A Fashionable 'pearing'
A shrill and rather bouncy yellow pear has captured the public's imagination. Funassyi, an unofficial city mascot of Funabashi in Chiba Prefecture, takes its name from "Funabashi" and "nashi," the Japanese word for "pear." It has become so popular that it's already close to saturating the media — and now, the affable character seems to have its cute eyes on the world of fashion.
Laforet Harajuku mall, the hub of Tokyo youth fashion, is promoting 13 different brands offering their own takes of Funassyi in their respective fashion genres. These range from Sweet-Lolita fashion line Angelic Pretty placing a bonnet on the character as it rides a unicorn, to gothic-punk HellCatPunks splattering the pear in blood. Chiba Prefecture may not consider Funassyi the official mascot of Funabashi, but it's still taking Japan by storm. (ST)