We were pretty disappointed with the closing of Shamrock Air, the cute concept store with the aircraft-like interior that required shoppers to pre-register online for a boarding pass to enter. Taking its place at the highly visible entrance to Harajuku’s Takeshita Dori, however, is a new Tama Depa with a few nice concepts of its own.
Tama Depa, produced by Bandai, is a contraction for Tamagotchi Department Store, meaning the shop carries just about everything Tamagotchi you or your child could possibly want.
Not only to play with, but also to eat, as Tama Depa specializes in “Tamagotchi donuts” visible (and smell-able) from the street.
Fans who sign up for a Tama Depa membership online are rewarded with an animated version of the donut take-away case for their Circle Link avatar. Circle Link is an SNS forum for character loving school kids organized into “circles” for members who follow the same character.
And who wouldn’t want to be a fan of Tamagotchi in exchange for free (unfortunately virtual) donuts? Membership also promises more avatar goodies in the future as well as off-line event notification.
Another way to get your hands on virtual donuts is to pass by the front of the store. Here, an interactive monitor takes the faces of those standing in front and puts them on the screen with an animated donut in hand.
The inside (sorry, no photos) is also fully decked out with video screens.
The opening of Tama Depa, on September 20th, came just ahead of the announcement from Bandai that color tamagotchis are on the way.
