Hatch Me a Dog

I love the toys-with-candy sections in Japanese supermarkets, which sell various miniature collect-them-all sets - from tiny mid-century modern furniture to little plastic dinosaurs, each in its own box with a token piece of candy. Chris likes the Akira Kurosawa collection that features characters from the filmmaker's classic movies.

I went out on a limb on my last trip to Nijiya (one of the local markets) and bought a Choco Egg - kind of like a Cadbury Creme Egg, but instead of a sugary center, there is a tiny dog inside that you snap together. The one I got looked like a poodle.


Those Japanese are so clever.