Have you ever seen Hello Kitty in mysterious costumes? Perhaps in a rice bowl or a fruit on her head? They may be ones from Gotochi Kitty collections.

     In 1988 Sanrio released its first regional-limited edition Hello Kitty series. Kitty is dressed accordingly to the areas' famous costumes, flowers, products, events, historic people, myths and so on. For example, Kitty which represents Tottori prefecture is wearing a pear helmet, because pears are one of Tottori's major produces.

     The regional factor made the series extremely popular and highly collectible souvenir. Their product lines are often smaller and portable such as  pens, pins or cell phone straps (charms). You might have seen  Japanese girls on TV, talking on cell phone with dozens (some times up to a few hundreds!) of Hello Kitty strap charms dangling from it!

      Collecting Gotochi Kitty can be very fun, relatively inexpensive hobby. You can learn a few things about Japan from each Gotochi Kitty. But be careful, it can be quite addicting! There are so many variations and they are all so adorable. Some series are sold as mystery (you won't know which one you get until you buy), and a series usually contains rare "secret characters," which are not listed on the guide. Finding those is ecstatic!

Do you want to try collecting them all!?