Recently got back from a great trip in Bali, there was lots of great graffiti in Kuta and some great idle idols dotted around the beautiful island. To see more check out my flickr set.

Idle Idol: The Japanese Mascot is officially out and to celebrate we’re offering the chance to win a copy of the book. All you have to do is take a photo of yourself or a friend with your favourite mascot. The entries will be judged by ourselves based on the awesomeness and bizarreness of the mascot and how cool the pose of the individual is.

The Prizes:
1st Prize: A signed copy of the book with a goody bag including Kero-chan and Koro-chan finger puppets, a Satoko-chan mobile phone strap and two badge sets.
2nd prize: A signed copy of the book with a badge set.
3rd prize: A badge set of your choice.

How to Enter:
There are four different ways to enter. Please also let us know where the photo was taken when submitting your entry.
1. Email your photos to comp@idleidol.net.
2. Join the Idle Idol facebook group and add your photo.
3. Upload your photo to flickr, post it to the Idle Idol flickr group and tag it with “idleidol”.
4. Follow whatwhatjohn or whatwhated on twitter and include a link to your photo along with #idleidol in your tweet.

We look forward to seeing your photos. Winners will be announced on the 22nd July and the winning entries will be displayed on the idleidol.net.

Edward with Nyanta

John meeting Crayon-chan

Remo Camerota’s new book Drainspotting hits the shelves soon. I’m really pleased that two of my photos from Okinawa made into the awesome collection. I met Remo last year and got chatting to him about his great Graffiti Japan book and I’ve got him to thank for inspiring and encouraging me in making Idle Idol happen.

To see more of my draincover photos check out my collection at flickr.

Some more portraits of me drawn by some young Japanese students (12-13) from Fukazawa Junior High School. You can see some from last year here.

Lots going on over at Idle Idol, here’s an update of some of the links
Plastic Pigs
Native American Store Standers
Japanese Robots
Elephant and Castle
Big Crabs in Japan
Face Off
Sento-kun

Lastly you can now see what the book looks like here

Logo for a church support group for single parents. The design incorporates a single figure, a cross and an anchor.

Christopher D Salyers has a great new book out on Vending machines featuring two of my photos. Vending machines – Coined Consumerism is by MBP the same publisher as Idle Idol. The first one was snapped at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium. There must be a lot of thirsty people who visit that place. The second is somewhere in Tokyo, possibly Shinagawa. There are beer vending machines everywhere in Japan. Children below the legal drinking age must be a lot more well behaved as something tells me this wouldn’t work in England.

Two new badge sets are now available to buy from the whatshop, they’re both Idle Idol themed and are sure to delight and amaze. The first set is simply title ‘Idle Idol‘, if you choose this set you’ll receive a pack containing four random badges of mascot faces. There are 25 idle idol mascot badges in total. This set would be the perfect accompaniment to the Idle Idol book which is currently available to pre-order from amazon and will soon be sold on the whatshop too. The second set is title ‘Idol Eyes‘, and feature some close up shots of a selection of interesting mascot eyes.

Lots of entires over at the Idle Idol site find out about the Tokyo Fire Department mascot Kyuta, Domokun – NHK’s wide mouthed monster.tower mascots from all over Japan and much more.

Idle Idol The Japanese Mascot is the first book from Edward and John Harrison published by Mark Batty publishers. The book concentrates on Japan; a mecca for Idle Idols. Discover Japans obsession with characters from Pipo-kun the smiling orange alien for the police force to Anpanman the superhero with an edible face. Learn their names, origins and stories. IdleIdol.net is currently a showcase for these wonderful characters from Japan but will soon cover mascots from around the world. check out the website for more details on the book and how you can join in the search http://idleidol.net/book/.

The Japanese have a long-standing infatuation with characters cast as three-dimensional objects that represent products, companies, civic organizations, towns and just about anything else you can imagine. Idle Idol: The Japanese Mascot examines this fascinating cultural history, documenting the evolution of these character statues ubiquitous throughout the country today. More than three-dimensional logos, these mascots exemplify how the Japanese embrace the notion of cute in all aspects of life, dating back to the Edo period. Associated with a brand or shop the mascots also exist as stand-alone characters that people adore. Photographs and written explanations vivify these unique mascots that are artful, audacious and wholly Japanese!

Just created an idle idol facebook app! It basically randomly chooses a mascot for your facebook page, see what mascot chooses you. Many thanks to Ash from Papermashup for all his help.