{"id":346,"date":"2017-05-06T03:26:16","date_gmt":"2017-05-06T03:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mondomascots.com\/?p=346"},"modified":"2017-05-06T03:28:19","modified_gmt":"2017-05-06T03:28:19","slug":"ginza-willow-festival-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mondomascots.com\/index.php\/2017\/05\/06\/ginza-willow-festival-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Ginza Willow Festival 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nYesterday various yuru-chara mascots from around Japan were to be found on Tokyo’s Nishi-Ginza Dori for the 11th annual Willow Festival<\/a>, a festival named after the trees that line the street.<\/p>\n

The best-known of the characters in attendance was the ubiquitous Kumamon, who soaked up most of the attention as he paraded around in a traditional robe.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kumamon<\/p><\/div>\n

Kumamon was joined by fellow bear, Arukuma, the official mascot of Nagano prefecture. He enjoys walking and has a variety of different hats.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Arukuma<\/p><\/div>\n

Also at the event was the minimalistic Kitekero-kun, the “hospitalitiy section manager” of Yamagata prefecture, pictured here without his trademark rolling suitcase.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Kitekeru-kun<\/p><\/div>\n

Gunma-chan and Mito-chan, pictured below, have a lot in common. They are both tiny and are named after their hometowns. Gunma-chan has been around since 1983 (since when he has evolved from a blue-maned horse into his current incarnation), and won the coveted Yuruchara Grand Prix prize in 2014. Mito-chan, of Mito City, Ibaraki, has only been around for four years and is modelled on the television period drama character, Mito Komon.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Gunma-chan (left) meets Mito-chan (right)<\/p><\/div>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday various yuru-chara mascots from around Japan were to be found on Tokyo’s Nishi-Ginza Dori for the 11th annual Willow Festival, a festival named after the trees that line the street. The best-known of the characters in attendance was the ubiquitous Kumamon, who soaked up most of the attention as he paraded around in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7,2],"tags":[17,4,8,5,18],"class_list":["post-346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-japan","category-kumamon","category-mascots","tag-ginza","tag-japan","tag-kumamon","tag-mascots","tag-tokyo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mondomascots.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mondomascots.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mondomascots.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mondomascots.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mondomascots.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mondomascots.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":353,"href":"https:\/\/mondomascots.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions\/353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mondomascots.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mondomascots.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mondomascots.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}