At long last

 My January Doki Doki crate came today. I guess I cannot complain: it is, after all, still January. (But usually these come close to the start of the month; they are blaming COVID and slow international shipping. I assume the February crate will se a similar delay...they said something about "making it up" to us, but I am not sure that will happen).

But at least it's here now

There were a couple little plush type items, first, a Gudetama (the depressed egg character) done up as a tamagoyaki....they say this is an "otedama" used in a beanbag game

And what I thought was a cat at first, but the booklet they include says it is a kitsune - a fox spirit from Japanese folklore. This is sort of the standard little loaf-shaped plushie that seems to be fairly common

And also it has the typical, ahem, "end" decoration of these plushies:

There were also a couple useful items. Like a Japanese style soup spoon

And a really nice little alarm clock that looks like the old-fashioned kind, but is battery operated (and I presume the alarm is digital, those bells are not real - I have not put the AA battery in it just yet. If it ticks loudly (some alarm clocks do) I probably won't put it in my bedroom. 

And finally, a sign of the times I guess - a mask holder with one of the little papery Asian style masks, which feels a LOT flimsier than the cloth ones I made, I think it would only be suitable now if you were "double masking"

Maybe in happier times, when you're just trying to avoid colds (or avoid transmitting a cold you have) it's fine, but now, it would feel very insecure.

I think my favorite item is the little clock, but the Kitsune is a close second. But the Gudetama is nice too, and he almost qualifies as what my mom called a "pocket friend" - when I was a child, I always liked to carry a small toy (either a little plastic animal figure or a tiny stuffed toy) in my pocket with me, and she called them "pocket friends" which amuses me because several of my online friends refer to the people they mostly interact with through Twitter as their "pocket friends."

here's hoping the future crates can come closer to on time.