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Starbucks Coffee Japan Sakura 2007 Mug

Sorry about the lack of posts recently. I really got on a roll with my Starbucks Christmas mugs but then the Japan earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster occurred and my hands were full leaving the country, sorting myself out financially and then looking for a new job once I got back to my apartment in Tokyo.

Long story short I’m fine, as are most people in Tokyo, so let’s get to my latest Starbucks Mug spotlight!

Starbucks Japan Sakura 2007 Mug

Here in Tokyo, we’re in Hanami season (Cherry Blossom Viewing) so I felt a little inspired to feature my Japanese Starbucks Sakura mugs. As with New Years, Japan creates special exclusive mugs for the season every year and due to their limited supply they sell out fairly quickly.

I bought this mug in 2007 at a Starbucks in Shibuya and took this photo and video last weekend in Numabukuro during the peak Hanami period. This was the first Sakura mug I had ever noticed in Japan though judging by a Google Image search the Japanese Sakura Mugs go back to at least 2005.

I love these Sakura Mugs as they’re a really nice change from the regular Starbucks City Mugs and the fact that they’re exclusive to Japan makes them a very desirable and rare collectable.

Starbucks Coffee Australia Mug and Jumping the Shark

As promised in my previous post about my new Sydney Starbucks mug here is it’s partner, the Starbucks Australia Mug!

It obviously features a lot of stylistic similarities to the Sydney mug which is great (I always like themed sets). In place of the Sydney Harbour we get a boomerang and a kangaroo. They’ve obviously gone for the stereotypical view of Australia which normally I’m against but since the City Mugs feature…. well the cities, I can see why they went for the country look.

What was absolutely fantastic was when I was filming the video for the Starbucks Australia Mug in Darling Harbour a street performer somewhere behind me started playing a didgeridoo! Talk about great timing! Wasn’t at all planned but very much a win!

Something I noticed when shopping in Sydney was that all the Starbucks were selling not just the Australia and Sydney mugs but also the mugs from other Australian cities! While this might be great for some people I kind of think this ruins the joy of collecting as one of the main reasons I, and I’m sure many others, buy the mugs is to remember their trip to that city or country. Buying them all at one place and having never been to the actual place feels a lot like cheating.

Starbucks COMPLETELY Missing the Point

Since I’ve been back in Tokyo I’ve seen that Japan is now doing the same thing by selling all the mugs in one location and I really hate it. It just destroys the whole point of having location based merchandise. I hope Starbucks stops this soon as it really has the potential of destroying something special. 🙁

What do you think about Starbucks selling City Mugs all in one location? Has Starbucks jumped the shark?

Sydney Starbucks Mug

Happy New Year! I hope you had a fantastically fun and safe holiday season and haven’t broken too many resolutions yet. 😉

I had an awesome time visiting family and friends in Sydney and while there I scored two mugs that I’ve been drinking out of every day since I got back to Tokyo.

Years ago when I used to work at Starbucks in Sydney the mugs they had for Australia were unattractive to say the least. Recently though Starbucks has revamped a lot of their “City Mugs” and these new Aussie ones are a HUGE improvement!

I love the varnished interiors (no more staining! 😀 ) and the new handle which seems a lot larger than the handles on my Japan mugs. I really dig the duotone colour theme with the yellow (possibly representing the outback) and the pink/maroon. The Harbour Bridge looks great and they’ve done a surprisingly accurate job a representing the harbour.

I bought this mug in the Hay Market Starbucks on George Street where I used to work and walked down to Darling Harbour to record this video of it (and the other mug which I’ll cover in the next post 😉 ).

Starbucks 2010 Christmas Mug and Other Merchandise

I know I’m really speeding through these Starbucks Christmas mugs but I’m flying out to Australia to be with family and friends for Christmas and New Years in a few days and am determined to get all these Christmas mugs covered so that when I get back I can blog about Japan’s 2011 New Years mug and then continue covering my other mugs!

This is my final red themed Starbucks Christmas mug in my collection and came out on sale in Japan on November 1st (which I think is a lot earlier than the rest of the world but correct me if I’m wrong).

The look on this mug is very stylised with two very artistically drawn children looking up at the falling snowflakes. This is a very different style from previous designs. The background is also a bit different. While it definitely uses the same red as in the other mugs, there’s a big use of screenprint-like gradients used to create the illusion of hills covered in snow. I do like this mug but to be honest I’m not a fan of the art style (something about the noses 😉 ) but it still looks good in my collection.

Something I didn’t really notice until I started taking photos of the mug is that they’ve moved the “custom drink boxes” from the front-side to next to the handle. I actually really like this idea as it gives more real estate for the graphics rather than the Starbucks company advertising. In fact the Starbucks logo is also a lot smaller than previous mugs.

It makes me curious about 2011′s Christmas Mug.

This time I’ve got two videos to check out. The first one is the usual look at the mug…

…while the second one is a video of the Christmas merchandise display at the Starbucks in Ogikubo, Tokyo Japan. Huge variety of mugs and other merch. No way I could have bought them all so I hope you like the video and find it useful.

How much Starbucks Christmas merch do you buy each year? Obviously I always make it a point to buy the new red Christmas mug. I’m also a big fan of the snow globe Christmas tree ornaments they release. (Actually I make a point to zoom in on this year’s globe in the first video). I also buy the Starbucks Christmas Blend Coffee in December to help me get in the festive mood. What do you buy?

Starbucks 2009 Christmas Mug

Last year (2009) Starbucks had a kind of “Peace on Earth” theme for their Christmas merchandise. Pretty much everything (including their Christmas Blend) had images of white gift tags with words like “Joy”, “Peace”, “Hope”, “Wish”, etc on each tag.

I have a feeling that there was some sort of charity fund raising that was being held at the same time by Starbucks but the Starbucks in Japan didn’t really advertise it well and very little information was available for customers (in English or Japanese) besides a slogan saying something like “Help someone else” or something. 😐

Anyway… 2009′s Christmas Mug departs quite a bit from previous mugs. It tosses the snow theme and focuses on a Christmas Tree look with dark crimson branches in the background and white gift tag / ornaments on the foreground with the previously mentioned words.

I do like the look but I have to be honest and say it’s my least favourite Starbucks Christmas mug so far. I don’t hate it. It’s just not as magical as 2008′s mug.