Protected: Shrine to Anpanman
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Photo Copyright Michael J. Menichetti
Photo Copyright Michael J. Menichetti
Shrine to Anpanman in Usonoshima, Japan

I was chatting by email with Micheal Menichetti, about some nice pictures of Kyoto he took several years ago, when he made particular mention of the shot above, a shrine for Anpanman.

Anpanman is an exceedingly popular cartoon character in Japan. “Anpan” is bread with sweet beans, and Anpan-man is a superhero who helps people and gives himself to the hungry to eat. Wikipedia currently has a rather extensive entry on Anpanman.

Anthony loves Anpanman, and we don't mind that he loves him. I'm sure his Anpanman stuff has appeared in my blog at various times, but the only one I recall at the moment is my third post, where there's a grainy picture of a two-and-a-half-year-old Anthony riding an Anpanman toy.

Anyway, in chatting with Michael, he referenced the photo above and commented about the wonderful things one can do with Photoshop. Well, yes, indeed, one can do wonderful things (my best), but my first impression was “Hmmm, what did he do to the picture?”

I'd seen elsewhere among his photos where he'd added a person into a picture (and made a comment as such), and so I looked carefully at him in the picture above (in green shirt, with arms folded) but it looked very natural, so if he added himself, it was a very good job.

Then I wondered if he'd done something to clean up the Anpanman in the shrine. After looking around for a while, I noticed some unnatural areas near the Anpanman feet, and realized that he'd added the entire Anpanman to the image.

Of course, it's a great testament to his Photoshop skills that I'd not noticed sooner, but I think it's also a great testament to Japanese culture that I didn't immediately dismiss a shrine-to-Anpanman picture as a fake. I can totally believe it's true.

PS: I made up the location. “Usonoshima” means “island of lies.” 🙂


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