koshi-kun industries
this is a story whose theme is: “when inspiration strikes”.
i don’t really know what happened. but i had an idea and i just kept running with it. and when i stopped to look back at what i’d done. i was left with an immense feeling of satisfaction and mild dread.
so what did happen? well. corona struck and i was desk warming* at my schools on the JET programme. which is when i thought: mascots. mascots? mascots!?
you see. japan is the land mascots. prefectures, towns, brands, you name it and it’ll have a mascot. so if i was a JET living in japan. where was my mascot?
and that’s when it came to me. i’ll just make one.
it wasn’t the first time i’d thought about it. but it was the first time i’d given it a proper go.
but what would the mascot be? well. the prefecture i lived in is famous for rice. specifically a variety called KOSHIHIKARI rice. and the specific region i lived in makes the highest quality of this rice.
so a rice bowl? done. that’s the mascot. name? koshi-kun.
(i swear i will never again have an idea as good as this for as long as i live…)
(look it even has different emoticons!)
but. i’m just one JET in this prefecture. i can’t just decide on the mascot by myself. however. i was also the webmaster for the AJET chapter of my prefecture. which meant i was technically on the council. so. it was time for some D E M O C R A C Y.
i just love a good election.
and i do do the whole thing. i make posters advertising the competition. i call for submissions. i run everything by the council. i tried to mimic the 2015–2016 New Zealand flag referendum. though i hoped for a more exciting result…
however. as you find when you try to mobilise more than 8 people. it was mostly a flop. so hard to get submissions. BUT. i did get a few. though many of them were joke entires. but you know. that’s part of running an election.
so i brought the entires before the council. i didn’t vote because i had a submission and i wanted it to be unbiased. remember: D E M O C R A C Y. and they decided on a short list.
i ran the election using a google form. i then painstakingly used the alternative vote system to identify a winner. because i didn’t use any fancy voting software. i had to do it myself. but i posted all the spreadsheets i used to the facebook page if anyone wanted to check for fraud in this high stakes election…
note: if you are interested in voting systems i highly recommend this blog post.
anyway. urm. so i won. i won my own election. to this day i feel sort of funny about that… i did everything in my power to not cheat. i promise! not that my words can be very persuasive as the election host…
but. we move on. because the inspiration train had just been further fuelled by this win, with no stop in sight.
next destination? merch island. look how cute koshi is. koshi so cute. we definitely need merch of koshi. i said. to myself. no one asked for merch. no one told me merch would be a good idea. i just wanted merch. and merch i shall have. so the inspiration train hit four stops:
t-shirt station: i had already had the idea to randomly print custom t-shirts the year before. it’s a long story. something something custom leaving presents for my friends who left the JET programme. i had asked one of my colleagues if they knew a t-shirt printer. and they said “yeah, my mate who lives in the mountain runs a screen printing business”. turns out i also worked in that town once a week. so i rock up and i tell them “hi how would you like to custom print shirts for me?” and they were like “yeah sure” so boom. we have custom t-shirts on demand. you could choose the colour and one of the 8 emoticons.
(this was my attempt at “promo” materials, i paid my for my friend’s hand modelling in discount code…)
sticker station: another JET i knew had gotten some stickers of their art done. and i remember telling them to sell the stickers. and now it was my turn. they recommended sticker mule and i can’t say i had any issues with the company’s service. these are proper nice laptop stickers too. i chose only four designs to test the waters.
(my favourite is and will always be “angry”)
enamel pin station: okay. this is the one i am most proud of. never did i think i would be bulk ordering custom enamel pins directly from a factory in china. but. what is there to be scared of? i googled around. i watched some youtube videos. some people were talking about dealing with US-based companies. but as far as i could tell, some of these companies will in turn order them from a factory in china anyway. i came across this blog post and just followed the instructions. the factory was extremely prompt and my bag of 100 pins came with no issues.
(enamel pins always struck me as a luxury merch item and now i have 100 of them…)
LINE station: this is the most random. the most “???” of the lot. and i really don’t know how i learnt that selling stickers in the LINE shop was easy. i had looked into facebook but it is really hard to get into the messenger sticker store. i barely even use LINE. but living in asia means i have the app and you bet i head to the LINE creator studio to set up my sticker set. you can buy them here if you’d like.
BONUS station: i looked into popsockets. i actually made one for myself using the custom popsocket maker. and it does look dope if i do say so myself. but it turns out the company is quite strict about selling their items and you need to be registered as a proper company. that seemed like too much. so my journey came to a halt.
which brings us to now. why did i feel the need to write this blog post. like a year after this all went down?
because… help… i have so many stickers and enamel pins… please buy them. (i eventually managed to sell them!)
as i said. i look back on this journey with immense pride and satisfaction. but here is the mild dread. this was all a risk and a gamble. and you know. in my life i have seen groups of people fight over all sorts of things. money is a sure-fire way to make enemies. i know my situation well enough to know i was not prepared to defend myself if the council came for me for losing them hundreds of pounds on merch that no one wanted.
so… urm… this was all done out of my own pocket. and not many people bought anything… *sigh*
BUT i still don’t regret it. i really love what i have made and there is nothing more fulfilling than seeing your design exist in the real word. something that was just pixels can now be held, worn and used. also. stickers and pins don’t expire. and the t-shirts were made to order so there is no excess stock.
as you can guess. the council was not interested in managing the store when i left the JET programme. someone would have to manage the stock, prices, orders and trips to the post office (not to mention drive up the mountain to get the t-shirts from the printer). these were all roles i was doing. so i asked them if i could keep pins and stickers and sell them myself to make back my losses. they agreed. while the character belongs to the council as it won the competition, i am still in charge of the shop. but it is now hosted on my site instead of the AJET chapter’s site since i am no longer the webmaster.
so. if you are from the prefecture in question and want to rep your pride or you just think koshi-kun is cute (or you wanna help a stupid kid out). consider buying a pin or a sticker. i personally send out all the orders. orders are limited to within japan for now.
if you made it to the end. hi! this was a fun journey. i hope to do something similar again. i really want to make more pins. there is something so satisfying about them.
until the next.
see ya.
*what is desk warming?
for those unfamiliar with the JET programme. when you work as an assistant language teacher (ALT) in japan there may be times when you are contracted to be at work, but with no work to actually do. depending on your situation this can be a couple of hours a week. to several days (or weeks) in a row. this is because japan is very strict with hours. if you are contracted to be at work from 08:10 to 16:10 you have to be there. even if classes are cancelled. even if the students are on holiday. even if there is a global pandemic…
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