12/15/2007

Here’s a bit of Japanese mobile culture for keitai / cell phones that has not been covered anywhere in English—the so-called Hime-Den and Deco-Den phenomenon.

Japanese ‘Hime-Den’ [姫電 ] comes from Hime meaning “Princess” and Den for Denwa or phone. Basically, it refers to girlly keitai freaks have more money and time than sense—that is, the average and totally normal monthly cellphone bill for a regular ‘Hime-Den’ runs about 60,000 yen per month…about $530 USD that’s normally paid by the parents of a 20-something girl.

And, every ‘Hime-Den’ girl needs her bling-tastic Deco-Den[デコ電]—literally, DECOration DENwa/phone that’s encrusted in Swarovski, rhinestones, glitter, seals and paint. Check out the photo above that I took last weekend of my secretary’s pink-n-purple, rhinestone-covered cell phone,and all the examples below from the EmbellirShop.com.

Better yet, check out the Deco-Den for sale for all you folks not in Japan via the Rinkya online proxy service.

Hell, there’s even a cell phone fashion magazine called “Deco-Den”—see below.

And of course as I always say, “You can never have enough Hello Kitty.”


UPDATE: The - zedgeHeadz blog has a photo essay on these blinged out phones called “From Japan: The Extra Mile For Personalization ” and writes:
Okay, maybe nothing special, right? There’s kiosks in malls all across the US that also offers diamond studded cell phone covers. Well, check these out…. Each one is individually hand produced. Hence the variety. Sure you can get a cell phone cover with a Chinese dragon on it anywhere in the US, but one with Ronald Reagan on it? …more…