Apparently, there is a tradition in Japan of photographing this particular toy Panda—and sharing the photos online here. Of course we had to share too.
Paku! Paku!
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I saw these pandas when I was in Japan last but these pics are hilarious and adorable!
I love the ones going down the steps.
Haha, awesome pics! Made me warm ^^
Oh my gosh they are so cute.. i wish i could find one of those to buy.. couldnt even find one on ebay
What are those panda toys called?? i want one!
Those look like PacMan disguised as a Panda
/just saying
This kind of reminds me of that Flat Stanley craze [is that still going on] where people take a flat Stanley and photograph him all over.
does anyone know where i can buy one of these pandas?
I accedently chewed the leg off of Flat Stanley when he came to visit….
I love the shot of the panda face in the clouds… is it photoshopped?
Norty — good eye, I didn’t catch that when I looked. It doesn’t look shopped to me.
Ahh! Another post of the non-sentient where the items really got me squeeing. I LOVE the pic on the stairs as well as with the Statue of Liberty.
Is it just me or are the 2 pandas squashed inside the bag a tad disturbing?
i have been searching for SO LONG to get one of those guys. the person who imports them will make a fortune! (these are puppets from the Arumado pastry store btw)
That is some of the funniest stuff I’ve seen in ages. I love the shots of the bears looking at the duck, or with the sky in the background. Brilliant. And that one found the Statue of Liberty jaw-dropping? Fabulous.
i like the piknic and the stairs best =D
I think I need a Paku!Paku! army of my own. If anybody finds out how to get them in the US, let me know!
Has anyone emailed the author of the site? Maybe he/she can make some money by selling all of us Pakupakus of our very own!
Aparently it is the mascot of a Japanese bakery (at least from what I can see from my research) where they make all sorts of panda head shaped baked goods.
Hi Kate,
I’m one of the authors of the site, and I would love to find a place that sells the little PakuPaku… I will check on it and post back!
-Meg
I’ve asked 2 Japanese friends, and they found the puppet on “the Japanese equivalent to Amazon” Here:
http://www.rakuten.co.jp/azuazu/515496/515497/
HOWEVER, they only take Japanese ‘paypal’ type payments, where you put money into a Japanese account, no foreign credit cards. Anyone else have any luck?
Google came up with http://www.jlist.com/ but I don’t have the patience to scroll through the entire site for cute pandas : P
They say they’ll respond to requests, so maybe if enough people email them, they’ll start carrying Paku Pakus.
Apparently PakuPaku means to open and close or flap. Hehe! Very fitting.
More photos, but nothing for sale…
http://bidders.auction.biglobe.ne.jp/item/56159056
http://www.rakuten.co.jp/ hitparade/549204/531909/
Awww those look good!
Of course they’d hide in the camera bag. It’s all part of their plot.
I made a request for http://j-list.com to start offering them. Hopefully if enough of us request it, they will!
If these guys are a bakery’s mascot…then I’ll take a baker’s dozen!! So cute, I can see hours of fun with these guys
Those are some well-traveled pandas!
And I want a Paku, too.
There are two versions of the panda puppet. The one in the links above are the original which came from a TV ad campaign in Japan. The panda got so popular that someone decided to make a knock off and put them in UFO machines as prizes (“UFO machines” in Japan are those machines that you pay money to operate a crane to try and grab and retrieve a stuffed toy from). *Those pandas are the ones we see in the paku paku pictures. Unfortunately, as is the trend with prizes from UFO machines, you can’t actually buy the stuffed toy you have to win them. That’s why it’s really hard to find the pandas online. Also, prize fads come and go in Japan like the setting of the sun so as far as I know the pandas are no longer being stocked in the machines.
(The cream puff store capitalized on the popularity of the panda and made it its mascot.)
So there you have the history of the paku panda. =) I placed a few phone calls to friends there to hunt out any remaining pandas. (I want one too now) I’ll keep you guys posted.
They have *cream puff* stores in Japan?? That’s it, I”m packing my bags for Tokyo. Now. I’ll try and bring back some stuffed pandas too.
“Cream puffs rise to meet new demand ; Sweet pastry touted as ‘next big thing”
By Bruce Horovitz, USA TODAY
Mon Jun 13, 6:50 AM ET
A nation of allegedly nutrition-conscious consumers has some serious explaining to do: The cream puff is making a comeback.
Two competing Japanese chains – both new to the U.S. market – are selling fresh, hot cream puffs like, ah, hot cakes. Other big names are starting to peddle cream puffs via mail order. Even Bon Appetit magazine has pegged the cream puff – a puff pastry with flavored cream filling – as the hot dessert for 2005.
