So, one of my city's mascots is this weird natto man. I know I have mentioned him before, but bear with me. He grosses me out enough to get his own post. He is an anthropomorphised piece of natto or fermented soybeans (the result of leaving moist beans wrapped in dried reeds in the summer heat). His name, Nebaru, comes from the Japanese onomatopoetic sound for stickiness. In his natural state he is a short, fat, round character, but he stretches taller at will. Unlike almost every other mascot in Japan, he has the ability to speak Japanese (most other mascots have to communicate through writing...I don't know the rationale behind that) and it is because of this special skill that he is somehow more popular than my darling Mito-chan.
Why?
By the way, the first picture (with Nebaru making an "ew" face) has a pun on his name. He is saying, "Eat the natto-rice cracker. Never give up. Never." But never is spelled like neba, the sticky sound of natto (neba give up, neba).
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