Big Crabs in Japan

Japan has a thing for big crabs, a huge Japanese spider crab was recently caught measuring 10 feet from claw to claw. Two fur suit mascot crabs promote Kasumi a small town in Hyogo famous for catching crabs. And there’s even a super cool crab clock in Tokyo. These crabs however are dwarfed in size by the moving mascot signs which are found above many seafood restaurants in Japan.

The most famous and possibly the first was made by the restaurant Kani Doraku in 1960. The claws and legs move up and down as do the eyes. The mechanized mascot on Dontonbori Road in Osaka proved popular and led to many other restaurants installing their own. Huge moving crustaceans and other sea creatures can be found all over Japan, variations include octopus, squid and lobsters.

For an excellent collection of big American crab mascots check out this site.

Plastic Pigs

The lick lipping pig outside restaurants cheerfully encouraging customers to take a bite can be seen all around the world. This is a collection of Death wish pigs found in Japan. We have pigs outside clothes shops in Yokohama’s China Town, Pigs above ramen restaurant door ways, outside a nikuman stall, made into a rubbish bin, disguised as a lantern and even outside a hairdressers.