1.1 Course Character Mascots

1.1 Course Character Mascots

Japanese people love character mascots.  Mascots are characters created to represent a brand, a company, an organization or products.  To the Japanese,  the cuter, the funnier or the more peculiar, the more attractive the mascot is! 

Character mascots are made into "character goods."  These goods could be key chains, charms to put onto bags or phones, backpacks, bags, pencils, pens, stickers, etc.  If a bank has their own mascot, they will put the mascot onto the bank cards, bank books and information pamphlets.  Major companies almost always have a "real life" mascot that make appearances at events!  (It's really a human being inside a costume like at a sports game in Canada.)

Japanese 10 has four character mascots! 

The appeal of mascots is that they are not only funny and cute but they all have a "backstory" with facts about their likes/dislikes, and their lives in general.  Japanese people like knowing about their character mascots' lives. 

You will be seeing these mascots all throughout the course.  Take some time to read about them!

This is Jun. 

He is 16 years old and lives in Tokyo.

He likes reading manga and playing soccer. 

This is Yumi.

She is 16 years old and lives in Tokyo.

Yumi likes to collect "kawaii" (cute) things based on characters from famous Studio Ghibli movies like Totoro and Howl's Moving Castle.

This is Konta-kun.  "Kun" is put on the end of boy names to indicate closeness/familiarity.

Konta-kun is a tanuki (Japanese racoon dog) from the island of Shikoku.

His favourite food is onigiri (rice balls).

This is Momo-chan.  "Chan" is put on the end of names to indicate closeness/familiarity.

Momo-chan is a Japanese dwarf flying squirrel.  She is from the island of Hokkaido.

Her favourite thing to do is glide from tree to tree and eat walnuts.

You will be seeing some other characters throughout the course, as well!