Shima City Mascots

My mother sometimes shakes her head when she sees the animal, anime, and superhero characters Japan has come up with. She does like some of them, but there rest are too bizarre, too unreal, or too "freaky" for her taste. Many of my friends have expressed a similar feeling. But the Japanese love their mascots and characters so much, that they have grown into necessity for almost every group and organization. Not only are they made for the sake of storytelling, but for marketing, team building, holidays, locations, and events.

I may go on a rant about mascots and characters in general pop-culture another day, but for now, let us focus on my dear, little town of Shima.

On the first day here, I kept my eyes peeled for signs of the Shima mascot. I didn't know what it would look like at all, but I knew that they would have one. It would be on fliers and displayed around the train station, I thought. Sure enough there was a poster covered with mascots of Mie. And next to Shima's name was...

An alien?

A green glove?

A germ?

I wasn't quite sure what he was. The poster said that his name was "Aosa~", but what was that? Maybe I had made an mistake. Sure that whats-its wasn't our mascot. So I asked the ladies in charge of us. But they weren't sure who the mascot even was. We had to stop off at the city office building anyway, so we went upstairs to ask for Shima information and ask the workers there. Luckily enough, the mayor walked by and filled us in. The ladies became all flustered when they saw him, but I wasn't sure who he was until he left and they told me. Thanks for the help, Mr. Mayor!

As it turns out the alien-green-glove-germ is actually our city's mascot! His name is Aosa because he is aosa: a type of seaweed that is grown specifically in this region. The people here love aosa and are so proud of it that they use it in a lot of things: soups and ramen to cookies and other snacks. The funny marks on his head are Shima (しま) the city's name artfully written. He is wide-eyed and smiling warmly at all his friends and anyone who visits us. What do you think of him? I have a feeling my mother would not approve entirely, but I've warmed up to him this past month and a half.

Besides our city mascot, we also have a symbol. An S for Shima! It marks our city flag: Just replace the red circle in the Japanese national flag with this green S and you've got it. Different items dedicated to Shima may also be decorated with this S or made in its shape. It almost looks like a super S, right?

Actually, I'm so glad that you mentioned that comparison! That brings us to the next group of characters in this fine city: The Shima Rangers!!

This group of super heroes (the colorful costume people) are actually residents of Shima who help save the day, represent the good in the city, and fight the bad guys (the black characters). The Yellow Ranger is actually my IC! She is taking a break from crime fighting for a while to take care of her baby, but he husband still serves as the Blue Ranger, protecting Shima from mayhem with the Red, Green, Pink, and new Yellow Rangers. In these photos, they are at the Aeon Mall for an event and are working alongside the "bad guys" (who seem to be doing good for once) passing out balloons to the children.

The Rangers also give live performances! Maybe I can join in their fight against evil one day. Or, I could just sit in the audience like everyone, too, I guess. Of course, I'll let you know if I ever can attend a Ranger show. If you are interested in photos of the first appearance of the Shima Rangers or the fight photos just click on the hyperlinks.

Not quite as impressive, our little unit of interac language teachers has also created a superhero team: The Shima Super Sentai (Squad)! I am the Green member, Jennifer is the Pink one, Travis is Black, Bridgette is Blue, and our ICs and friends round out the group and color spectrum. Instead of fighters, we are just a team. For now ;)

(Photo of the rangers at Aeon Mall came from: http://blog.canpan.info/shima0nsc/archive/371)