AltJapan

Meet the Beetles

 

Signs of summer in Japan: heat waves, rain storms, kakigori shave-ice... and massive, squirming beetle larvae, on sale at a store near you. Known as kabuto-mushi ("helmet bugs") here for their exokeleton's resemblence of samurai armor, these guys are hugely popular as pets in the warmer months. I spotted these fellas on sale at a local hardware store.

Japan's love for kabuto-mushi is intense. They seem to occupy a different level than that of "normal" bugs, and I've seen men and women who run in terror from cockroaches and other so-called "bad" bugs cuddle up to kabuto-mushi like they're kittens. (They even make kabutomushi-shaped cakes and chocolates for Valentines' Day.)

Digging up the large, roughly adult thumb sized larva and rearing them to adulthood is a popular -- perhaps THE popular -- pasttime for Japanese kids. (Shades of Pokemon and Tamagotchi.) In urban areas where it's harder to find them in the wild, hardware and department stores often carry both the mulch/food/enclosures and the actual larva, lovingly cradled in little plastic containers for an easy carry back home.

Yokai Stamps

A few months back, I gave a talk about yokai to a group of students visiting Tokyo from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts. There are a lot of Norwegian folktales that resemble those from Japan - trolls and such - so they were a very receptive bunch.

A few weeks ago, one of the students, Stian Tranung, mailed me photos of this beautiful yokai stamp set he made by hand after reading Yokai Attack. Very cool and I hope he considers mass producing them! 

Some examples. Top left to right, Tengu, Kappa, Funa-Yurei. Bottom: Hitotsume Kozo, Nue, Tanuki.

How to Survive a Kappa Attack

A few weeks back, I prepared a 5-minute slideshow on How to Survive a Kappa Attack for hordes of drunken visitors to Pecha Kucha Night at the now-closed Heineken Star Bar in Harajuku. The trick with Pecha Kucha talks is their speed: speakers get only 20 slides of just 20 seconds duration each to make their point.

My point was how dangerous Japan's single most famous yokai can be - and how to save your butt (literally). Not only has Pecha Kucha made it available online, it's been selected as the Presentation of the Day. So bust out the cucumbers and take a look!

Lego Evangelion

Three years in the making. In scale with standard Lego mini-figs. By master brickster Moko. Full story & build history here (in Japanese).

Separated at Birth?

Above, "Twintail" from Ultraman. Below, the "Slide-Rock Bolter" from Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods, a 1910 guide to mysterious creatures of North America.

Grendizer Go!

Incubot, proud purveyor of all that crazy stuff we wish we'd owned as kids, is proud announce the launch of the Grendizer USB figure! Yes, Grendizer: that classic Seventies Go Nagai anime show featuring UFOs, giant robots, screw punches, more UFOs, and screaming robot space-turtles. Did I mention UFOs? And robots.  Anyway, viddy this:

Freshly launched on Kickstarter, it's yours for a $45 contribution. 8 gigabytes, docks with the Spacer, which in turn acts as a USB hub that plugs into your PC via a fold-away cable... You know you want this.

Cyberthreat Cat

I thought that cat looked familiar. You know, the one from the case involving the demented guy threatening online to launch a killing spree at Comic Market. He was caught yesterday after cops tracked him down from a USB thumbdrive he'd attached to a stray cat on Enoshima Island. (Pics here.)

Hiroko happened to photograph that very same cat back in 2006! Little did we realize how famous he'd become just a few years later. Glad to see he's none the worse for wear after his big break.

Yo Nukes

Japan loves mascots. There are enough of them out there to fill a book and many, many posts on the subject. Super-cute mascots aren't intended to be childish or condescending here; Japan's animistic, polytheistic roots seem to have given the nation the mutant power to transform nearly any object or concept, no matter how arcane, into a happy little mascot.

Japan's nuclear industry is no exception. Many of the nuclear facilities it built throughout the nation came complete with little museums -- basically, PR facilities -- to help educate and reassure locals as to the safety of the nuclear plants sitting in the middle of their neighborhoods. Looking back from the devastation of March 2011, a lot of these seem almost gross, but it's important to remember there was no special effort to brainwash anyone or specifically target children with these super-cute characters. EVERYTHING has a mascot in Japan. Even the tsunami waves themselves. 

That said, I don't think anyone has actually gone to the effort of trying to collect these nuclear-related mascots in one place. Below are a sampling I found in a scan of the net. I am sure there are many more out there - post 'em if you find 'em!

First up: the notorious Pluto-kun ("Mr. Pluto"), one of the mascots used by the Japan Atomic Energy Association to calm fears about nuclear power at their Atom World PR facility. Which has been shut down to the public since March of 2011 (go figure.)

This looks like an R. Crumb character, but it's Tomarin, the mascot of the Hokkaido Electric Power Company's Nuclear PR center.

"Welcome to Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant!"

"Welcome to the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Museum!" He's still hanging out with the kids post-3/11, at least as recently as March 2012.

1W-kun ("Mr. One-Watt"), the mascot of Kinki University's teaching reactor.

Uranboya ("Uranium Boy"), another of the JAEA's helpful PR flacks.

Miss Sodium, another mascot used at Atom World to explain the workings of sodium-cooled fast reactors.

Rikki, mascot of the Shimane Nuclear Plant PR facility. (Free admission, people!)

"Super Atomic-kun," with a wave motif that looks quite unfortunate, in hindsight...

It also goes without saying that anti-nuclear protesters have created their own mascots as well. This is Datsuge-Raion, or "The Get-Out-of-Nuclear-Power Lion." He even has his own theme song. 

Kawaiisrael

From the Israel in Japan Facebook page, a contest that proves yet again that no concept can escape being made into a yuru-kyara mascot.

This time, the mission is to design a supercute character to represent the Israeli Embassy of Tokyo. As always, the point is to ride that fine line between silly and just plain lame - and don't forget to toss in as many local foods, customs, and tourist attractions as possible. Meet some of the top contenders below.

Lions and menorahs:

A positively proctological kebab:

Falaffels in a pod:

Hummus-man?

Meshugana for moé:

Wacky Wailing Wall!

Cats? Why not.

My personal favorite:

The Ghosts of Christmas Present

This season, why not give the gift of total frickin' terror? The Yurei Attack ebook is here, satisfying all of your portable, digital Japanese ghost-hunting needs. In fact, you can download it from the Kindle Store instantly. That means you've never been closer to the ghosts of Yurei Attack than right this very second. Kind of spooky, when you think about it.

Yokai Attack! and Ninja Attack! ebooks to follow soon... Stay tuned for details!