Fukuoka Trip 3b -　Kumamoto Castle's Secret - 熊本城の秘密

A couple random bonus pictures from my visit to Kumamoto Castle to see the new Honmaru Goten Palace! 熊本城の旅行から、外の何枚写真が有る！

As you may know, Japanese people love to make cute versions of things, and they like to make mascots for things (places, organizations, companies, etc).   Castles are included in that (you may remember Hikonyan, the Hikone Castle Cat).

Not to be left out of the fun, Kumamoto Castle made a mascot for their 400th year anniversary celebrations too. You can take a picture with it now too!

日本人はマスコット が大好き、それから、熊本城もマスコット が有る：

  可愛そうか？

Apparently this thing's name is Higomaru(ひごまる):

According to this, Higomaru is an 'Image Character' (イメージキャラクター). where did the name Higomaru come from?  What are the kanji?  蜚語まる？卑語丸？  actually thanks to Mio, i know the name comes from ’肥後国’, the historical name of Kumamoto Prefecture...

イメージキャラクターといいますか？ひごまるは漢字で如何やって書く？

(多分「肥後丸」です。。。美緒ちゃん、有難う！）

On the Castle's official site they had some pictures from a  Higomaru event:

Kind of disturbing... he has human hands and two sets of eyes (?!?).. :-O

一寸怖いよ。。。双眸二つが有る？！？人間の手？

Aside from mascots,  two other things popular in Japan =

1. COSPLAY (dressing up in costumes)

2. NINJAS (shadow warriors)

Kumamoto Castle also has both these covered:　

熊本城も忍者が有る！見て！

yes, they have people who dress up like Ninja and take photos with tourists.  Actually I think I've seen the same ninja guy like 3 or 4 times!  There's also a camouflage ninja and a girl ninja who often are around (here's a picture of them from my feb. 2005 visit).　

実は熊本城に何時でも忍者のコスプレ人が居る、何回も見た。女の忍者も居る（ 2005年2月のブログを見て！）。

taking a picture with him is fun, but even more fun is just watching him from a far:

叔父さんのグループも写真一緒撮った！

somewhere on the internet those old guys are blogging about taking a picture with a ninja too... :-P