Cute stress relief: yay for squishies!
Life can be stressful sometimes. What you need… is a squishy.
“I shall call him squishy”
Before fidget spinners came along, the noble squishy was there to keep us occupied.
Ordinary, plain and perfectly round stress balls aren’t so cute. Squishies are SUPER CUTE. They’re not guro-kawaii, like those creepy ones you squeeze and their eyeballs pop out. Ew. No, a squishy is kawaii-kawaii. Double kawaii, maybe even triple. Too, too kawaii.
The point of a squishy is that it goes ‘squish’. Seriously.
Squeezing a stress ball releases tension and endorphins, which make you feel better. So will the bonus hand muscle exercise. Tensing and relaxing those muscles is meant to calm you down.
It’s also really satisfying watching a squishy smoosh down, and then slowly inflate back into the original shape. Try it with some friends and see which squishy wins.
Squishies are meant to feel like soft, fluffy Japanese bread. And people like that. The Breadou brand makes nothing but bread squishies. Other companies have copied the style, making squishy toast, croissants, loaves, baguettes, and turtles with melon bread shells.
Why are squishies so popular, apart from the ‘kawaii personal therapy’ thing? Like a lot of cute Japanese trends, they started off in the hands of J-culture kids. Kawaii phone straps are basically standard uniform for Japan’s teenagers. So the original squishies were much smaller, swinging off the end of flip phones and bags.
You can still get those mini squishies, and some of the squishy charms have gotten bigger and bigger too. With so many shapes and sizes, there’s gotta be a perfect squishy out there for you. Shop online for squishies, and you’ll easily find jumbo squishies!
And yeah… yeah, there are… body part squishies. Guess which ones. We’re not posting pictures of those. You’ll have to use your imagination. Besides, they look the most like a normal stress ball anyway. Boring.
Hello Squishy!
Surprise, surprise, loads of the cutest squishes are made by 2 big Japanese companies: Sanrio and SAN-X.
Sanrio’s the maker of Hello Kitty, Gudetama, Pompompurin, Tuxedo Sam, and many other kawaii characters. They’re super cute as squishies. They’re cute no matter what, and the squishy range keeps that cuteness level high.
You might not know SAN-X so well by name, but you should know Sumikkogurashi at least. As well as their best-selling bear: Rilakkuma! If you’ve ever wanted to poke Rilakkuma in the face, now is your chance.
Official character goods and squishies made by bigger brands are often better quality. Smaller companies do make very good squishies, but you can usually rely on a brand name.
Do NOT eat the squishy
So many squishies look like fake food. Japan is seriously good at making fake food. Scented squishies, like fruits, or ice cream, or cakes, might make you forget they’re not real food. Please don’t try to eat a squishy.
Things you should do with a squishy:
- Squish it
- Watch it zoom back up to original size
- Squish it some more
- Take pics for Instagram
Get your hands on kawaii squishies from Japan!
Make it YOUR squishy. On DEJAPAN, discover hundreds of cute squishies.
