The sight that greeted me at the main entrance of
Pear, Pear, everywhere! ;b
50cm Funassyi, 60cm Funassyi and 120cm Funassyi
have pride of place at the Osaka Funassyiland!!!
How much do I love Funassyi? One way to discern how much is by way of tabulating the amount and very increase in the number of Funassyi-related items I've come to own in the few years that I've become a fan of the Pear (Fairy) from Funabashi. Another gauge of the depths of my adoration of this lovable gotouchi chara is that my having already visited three out of the four permanent Funassyilands that exist in meatspace: that is, those in Harajuku, the Pear's hometown, and Osaka (with only the Nagoya one left unvisited thus far).
Then there's it being so that on my most recent visit to Japan, I went all the way from Hiroshima to Osaka (and back) to acquire a 60cm Funassyi plush that I got to wanting ever so much after hearing of its existence and how very soft and huggable it is; this despite my already owning such as a very cuddly 50cm Funassyi plushie and super cute 45cm Sleeping Bag Funassyi.
In the days leading to my Japan trip, I got to worrying that 60cm Funassyi would be out of stock before I stepped foot once more in the Land of the Rising Sun. After all, the initial batch of 120cm Funassyis sold out in minutes and now need to be pre-ordered; with the next batch only being due out again in March!
So it was with no small amount of relief that as I approached the main entrance of the Osaka Funassyiland, I saw a staffer standing around outside cradling a 60cm Funassyi in her arms -- and more 60cm Funassyis seated on the display section out in the front of the store! And it wasn't too long before I had picked up one of them to call my very own!
For those who are wondering: 60cm Funassyi is actually a bit fatter looking than I expected -- and, in fact, I reckon that 50cm Funassyi actually looks more like the real/head Pear than the larger plushie. In 60cm Funassyi's favor though is it truly being softer and arguably more huggable than the 10cm smaller variant. Something else that's really good about it -- which I found out over the course of the next few days -- is that it will spring back to shape after being flattened for a bit after being packed (stuffed?) in a pretty full suitcase with other items!
When will the Funassyi mania end? Touch wood but I don't think it will for the foreseeable future. After all, 2017 saw the Pear chalk up new achievements such as successfully form a gotouchi chara band (called CHARAMEL) which embarked on tours, released a CD and a couple of tour DVDs, and themed Funassyi trains and buses running in various sections of Funassyi's home prefecture of Chiba! Oh, and I also love that the Pear's Twitter account has 1.49 million followers (at the time of this blog post) and that Funassyi personally updates it pretty much daily -- and in so doing, lets its fans know what its up to and pretty much almost never fails to keep us amused! :)))
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