Kawaii-ing up your mobile with cell phone straps
One of the first things you notice about Japanese mobile phones is that they are often very compact and light. The next thing you notice is that many, many people offset that compactness by loading, if not overloading, their phones with straps of all kinds, from Hello Kitty to Chanel-themed decorations via, well via just about everything under the sun. From young to old, vain pretty boys to sober-suited salarymen, grannies to gals, they all share a common bond of mobile phone straps.
I am no exception to this trend; here’s my phone:

What’s there: Miffy 50th Anniversary Special Edition strap; Kato-chan (some famous comedian, I hear) in a crab suit; Hello Kitty Kobe Airport airplane strap; Hello Kitty Kobe Weather-Cock House strap (her cock has long since fallen off, as it were, although Aeroplane Kitty’s cock is still intact); UK beefeater bear strap; Ghibili’s My Neighbour Totoro (Tonari no Totoro) family of Totoros, and the newest and fattest addition to my zoo, Monokuro Boo cubic piggie with built-in screen-cleaning bum. Notice also that my phone wallpaper is Rilakkuma, or Relax Bear, another cute beastie from the San-X (adult-oriented Sanrio) menagerie, and a creature I do want to buy as a cell phone strap sometime! Note that a lot of San-X character wallpaper and other PC-oriented media can be downloaded for free from their official site. You know you’ve been in Japan too long when you’re not just not embarrassed to have a multitude of mobile phone straps, you’re quite proud to flourish your danglies for all to see. Personally, the only drawback of this cute overload is that two straps have bells attached, so furtive phoning is out of the question!
When I was in Kansai Airport last month, as well as my wife purchasing a lovely kimono Hello Kitty strap, made from real kimono material, we spotted a series of the traditional terrors of life in the Kansai area of Japan, the Osaka Obasan (Grannie) strap collection! Sadly, I have no photos, but they were quite scary purple-haired leopard-print clothed monsters. I must ask Strapya if they can get them in stock.
In Japan there is, of course, no shortage of ways to obtain these cell phone straps; as well as the mobile phone shops, many other types of store carry them, and even drinks, both soft drinks and alcoholic ones, often give away a free mascot character strap with purchases of their product. In the West, however, the most convenient way to purchase is from online shops like the aforementioned Strapya, with whom I have had very satisfactory personal dealings. Even if your mobile phone doesn’t have a suitable strap mounting point, they can easily be hung from bags, etc using the loops in zips, for instance.
Strapya Top 10
Let’s look at what’s currently selling well at Strapya:
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Ai (Victoria) said,
December 23, 2007 @ 23:41
Hello ^^ i just read your kawaii cell phone artical, i enjoyed it very very much. I LOVE every thing japanese to the point where i planning on moving in a year. I wish to attend schooling and just have some fun with my friends that live their ^^. I have one question… my cell phone at the moment is well.. very big and unattractive looking -.-** it is kinda embaresing TT~TT. I want a cell phone like your… but i am worried that the networking will not be the one my current phone is supscribed to. So my question is where can i find a awsome japanese phone, and can it be in my network…
Bye Bye
Cherri said,
January 10, 2008 @ 10:46
I lived in Japan for most of my life(Osaka), and have recently moved to the US. My parents are planning on buying me this…weird…Japanese phone, unless I could find another one I liked. Your’s looks pretty cute(especially with all the charms! I <3 Monokuro Boo!). Where did you buy your phone (like, store, or w/e)? I go back to Japan a lot, so I wanna see if I can find a cool phone or something.
Thank you!
Drew said,
January 10, 2008 @ 11:23
To Cherri and Victoria: You’re not going to find a Japanese keitai that you can register on a US carrier, at least without a lot of hacking/unlocking. Best you’ll be able to do is register on a Japanese carrier and then pay lots and lots of roaming charges to use it in the US (not to mention having a Japanese phone number, not American).
Ann said,
February 10, 2008 @ 10:09
I just wanted to brag, heh, that I have approximately 60 of these straps now and want about 60 more. I keep blowing money at Strapya–it’s worse than heroin.
The really funny part is that I never use my cellphone (it’s been dead for ages), and none of the straps seem to fit on it, anyway, so I’m buying all of these without even using them as they’re intended. I have some on a keychain, but I’m trying to think of a good way of displaying the rest of my obsessive little collection. 