If geekdom is your thing then the Hyper Japan culture festival in Manchester was a big deal. Normally it’s in that there London, but for the first time it was up north for mid-November 2025.

Being Japan obsessives, we got ourselves a ticket and had a mosey around. With a massive array of pop culture, anime, food, shops and the like, it’s fair to say we had a bloody good time of it.

Let’s!! Hyper Japan Manchester!!!

Hyper Japan is mainly about kawaii (cuteness) culture that’s so popular in the land of Nippon. It’s an interesting contrast to the often tradition heavy nature of the country, where discipline and politeness are so prevalent.

But kawaii culture allows people to cut loose a little bit and have fun.

The arrival of Hyper Japan in Manchester was a big deal, too, with even the BBC covering it (Japanese culture festival to make Manchester debut). Running across three days, we turned up on the Sunday (the last day) and despite that it was still bloody busy, packed out in the city centre Manchester Central Convention Centre. And the venue had a bit of everything:

• Indie shops
• Food stores
• A giant Transformer just standing there
• Culture classes
• Food stalls
• A live stage with Japanese artists singing away

We turned up as Japanese singer Miyuna was on stage, the 23-year-old announcing it was her first visit to the UK and she was a bit nervous.

All very well and good, but we were there to SHOP. And that’s what we did, across the 100 or so mini-stores that were all over the main floor. All there to hawk their swag, as independent shop owners, with all sorts of cute shizz available. This awesome, cute little yellow chicken (by Ulyana Kausharova) being the best.

Exploring the diddy shops, there was a lot of fun talent on display here. With little business cards available, you can then find their various Etsy stores online and it’s all rather glorious. Independent shopping done good! Almost all of them operated by young women, which was good to see, highlighting an area of small businesses we can totally support.

My Fair Lassie

This amusing/bizarre flier for Fish-Man Karate by My Fair Lassie also piqued our interest big time.

You could buy all of these little things directly from the sellers, have a chinwag with them, and then follow them on social media (if that’s your thing).

It’s all part of the experience with these conferences, finding new creative talents and the like.

Jess Was Here

It’s not a big surprise Jess Was Here has 34,000 followers on Instagram. Some of this stuff is immense! We’ve got one eye on this CapyBag as a sophisticated ornament for our living room. In the meantime, we got a bunch of cool images and stuff to keep ourselves occupied.

And artwork like this.

Jess was also very friendly and helpful, so thanks for the awesome pigeons and flora combo. We just now need that CapyBag to complete the set.

Spicy Be4n Creates

The very friendly and welcoming Spicy Be4n had cute knickknacks, some of them inspired by Studio Ghibli, and other stuff such as worry stones. We got some keyrings from here (frog, egg) and it was all rather glorious.

Matcha Woozi

Lots of bug/Pokémon inspired art stuffs here. Gaming references were frequent across the event, but there was something about the greenery here that did appeal.

In Summary: Hyper Japan is Proper Belting

It was around £30 to get in and whilst we wish that was a little cheaper, if it keeps events like this going that’s fine by us. The Geekdom was very good this November 2025 and we met some very cool store owners.

Venues like this are very open and diverse, and celebration of different cultures and personalities, and would really trigger off the anti-woke brigade.

But it was a place for introverts to let loose a bit. The shop owners are a cool and quirky bunch, many taking the weekend away from their full-time jobs to sell their passion projects. Got to respect that.

Plus, Japan’s presence in Manchester. We’ve got plenty of sushi restaurants here these days (very uncommon just 20 years ago) and Japan’s impact on the UK continues to grow. Match is everywhere and a booming trade! As one example.

Oh yeah, we’ll totes be going back in 2026. Jaa ne!