Spotted in the murky depths of Tokyo's Asakusa district: a life-support system for clione (pronounced "clee-oh-nay"). What's a clione? According to Wikipedia, they're "gelatinous, mostly transparent pteropods." Hungry yet? In layman's terms, they're a tiny, obscure species of cold-water marine invertebrate. They also happen to be the subject of a national obsession in Japan, where they've been elevated to the status of "angels of the sea." These specimens were on display at a shop specializing in Hokkaido foods and other northern souvenirs.
Clione are a staple of Japanese nature documentaries and trivia shows. Which would be intriguing enough, given the unassuming nature of the little beasts, but there's actually a surprisingly robust market for clione-related merchanidse here as well. Takara-Tomy produced one in their Aqua Night Museum series, Sapporo beer packaged tiny figures of them with cans of beer as part of their Hokkaido Figure Collection, Sanrio made a Hello Kitty clione, and for the truly obsessed, there's even ephemera such as clione jewelry, clione night-lights, and clione ear-cleaners. Not bad for a creature that's smaller than a human pinky. Can you imagine Budweiser packaging "action figures" of zooplankton with their booze in America? This is yet another reason I love living in Japan.
Here's a close-up view of one of the little guys (gals?) You can find a clearer shot on this university website, which also includes footage of clione in action. Here's another for those who can't get enough. And in response to a popular question: no, to the best of my knowledge, the Japanese do not consume clione. Which isn't to say no one's ever tried. Mmm.... Clione sashimi.
Waiter! There's something swimming in my water glass.
That's your appetiser sir.
Posted by: Gilles Poitras | March 17, 2007 at 10:41 PM
Hey Matt!
some fun bits..
1. Pteropods are basically shell-less mobile sea slugs that are distantly related to nudibranchs.
2. They are hermaphrodites (the he/she question)
3. "Clione" is actually a latin word..named for the Greek sea nymph "Kleios", who was the daughter of Oceanus, a muse who protected art and science. Its actually supposed to be italicized when used like most Greek/latin words are..
4. There ain't much of a Clione to eat. Its mostly water and gelatinous snot.
COOL! thanks again Matt!
Posted by: ChrisM | March 17, 2007 at 11:31 PM
Thanks for the data, Chris! I should'a known a marine biologist would have more detailed info. (Is "gelatinous snot" a scientific term?)
Posted by: Matt | March 18, 2007 at 12:05 PM
Seamonkeys?
Maybe one day they'll be able to make pets out of smallpox virii
Posted by: Zer0 | March 18, 2007 at 09:51 PM
Nice! Now these things make more sense:
Sharon Apple's avatar
http://www.altpop.com/stc/pics-large/macplusost2.jpg
And the last boss "Embryon" from G-Darius
http://www10.ocn.ne.jp/~hazardz/darius/bte.html
Is this Japan's next coelacanth? Not that they should ever limit it to one mania...
Posted by: Mr.Dandy | March 23, 2007 at 10:26 AM
The Japanese actually do eat Clione.
http://ebisu.goroh.net/?eid=506871
Posted by: Marissa | November 08, 2007 at 09:43 PM
Ha! I read the whole page, and it turns out that was an April's Fools joke. But then, how do you explain this?
http://blog.studiowork.jp/images/umichou.jpg
Hmm...
Posted by: Marissa | November 08, 2007 at 09:51 PM