Supermeow!

Thanks to my LJ buddy Leeanne, I have come into the knowledge of the wonderful world of Karel ÄŒapek, purveyor of adorable tea. Is it good? Is it completely worthless and horrible? You know, right now I don’t much care. The artwork used on their products suckered me in. There is a very heightened chance that I would be subject to agreeing to a lot of things that I ordinarily would not ever consent to doing if someone presented me with any of these items as a present. Their online shopping catalogue presents many delights for the eyes of consumers like myself who are easily pushed over by cute illustration work. They don’t seem to ship to the US. Good thing that I know a lot of people either in Japan or en route to Japan in the near future. There is some serious cuteness afoot at Karel Capek. They seem to have stores all over Japan if Google Translator is not misleading me: two in Tokyo, one in Nagoya, and a few other shops.

When I Googled Karel Capek, I found out that this isn’t just a brand name. Karel Capek was a real guy. According to Wikipedia:

Karel ÄŒapek (pronounced Cs-Karel Capek.ogg [ˈkarÉ›l ˈtʃapÉ›k] (help·info)) (January 9, 1890 – December 25, 1938) was one of the most influential Czech writers of the 20th century. He introduced and made popular the frequently used international word robot, which first appeared in his play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) in 1921. Karel credited his brother, Josef ÄŒapek, as the true inventor of the word robot.

Interesting! I read on. He was primarily a science fiction author, but he also wrote some anti-Nazi plays, making him #1 on the Gestapo’s “List of People We Hate in Czechoslovakia.” He died of double pneumonia and his brother perished in a concentration camp.

I have absolutely no idea what this has to do with adorable tea. From what I’ve been able to gather, there is no connection at all. Not that I’ve found written in English, at least. I guess the stores are worth a visit, by this account from Walt Panorama:

We stumbled across their store in Kichijoji (in Tokyo, Japan) when we went to have lunch…The stock was unbelievable and you want everything. They also produce free catalogues that are like fantastic mini books. I assumed you’d have to pay for them, but they were complimentary. Also within the store was a pop culture collectables (sic) store-ette called Beep! Beep!

Well! That’s another stop on my list of places to hit up when I finally make it over to Japan. That’s been a plan of mine for a very long time. My husband and I want to make that our honeymoon destination. We didn’t take a honeymoon when we got married in 2007, intending to do so later on. I don’t see it happening this year (especially with the lousy dollar-to-yen exchange rate), but I’d like to do so within the next five years, let’s say. Sooner, even. I was saving some dollars for such a trip, but unforeseen expenses took priority. Someday! Someday, we’ll go.