Japanese owners of Animal Crossing: Wild World (or, as it's called over there, "Oideyo Doubutsu no Mori") will be able to pick up a special treat from their country's frankly superior network of DS download stations.
Animal Crossing players will be able to connect to the download station and have delivered to them a message in a bottle containing a letter from the village chief (a.k.a. Tortimer to those of us on the other side of the Pacific) and one of 14 items from the Mario series. Starting July 6, the Star and Pipe items will be available; every two weeks the items will change up to offer two more. On July 20, the Shell and Item Block items will be available.
Nintendo of America has previously distributed the Coin item from the Mario series over the Wi-Fi Connection, in the form of a letter. Since then, other non-rare items have been distributed, some on special holidays. There was also an infamous incident where Nintendo accidentally distributed a garbage item that appeared as a red tulip that could be planted anywhere and an invisible, non-removable piece of furniture if placed in the house.
Thanks to N-Sider Samer for the tip and translation assistance.