I encountered two instances of Kagoshima people I recognize being in fairly high profile situations, and I thought it was remarkable enough to justify writing about. First is the above photo. That was taken in the stadium after Japan lost its third match for the World Soccer Cup in Russia (the photo ran on the Japan Times newspaper website). The guy on the right helping clean up is Janken-man (Rock-paper-scissors man), a famous character in Kagoshima who goes to different events and challenges people to jan-ken-pon. Winners receive a special Janken cellphone strap. I've seen him at a lot of events here, and he's been part of the live stage shows as well. And now he's brought his shtick to Russia.
Second is the woman that paints kitsune (fox) masks and sells them at various crafts fairs. Turns out she's advertising openings for her kitsune dance team for Ohara Matsuri (Nov. 3) this year. The ad poster essentially asks the reader to come join her for kitsune dance practice, at $15 per person. This is the first time I've ever seen memberships for sale for Ohara (usually, the dance teams consist of employees that all work for specific companies.). I wonder what the legality of this is.
In Kagoshima, you can be famous for anything, if you're patient enough.
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