Cuteness- Assignment for Tuesday, April 4

Part I:  After you read the texts and reflect on what the two authors had to say about the cute in Japan, please think about the place of the cute in your current life.  (I would assume that there were tons of "cute" things in your childhood, so as in the articles, I'd like you to focus on you as you are today--an adult, if you like.)  Choose one thing to reflect on, and post a relevant image.  Think about corresponds to or differs from the meaning/significance/implications of "cute" as presented in the articles.  Choose anything, including a cat video if you swing that way. 
I am always attracted by cute foods, foods that are made into animal shapes. Whenever I walk into a bakery, I would either buy one of those cute cakes or take pictures of them. I guess they do provide a childhood nostalgia that allows me to escape temporarily from the fast-paced and stressful adult society, as indicated in the articles. 

Part II: Find something cute (kawaii) from Japanese culture, and discuss it in terms of the ideas presented in the articles and our discussions in class.  For this assignment, please try to go for something that seems to be intended to be truly cute, and not something that, like most of Nara's images, has a more complicated (and possibly subversive) relationship with the cute.  Be sure to post an image (or short video) of what you will be discussing.  Do not do Hello Kitty.  (If you really really want to post something on Hello Kitty, you can do that in Part I, or you can add it to the two parts of the assignment.

This black bear is called Kumamon, a mascot created in 2010 to draw tourists by the government of a Japanese prefecture named Kumamoto. I have seen a lot of mascots for different places, but I think Kumamon is probably one of the most successful and most impressive among them. The idea of using real person to play the role of Kumamon, combining manga, official website and videos, makes it more vivid and have personality. The word "government" gives people the feeling of seriousness and responsibility, but by using a cute character to represent a government is novel, constructing a completely different image. People like cute things because they find comfort and nostalgia in them. Cute things help people escape real life and feel to be in childhood again, which they are not able to do or do not dare to do in strict society in Japan.