have! I bought one for my sister earlier this year because she can actually read Japanese – they’re pretty cool because the illustration style is really different from the plushies!
In terms of websites, I categorized most of the ones I visit regularly in my “Links” page: https://rilakkumalifestyle.wordpress.com/links/
If you scroll down to the “Official Websites” section. In general, I follow the 3 Rilakkuma-related pages on Facebook and the Rilakkuma blog (current). It used to be that the Net Shop and the Rilakkuma Store would maintain separate blogs, but I think they all filter into the Rilakkuma blog (current) now. My main bookmarks are the Rilakkuma blog (current) and the Yahoo Japan Auction with “リラックマぬいぐるみ” in the search bar already haha. I don’t check the Lawson one as much as I should, but I know a lot of cool things are going on with Lawson now!
I know it’s a ton of links on that page and it’s really confusing because their website had a major revamp that created a bit of redundancy haha but hopefully you can find something you need in there!
Hamburger Rilakkuma, yumm!
Yes, he is a yummy hamburger!
yumm…he’s yummy!!
Yes! Those Rilakkuma magazines are an awesome addition to your collection! I don’t own one, but looks like they’re super cute and fun to collect too! :D Wow – at this rate, how are you going to have enough space for your kuma collection? ;)
Hahaha I don’t know! The one shelf I have is already full, and it only holds about 1/3 of my collection :O The Christmas 2011 set ended up being so much bigger than I thought that they’re actually sitting on a different platform right now because they can’t fit on the shelf haha. A few of the bigger ones have already made their way onto my nightstand too. I’ll definitely have to work on it haha.
Lovely mook and cute additions to your beautiful collection!! Yay!!!
Thank you so much! The magazine also gives my Rilakkumas something to read while I’m out of the house too hahaha
The boogazine is probably a must have for rilakkuma collectors lol, looks like a lot of fun reading that and looking at rilakkuma history ^_^ the tote bag is so cute too, totally worth it!!
Yep, I definitely love it a lot. One day I’ll actually learn to read Japanese though hahaha