Doki Doki Box Update

Happy Saturday Everyone! Yay! It's the weekend and I'm going to be spending most of mine celebrating the Eurovision Song Contest at my friend's Eurovision-themed party!! I can't wait for tonight :) If you follow me on twitter, expect to see a lot of excitable live-tweeting, haha. I'm pretty obsessed with the show (pretty is most definitely an understatement, haha). So, for today's post I wanted to show you all the last few Doki Doki subscription boxes that I received during my blogging break. The last box I blogged about as the December one (read here), and since  then I've received three more boxes before having to cancel my subscription. I really miss getting this adorable surprise box in the post every month, especially since the boxes were really starting to improve! I keep seeing posts about the lastest boxes on social media too *insert sobbing emoji*. Anyhow, be prepared from extreme cuteness & I hope you all enjoy reading!

Each Doki Doki Box has a specific theme, and the theme for the three boxes I received are as follows, January: New Year, February: Valentine's Day, and March: Girl's Day (Hinamatsuri). Keep scrolling to find out what was inside each month's Doki Doki Box :) 

 ♥ January Doki Doki Box ♥

The January 'New Years' Box included: a Macaron Case, a Relax Panda Hand Rest, a Biscuit Pen, a Mount Fuji Hoppe Chan charm, a plush called 'Julie: Shogatsu Edition', a Nekomimi Headband, and a selection of Japanese snacks/candy. 

When I opened the box, I was greeted by a little flyer which told all of us subscribers about a problem the company had had with US Customs, as they randomly selected one of their items for checks. Originally, the box would have also included an 'Higemanju Gamaguchi Coin Purse' by Amuse, but so that there would be a big delay with everyone's boxes, Doki Doki decided to remove this remove and instead give us all some Japanese snacks. We were sent some Genji Pie Cookies, some 'Nyusankin Ikitekimasu' Yogurt Candy and some Fortune Candy. The description for the Fortune Candy sounds really fun! Each individual sweet in the packet is labelled based on different fortunes, e.g. Popularity, Health, Travel, Future and Love. When you pop out each candy, you'll reveal a shape and they've given us a little key to tell us whether the shape represents a fortune of very good, good, not good or bad. This should be interesting! The snack I'm most looking forward to trying are the Genji Pie cookies. 

I really like the Macaron Case, as it's quite big so there's a lot more options for what you can store it in. It would be a handy case to take them when I go out on a day trip or when I'm staying over at a friends house to store things in like medication, small hygiene products and make-up, etc. The Julie plushie is super cute; I love the detail of her face and even more so her little cross nose as it reminds me of the bunny character Miffy.  Julie is designed in the style of a 'Daruma' which is a traditional Japanese doll that people make wishes for their New Year on :) 

So here we have Flamey, my Charmander Build-A-Bear plush modelling my new Nekomimi Headband. It's so cute, and I think I'm going to use it as a sweatband for when I'm exercising. I love the little cat ears so much :)

 ♥ February Doki Doki Box ♥

Inside the February Doki Doki Box, which had a 'Valentine's Day' theme, there were some Totoro Chopsticks, a Chocolate Pen, a Valentine's Day Hoppe Chan charm, a Cherry Hair Clip, some Sanrio Character Fluffy Socks, a box of 'Meltykiss' Japanese Candy, and a Mango or Berry plushie. 

There were several character socks you could have recieved including My Melody and Gudetama according to the illustrations in the monthly magazine. I'm really glad I got Hello Kitty, although my favourite Sanrio character of all time is Kuromi. Fellow kawaii fans, who's your favourite Sanrio character? Another item that had more than one style was the little bird plushies, which had two characters available. I received Mango (I think), however I would have preferred to get the Berry plushie. They are Lovebirds, how cute!

The Meltykiss Japanese candy that subscripers were sent is a limited edition 'Intense Strawberry' flavour. I'm not a fan of strawberry flavoured chocolate so I will probably give these to a friend, but it's a nice item for them to add to the box as it suits the theme with both the name of the product but also because, who doesn't like getting chocolates on Valentine's Day!? I actually really likethe Cherry Hair Clip, and I will happily rock it in my hair.Although I like the chocolate pen that I received in the February Box, they've made several items in previous boxes that have this chocolate design and I'm getting a little bored of it. 

