More in the life of Watermelon bus stops

Dan Bloom’s faithfully written to me again to update me with this tidbit of information:American cartoonist Bill Griffith is the creator of a syndicated comic strip titled ?Zippy? that appears in over 500 newspapers worldwide, including Japan and

Zippy does Japan (with a stop first in Taiwan)
In today’s Taipei Times, on page 19, the Zippy comic strip features a
storyline focused on a watermelon-shaped bus stop in Ishaya City,
Japan. Before you go any further, turn to page 19 and look at the
Zippy strip for today. As you can see, Zippy the Pinhead is waiting
inside a bus stop in Japan, when he suddenly hears the announcement
that the bus is coming and will arrive shortly, and then he muses to
himself: “I sure hope the bus is shaped like a sausage.”

How this particular comic strip came to be has an interesting
backstory that involves this newspaper, some Taiwanese Internet
surfers in Taipei, a Japanese couple in Tokyo and, of course, the
cartoonist Bill Griffith himself [URL: http://www.zippythepinhead.com ]

It all happened like this:

A few months ago, there was an article in the Taipei Times about
“tai-ke” [www.taipeitimes.com], and in the article it was mentioned that some
taike like to eat watermelon slices dipped in soy sauce mixed with
wasabi. When a reader saw that description of the taike way of noshing
on watermelon in Taiwan, he did an image search on Google under the
words “watermelon”, “wasabi” and “soy sauce”, in hopes of find out
more about this popular dish and maybe even seeing a photograph of
people eating it.

However, while not finding any photos of the watermelon and wasabi
dish, this reader did find a photograph of a watermelon-shaped bus
stop, said by the website hosting the photo to be in Taiwan.
[URL: http://www.agilitynut.com/p/taiwan.jpg ]

Feeling that the photo of a watermelon-shaped bus stop in Taiwan was
cool, the reader decided to send the picture to the popular
boingboing.net website in the U.S., where submissions from surfers are
accepted from time to time. Boingboing.net ran the bus stop photo from
Taiwan, and it was picked up by bloggers around the world, from Italy
to Brazil. The photo was captioned: “Roadside Taiwan”.
[URL: http://www.boingboing.net/2005/07/28/roadside_taiwan.html ]

However, a savvy Taiwanese surfer in Taipei noticed that the bench in
the photo had some small words written in what appeared to be
Japanese, not Chinese, so he surmised (and posted a note on his own
blog) that the bus stop in question was not in Taiwan, but in Japan.

At this point, the Taipei Times reader who first spotted the photo on
Google, alarmed that the picture might have been mis-labeled and was
not from “roadside Taiwan” but was rather from roadside Japan, sent
the photo to two friends in Japan and asked them if those words on the
bench were indeed Japanese. They answer that came back from Satoru and
Mitsuko Ebihara in Yokohama was that, yes, the words were in Japanese
kanji, they were not Chinese, and that in fact, the bus stop in
question was actually in a city called Ishaya in Japan.
[URL: http://www.konagai.org/furusato/IndexGenerator.asp?path=fruitbusstop ]

At this point, the cartoonist Bill Griffith in Connecticut, had
already spotted this watermelon-shaped bus stop on boingboing.net and
decided he wanted to use the image in one of his upcoming Zippy
cartoons. So he wrote to boingboing.net, asking in which city in
Taiwan the bus stop was located, not knowing that the early
information was incorrect and that the bus stop was in Japan. When he
found out — via a series of emails bouncing back and forth between
Chiayi, Taipei, Tokyo, Los Angeles and Connecticut — where the bus
stop was actually located, Griffith decided to go with his plans to do
a strip about it, and after completing it in his studio, dated it
September 19 and sent it to his syndicate in Kansas City, which
supplies the daily Zippy cartoon to over 500 newpapers worldwide.

And that is what you are looking at today: a comic strip forged in
Connecticut with an assist from people in Taiwan and Japan and
published worldwide. Enjoy!
——————————————————-
Note: The newspaper interviewed cartoonist Bill Griffith last year.
[URL: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2004/09/06/2003201905 ]

SIDEBAR

Excerpt from ”Taipei Times” interview September 6, 2004:

Griffith has placed Zippy and Griffy in a few strips that took place in Japan, with lots of funny English terms and phrases that the Japanese use on T-shirts, product names and store signs. When asked if Zippy might visit Taiwan again for future strips, Griffith said, “It’s true, the Japanese interest in the English language is very Zippyesque. Strangely poetic.”

