My new friend, Mr Tanuki!

This post was inspired by a recent purchase from the Daisō store near my work (one of four in the area):¹

This is a “piggy bank” I bought for $1.50 shaped like a tanuki (狸) or racoon-dog. Contrary to popular belief, tanukis are real animals and are neither badgers, nor racoons. They are an entirely separate species. In folktales, tanuki were especially mischievous and even sometimes cruel to people, using magic or other means to trick and harm others. The famous scary story of Mujina is one such example, but there are many others. On the other hand, some stories about tanuki are more heart-warming. My favorite is the tale of Shojoji, about a temple in Japan where the tanukis try to harass the priest into leaving, by drumming on their big tummies all night. After the priest tries to out-drum them, they become friends.

I found having a piggy bank useful because it gives me an incentive to save my change. Later, I use it at a nearby Coinstar kiosk to get Amazon.com gift-certificates, which I then redeem online to buy more Buddhist and Japanese books for the blog.² This is nice because I don’t have to use my credit card in the process for online ordering, so I don’t have to worry about it being stolen again.³ Previously, I used an old Pringles can in Ireland, which I just cut out the top for, but it wasn’t very inspiring (it was delicious though). Pringles, by the way, are more popular in Ireland I think than in the US, though I enjoyed local crisps (“chips” in American English) like Tayto’s much more.

Interestingly, the tanuki “bank” resembles the more famous maneki neko (招き猫) statues often seen in Japanese storefronts:

So like the “beckoning cat” who brings in luck, I think Mr. Tanuki has done a nice job in bringing in the loose change for me. Speaking of which, the characters on his tummy are kai un (開運), which means something like “good luck” or “better fortune”, literally “open fortune”, which sounds auspicious.

So long as the gift-certificates and books keep on coming in, I am happy.

P.S. Random stream of thought I felt like writing about on a late night after work. Pardon the lack of structure in this post.

¹ I have a lot of junk on my desk at work. Other items in the picture are: a 20-sided dice for Dungeons and Dragons, a chestnut from Ireland my little girl once put in my pocket as I left for work, a jar of Chinese medicine for skin problems I have, and can of Boss Coffee in the background. I could write a whole post about how much I love drinking Boss Coffee, which I could buy in the old days at the local Asian Import store. They seemed to have stopped carrying it since I came back to the US, which is a big downer. Now I can only enjoy it on rare trips to Japan.

² Most of my book purchases are now online because the brick-and-mortar stores have a limited selection of Japanese-language or Buddhist books beyond certain authors. Not the kind of books I prefer for researching and such. I also started getting books at the BCA Bookstore which has good, personal customer service, and a lot of general Buddhist stuff like rosaries, bells, etc, etc.

³ I do the same for iTunes for my iPhone, so I am not singling any one company out.