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.