The irresistible lure of weird Japanese mascot goods.

Ah, the joy of shopping spree~

Why?

For the Glory of Chen of course!

Well, there goes my behavior.

For a second, I thought he was firing a beam from his mouth. :-)

His invasion knows no stopping! He was even in a supermarket in my neighborhood!

Thank you so much for the many birthday greetings yesterday. I think I can hack it for another year thanks to the power of everyone's support.

Reader-added tags include: "Chen: 'I couldn't bear you buying me Kumamon goods'". "Ease off, there, Ran-shama", and "Kumamon's propagating through all of Kyushu (personal experience)".

The survey muses on more mascots:

Which character do you prefer?
• Kumamon
• Hikonyan
• Sento-kun
• Chiiba-kun
• Funasshy

Ran-san must be all the things. Poor little Chen is going to have plenty of Kumamon goods, whether she wants them or not!

For the poll, Hikonyan, because "nyan."

Fukuoka? How about Il Palazzo?

Wait... 'aprons'?

Which character do you prefer?

Maromi

I didn't paid attention, so at first I tough it was one of those old black-people cartoons D: