Japanese mascot Shinjo-kun joins ChiiJohn for a trip to the U.S. to see John Oliver 【Video】

Two otters travel across the ocean to search for “He-John” in this funny and heartwarming video.

Earlier this year, British-born American talk show host John Oliver became obsessed with a Japanese otter mascot called Chiitan.

This self-described “0-year-old fairy baby” once acted as an unofficial “Tourism Ambassador” for Susaki City, but after complaints from residents over the mascot’s unruly behaviour, Chiitan was ordered to cease and desist all activities.

This left Susaki City’s official mascot, a fellow otter called Shinjo-kun, without a friend, so Oliver sent over Chiijohn, a “41-year-old near-sighted English fairy baby” to help fill the “Chiitan-shaped hole in Shinjo-kun’s heart”.

Thus began the heartwarming tale of Shinjo-kun and Chiijohn, who appear to have been living happily ever after since they met in Susaki seven months ago.

Now, though, the talk show host who brought them together has been thinking about them, saying he’s been missing the duo’s particular brand of “unmitigated joy”.

In order to cheer himself up, Oliver set out on a journey to find the pair, giving birth to “The Journey of Chiijohn Chapter 2“, which can be viewed below:

The heartwarming reunion starts with Oliver, or “He-John” as he’s referred to by the narrator of the video, throwing a message in a bottle out to sea, which, as fate would have it, winds up on the shore at the feet of the two mascots.

After reading about He-John’s desire to see them, Chiijohn and Shinjo-kun pack up their things, grab some plates of sushi, and head out to the airport to visit their old friend, saying goodbye to all the local fish on the way.

▼ “‘We’re dead’, replied the fish.”


The two mascots board their flight and arrive in America, searching for He-John on the streets of New York and inside a comedy club, where Chiijohn does a set on stage and kills it. Then someone there points them in the direction of “TV’s best late-night host“, and that’s when they arrive on the set of Late Night with Seth Meyers.

▼ Shinjo-kun falls a little in love with the “very handsome” Meyers and has to be gently coaxed away from him.

Just as the two are gazing out at the water about to give up their search for He-John, they turn to look at a man next to them at the seaside.

The man turns to look at them and…it’s He-John! He runs up to them and is overjoyed, hugging Chiijohn and bowing to Shinjo-kun, who embraces him, filling He-John with renewed hope that “soon it will be a new day”.

▼ The Japan-based otters reply, “Where we’re from, it already is.“

Awwww. That turned out to be a lot sweeter than we thought it would be! Their reunion does appear to herald the start of a new day in the clip, and perhaps even the start of new chapters to come in future episodes of the show.

This heartwarming tale now has us wondering if Oliver will be returning to Japan for a tour of Susaki with the two otters. After Conan O’Brien came to Japan for a tour of Conan Town in Tottori Prefecture, there’s every chance a Chapter 3 entitled “The Journey of He-John” will be coming to our screens soon.

Source, images: YouTube/LastWeekTonight
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Yamato delivery man kicked and yelled at by older colleague in Japan【Video】

Japan is known for its amazing delivery services, but behind the scenes there’s a lot of stress in keeping up the high standard. 

One of the great things about living in Japan is the ease with which you can get things delivered to your door, with companies offering super fast service, numerous redelivery options until late in the evening, and even pick-up-from-your-door options for customers returning goods.

With these services offered seven days a week, delivery companies are fantastic on the customer service end, but upholding this high standard with several big-name competitors breathing down your neck isn’t as easy as it looks.

In recent years the cracks have been beginning to show, with videos capturing some delivery employees behaving badly, and now a new video has surfaced, showing a delivery worker from Yamato Transport, one of Japan’s largest door-to-door delivery service companies, being kicked several times by an older colleague.

Take a look at the video below:

The above clip, posted online on 26 November, was filmed across the road from a sales office in Fukuoka Prefecture. According to J-CAST News, who interviewed the person who filmed the video, the scene occurred at around 9:19 p.m. on 25 November, with the older male shouting so loudly his words were clearly audible from a distance.

The man could be heard using course inflections to shout things like “Are you an idiot?”, “You don’t understand a thing”, “You’re always making excuses”, and even “I’ll kill you!”

His rant goes on for over two whole minutes, during which time he approaches the younger man, kicking him on the upper legs three times before kicking the doors of the truck. The younger man stands facing him the whole time, only moving his hands and legs to lessen the blow of the kicks doled out to him.

The person who filmed the video told J-News they shared the video online because they believe it’s wrong for company employees to use violence and abusive language to reprimand staff. They said:

“If it’s a supervisor, they should explain things to the other person in a way they understand, and if they make the same mistake again, explain things in a different way that’s easier to understand. It’s wrong for a supervisor to teach through violence.”

In a phone interview with J-Cast News, Yamato Transport said they were aware of the video taken at one of their sales offices in Fukuoka Prefecture, with a representative from their Public Relations Strategy Department confirming these were employees of the company.

Refraining to give any further details about the employees involved, the representative apologised for the trouble and concern caused, saying they will be working on investigating the details of the incident and will deal with the matter strictly. 

