You can't just tell everyone to not do anything cool because it might attract too many tourists. That's a race to the bottom of a boring world.

Kyushu is quite far off the beaten tourist path, so I doubt it would get a lot of non-domestic traveling.

possible but more a corner case that additionally takes one along the opposite vibe trajectory to the story's

so ... why?

> Or kids at this specific stop are treated to a moment of joy while waiting for their train to come...

Kids are becoming a rarity in Japan

As least Japan doesn’t have a bunch of sheep tech bros building a Burning Man every year pretending they are cool

I saw the musical in London and it was so good! Highly recommend it!

> This is awesomeness happening because copyright can't sabotage it.

If this were a Disney character, it would have been destroyed a long time ago.

I love that they didn't half-ass it, even if it was just for the kids.

There is a tradition of placing small tokens or flowers on his palm! At one point the owner had a tumblr where they posted pictures of the offerings it received occasionally.

Looks like it turned into a little side business for them.

It’s not an actual bus stop. The bus stop is part of the installation. It depicts the scene where Totoro takes the cat bus [1]. But I was hoping it had an umbrella too.

[1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vPOgiR5aUWE

I can’t think of any bus stops near me, in Tokyo, that has a cover or seating. It’s pretty normal.

Disney would sue the hell out of you first.

This was my initial thought just from reading the headline and was not dissuaded from seeing the permanence of the structure. I'd imagine some fines for your effort as well.

Eh, depends where the bus stop is. Around me, the transit busses don't have marked stops, and will stop anywhere on the route, and there's no sidewalk, so landowners can put up art/sculpture at the edge of their parcel or the road easement, if they want. School busses stop at specific places, but many landowners have put up shelters for students to wait underneath. In town, there are bus stops and city managed sidewalk; you can't block the sidewalk, but a landowner could put up art at the edge of the sidewalk. Commercial signs are regulated regardless of where installed, but a sculpture such as this isn't commercial.

Your city may be different, of course, but I wouldn't expect this to cause a problem, if installed by permission of the owner, in most cities. HOAs might throw a fit, they like to do that.

This sculpture isn't particularly tall, but height restrictions are popular. A sculpture that does not appear to be stable, or appears particularly flammable might be reviewable as well. There's no utility connections, so there's no need to review those.

You are absolutely correct. In fact, SF and Berkeley were both mad about the "guerrilla benches" where people were putting benches were bus stops were: https://sfist.com/2025/07/07/sf-city-hall-not-at-all-pleased...

Besides, think about it, have these parents completed an Environmental Impact Report? How do we know this is not terrible for the environment? Chesterton's fence. Regulations are written in blood.

As someone who's triggered by this and has griped about it just recently: No, this doesn't qualify, because Totoro is actually Japanese content that happens to be popular internationally. "Thing, Japan" is if you take something that is commonplace outside of Japan as well, and act as if only the mystical, wise place that is Japan has it.

No it's not. "thing, japan" implies that the "thing" wouldn't be special outside of japan. Where else is there a totoro bus stop?