Something different about the Doki Doki Box is from February, the company moved their shipping to a Japanese address so that they wouldn't be faced with anymore US Customs checks and such. One fabulous thing that changed for me was that I no longer received a handling fee from customs, which used to cost me so much! So yay!

 ♥ March Doki Doki Box ♥

The March Box was the final Doki Doki subscription I was sent before I had to cancel :( However, what a fantastic box to end on! This is definitely the best Doki Doki box I've received in my opinion! I loved every single item in the box!! Inside the 'Girl's Day' Box was: a Pote USA Loppy Clip, a Disney Cup, a Neko Atsume Earphone Jack Charm, a 'PuniPuni PyonPyon' plushie, a Slim Pen Case, a 'Hishimochi' Hoppe Chan Charm and finally, a 'Sasurai No Tabineco Fuwa Mocchi' Plushie. This box was just so amazinly kawaii!

Hinamatsuri is a Japanese Festival, which translates to 'Girl's Day' or 'Doll's Day'. It is celebrated on the 3rd of March each year, and is a special day where people pray for the health and happiness of the young girls in their family. People decorate their homes with traditional dolls on a red 'carpet' display, and give offerings to these dolls. I've been in love with Japan and it's culture since I was young, and I always remember being fascinated by these dolls. It would be lovely to visit Japan around this festival and see all of the celebrations at the temples. All the young girls are dressed up in the cutest traditional kimonos :)

Who else joined in with the Neko Atsume trend when the game first came out? I did, of course, so this charm was a brillant surprise! I can't wait to show it off on my phone :) How adorable is the rabbit plushie we received!? Puni & Pyon are designed with inspiration from the Hinamatsuri dolls, with Puni being an Empress and Pyon, an Emperor. I received Pyon (I think?). I love the bright pink colour of him, and that he's sitting on a leaf. He feels so smooth and soft too :)

There were a few items in this box where subscriptors had a chance of getting one of various different styles/colours including the Loppy Bunny Clip, the cat plushie, the Slim Pen Case and the Disney cup.

 I was very please with my pretty Snow White cup, even though my favourite Disney Princess is Belle from Beauty & The Beast. My sister also fell in love with the cup and kept asking if she could steal it, haha. I haven't had a look yet to see which cat plushies or pencil cases other people were greeted with in their box, but I'm super happy with the ones I got. The pencil case is lovely, but very thin so I'm not sure what I'm going to use it for yet. Maybe some makeup brushes? What would you use it for? I have far too many pens and such to fit into such a small case! 

 ♥ My Favourite Items ♥

  

Since I'm blogging about all three boxes at once, I thought it would better to talk about all of my favourite items at once, and so the photo above shows all of my favourite items from three months worth of boxes :) From the January Box, my most loved item was the Panda Hand Rest. It's for wrist or hand support when you are using a computer mouse so it will definitely come in handy for me when I finally get a computer! My fibromyalgia causes me to constantly have painful wrists so I'm hoping it will help relieve some of that. Pandas are adorable!

From the Februay Box, I really loved the Totoro Chopsticks! A) because i'm a massive fan of the Studio Ghibli movie 'My Neighbour Totoro', B) How awesome is the design of these chopsticks!? They have little Chibi-Totoro's and hazelnuts? on, and C) They are plastic instead of wooden, which I really like. I still need to learn how to actually eat with chopsticks though. I also love the socks because as everyone knows, I'm obsessed with Hello Kitty.

It was really hard for me to settle on just one or two favourite items from March's Doki Doki Box, and it was a struggle to restrict myself to three! haha :D I LOVE the 'Sasurai No Tabineco Fuwa Mocchi' plush! It feels incredibly soft and squishy, and reminds me a little of a Disney tsum tsum so it's impossible for me not to love it. I also really like black cats! The Disney Cup is so cute and is actually a great quality, hardy cup too so I'm impressed. I'm over the moon that I have a Neko Atsume item too, because they are quite pricy to buy. 

