Take our user survey and make your voice heard.
The fact that the word "kawaii" has now been accepted into the Oxford English Dictionary says a lot about Japan’s obsession with all things cute. If there’s a manhole cover or a health and safety pamphlet that needs brightening up somehow, you can pretty much guarantee that someone will design a cutesy character or scene to adorn it. That’s just how Japan rolls.
Never, though, have we come across barricades made to look like kneeling kimono-clad princesses before.
Barricades being held up with amusingly shaped pieces of plastic are nothing new in Japan. Wander through any urban area or take a drive through the country and you’re bound to find an orange monkey, lime-green frog or cartoon construction worker somewhere, smiling or bowing in apology for the disruption while holding up a sign or pole. In fact, there are so many of these things that the folks at YouTube channel The Japan Online Channel once went around capturing footage of the various plastic animals – and even mini Mount Fujis – holding up barriers around their town.
Something that you won’t see so quite often, however, are kimono-wearing princesses.
Spotted in the city of Kyoto by Japanese Instagrammer and cat lover Kyoxxxxx, these barrier supports have been wrapped in plastic made to look like traditional Japanese dress, giving the (already cute) pink-helmeted construction workers’ humble, downcast gazes an air of regality as they apologise for the dust and mess.
Roadworks can mean anything from noise outside your home to being late for work as you sit in a seemingly never-ending line of traffic, but with rows of humble princesses apologising like this, it would be hard to get too angry at the disruption.
Source: Instagram via Japaaan
Read more stories from RocketNews24. -- You’re not seeing things, that’s a cat selling roasted sweet potatoes -- You won’t believe what’s at the end of this 4-hour line -- Awesome Japanese rescue robot probably won’t kill you
© RocketNews24
18 Comments
Login to comment
turbotsat
Live action, please. None of your mannikins.
Tessa
When my sister came to visit a few years ago, she was really amused by the construction sites and all the unnecessary jobs that they seemed to provide. For example, the uniformed men who are paid to stand and wave a flag and direct pedestrians past the site. Have these barricades replaced them?
oikawa
you are kidding me... that is absolutely ridiculous
ArtistAtLarge
I find this rather cool.
Illyas
How is that an unnecessary job? Would your sister happen to come from a country with practically non-existant traffic laws, like India?
Wakarimasen
Why princesses?
ReformedBasher
Think you'll find otaku culture has long ceased being an "only in Japan" thing. The number of foreigners who avidly read manga, watch anime and take part in cosplay events, etc, etc, held in their own countries and organized by themselves, might astound you.
Sorry if your comment now appears "absolutely ridiculous".
gaijinfo
This would be kawaii if it weren't for the fact that this is merely ONE (albeit small) symptom of massive government waste that has been pushing Japan down the path of irreversible economic destruction.
I mean, there's still people living in shelters and suffering the effects of 3-11, but so long as the governments can put on a kawaii face on the taxpayer dime, the everything is OK!
oikawa
No idea what that crap was supposed to prove.
Kawaii is not an English word, simple as that.
Erik Jacobs
Computer wasn't a dutch word either, but it is now. Pan wasn't a Japanese word either, until the Portugese brought it to Japan.
What is your point here?
lucabrasi
@Fadamor
"Typhoon" is from Chinese, surely?
oikawa
Erik Jacobs The point is it's not in common usage as an English word. It's not hard to understand.
Fadamor
Fair point, but the difference is as you say these words have been acquired, altered, mashed up, and ended up in common usage. It doesn't matter where the word originally came from. Very few "English" words originally came from England. The point is simply that I don't think kawaii is in any way shape or form in enough usage in English to warrant inclusion in an English dictionary. That's why I think it's ridiculous. A hell of a lot of people with connections to Japan know the word gaijin but I think it would be equally ridiculous to include that in an English dictionary. Just because people know what a foreign word implies doesn't mean it's "English".
Moderator
Back on topic please.
skaizun
I'm willing to bet that more drivers slow down for inanimate objects than they would for people holding warning flags. Sad, but, probably true.
karlrb
I have to agree with Tessa. I've been in Japan a little over a year and have noticed many times what appears to be an excessive number of people at these job sites.
Wolfpack
I am beginning to think that the"'everything Kawai anime character" thing is getting to be too much. Seeing a cute character every once in a while is kind of cool. Kneeling princesses and frog characters at construction sites is going overboard. Japan is turning itself into one big anime show. It is getting bizarre and even a bit infantile. It's time to dial it back some.
Fouxdefa
Ahaha cute. Tourists to Kyoto will enjoy seeing those. Sasuga Kyoto!
h19ayame
I think it is so nice! during construction, roadwork is obstacle but cute design like this kimono girl fun to look. In okinawa many of roadwork is shisa which okinawan guardian god. there are so cute so many visitor take picture of it. all place of japan try to create original roadwork , it will be more interest to work I think.