Mondo Mascots

Gotouchi-Character Festival in Sumida 2018

On June 17, 2018

Each year an army of fuzzy mascots from all over Japan gather for Tokyo’s largest yuru-chara event, “The Gotouchi-Character Festival in Sumida”. Held in the last weekend of May at the base of Japan’s tallest structure, the towering Tokyo Sky Tree, the festival was tons of fun. Here are some of the pictures I took there:

Mori-ken, the mascot of Moriya City in Ibaraki, is a dog dressed as a frog.

Inappy rocks out.

Chicchai Ossan and a vending machine

Kiibou and Gibo-chan

Obuse Kuri-chan is a giant chestnut from Obuse City, Japan.‬

Zamarin meets Norimaki Tintaro.

Softkuri-inu, the soft ice cream dog/dog poo

Tsugaru-chan

Todorocky the boxing seal of Todoroki, Tokyo.

Shinjokun and Mikke-chan

Momiji-chan and Yuzugappa have a standoff.

Koakkuma and Akkuma

Jinguskan No Jin-kun

Udon-Nou in what appears to be a wedding dress.

Shimanekko

Chiba-kun meets Potekuma

Bari-san at the Tokyo Sky Tree

Umeneba-chan competes with the Sky Tree.

Katou Dennosuke

Chosei Tonyu-kun at the Sky Tree

Mascots of Justice

By Chris

On June 2, 2018

In Japan, Mascots

Today I went the 60th annual National Corrections Exhibition, held by the Ministry of Justice at the Science Museum in Tokyo’s Kitanomaru Park. There were lots of arts and crafts for sale, made by prisoners as part of their rehabilitation. Here are some mascots I met there:

Waka-P is the orange-headed mascot of Wakayama Women’s Prison. (Her name is an abbreviation of the prison’s name. Oranges are grown in the area.)

Pourisu-kun is Japan’s law education squirrel mascot.

Jinken Mamoru-kun is one of the mascots for the Ministry of Justice’s Department of Human Rights Advocacy.

Mascots Take Over the Kanagawa Prefectural Government Office

By Chris

On May 17, 2018

In Chiba-kun, Japan, Mascots, Yokohama

Kobaton, Kanagawa Kintaro, and Chiba-kun

Every May, during Japan’s “Golden Week” holiday, the Kanagawa Prefectural Government Office in Yokohama opens to the public for a few days. The picturesque old brick building (nicknamed “King”) attracts a lot of tourists and, for the past few years, a ton of regional mascots. I went along (to be honest, to see the mascots, not the building), and I took lots of photos.

Atsugi City’s Ayukoro-chan, inside the “King” building.

Nakamaru, the mascot of Nakai Town, Kanagawa

Yokohama’s electricity mascot, Damuereki-kun and Miura Tuna Nanosuke of Miura Chamber of Commerce

Ebinya from Ebina City, and Sukarin, from Yokosuka City.

Oiso Town mascots, Isobee and Aomo, are birds with rolling ocean waves for hair.

Hakogeo, the mascot of Hakone Geopark

Peririn, from Yokosuka, based on Commodore Perry

Kanyao the cat is the mascot for Kanagawa Prefectural Citizen’s Bureau

Zamarin, of Zama City, and Yamaton, of Yamato City

Kanabou

Kururin, mascot of Isehara City

Chiba-kun takes a bow

The Local Mascots’ Big Sports Day

By Chris

On May 1, 2018

In Japan, Mascots

Chippa-kun (mascot of Kids Dom Park) and Matsudo-san.

In a remote part of Chiba Prefecture there’s an adventure park called Kids Dom, and last Sunday they held a mascot event called the Gotouchi-chara Dai-Undokai (Local Mascots’ Big Sports Festival). This get-together attracted more than eighty mascots and entailed various competitive games such as an epic relay race and a balloon-popping contest. Presiding over the event was Kids Dom’s curious birdlike yellow mascot, Chippa-kun. Popular yuru-chara in attendance included Fukkachan, Kimipyon, Chiba-kun, and Hanipon, and there was a rare appearance from the Japanese national baseball team’s mascot, Samurai Tamabe, a samurai with a baseball/bear hybrid head.

Fukkachan (Welsh onion-eared mascot of Fukaya City) and Kimipyon (azalea-eared pink creature from Kimitsu City).

Lookalikes, Narashido and Kitamin

Arukuma, the apple-headed rambling bear from Nagano Prefecture

Samurai Tanabe, the mascot for Japan’s national baseball team

Sacchan, mascot of Ichikai Town

Jeffy, mascot for the soccer team, Jef United Chiba

Gentle Parco, a fancy frog who is the mascot for a shopping street in Yashio City.

Anebon, the mascot of Ichihara City, is a temple bell who hits himself with a squeaky hammer.

Damedosu

P-Nyatsu, the cat/peanut

Hanipon

Kyarotsuta the horse, mascot of Funabashi Racecourse.

Fuuta-kun the red panda (Chiba Zoo mascot) takes part in a balloon-bursting contest.

Kanagawa Mascot Gathering

By Chris

On April 21, 2018

In Japan, Mascots

Today I went to an event in sunny Atsugi City in Kanagawa Prefecture, hosted by local mascot, Ayukoro-chan, a tiny pig with a fish on her head. Most of the yuru-chara who came along were from Kanagawa, but also there were Sanomaru (a samurai puppy with a bowl of noodles on its head, from Sano City, Saitama), Chiba-kun (a red dog in the shape of its home prefecture, Chiba), and Fukkachan (a Welsh-onion-antlered creature from Fukaya City, Saitama). Here are some of the photos I took:

Ayukoro-chan, mascot of Atsugi City and host of this event.

