i wasn't going to post about this here but my post on mastodon got a lot of traction and i figure it's better to spread it as much as i can just in case anyone has information so...
in early 2015 or late 2014, i purchased a lion glass cup from a japanese import store. i've taken great care to make sure it didn't get damaged, until yesterday, just bumping my hand against it, it toppled over on the wooden table and broke… i'd really like to find it again.
here's all the information i can provide about it:
on japanese websites, glass cups in that style are labelled "showa retro" (昭和レトロ). they are sometimes described as having a "café" aesthetic (and in fact, i've found evidence that two of these cups, including raionsan, are being used in at least one japanese café.) they're part of a series featuring 5 different animals: a giraffe (kirinsan) a penguin (penginsan) a rabbit (usagisan) a panda (pandasan) and the lion i'm looking for (raionsan). they've been sold at seria and (possibly, unsure) other 100¥ stores in japan, as well as various japanese import stores around the world, online and offline. at this point in my search, i can say with 99% certainty that the cups originate from seria japan. i've found evidence of them being sold at seria in japan as late as december 2020, in import stores as late as 2019, online also as an import as late as 2021, and of people owning it or other cups from this series as early as 2009. it doesn't have a specific brand or name associated to it, although some labels group them under "animal land" or "animal glass assortment" (動物ランド, 動物グラス アソート) but searching those terms leads to nothing afaict. sometimes, they're also called "tumblers" (タンブラー)
since making my original posts about this, and searching on my own, i've found a penguin cup from that same series has been sold secondhand on mercari jp earlier this month, and someone found a listing for two of the giraffe cups on ebay, so i'm cautiously optimistic. i'm tracking "raionsan" and "raionsan glass" on my bf's ebay account and keeping an eye on aggregate websites (like fromjapan) that let you order from various japanese secondhand and auction sites. i've also been looking up keywords on yahoo auction.
i honestly don't even care how much money someone would want for it, i just want to own it again. ideally i'd love two so i can use one and display the other, but mostly i just want raionsan back. if you have any information or have spotted it anywhere, please let me know! thank you. people have been so helpful and nice about it and it's genuinely helped me feel better. i had this glass for over a decade and i was really attached to it, as silly as it may sound.
i'd really appreciate if you could circulate this post, through a reblog or just through sharing it around to people or communities who might help me track down raionsan. thank you again.