“We all talk a good game, but less than 2% of us are actually eating what the Food Pyramid tells us to,” says Tanya Wenman Steel, New York editor at Bon Appetit. Watch out, Krispy Kreme, she says, “cream puffs will be the next big thing.”
The biggest driver: America’s irrepressible sweet tooth. Helping is marketing machinery pitching the puff – now about as popular in Japan as doughnuts are here – as an American institution. Even in an era of better-for-you dining, the cream puff’s clearly no cream puff.
At a handful of Manhattan locations, customers lured by the smell of fresh-baked puffs willingly wait in long lines that snake outside Beard Papa’s Sweets Cafes to pay $1.45 for one of the chain’s trademark vanilla cream puffs.
Each oozes about 230 calories – about 30 calories more than a Krispy Kreme glazed donut. But unlike donuts, the cream puffs are baked, not fried. The filling is a whipped-cream-and-custard combo. The company, already a success in Japan, plans to open another 20 U.S. units domestically during the next year – including in Hollywood and San Francisco.
Some stores sell 5,000 cream puffs a day, though sales here have lagged for one variety – the green tea-flavored cream puffs, admits Craig Takiguchi, executive vice president of Muginoho USA, parent company of the chain.
“The funniest thing,” Takiguchi says, “is seeing shoppers who leave our store with cream and powdered sugar all over their face.”
how i wish those pics come in wallpaper size… T-T
Mmmmm….creampuffs. Sadly, those stores haven’t made it to the west coast yet : (
Ooh I want one! I want one! I’ve made a request on Jlist too! Those pandas are sooo bad–I feel like one of those spoiled brats that wants something I can’t get!!
blargh!!
my head just exploded… i must have one of these
aw, they remind me of muppets. if only real pandas can multiply just as fast as these cuties.
Thank you for coming to and enjoying our WEB site.
It looks Pandas are very happy.
↓How to get Puppet Panda…
It is being sold at Arumado’s cream puff shop in Harajuku, Tokyo. Unfortunately, they don’t ship it to overseas.
If you have a Japanese friend or a frined who lives in Japan, I think he/she may be able to help you.
Thank you.
Here is Arumado shop URL
http://www.arumado.co.jp/
i like pandas.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh fire on the poopdeck.
Well I can see why Dark_Moonlight said that.hehehe…well the panda looks fake because it’s a stuffed panda instead of a real panda.It would be cuter than a fake panda.
O.K. a bit cute and creepy
My friend lives in Japan and he says what the website sells is actually a promotional package of some sort that MIGHT have a panda in it. Apparently they only sell them at one shop in Harajuku. Wooohooo me! He’s going to try and head there this weekend and snag me one. He’s cameraphone happy too so hopefully I’ll have my own panda album by the time it reaches me!
hi there!
wow!it’s “Nama-cha panda” of Japanese beverage company’s image mascot.
you guys can see “Nama-cha panda” here.
http://www.beverage.co.jp/product/cm/namacya/index.html#eco
and you guys can get note pad,screen saver and mouse poimter at here!
http://www.beverage.co.jp/pecology/download.html
I hope you guys enjoy them.
Takako~from Japan *(>_^)b
I am travelling to Tokyo March 24, how many Pandas do you want me to buy?
I love all the pictures! But where can I buy a panda like that?! I really want one!
/Mira
Joakim, are you from sweden as well? maybe you can buy one for me, I’ll pay you!!
/mira
Please find a way to get these pandas! I will bid on ebay!
hi..
I’ve been making a huge effort to find these pandas online for some time now and just found this posting area. Here is some info:
http://berdwin.googlepages.com/panda
if the page doesn’t load, keep refreshing
HEY!! I got a panda!!
I found one at random on this ebay store:
http://stores.ebay.com/Magical-Girls-Anime-Doujinshi-Shop
they don’t always have one but check every week because they get new stuff.
w00000t!!!! ^^
Yes Mira, actually I am swedish
. but as it turned out, the Arumado cream puff shop only have keyring pandas that doesnt look good at all, therefor I didnt buy any 
. I might try at ebay though 
, I post here if I get some from there.
I want a pako to!
can you get me a pako to meg?pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese?
can you get me a pako to meg?pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese?
plaes i want a pako!
plaes i want a pako!
the pandas are very cute
it’s cool to see this page. i am a super panda lover.
do anyone know where can buy the panda in the frontpage of http://www.arumado.co.jp? the big one i mean
I love the one of the pandas picnicking under the cherry tree…Going to see the cherry trees in bloom is VERY, very Japanese.
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