Finally, here's a close up of all of the Hoppe Chan charms! This little bunny character charm is a feature of every Doki Doki Box, and it's really interesting to each how they've designed her to fit in with the overall theme of each month. January's charm is Mount Fuiji, and the magazine description says that's because its a tradition in Japan on New Year's Eve for people to climb up the Mountain in order to watch the first sunset of the year! How lovely is that? I like how Hoppe Chan's hair looks like fluffy white clouds with a sun and mountain popping out of the top :) 

The Valentine's Day Hoppe Chan is a typical Cupid's Arrow design, but it's still nice and I like the glitter details as well as the big pink bow on Hoppe's head. The March charm is a 'Hishimochi' which is a popular type of mochi eaten during the time of the Girl's Day Festival in Japan. I love all of the layers of colour in this charm and the flower decoration, too. My favourite charm of the three though has to be the Mt. Fuji one, mostly because I love the shade of blue they've chosen. 

Overall, I'm really happy with the last three boxes that I received from Japan Crate, and I can't wait until the day I can re-subscribe. Let me know which was your favourite box and why in the comments. 

Thankyou for reading!  

♥

Which is your favourite item featured in this post?

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December Doki Doki Box

Happy Sunday Everyone! I'm yet again sorry for my serious lack of posts lately! The start of the year came with non-stop bad mental health days, a fibromyalgia flare that has refused to go away, and my insomnia has been relentless. My anxiety was getting increasily worse the more I stressed over not having the energy or motivation to blog. I'd look at my blogging to do lists that I write up at the end of each previous month, and really beat myself up emotionally for not having completed it. I decided half way through the month to just let things take their course, to not panic over my blog, and to just post something whenever I could. So that's why I haven't been around much. Thankyou to my wonderful blogger friends for still tagging me in Friday Follows on twitter and for checking up on me! You're all stars ♥

 Last month, I received the most adorable Doki Doki Box! I absolutely loved the December box; it was filled with such lovely items. It was the first anniversary of the launch of the Doki Doki Box by Japan Crate and so the box included a mix of Christmas themed items and also items to celebrate the anniversary. All subscribers were sent a scratch card, which would either reveal a 50% off code for the Japan Crate website or a special prize. I thought this was a super cute idea! I won the money off code to use on items from the previous Doki Doki boxes. So without further ado, keep reading to see what I got inside my December Box :) Enjoy!

Inside the December Box: USA Loppy Squeaker (bonus item), Anniversary Scratch Card, Paw Gloves, Mameshiba Cellphone Cleaner, Fluffy Pink Pen, Monthly Hoppe Chan Charm, Amuse Pote USA Loppy Eco Bag, Daily Organiser & Calvin Plushie. 

As a plushie fan, it's always nice to receive kawaii little plushies inside subscription boxes. December subscribers of the Doki Doki Box were sent one of two available plushies of 'Homeroom Bear' characters, Calvin & Coco. They are such adorable bears! I received Calvin, who was my preferred of the plushies you could be sent. I love that he's a bright yellow colour. I love stationery, and I especially love quirky pens, so I was happy to find the fluffy pom pom pen in my box last month. I think it fits in the Christmas theme as it reminds me of a snowball. The only thing that's kind of annoying is that the pen is tall and so I don't think it's going to fit into standard-sized pencil cases. 

Yayy! I was over the moon to receive some Amuse items! I am a major fangirl of this Japanese brand. They create the cutest plushies ever, such as the iconic Alpacasso ones (check out some of my Amuse plush collection here). One of the items is an official Amuse item, however I think the other item is made by Japan Crate. Either way, it's still adorable so I'm glad to have received it! The Doki Doki item is the mini Loppy squeaker. I love squeakers! I'm sure my family are not happy about that fact though because they can be irritating as hell, haha. They have described this item as a stress reliever, something similar to a stress-ball. I've never thought of it before but they are good at making you feel less stressed in a way. It's impossible not to love a tiny rabbit figure :) 

As for the Pote USA Loppy eco bag, I LOVE IT! I have always thought that bags/raincoats/etc., that come inside little pouches that are easy to store in your handbag were cool! This item would have really come in handy when I was university for shopping or laundry. It's so pretty too!

How gorgeous is this charm!? Each month, you get a charm of the adorable rabbit character Hoppe Chan, that's designed to match the theme of the box. I am never disappeared with these charms. They are always so detailed, with lots of little intricate parts. I am also lovin' how they've been designed as a cupcake for the last few months boxes. On this charm, I like the shimmery/glittery look of the frosting and the tiny pearl beads adorning it, as well as the lovely red bow on Hoppe's head.

