Blog
Occasional notes from building Kaomojikan: how the little shop-girl mascot works, and where the text faces it's made of actually came from. (・ω・)ﾉ
Japanese Kaomoji vs Western Emoticons: Eyes vs Mouth
Why :) is read sideways and smiles with the mouth, while (^_^) sits upright and smiles with the eyes — and the research behind the difference. (^_^)
The kaomoji the world actually uses in 2026 — and why they're not dead
Emoji and AI are everywhere, so kaomoji should be dead by now. A 16-country survey says otherwise. The world's #1 face, the generation gap, and why text faces keep winning. (・ω・)ﾉ
A mascot that follows your cursor
How I built the eye-tracking shop-girl mascot with plain SVG, one pointermove, and a bit of CSS. The small tricks that make a drawing feel alive.
The funny story behind the kaomoji developers love: shrug, table flip, Lenny, and ಠ_ಠ
A short, honest history of the text faces developers actually use. The shrug, the table flip, Lenny, the look of disapproval, and the strange road they took out of Japan.