I'm in Japan

I have arrived in Japan! Since I will be here for the next 3 years, I decided that I will talk about my experiences in Japan, as well as dolls.

I arrived Thursday evening and after walking my papers all around, my cat, Skitter, and I were finally able to board the base shuttle with my husband and make our way to base. We waved at Tokyo Disneyland and I will get there one of these days.

Saturday, we walked to the local Seiyu (Walmart). It is a lot different then U.S. Walmarts. The items range from Walmart prices, to outfits that cost almost $1,000.00.

The toy selection had a nice selection of Takara Licca dolls.

It was neat that the Seiyu had a craft store. I found cute, little Kewpie dolls with adorable costumes kits to make. I'm going to have to try them out.

All in all, my first few days in Japan have been peaceful and uneventful, with occasional cultural treats.

Jessica - A Dawn Doll

Continuing with the tiny doll theme:

This is Jessica, a Dawn Doll by Topper. She is 6 1/2 inches tall and is wearing her flight attendant uniform (missing her hat and shoes). Dawn Dolls were manufactured between 1969-1972.

Unfortunately, I was brutal t this poor, tiny doll and hacked some of her hair off. She is still very cute, but shows evidence of my playing with her since I was a toddler. I always loved how tiny and cute she was, and despaired that I didn't have any extra clothes for her. I wish I still had her hat, undies, and shoes. She looked really adorable when she was all together.

She and the other Dawn Dolls were attractive examples of early 70s style. They were funky, mod, and were a serious competitor for Barbie.

Sweet April

 Sweet April is an adorable little doll by Remco that came out in 1971, the same year I was born. It is therefor not surprising that my mother bought a Sweet April doll for her Sweet April (me).

The Sweet April on the left is the first type, with bent legs. The doll on the right is a Strolling Sweet April. She has standing legs and is a walker.

Look at those big blue eyes!

The neat thing about Sweet April, besides her awesome and beautiful name ;), is that after you feed her a bottle, she cries ans when you push a button on her back, her arms raise as if to wipe her tears.

There were many outfits and playsets available for the doll. The furniture here is from the Strolling Sweet April and her Nursery set.

These are replacements for my cherished Sweet April (I think she probably was sold by a heartless tween at a garage sale around 1980).

This doll was made for walking, that's just what she's gonna do. One of these days this doll is gonna walk all over you.

Not pictured here, I just bought a third Sweet April in the blue romper with original shoes. Yes, I bought a doll just for the shoes. Too bad I now have to wait 3 years before I can put the shoes on one of these dolls that are in better condition than the new doll.

Bella Means Beautiful

Another 8" doll I received around the same time as the Ginny in the last post is this lovely Bella (a French Doll manufacturer) in French fashion.

She is French perfection from her white rubber boots to her bobby pinned hair.

Until recently, I assumed she was just another Ginny, then, I actually looked for markings on her and discovered she was not.

Dutch Ginny

When I was in elementary school, my father had the opportunity to travel outside the country on business trips. Sometimes he would bring me back a doll from his travels.

This is a 1970s Vogue Ginny from the Far-Away Lands Series in Dutch costume. She is perfect, except one of her tiny wooden shoes has disappeared.

Because of her lovely costume, I only used her (primarily) as a display doll. My wish to have a play Ginny with lots of clothes to change into never happened, (at least not yet).

I did collect a few other 8 inch dolls, but again, they were display dolls.

Cabbage Patch Craze

Like many other parents in 1983, my mother braved the crazy, violent, doll-hunting crowds in order to procure the perfect Cabbage Patch Kids for her darling children. She even took preference orders from us. I (12 yrs old) wanted a red-headed girl, not in a dress, if possible. Billy (8 yrs old) had a harder order, a bald preemie. Amazingly, she was successful on both orders. As far as I know she only had to "fight" one other woman for the red-head. In the end, she had two happy children and decided to never participate in that type of craziness again.

This is Claire Irene in her original outfit (Jeans, striped t-shirt, windbreaker, shoes and socks.)

On Collecting

When it comes to dolls, I collect the dolls that I like, not ones that I think are or will be worth anything. This makes my collection personal and manageable. If a doll doesn't mean anything to me, away it goes. This also means, that I have beaten up, much loved dolls that have seen better days. They are my special treasures, missing limbs and all.

Of course if I can find a pristine version of that special damaged doll at a decent price, I will happily snap it up in order to use as a reminder of what the toy looked like when he/she was brand new.

My favorite example of this is my Daekor Pot Belly Bear. He was my absolute favorite stuffed animal for, well, ever. Unfortunately he paid the price for being my favorite - his skin was sagging, he was falling apart, I even re-stuffed him. He still looked ridiculous. One day walking through Goodwill, I saw his younger, healthier brother (unplayed with) sitting on a shelf. He became mine.

The new Pot Belly Bear joined the original and the rest of the Pot Belly family (Racoon, Elephant, and Koala) in my home.

A photo taken the day I found the new Pot Belly Bear.

L to R: Pot Belly Elephant, Pot Belly Bear, New Pot Belly Bear, Pot Belly Koala.