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Japan, what's up with the animal stationmasters? - JAPANATOR
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Japan, what's up with the animal stationmasters?


4:00 PM on 05.14.2009
Japan, what's up with the animal stationmasters? photo



Yes, I know the story of Tama the cat, the little trainmaster cat that Japan thought was so cute and proceeded to plaster all over the news. And yeah, Tama is cute. Sure, the kitty managed to boost the local economy, but did the cat really need a train designed after it? Does the cat really need its own office and trainmaster hat? 

What followed was a bunch of other train stations picking up animal mascots. Maron is a cute Yorkshire Terrier that does a similar job for another station, but with a snappier suit and hat than Tama. More stations followed, with some even picking up strays as a mascot. How desperate. Two of the more famous felines had a meet-up recently. Bus, one of the former strays, and Kotora, stationmaster at Kichigahara, did not appear to like each other at all.

To top this all off, Japan Probe reports that Uzen-Komatsu station has just enlisted a new stationmaster, this time a goat. And again, I guess he's kind of a cute goat, but really?

What's next? A baby seal? You know, I'd like to see a komodo dragon with a little stationmaster's hat on.

Really, Japan. What's wrong with, just, you know...people as stationmasters? They make cute people, too, you know. If you think a mangy cat does a lot for the local station business, imagine what a busty, biniki-wearing idol would do.






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Legacy Comments (will be imported soon)


"Biniki-wearing"? I want to look up what biniki is in Japanese now. But I'd certainly prefer a busty idol in commercials to a kitty with a hat and coat. I've never seen a cat that seemed to like that kind of thing, either, which dampens the motivation it's supposed to give, somehow.
I'm reminded of Aria, which I've just started watching on Anime Network. But that cat is creepy.
I dunno, this just seems appropriate:

"You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna get myself a 1967 Cadillac Eldorado convertible, hot pink, with whale skin hubcaps and all leather cow interior and big brown baby seal eyes for headlights. Yeah! And I'm gonna drive around in that baby at 115 miles an hour, getting 1 mile per gallon, sucking down quarter pounder cheeseburgers from McDonald's in the old-fashioned non- biodegradable Styrofoam containers! And when I'm done suckin' down those grease ball burgers I'm gonna wipe my mouth on the American flag and then toss the Styrofoam containers right out the side, and there ain't a God-damned thing anybody can do about it. You know why? Because we got the bombs, that's why!

Two words--nuclear fucking weapons, OK? Russia, Germany, Romania - they can have all the democracy they want. They can have a democracy cakewalk right through the middle of Tiananmen Square and it won't make a lick of difference, because we've got the bombs, OK? John Wayne's not dead - he's frozen! And when we find a cure for cancer, we're gonna thaw out the Duke and he's gonna be pretty pissed off. You know why? You ever taken a cold shower? Well, multiply that by 15 million times. That's how pissed off the Duke's gonna be.

I'm gonna get the Duke and John Cassavetes and Lee Marvin (Hey) and Sam Peckinpah (Hey) and a case of whisky (Hey) and drive down to Texas (Hey, Hey, Hey)

(Hey you know you really are an asshole)
Why don't you just shut up and sing this song pal.
I'm an asshole (He's an asshole, what an asshole)
I'm an asshole (He's an asshole, what an asshole)
A - S - S - H - O - L - E.
Everybody, A - S - S - H - O - L - E."
Lol this week seems to have a lot of "really, Japan?" posts.
So that's where they got the idea for Aria.


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