The former Hal­len­steins build­ing on Cuba Mall has been under­go­ing a bit of a facelift, get­ting rid of its cute and inter­est­ing 1980s post-mod­ern facade and repla­cing it with some­thing that looks a lot less inter­est­ing (sob!)

But what’s lost in the build­ing has partly been made up for with its cheer­ful new ten­ant, the Japan City vari­ety shop.

While Japan City does stock a large range of very reas­on­ably priced home­wares (most items are $3.60, some high­er), my eye was drawn to the more quirky objects. Here are my faves:

Faux Louis Vuit­ton teddy bear

Hey, who says it’s too soon to be nos­tal­gic for the ’00s? Put on some Pussy Cat Dolls, watch your The Simple Life DVD box­set, cuddle Mr Louis Fuzzy-Face and all your troubles will dis­ap­pear.

Wet tow­el for an adult’s but­tocks

It’s products like this that make me think Japan City will do really well. They’re not just selling the cheap fruits of glob­al­isa­tion, they’re man­aging to sell things you can­’t buy any­where else in New Zea­l­and. A wet tow­el for an adult’s but­tocks? Why not!

Egg brush

You know when you’re cook­ing an egg or two and you think, “Man, these eggs are awe­some, but they need a good brush­ing.” And you try to brush them with your tooth­brush but the yolk breaks and it’s all ruined and then you just give up and head to Meow for brunch? Well, this will solve all your eggy woes.

Wooden spoons

Hey, it’s some wooden spoons. Wait, these aren’t hil­ari­ous. They’re actu­ally quite nice. That’s right – there are lots of nice kit­chen things you should check out. The cups and bowls are quite nice too.

Exec­ut­ive gen­tle­man’s chop­sticks pro­duced by… WTF?!

This is a pair of exec­ut­ive gen­tle­man’s chop­sticks, pro­duced by the well known chop­stick pro­du­cer LUBE SHEEP. Obvi­ously Japan City has researched the mar­ket well before open­ing in New Zea­l­and. Also: LUBE SHEEP.