Amabie

In case you are wondering what this cute mermaid-like creature with a bird-beak is, it is Amabie (アマビエ). Amabie is a Japanese yokai (妖怪) that was popularized since the start of the COVID pandemic in 2020.

It is said that Amabie appeared in 1846 to give prophesies either an abundant harvest or an epidemic, and instructed people to make copies of its likeness to defend against illness.

Actually, it seems likely that Amabie is a variant of Amabiko (アマビコ) who does exact same things as above. It is said that the name is just a miscopy of コ and turned into エ. The characters look similar, don't they?

However, the appearance of Amabiko is hmm...not so cute or kawaii (かわいい)? So perhaps that is the reason why Amabie became immensely popular rather than its hairy sibling.

Anyway, I thought I'd use Amabie as my avatar since:

• Many more people will see it (whether it really works to defend against illness set aside)

• Fits with the key color scheme of this website: turquoise blue/green (my favorite color!)

• Many Japanese use unreal characters as their avatars. (We are a folk shy about showing our own images, I guess?)

• Who doesn't like mermaids/mermen?

There, I gave 4 solid reasons why I should be using Amabie-tan! ("-tan/-chan" is used to call someone with much affection).