Piple-Kun is the mascot of Hawaii’s Aloha Gas company. He’s an anthropomorphic pineapple in a Hawaiian shirt, his star sign is Leo, and he likes eating spam.
I ran into Piple-Kun at the Yuru-chara festival on Sunday. He appears to have been repurposed as a cheerleader for Pikotaro, singer of the PPAP song, complete with the leopard skin shirt and permed hair. He even got up on stage and sang Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen.
Piko-taro is cleverly milking his fifteen minutes of fame for all its worth. I recently popped into his new Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen cafe in Oshiage, at the foot of the Tokyo Sky Tree, for a PPAP parfait. Not bad, but overpriced. I hope they pay the staff well – listening to that song on repeat four hundred times a day would drive anyone to ram a pen into their own skull.
