Mie Tourism

Mie, a prefecture in central Japan, only has a couple true tourist spots. There's Ise Shrine and the pilgrimage trail to the shrine, Kumano Kodo, and that's about it. Perhaps the race track in Suzuka sometimes draws tourists, but other areas have trouble getting visitors. For example, why would anyone want to go to Yokkaichi?

1. There's a Santa love hotel near the station.
2. You can try to discover where that strange smell is coming from.
3. ...

A bit of a problem if you're working on the Mie tourist board, isn't it? Luckily, some genius assigned mascots to each area of Mie:

Most of the mascots are a type of food made in a certain area. "Wait, they have tomatoes there? Cancel are honeymoon in Thailand!" I'm pretty sure that's how it works.

Squirrel Village

Squirrel Village is located in Gifu City on top of a mountain next to the castle. I was thinking of paying the 200 yen to enter hoping there would be a whole world built. Maybe there would be a squirrel-sized saloon or dance studio. And would the squirrels really be wearing bow ties? I realized I could peak around the corner and saw this:

I'm pretty sure my back yard in America could become a huge Japanese tourist spot.