Sometimes, import games and consoles aren’t the right gift. I mean, the language barrier could be too much to overcome. Plus, they’re usually twice as expensive as a game from North America. That doesn’t mean you have to settle for easy to find items though. There are tons of fun little gadgets and goodies from Japan that don’t need any translation to love! And, so you don’t have to sift through all of them, I did!

So here we go, with a pretty brief look at six different items that would work as gifts for the picky people on your list who won’t be satisfied with a gift that’s easy to find and from their own country!

Last month, at the 2011 Tokyo Game Show, Level-5 shocked the world by announcing the PS3 version of Ni no Kuni would be released outside of Japan. No specific details were given, just that the console version of the Level-5 and Studio Ghibli collaboration was going to be translated into English and shared with the world. There wasn’t even an English trailer, release window or information on which company would be publishing it.

Now, we know. Namco Bandai, probably the unlikeliest option, is partially responsible for the good news…

Good news people, you now know the correct way to refer to Ni no Kuni PS3 so you don’t have to try and pronounce a Japanese subtitle should you head to your local game store to pre-order it. Level-5 has just dubbed it Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. It sounds a bit more menacing and exciting than Ni no Kuni: Shiroki Seihai no Joou (Ni no Kuni: Queen of the Sacred White Ashes).

That isn’t the only recent nugget of information dropped by Level-5…

Good news from Japan today! Level-5 confirmed at the 2011 Tokyo Game Show that Ni no Kuni: Shiroki Seihai no Joou will be released in North America. I guess we should really start referring to it as Ni no Kuni: Queen of the Sacred White Ashes now, since that’s probably what it will be called here. Sometime in the beginning of 2012, we’ll be able to visit the Second Country!

Oliver is a normal 13 year old boy living in Hotroit with his mother, and eerything’s going fine. Well, until his mother dies suddenly….

Japan gets the prettiest PS3s. I’m serious. Just look at some of theirs compared to some of ours. There’s that nice Final Fantasy XIII one, the rather elegant Tales of Xillia system that was just announced and now the most striking of them all has been released. It’s a limited edition system that will only come bundled with the forthcoming Level-5 and Studio Ghibli RPG, Ni no Kuni: Shiroki Seihai no Joou (Ni no Kuni: Queen of White Sacred Ash).

This bundle has been dubbed the Ni no Kuni Magical Edition bundle, which is appropriate because it certainly looks magical….

The creator of awesome animated films including Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle and Ponyo is making a move into video games with the upcoming title, Ni no Kuni.

Ni no Kuni tells the story of a boy named Oliver, who travels to a parallel universe to search for a way to revive his mother. The boy is accompanied by a fairy named Shizuku, who gives him a spell book with which Oliver can use enchantments to battle enemies.

Miayazaki’s films can arguably be described as a bit too weird for American audiences to accept, lacking a clear, super-hero style main character and, instead focusing on normal people in not-so-normal circumstances. Most times he exudes a mood more than a clear, linear story in his films, though this may be one of the most linear of his productions (thanks to the film’s literary inspiration).

Some elements in Ponyo may not immediately endear older American viewers but the overall story will prove entertaining to its true target: very young viewers.

Handdrawn, 2D animation is an endangered art form. Most films are now made with computers and companies have a habit of releasing everything in 3D. Thankfully, Studio Ghibli is still doing things the old fashioned way. The company’s latest film, Ponyo, is among its most beautiful, and is a new adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid.

Brunhilde is a little goldfish who lives under the sea with her father and sisters. All her life, she’s been stuck in and Fujimoto’s submarine, but she wants more out of life. She one day sets out to see what there is outside of the ocean she knows. Unfortunately, it doesn’t go too well and she ends up trapped in a bottle…