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While some cities promote themselves with cute, dancing idols, others rely on cryptids

It’s becoming easier and easier to do some simple PR for your city nowadays. If you made a commercial in the past, there was no guarantee it would reach an audience even if you bought air time on TV. But thanks to the Internet and the nature of viral videos, all you have to do to make sure the commercial is unique enough and people will go out of their way to watch it themselves!

Recently we brought you a promo video for Yanagawa in Fukuoka Prefecture that featured the Sagemon Girls. Now, a city in Miyazaki Prefecture has decided on a totally different route to promote itself. It appears to be appealing to cryptozoologists, people who search for animals that may or may not exist.

Sometimes called UMAs (unidentified mysterious animals) in Japan, these fabled creatures usually exist in the forms of story books and local folklore. However, Nobeoka City claims that they have a couple of UMAs looking to move in to their friendly city and this documentary film crew was around at the perfect time to catch it all.

▼ What is that in the background?!?

The kappa and mermaid are part of an ongoing video series to promote Nobeoka in which city officials show off the great benefits of their city to encourage the two to move. There are 11 parts to the promo series and a few behind-the-scenes shots that show the magic of Nobeoka including the birthplace of chicken namba (one of Miyazaki’s local delicacies), the beautiful rivers and the extravagant seaside. If a kappa and a mermaid get such a warm welcome from the city, normal non-UMA citizens would surely get the red carpet rolled out for them too.

▼ Here is episode one, unfortunately the videos are only in Japanese.

Even if these videos don’t convince you to move to Nobeoka, you are likely to remember the name when you are chatting with your friends about that amusing video you saw on RocketNews24, so mission accomplished. You can see the rest of their 11-part saga on the city’s YouTube page and follow along as a kappa and a mermaid select Nobeoka City as their new home.

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Source: Net Lab
Images: Nobeoka City Website