Emoticons are great at expressing how we feel. So why restrict its use in text messages, IMs and email? Not anymore with the Kaoiro Emoticon Stamp, which lets you lace your real paper letters with 2,000 different kinds of emoticons.
Of course, you can always just use a pen to draw a smiley on the Post-It note you’re leaving for the guy on the next shift, but it doesn’t look official. Stamped items, on the other hand, have a way of looking dignified on paper. Because dignified is how you roll, aint it?
The Kaoiro Emoticon Stamp is a 1.3 x 1.1 x 3.9 inch stamp, made from wood, rubber and steel. Sporting seven belts and 20 different symbols, you can use it to lay down up to 2,000 different Japanese-style “kaomoji” (emoticons). It works just like any multi-belt rubber stamp, so just adjust the belts, dip it in ink and mark away.
Do note that text-based Japanese smileys are different from the Western style (kaomoji actually reads horizontally, not vertically), so you can stamp as many of these things as you want and your local friends won’t be all the wiser for it. The good thing is, you can stamp the equivalent of cuss words to the documents you’re sending to upper management and they won’t even have a clue. Unless they’re actually closet otakus, at which point, you might want to begin packing up your things.
While you’d probably prefer a more familiar Western version, the Kaoiro Emoticon Stamp will have to do for now. They have it at Japan Trend Shop for $51.