NoFakie 45 Posted February 13, 2004 Share Posted February 13, 2004 Bit of a longshot this one, but here goes. A mate of mine is getting married next week. He's done many jobs in Japan, one of which was selling cardboard puppets with rubber legs on the street. It's a routine I've seen a few gaijin doing in the big cities. Basically its a double act where they hang the puppets on some clear thread which one dude discretely manipulates while the other dude works the crowd. When the guy says "sit down" or "somersault" the other guy pulls the string to make the puppet sit down or do a somersault. Once they've got enough people drawn in, the talking dude stops the show and sells the puppets for 500 yen. For a piece of cardboard and two strips of rubber, it's very good business. The ones my mate used to sell were shaped like clowns and came with instructions that proclaimed "WATACHI(sic) WA JOHNNY DESU!". Anyway, I was wondering if anybody might know whether you can still get them or have a dodgy acquaintance who sells them. My mate stopped doing it years ago, but I'd like to get hold of a couple and remind him of it if possible. Here's some pics I found on the web. As you can see, they're not quality merchandise. Link to post Share on other sites
Goemon 0 Posted February 14, 2004 Share Posted February 14, 2004 hmmm...I saw some being hawked in front of the Design Festa at Tokyo Big Site a few months ago. Haven't seen them anywhere else though. Link to post Share on other sites
enderzero 0 Posted February 14, 2004 Share Posted February 14, 2004 I've seen them around here and there. Places like Yoyogi-koen and Yokohama's Yamashita-koen are likely spots. Sorry, no web order site I know of. Link to post Share on other sites
dancing_barefoot 0 Posted February 14, 2004 Share Posted February 14, 2004 Watachi wa! Really bad accent required presumably. Link to post Share on other sites
NoFakie 45 Posted February 15, 2004 Author Share Posted February 15, 2004 Thanks for the comments folks! Good to know Johnny is still in town making money for someone. If you ever see the show, check out the "manipulator" who should have a coat on their arm or a hand in their pocket. Nobody know a seller then? Link to post Share on other sites
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