People online weren’t impressed, leaving comments like:

“This is vulgar power harassment.”
“This happens quite often in delivery companies. They usually do stuff like this in a private room and in places where there are no video cameras.”
“I used to hear employees shouting at other employees all the time when I lived near a company like this before.”
 “Incompetent supervisors make incompetent subordinates. He should be fired.”
“Do they think this can just be forgiven? Hitting someone like this is a crime.”
“If this ever happened to my son or husband, I would kick the person right back.”

Fighting violence with violence is never a good idea, as it will only lead to even more trouble for everyone involved, as this video of Vietnamese workers punching their boss in Japan showed recently.

Hopefully this video will go some way in reminding stressed out supervisors to take a step back to reevaluate their own ways of dealing with stressful situations in the workplace. And remind us all to be a little kinder to the nation’s delivery workers, who sometimes get the rough end of the stick from customers too, especially when they have to deliver pizzas on a scooter in the middle of a typhoon.

Source: Jin
Featured image: Pakutaso
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Life-size Mewtwo, graffiti Pikachu welcome us to the newest Pokémon Center megastore in Shibuya

So much awesome merch from the grand opening of Tokyo’s brand-new Pokémon destination!

The other day, I had what I thought was a pretty perfect plan: Wake up early, get to the brand-new Parco shopping center in Tokyo’s Shibuya neighborhood before the doors opened on opening day, check out Japan’s first-ever dedicated Nintendo store, swing by the new Pokémon Center Shibuya megastore, and be out of there in time for lunch.

Instead, I spent a couple hours standing in the cold and rain while waiting in the entrance line for the Nintendo shop, which stretched onto the roof of the shopping center. After finally leaving the Nintendo store (which was awesome, and totally worth the wait), I went searching for the line to get into the Pokémon Center, and learned that it was so long that its start wasn’t even on the same block as the Parco building.

So a return trip was in order, and thankfully when I came back for revenge on a weekday night at around 8 o’clock, I could waltz right in with no waiting whatsoever.

Each of the Pokémon Center stores has its own specific mascot species, and for Pokémon Center Shibuya, that role is shared by sinister Mewtwo and adorable Mew. It’s Mewtwo who greets visitors when they first arrive, if rocking back and forth in a glass tube, like the powerful Pyschic-type is breathing, can be called a greeting.

If you can summon the courage to step past Mewtwo, things take a much more festive turn with a display of works from Pokémon Center Shibuya’s creative partner, Japanese graffiti artist Number-D.

The urban aesthetic continues as you step through the entryway into the store itself, with graffiti murals of Mew and Mewtwo flanking the passage.

But of course, no matter who the officially designated mascots are, the true star of the show is always Pikachu. The face of the franchise also gets the graffiti treatment, both as canvas…

…and artist, whom I can’t help thinking of as “Graffichu.”

▼ I’m going to give Graffichu the benefit of the doubt and trust that he only creates his art with the blessing of whoever owns the surface he’s spray-painting, unlike some idiots in Shibuya.

Since this is the first Pokémon Center to open since the release of Pokémon Sword and Shield, the game’s starters, Sobble, Scorbunny, and Grookey, as well as its Legendaries, Zacian and Zamazenta, were part of the store’s plush menagerie.

Moving deeper into the store, you’ll find more Shibuya-specific merch, like graffiti art T-shirts, hoodies, cross-body bags, smartphone cases, and water bottles.

Also exclusive to Pokémon Center Shibuya is the Pokémon x Super Mario 8-bit Scramble line.

The conceptual opposite of the Super Mario x Pokémon merch available at the Nintendo store, these items use bit-mapped graphics from old-school Pokémon games as mosaic building blocks for Super Mario artwork.

The cushions are the most dynamic, but you can also get the designs on shirts, bags, coffee mugs, and more.

With 2019 winding down, there’s some cool Japanese New Year’s-themed items on offer, such as Pikachu posing with a kagami mochi stack and mikan orange, both traditional symbols of prosperity displayed in Japanese homes at the start of the year…

…as well as Pikachu, Raichu, and Pichu (a.k.a. Babu Pikachu) subbing for some of Japan’s Seven Gods of Fortune.

▼ Pokémon New Year’s trees and wreaths

In keeping with Shibuya’s reputation as one of Japan’s major fashion centers, there’s a collection of glamorously girlish bags and accessories…

…plus some dazzling, premium-priced Swarovski Crystal-studded pieces.

Finally, on your way to the checkout lines, you’ll spot the best-stocked-ever array of Mew and Mewtwo plushies…

…plus Mew himself gently watching over your transaction from above the registers.

With the Pokémon Center Shibuya having been open for just over a week so far, we can probably expect crowds for some time to come, but with so many Pokémon goodies that’re available nowhere else on the planet, if you a fan of the franchise, your wait in line will be rewarded.

Shop information
Pokémon Center Shibuya / ポケモンセンターシブヤ
Address: Tokyo-to, Shibuya-ku, Utagawacho 15-1, Shibuya Parco 6th floor
東京都渋谷区宇田川町15-1 渋谷PARCO6F
Open 10 a.m.-9 p.m.
Website

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