Kawaii
One of our favorite books these days is Hello, Please, a bible of kawaii (crazy cute) characters that guide citizens in Japanese cities in generally having trouble-free lives.
True Kawaii use means using illustrations of two-inch girls in strawberry hats isn’t quite enough: a crown, and a tear welling up (on the one in the left here), is required to really tip you over the edge into Kawaii-dom. Others are harder to decipher - but the one at the bottom is a sign to remind Japanese kids that feeding monkeys can lead to bad animal health.
You may have known about the signs you might see in the streets of Japan of talking dogpoop, and happy tampons. The most extreme we’ve come across yet seems to be this happy Iraq stickers - courtesy of the Japanese Self Defense Forces. Now that is a bizarre thought!
An example of a Jungian shadow analysis perhaps, but this touch of the cute cult is a salve for bad news overdoses, nonetheless.
