KFC Colonel Saunders for Children's Day (promotional information)

Image courtesy of KFC Japan. Click to load a larger version. 

May 5 was "children's day" in Japan. It is one of the holidays celebrated during "Golden Week" in Japan. As part of the celebration, KFC Japan dressed the Colonel statues in warrior garb at various locations. Given the range of costumes that I have seen on the statue, I have to wonder if there is a storage room in every branch which houses his wardrobe or if these things are rented for the day and then sent back. Between Santa and witches costumes and traditional Japanese holidays, old Colonel Saunders has a bigger wardrobe than I do.

Incidentally, if you have a thing for old Southern Colonels and you'd like to put one on your desktop, KFC has a couple of pictures you can make your computer background. You can get them here.

KFC Smile Set (product information)

Images courtesy of KFC Japan.

Anything in Japan can be "chibified". That is, it can be made cute and adorable like Rilakkuma or Hello Kitty. This includes deceased purveyors of greasy fried chicken who, heretofore, were mainly represented in statuary.

Making the colonel, who seemed to be born near-sighted, white-haired and with a goatee, into a little cutie-pie is one of the best ways to get kids interested in buying KFC's "smile set". If that's not enough, then they'll give away little prizes with the meal sets (shown at the top) as illustrated above. The top item is a "cooking board" which, near as I can tell, is about cutting straight (hence the measurement marks at the bottom). I'm guessing it is not anything as solid as a cutting board. The second item is a "hand towel". Those are usually the size and shape of a diminutive handkerchief and meant to be carried around for drying ones hands after using public restrooms that have neither towels nor electronic dryers. The third item is a "recipe memo", because kids are always writing down recipes. Finally, there is a "deco sheet" which you can use to decorate your cakes.

The strange thing about these to me is that they don't seem very "kid" oriented. While you can get your choice of one of these if you buy one of the two "smile sets", they definitely seem that they're for young women, not for kids. How many kids do you know who are decorating cakes using stencils?

At any rate, if you have found yourself in love with the crooked-nosed chibi Colonel and would like to adorn your desktop with his adorable little image, you can download a wallpaper of him here. 

Random Picture 31

Last month my husband attended the Koenji Awaodori festival and took some pictures including this shot of the Colonel in a hapi coat for the festivities. He's like a big Ken doll for the Japanese as they dress him differently depending on the occasion. The Koenji Awaodori festival has over a million visitors in 2 days and features folks doing traditional harvest dancing as well as, of course, food. The KFC people sold their usual dreck, but also had a big cooler full of overpriced drinks.

Summer has finally exited, and posting this picture of the Colonel in this uniquely Japanese (and common summer) attire is my way of telling it not to let the door hit it on the ass on the way out. This past summer was long, intense, and excruciating, and I'm glad it's finally over.