A new day, a new video: my NBC Weekend Today Show appearance! I talk about character bentos (charaben) in Japan and the healthy approach to cooking in my book Cute Yummy Time. Then I demonstrate two cute food demos, which turn a fried and hardboiled egg into chick critters! For behind-the-scenes photos of the 30 Rock Today Show studio, check out this post. I invite you to subscribe to my YouTube channel as I have more videos in the works!

I am making a head-to-toe cosplay outfit for my LA book signings at the end of November (event details here). While flipping through books at the fabric store, I did a double-take when I saw this “Harajuku Girls” Halloween pattern.

I also came across a pre-made Harajuku Girl costume at Ricky’s. The adult and child’s versions cost around $40.

Reaction? It’s a given that these are Halloween costumes for a general audience; I’m not surprised that they’re not very well executed. But my main response was that of marvel. Remember that very few people knew the word “Harajuku” five years ago. Now, most people can associate the word with a look (decora and Lolita, for the most part) and Japanese youth culture — to the point that it’s become a dress-up option for Halloween. This phenomenon is precisely what I was referring to in this Reader Question: you can’t predict what people will latch onto in even a few years from now… What are your thoughts?