OH MY GOSH GUYS, JUST LOOK AT THOSE PAW PRINT GLOVES! They are my favourite item in the entire box and maybe in all of the boxes I've received so far too; I have wanted some of these gloves for ages now! They are the cutest gloves ever, and the material they are made from is really soft. They feel so cosy inside too. I like that they are fingerless gloves because I can still do stuff properly whilst wearing them... I'm clumsy enough when I'm not wearing gloves, dropping stuff all the time, so when I put normal gloves on I might as well have oil all over my hands or something! haha, everything slips out of my hand. Plus when I'm wearing gloves and I pick certain things up, it goes through me because of the wool texture. Does anyone else experience this? So I usually buy fingerless gloves that have those little pouches so you can cover your fingers if you have to. My new paw print gloves are the best ever!

 I think the daily organiser is fantastic! It's small enough to carry around quite easily in a bag, so even if you already own a fancy planner like a Filofax or something, you can just use this organiser for when you're out and about to have handy with important dates and such. It has ring binders inside so you could add in extra thing, such as to do lists or shopping lists. The kawaii Mount Fuji on the cover of the organiser is so sweet, and the pages inside are even more adorable... all different colours and have cute characters on the month-on-two-pages inserts. Something that I personally love too is that the organiser is in Japanese. I can already speak the days of the week in Japanese, but I cannot write them so this organiser is going to be a great way for me to learn! 

My second favourite item in the December box is the adorable mameshiba mini plushie/cellphone cleaner. It's designed in the same style as a Disney Tsum Tsum, which I'm obsessed with so how could I not love it!? 'Mameshiba' basically translates to bean dog in English, named so because it's a tiny, round dog. The dog is a Shiba Inu and I absolutely love this breed! The little red scarf that it's wearing is too cute!

Overall, I was really happy with my December Doki Doki Box; it included such fabulous items, and now I'm so looking forward to my next one!

Thankyou for reading!

♥

Which was your favourite item in this box, and why?

 

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November Doki Doki Box | Review

Hello lovelies! There has been a serious lack of posts on Raiin Monkey this month and for that, I'm so sorry. Living with both mental and physical illness makes blogging really hard at times, and for the last few weeks, I have been having a pretty hard time. I've been struggling with my mental health, with my depression getting overwhelming and in turn, my fibromyalgia and IBS have been flared up and my meds have not been doing much to help. It's been difficult to find the motivation to do the most basic of daily tasks, and so sitting down to write out a blog post or gathering up the energy to take photographs and spend hours editing them has been almost impossible. I've built up so many scribblings of half-written posts in my notebook over the month and looking over them at the weekend, I was determined to get back to blogging this week! I've got a lot to catch up with as there's so much I want to share with you all this month. For today's post, I'll be showing you all what I got inside my latest Doki Doki subscription box. Enjoy!

If you're a regular reader of my blog, you'll already know a little about Doki Doki , but if not, I'll tell you more :) Doki Doki is a monthly subscription box filled with kawaii items. It is produced by Japan Crate, which is another monthly subscription box filled with all kinds of snacks from Japan. Each Doki Doki box has a different theme, and you get a mixture of Doki Doki's own character merchandise as well as some from other Japanese brands. The theme for November's box was Kawaii Cafe. Keep reading to see what items they included in this box...

Inside the Kawaii Cafe Box: Croissant Pen, Monthly Hoppe Chan Charm, Puchi Puchi Baguette Pouch, Chocolate Notebook, Exclusive Rilakkuma Sunglasses, Sailor Moon Sweet Mascot Re-ment Blind Box, and a 'Baguette Au Petit Lapin' plush. 

I was really impressed with my latest Doki Doki Box, in fact, I think it was the best box I've received so far! It was great to get a random theme that I would never have expected. It was such a nice surprise and a unique theme. I'll be very happy if the boxes carry on like this!