“Zippy did go to Taiwan recently — it was in the strip from Feb. 18, 2004, titled “Ollie Ollie Oxen Free,” and the animal statues in the four panels were inspired by photographs from Taiwan that an expat there named Aaron Spinak sent to me.

“The photos were from a lawn sculpture store in Pingtung. I’d love to see photographs of more possible Taiwan locations for Zippy to visit. Sure, tell readers there to send me photos of anything Zippyesque in Taiwan. Zippy will be happy to discuss world affairs with a betel nut beauty, sure!”

In today’s Taipei Times, September 19, 2005, on page 19, the Zippy comic strip features a
storyline focused on a watermelon-shaped bus stop in Ishaya City,
Japan. As you can see, Zippy the Pinhead is waiting
inside a bus stop in Japan, when he suddenly hears the announcement
that the bus is coming and will arrive shortly, and then he muses to
himself: “If this incoming number seven downtown express isn’t in the shape of a giant eggplant, I’m going to be very disappointed.”

How this particular comic strip came to be has an interesting
backstory that involves the Taipei Times newspaper, some Taiwanese Internet
surfers in Taipei, a Japanese couple in Tokyo and, of course, the
cartoonist Bill Griffith himself in Connecticut.

It all happened like this:

A few months ago, there was an article in the Taipei Times about
“tai-ke”(a hip new term for local Taiwanese youth), and in the article it was mentioned that some
taike like to eat watermelon slices dipped in soy sauce mixed with
wasabi. When a reader saw that description of the taike way of noshing
on watermelon in Taiwan, he did an image search on Google under the
words “watermelon”, “wasabi” and “soy sauce”, in hopes of find out
more about this popular dish and maybe even seeing a photograph of
people eating it.

However, while not finding any photos of the watermelon and wasabi
dish, this reader did find a photograph of a watermelon-shaped bus
stop, said by the website hosting the photo to be in Taiwan.
[URL: http://www.agilitynut.com/p/taiwan.jpg ]

Feeling that the photo of a watermelon-shaped bus stop in Taiwan was
cool, the reader decided to send the picture to the popular
boingboing.net website in the U.S., where submissions from surfers are
accepted from time to time. Boingboing.net ran the bus stop photo from
Taiwan, and it was picked up by bloggers around the world, from Italy
to Brazil. The photo was captioned: “Roadside Taiwan”.
[URL: http://www.boingboing.net/2005/07/28/roadside_taiwan.html ]
The reader also sent the image to cartoonist Griffith, who responded with a short note: “Where in Taiwan is that bus stop located?”

However, a savvy Taiwanese surfer in Taipei noticed that the bench in
the photo had some small words written in what appeared to be
Japanese, not Chinese, so he surmised (and posted a note on his own
blog) that the bus stop in question was not in Taiwan, but in Japan.

At this point, the Taipei Times reader who first spotted the photo on
Google, alarmed that the picture might have been mis-labeled and was
not from “roadside Taiwan” but was rather from roadside Japan, sent
the photo to two friends in Japan and asked them if those words on the
bench were indeed Japanese. They answer that came back from Satoru and
Mitsuko Ebihara in Yokohama was that, yes, the words were in Japanese
kanji, they were not Chinese, and that in fact, the bus stop in
question was actually in a city called Ishaya in Japan.
[URL: http://www.konagai.org/furusato/IndexGenerator.asp?path=fruitbusstop ]

When cartoonist Griffith was informed of the correct location of the bus stop, in Japan, not Taiwan, he decided to go ahead with plans to use the image in one of his upcoming strips. After completing it in his studio in early August, he dated it
September 19 and sent it to his syndicate, which
supplies the daily Zippy cartoon to over 100 newpapers worldwide.

And that is what you are looking at now: a comic strip forged in
Connecticut with an assist from Internet surfers in Taiwan and Japan, and
published worldwide. Enjoy!

Are you sure there’s a city called Ishaya in Japan, or is this in Isahaya?

Isahaya is near Nagasaki, and that’s what it looks like on the map.

It would be truly Zippy-esque if you internationally propagatated the wrong spelling for the name of the city over the Internet.

http://zippythepinhead.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=19-Sep-05&Category_Code=s2005&Product_Count=16

full cartoon screen shot is here: and yes, the city should be called Isahaya City, not Ishaya. Maybe a cosmic, atomic typo? Zippy would appreciate it…

http://zippythepinhead.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=ZTP&Product_Code=19-Sep-05&Category_Code=