150 Cute, Fluffy Mascots Invasion

Sometimes there's so much fluffiness in the world, I feel like I can't take it. Just the thought of being invaded by an army of cute, fluffy, huggable mascots makes me wanna... well, go to Japan. Because that's where such derranged fantasies actually come true, at least once a year at the "Yuru-Chara Matsuri" event hosted by the city of Hikone, in the Shiga prefecture.



Hikone is home to one of Japan's oldest and most popular "yuru-charas" (as the mascots are called), named Hikonyan. As such, it became known as the "Sacred City of Yuru-Chara", and began hosting this annual gathering for yuru-charas from all over Japan. Last year, there were 45 mascots, and this year the goofy attendance exploded to 150 yuru-charas!

I shudder to think what Rena would do there, going into one of her "so cute, I want to take it home!" sprees... But really, words don't do this justice, so I'll leave you with a whole bunch of pictures from this year's "Yuru-Chara Matsuri Kigurumi Summit" - selected from Gigazine's obsessive report of the event, covered in 4 articles: here, here, here and here.