Last week, at the Seibu Department Store in Tokyo, Tomy Toys, a toy company from Japan unveiled a diamond doll.

The specially produced doll with the name “Licca–chan” (The Licca-chan doll is a widely popular Japanese version of the Barbie doll) comes clad in a tiara and gown studded with 881 diamonds, a total of 51.4 karat.

This diamond doll was part of an exhibition called “Girlish Culture” geared toward what they describe as, “happy adult by fashion”.

This luxury doghouse was created in 2007 for a sales event at a department store in Tokyo and designed in collaboration with a maker of high-end pet goods. It’s worth3.9 million yen (32,000 dollars).

The most expensive doghouse in the world, large enough for a Chihuahua or terrier, is decorated with 7,600 crystal beads and has a pillow in the shape of Hello Kitty’s face.

“There’s been a boom in luxury couches for larger dogs, so we thought there might be room for something new,” said a Sanrio (the company behind Hello Kitty) spokesman.

A Japanese boy looks at a 10 cm (4 inch) model of Japan’s rocket-powered boy Astro Boy encrusted with diamonds, rubies and emeralds worth about 100 million yen ($828,720) displayed at a Tokyo department store April 7, 2003.

Artist Osamu Tezuka, considered the father of Japan’s animation or “manga” industry, created Astro Boy as a serialised comic strip in 1951 and set his character’s birthday far in the future-April 7, 2003.

Set in futuristic Metro City, “Astro Boy” tells the story of a young robot created by a scientist to replace the son he has lost. Unable to fulfill the grieving father’s expectations, the robot embarks on a journey before he returns to save the city and reconcile with the man who had rejected him.

Summit Entertainment plans to distribute Imagi Studios’ computer-animated feature “Astro Boy” worldwide in 2009.

Fruit is generally expensive in Japan and the locals seem to buy the fruits only as luxury gifts. After the Watermelon auctioned for $6,100 and the $2,000 mangoes, a bunch of grapes fetched a record $900 (for 35 grapes).

“We believe the price was probably a record high,” said local agricultural official Hirofumi Isu. Of course, as a French guy, I treasure grapes, but still… $26 per grape !

That’s how much one hotel manager in Japan paid for a bunch of Ruby Roman grapes, though, at an auction in Japan’s northwestern Ishikawa region where the grapes have been under state development since 1994.

Blue Bottle Café in San Francisco is now serving coffee from the only halogen-powered coffee machine which looks like a machine from a Jules Verne novel.

Called a siphon bar, it was imported from Japan at a total cost of more than $20,000.

The New York Times reports that a cup of coffee from this contraption, which is described as the USA’s first halogen-powered model, includes a “kaleidoscopic” range of flavors.

The world’s most expensive water can be found 2,000 feet down off the coast of Hawaii and is bottled by Hawaii Deep Marine. Called Kona Nigari, this water is a seawater mineral concentrate that should be mixed with regular water.

Japanese consumers are paying top dollar for desalinated Hawaiian deep-sea water being marketed as a dietary supplement that aids weight loss, stress reduction, skin tone and digestion. The water is high in minerals and believed free of modern contaminants. Since it’s in the deep sea, it doesn’t have any effects from air or water pollution.

At this time, only 2 ounces of Kona Nigari costs $33.50 USD ($2,144 per gallon!) and 80,000 bottles are shipped to Japan every day.

The business has grown large enough that Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle decided to issue an official Hawaii deep-sea water certificate. The state will charge 3 cents a bottle to use a logo to distinguish Hawaiian seawater from Japanese-produced seawater.