Buses in the U.S. or elsewhere are usually yellow in colour and children usually dread the thought of going back to school. Naturally, they begin to detest the yellow buses as well which come to pick them up early in the morning when they are still sleepy.
The Japanese seem to have understood this psychological association in which children begin to resent everything that is related to school, including the bus that comes to pick them up in the morning. In order to ward off the gloom and some school phobia, the Japanese have begun to pimp their school buses into something fun and popular. So we have buses that are modded to suit the tastes of Hello Kitty fans, Kitty Cat and Thomas the Tank Engine fans and even Teddy Bear fans.
What is most interesting is the bus that is inspired by Catbus. Catbus is a character from My Neighbor Totoro in which the Catbus or Totoro Neko is a large grinning male cat whose body serves as a hollow place in which people can sit and travel.
The Totoro Neko Catbus comes with a bushy tail, fur and everything that a living cat would have. Thus, the Catbus has become a popular culture symbol as well and innumerable toys and even spinoff films have been launched. This Catbus here seems to be inspired by Totoro Neko and with a bus like that who wouldn’t like to go to school?
The lucky Japanese kids probably have more to look forward to. If this trend continues we may soon see almost all school buses in Japan being pimped this way to lure the kids back to school the next day. Perhaps other nations must try this experiment too, as it would be an incentive to wake up in the morning and go to school. You could take a look at the 19 Innovative Bus Stop Concepts that we had listed sometime back. Perhaps, you might also want to read about the Bus Station Kiosk which we had featured too.
