I always thought my iPhone was beautiful. The precision…. The curves… The materials… Room for improvement on the iPhone4? Pshh, I think not. That’s when Erin showed me these Japanese food based iPhone covers on StrapyaWorld. I hope Steve Jobs is taking notes for the iPhone5′s design.

Stuff On My iPhone

Apples and other companies like to go minimalist with their cases. Cover as little as possible! Add as little bulge as possible! Re-add some receptions!

Pshh. Who needs to be able to fit their iPhone in their pockets? I’m all about carrying my iPhone around in a bento box everywhere I go.

A company called iMeshi makes iPhone covers that resemble Japanese food. Not only do they look good… but they make me want to eat them. Japan really does have a fetish with fake plastic display food (and they’re really good at it).

I suppose it’s only natural (wait, no it’s not) to want to move this fake, tasty looking food to your iPhone as well. “Moshi moshi?” “Oh hi, this is your accountant. You should stop spending so much money on iPhone covers.”

1. Unagi iPhone Cover

Unagi are freshwater eel, and a common sight in Japanese restaurants. They go on sushi, they go on donburi, and they go good plain, too. If you’re new to sushi and afraid of raw things, unagi is the way to go. It’s incredibly tasty.

This, surprisingly, is one of the better covers in terms of actually being able to fit your iPhone in your pocket (don’t wear tight-jeans). It probably only doubles the size of your iPhone. Also brings a new meaning to “is that an eel in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”

If you’re in Japan and ever get a chance, pop into a place that makes unagi-don. You will feel good afterwards.

2. Nikujaga iPhone Cover

Nikujaga is one of my favorite comfort foods. The main parts of it are meat (niku) and potatoes (jaga). It’s a kind of shoyu (soy saucce) based stew, and you can add other things as well. Easy to make and super tasty. Look up some recipes if you don’t eat your iPhone cover first.

Excuse me while I get up and make some nikujagga.

3. Sushi iPhone Covers

This, by far, has to be the most ridiculous iPhone cover of them all (and most awesome). There are two sushi covers, and both of them take up a ridiculous amount of space (it’s like having a cell phone in the early 90′s again!). You could probably stack 3-4 iPhones on top of each other before they equaled the width of this cover.

I’d go with this second one, for sure. Ikura? Hells yes. Give me two of those.

4. Hiyashi Chuuka iPhone Cover

Hiyashi chuuka is a cold ramen dish usually served in the summer. It’s ramen noodles served with various other refreshing things. Maybe this would be a good summer iPhone case for you.

Makes me sad there’s no regular ramen iPhone cover. I guess that would get messy and void your warranty, though.

5. Tonkatsu iPhone Cover

Tonkatsu is a staple of Japanese comfort food. Chicken or pork (or many other things, actually) covered in panko (bread crumbs), egg, and flour. Then you fry it. Everything is better fried… especially iPhones.

6. Eggs And Bacon

I’ve never been a fan of Japanese bacon (too rubbery and thin), but I could be a fan of a Bacon & Egg iPhone. Somehow iPhones make everything better…

7. Rice iPhone Cover

When you think of Japanese food, you have to automatically think about rice (or at least pair it with a lot of the other foods you think of!). This iPhone cover goes all out though. There’s rice, sesame seeds, and even an umeboshi (my favorite!). Umeboshi is a pickled plum. It’s super salty, and it’s one of the best foods in the world. My mouth is literally hurting just thinking about it right now.

8. Dango iPhone Cover

I’m not a fan of non-salty in general, but a lot of people like these traditional Japanese sweets. These balls are made from mochiko (rice flower) and can have different flavors. They go well with green tea, sitting somewhere relaxing. Hopefully nobody is talking on their dango-covered iPhone while you’re trying to enjoy the peacefulness of it all, though.

I’m glad the sharp side of the skewers don’t stick out the other side. That could be dangerous in your pocket.

9. Dessert iPhone Covers (Christmas Cake & Chocolate)

Christmas Cake is something you eat in Japan to celebrate Christmas (and often times Santa’s Birthday). Between Christmas Cake and KFC, perhaps there’s room to give your loved one this iPhone cover?

If Christmas Cake isn’t your thing, then maybe chocolate is. Seriously. How do you get these in your pocket?

10. Chirashi Zushi

Chirashi zushi is a “scattered sushi” dish which has sushi rice as well as other toppings normally found on sushi. It’s not all packed together in bite-able pieces like regular sushi.

Okay, now I’m starting to get hungry. I shouldn’t work on this article around lunch time…

What Is Your Favorite?

I think my favorite is nikujaga one… I’m not sure why – I think it’s just because it makes me nostalgic of when I was younger when my mom would make it (now I have to make it on my own, and I’m no cook). Then again, if I was going for usability, I’d probably get the unagi one. Seems like it would fit in my pocket better.

Anyways, once again, you can find these over at StrapyaWorld (I don’t get any referral bonus or anything like that, I only wrote this article because I thought it was interesting). They run about $50 per iPhone cover, so they definitely aren’t cheap. They’re hand made, though, so the price makes sense to me. You’ll just want to make sure you really want it. Oh, and a lot of these don’t have holes for a camera (too much food!) so you’ll have to take the case off to take pictures.

Now imagine if any other country did these. I don’t imagine they’d look as good (I’m totally biased when it comes to pumping up Japan’s fake-food making industries). Hot dog iPhone cover? Ugly. Hamburger? Ok… maybe I’d go for that, as long as it covers both sides. If I’m going to put a food cover on my iPhone, might as well render it totally unusable in the process. :P

P.S. If you got hungry reading this, you should follow Tofugu on Twitter.

P.P.S. Going to stick with the boring old regular phone cases? I guess you might be more of a Tofugu Facebook kind of person.