As a stationery lover, it was fabulous to get a few stationery items in the November box. The crossiant pen is so cool, and I definitely would have loved to received this item when I was in high school and had a thing for quirky pens! I don't know how easy it will be to write with, but I still love it! Something cool about this pen too is that it has a little magnet attached so you can stick it to the fridge or a filing cabinet in a office so you always have a pen handy :)

Although these sunglasses don't fit in with the overall box theme really well, I mean you're likely not going to be sitting outside a cafe in the sun rockin' your super cute new sunglasses in the middle of November haha not if you live in England right now anyway!, but they are still a nice item to have in preparation for next summer. I love getting exclusive items in my subscription boxes too, because it makes the price for the box and those costly shipping and possibly customs fees seem that much more worth it. It's also awesome that these sunglasses are small and the perfect size for me! They are a good quality too.

This chocolate notebook is another quirky item in this month's box! I can never have too many notebooks so I'm happy to add this one to my collection and the paper inside is blank which I like. I can use it as a jot pad to just quickly note things down in, and it's small enough for me to take it out and about with me :) The rubber cover of the notebook not only looks cool but it's also scented. It's supposed to smell like chocolate, but it really doesn't haha it's more of a fruity fragrance with a soft undertone of chocolate. Still groovy though :) My favourite thing about it is the bite-mark in the bottom corner that looks like someone's been nibbling away at it. It's super cute! 

One of my favourite things about the Doki Doki crate is the monthly Hoppe Chan charm that is included in every box. The charm is always designed in a way that resembles the theme of each box but is usually a similar overall design. This months charm hopefully was very different and I thought it was fantastic. Hoppe Chan is sitting on cream of a slice of cake, which is decorated with dollops of cream and little gem details. It's a lovely charm and I've never been anything like it before. I like that the decoration on top of the cake is made out of a squishy plastic but is still sturdy enough that I would feel safe hanging this charm on more of my bags without worrying too much that it will easily break. 

 This is the best plushie that I have received in any subscription box! I absolutely love it :) It's so adorable and made out of the softest material and has the sweetest little design... a bunny hiding into a sandwich! Just awwww ♥ He has the cutest little face and ears and blushing cheeks. Also, look at this tiny pom-pom tail! He's just so squishy and precious. Also, well-made too. I'm impressed. Can you tell how much I like him!? :D 

It's no secret that I really love blind boxes and collectible figures, so you can imagine how happy I was when I opened the November box and found this charm blind box inside! I love Sailor Moon when I was a child, and earlier this year started re-watching it so I'm super happy to receive this item. I have always been curious about the blind boxes by Re-ment, a Japanese collectible toy company, so it was great to finally get one. Have you ever got a Re-ment blind box before? What figures?

There was six different charms available in this blind box, and which of the charms has two seperate charms which can be removed if you prefer just one on your charm or want you use one on something else. One of the charms is a chocolate and the other is a pastry/biscuit. I would have been delighted to get any of the charms, but I had two favourites. I didn't get the one that I most wanted but I got my next best choice. It's a super nice charm, colourful and has a good paintjob. 

Oops, I always seem to forgot to get a close up photo of one of the items! This time, it was the 'Puchi Puchi Bagette Pouch'. Apparently 'puchi puchi' in Japanese describes the sound that something squishy makes! This pouch is made from squishy plush material hence the name. It's a cute pouch that can be used to put in either stationery essentials or make-up/make-up brushes. It would only be good for day-to-day amounts though because it's not very big. It might also make a good glasses/sunglasses case because it's squishy which will cushion the glasses and keep them safe, if handled with care. The pouche has a very simplistic design which is made to replicate a simple bagette bun. I like it :) 

Overall, I very much enjoyed the November Doki Doki Box. It was wonderful in my opinion, and the items were fun and something a little different, and I'm super excited now to find out what other themes will be in future boxes. With the last few months I've received I was a actually considering cancelling my subscription because I was only getting a few items I liked in each box but not enough to justify the cost of the subscription plus P&P. However, this box changed my mind and I think I'll give the box a few more tries. I was happy that I didn't get a t-shirt this month, because even though they are cute, they don't cater for a variety of plus sizes and that sucks. I love the Kawaii Cafe theme and all of the items are great as well as useful or just nice to have! What do you think of this box?

Thankyou for reading!

 ♥

What's your favourite item in the Kawaii Cafe Box? 

Check out my previous Doki Doki Crates here:

| October Halloween Edition Box | My First Doki Doki Box |