Cleaning 403 in Yamanashi Prefecture cleans stuffed animals! It's even getting a response from overseas.
Hello, I'm Tasuki.
What was the first stuffed animal you ever owned?
I have loved Donald Duck since I was a child, and my maternal grandfather gave one to me when I was little, saying, 'I bought this because I saw it for sale.'
I still have that stuffed animal at home today.
For someone like me who doesn't go to Disneyland, it was a stuffed animal I felt attached to even though I couldn't buy it there.
While people often repair toys at a toy hospital, I heard there is a dry cleaner in Yamanashi Prefecture that cleans stuffed animals!
The stuffed animal cleaning service at 'Cleaning 403,' which operates dry cleaning shops within Yamanashi Prefecture, is a big topic of conversation. Their method of intentionally leaving behind fraying or damage that the owner is attached to has been well-received, and over 10,000 items are submitted for cleaning every year. After cleaning, there has been an increase in emotional feedback such as 'It reminds me of when I first bought it,' and the customer base has even spread overseas to places like Taiwan.
'Cleaning 403' was founded in March 1992 in Fujiyoshida City, Yamanashi Prefecture. They have cleaned various items, not just general clothing but also camping tents and more, and in 1998, they began cleaning stuffed animals after receiving a request from a customer asking, 'Can you also wash teddy bears?'
This time, I will share information about Cleaning 403 and the effects of their stuffed animal cleaning service.
How much of a response has the stuffed animal cleaning at 'Cleaning 403' received?
When a request is made via drop-off or delivery, they first interview the owner about the condition of the stuffed animal to perform a 'check-up'.
After that, many staff members, including lead artisan Masaichi Shimura, use proprietary techniques developed from years of experience to perform pre-treatments like hand-washing and stain removal, before putting them into washing machines with custom-programmed rotation speeds and water temperatures.
After air-drying, they finish the process by using seven or eight different types of brushes depending on the hardness and length of the fur, and using an iron to make the fur texture uniform.
Shimura stated, 'My goal is to provide cleaning that exceeds expectations while imagining the life the owner lives with their stuffed animal.'
However, they are careful not to just return them to a brand-new state, but to ensure that fraying or damage that the owner wants to keep as a memory is not altered, and repair artisan Yayoko Mori added, 'Every stuffed animal has its own individual value. Unlike other laundry, it's not about returning them to look brand new.'
Their careful finishing has gradually become a hot topic, and they are receiving a steady stream of gratitude and emotional feedback from customers, such as, 'It came back properly as my beloved stuffed animal, and I could only look at it, overcome with emotion' and 'It regained its original fluffiness and whiteness.'
In 2010, they officially started a specialized stuffed animal cleaning service. They currently operate 29 shops within Yamanashi Prefecture, with specialized staff working at two of these locations.
Then, in 2021, when they uploaded videos and photos of the work on social media, they received a response from all over the world, with many comments like 'Watching the cleaning process was so healing' and 'It's cute,' and now they are receiving orders from people in the Asian region, such as Taiwan.
Atsushi Iwamoto, Managing Director of 'Cleaning 403,' explained,
'Stuffed animals are cherished as members of the family, and I want to continue to take on challenges so that we can contribute as "stuffed animal experts" by cleaning each one with care and heart.'
A former favorite of my household
When I was in elementary school, my family and I were hooked on crane games. When we went to the crane game corner of a shopping center that no longer exists, looking back, I'm not sure if I really wanted them that much, but
if I thought, "I want that," I would pour thousands of yen into it until I could get it.
Even after my family stopped going to crane games, my father would sometimes win them at arcades near his workplace and bring them home.
We even have a dedicated cupboard at home that contains the stuffed animals we won in crane games.
After that, the difficulty of crane games increased, and I realized that I couldn't win as often as before and that the money I was spending was a waste, so I stopped playing crane games.
A mistake I made after becoming an adult was that when the movie [Detective Pikachu] was released, I was quite hooked on it, and I watched it in all the available screening formats. Among them,
I'm not sure if it still exists, but at United Momochi, there was a facility called ScreenX, which had screens on the left and right sides as well, and I was moved by seeing the flying Pokémon also appearing on the side screens.
I was moved by the movie, and when I left the theater, there was an arcade next door. There, they had merchandise for [Detective Pikachu].
I believe it was a stuffed animal with a ball chain, but after watching the movie, I thought, "I want it."
It had been a while since I played a crane game. I was never that good at it to begin with, so I couldn't win it. I got desperate and kept putting money in.
Then, it hit me. Back then, even though people told me it was convenient, I didn't have a transportation IC card, and I thought,
"If I keep spending money like this, I won't have enough for the city expressway toll on the way home or for the bus fare."
I was trying to win it until I had almost no money left.
Even after going that far, I couldn't win it in the end, and I wasted my money.
Since then, I've learned my lesson and haven't played crane games at all.
Besides the stuffed animals I mentioned at the beginning, another one that left an impression on me was from when I went to see a Pokémon movie with my mother as a child. There was an original character for that movie only, a character with bangs as a trademark called Pichu Brother.
I begged my mother to buy it for me, and it is at home.
It is quite dusty.
Regarding the main subject of this article, "Cleaning 403," I don't know the cost, but I thought that if I asked them to clean it, that dusty Pichu Brother might come back clean.
However, just like with the crane games from my childhood, I have a large number of stuffed animals at home, so when I use the service, I want to choose carefully and request it.
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