The morning rush at Ikebukuro Station ground to a halt on Aug. 4 as crowds swarmed for photos in front of freshly decorated pillars.
In place of the once-bare columns stood towering statues of rotund, rosy-cheeked critters, their eyes almost gleaming under the fluorescent light. Station security were called in to keep the flow of traffic moving.
The characters were part of a guerrilla ad campaign for Chiikawa Park, a pseudo-theme park that opened on July 28 in Ikebukuro¡¯s Sunshine City shopping complex and based on the ¡°Nanka Chiisakute Kawaii Yatsu¡± (literally translated to ¡°Something Small and Cute¡± but more commonly shortened to ¡°Chiikawa¡±) web manga series first published in 2017.
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