Fukkachan wearing a pig snout to look like Ayukoro-chan.

Chiba-kun, mascot of Chiba Prefecture

Ebinya, mascot of Ebina City

Yamaton, mascot of Yamato City

Sanomaru, of Sano City

Japanese Mascot Rave

By Chris

On April 15, 2018

In Japan, Mascots

Last month I checked out the Moshi Moshi Nippon festival, held in several locations around Shibuya and Harajuku, Tokyo. It is a fun free annual event to promote Japanese fashion, music, and arts to the world, and quite rightly I found a couple of yuruchara there.

Appearing at Harajuku’s Onden Shrine were Coroton the giant round pig (mascot of Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture, a place known for its pork dishes) and Shimockey (an unofficial mascot for the hip Shimokitazawa area of Tokyo).

Coroton gave an charmingly clumsy dance performance at the shrine, before Shimockey arrived and spun some records on the DJ decks. Shimockey is quite an impressive DJ, and wowed the small crowd with the help 0f an exuberant, bewigged MC. Coroton stuck around to dance to the house music. This was an entertaining, silly spectacle and the highlight of the day for me.

Mito-chan’s Birthday Party

By Chris

On February 21, 2018

In Hikonyan, Japan, Mascots

Mito-chan

Last week I paid a visit to the picturesque Kairakuen Park in Mito City, Ibaraki Prefecture. It was the birthday party of local mascot, Mito-chan, and lots of other mascots were there to celebrate. Among the characters present were the reigning Yuruchara Grand Prix champion, Unari-kun the eel/aeroplane from Narita City, and the ever-popular Hikonyan, the samurai cat from Hikone City. The highlight of the festivities was a shambolic but entertaining mascot relay race.

Here are some pictures I took at the event.

Hikonyan

Unari-kun

Coroton and Kamisukoko-kun

Poskuma

Tochimaru-kun

Tororu

Nakamaro-chan

Hinomaru-kun

Momoppi

Jyozuru-san

Atago-chan

Ibalucky

Hikonyan meets Mito-chan

Mascot relay race

Spaboon: A New Comic About Mascots

By Chris

On February 21, 2018

In comics, Japan, Mascots

All this mascot-watching has got my creative juices flowing. Using some of my own tentative character designs, I’ve made a new satirical comic about Spaboon, a failed Japanese pharmaceutical company mascot.

Spaboon is a half-spoon, half-baboon hybrid, so when he is laid off by Epoch Pharma Corporation, his prospects are extremely limited, and he finds himself unemployed. In issue one, he falls in with a group of activists.

You can pick up issue one here: Spaboon Issue #1

Ski Resort Character Grand Prix 2017-2018

By Chris

On February 6, 2018

In Japan, Mascots

For four years running, the winter sports website Fuyusupo has held a vote to decide the nation’s favourite ski resort mascot. The results of this year’s contest were announced at a special ceremony in Makuhari Messe in Chiba Prefecture on Sunday, so I went along. The event resembled a big warehouse sale of ski gear, with a small stage for the mascot ceremony. I don’t think anybody else had come to see the mascots, but a small cluster of curious bargain-hunters eventually gathered around the stage when the announcements began.

Ticket-kun and Ponta

Out of the contest’s fifty entrants, half a dozen were in attendance, along with the website’s mascot, a ski-lift-ticket-loving dog named Ticket-kun.

The winner of the 2016-2017 Ski Resort Character Grand Prix had been a snow-covered conifer named Jukki-kun, representing Zao Onsen Resort in Yamagata. I spotted him in the audience at this year’s event, proudly showing off his trophy.

Last year’s winner, Jukki-kun

The new winners, Muhyoko-chan and Taiki-kun, with their trophy.

As it turned out, the winners of this year’s prize were also mascots from Zao Onsen (there are three). Named Taiki-kun and Muhyoko-chan, the champions were two more snow-coated trees.

In second place was a raccoon dog named Ponta, from Chausuyama Ski Resort (not to be mistaken with that other raccoon dog named Ponta, the mascot for the Ponta shopping point card.)

In third place was the unfortunately-named pig, Pork-kun, from Joetsu International Ski Area.

Pork-kun

After the voting results were revealed, the mascots played “janken” (rock, paper, scissors) with volunteers from the small crowd, and the winners got prizes. I was lucky enough to beat one of the Grand Prix victors, Taiki-kun, and I won a one-day ski-slope pass for Zao Onsen ski resort. If only I didn’t have to travel hundreds of miles to Yamagata to use it!

Searching for Kan-chan

By Chris

On February 1, 2018

In Japan, Mascots

Kan-chan

Earlier this month I managed to catch a rare appearance by Kan-chan, the notorious “enema penguin” mascot of Ichijiku Pharmaceuticals. Ichijiku manufacture fig-based laxatives and enemas, so Kan-chan was not only designed to resemble an enema, but also made in the shape and colour of a fig. The addition of eyes, a beak, and feet give Kan-chan the cute factor required of all mascots.

I had been hoping to encounter Kan-chan for months, and I had previously planned to track the strange creature down at a pharmaceuticals expo late last year, but that event was cancelled due to rain. I was delighted when I discovered that Kan-chan would be appearing once again at a special Ichijiku event held at the foot of the famous towering structure, the Tokyo Sky Tree, so I hurried along before work.

Intestinal vending machine

In addition to meeting the bizarre mascot, visitors were also able to get free gifts in plastic capsules dispensed from a vending machine designed to look like an intestine. I won an exclusive Kan-chan key-ring, which I will treasure.

Kan-chan keyring