People have been asking us lately what that cute monster in our poster is all about. First of all, it's a squid and our
Cool Japan festival mascot. It doesn't have a name, though, but we can call it Squid for now. Squid's job is to ask people
イカしてる? (
ikashiteru?), which is Japanese slang for "are you cool?" or just "cool?" The first two characters, イカ (
ika), happen to be the word for squid. Therefore, Squid is a pun on the phrase
ikashiteru.
Hope this enlightens things. You'll see a lot more of Squid at the Cool Japan festival, coming up in two weeks!