Re-Ment Sushi Miniatures: the Only Fish I Don’t Actively Hate

Since I was a little girl, I’ve been fascinated by things that are miniaturized. I think it all goes back to a family vacation to Walt Disney World when my dad took me to the hotel gift shop and told me to choose anything I wanted; the cutest little black-and-white spotted pig caught my eye and became my most prized possession, and after that, my dad was always surprising me with miniature everything.

One afternoon while my boyfriend, Kamran, and I were busy stuffing our faces with French fries in paper cones at Pommes Frites, we decided to stop in the Japanese toy store next door despite the fact that it was up a dark, unmarked stairway. Most of the store was comprised of glass cases filled with every imaginable Be@rbrick, a collectible sort-of plastic bear that confused us sooooo much, but the entire wall of boxes with pictures of miniature food on them had me mesmerized.

Except for the safety warning, all of the writing was in Japanese, so I had no idea what I was really getting into, but a sign on the wall scolded people for opening the boxes, so I got the feeling their contents were supposed to be a surprise. I had a tough time choosing between the boxes covered in cakes and pies and the boxes covered in sushi, and even though I don’t care for fish in real life, I’ve been secretly coveting the salmon stapler I bought Kamran from The Brooklyn Museum a while back. Plus, with my intense love of baked goods, I was a little scared I might actually try to ingest the things.

I settled in with my surprise box at home,

Hooray! A photo that totally clashes with my layout!

and found a long strip of plastic with separate pouches for each of the pieces:

I was so, so pleased to have chosen the set with both a handroll

and a couple of shrimp, even though that’s basically the last thing I’d ever order in an actual sushi joint:

There was even dessert!; I mean, if you count melon as dessert, which I totally don’t:

I arranged them carefully in Kamran’s apartment (against his wishes), as if I was going to partake with three of my closest miniature friends:

And then I . . . umm . . . put everything back in the box, because that’s pretty much all you can do with it.

But how fun!, right? I can’t wait to be a crazy old cat lady who fills her house with Japanese food miniatures. Check out Re-Ment International to drool over all of the other sets, and stock up on plenty of them for me for Christmas. At $3.99 per box, you can buy a hell of a lot of them with all that money you were going to spend on the Nintendo Wii you didn’t get me last year.