Fernandez Kun

I have had a breakthrough in the mystery of Fernandez-kun.

Many years ago I brought together some archival items in order to give some interviews about them to visiting members of the Japanese press. The PR team had me all dolled up, and it was all cool, but right before things all started they dropped the news that some of the interviews would be on camera. Oh! I had things all set up in a conference room, but if this was going to be on camera I would want to move the 12 chairs around the conference table into another room.

Just as things kicked off I realized that I had worked up a deep sweat. After simply rolling a few chairs into the next room! By the time the tv guy showed up I was in trouble. 

To set the scene, one of our Japanese press guests arrives with a translator. With one hand he is balancing the video camera on his shoulder, and the other hand is deep inside a big pink puppet, who is apparently his on camera talent. I am going to be interviewed by a puppet.

This may have been my first ever on camera interview, and at least *one* of the first, and I had questions. Should I interact with the man, the translator or the puppet? Is the show for adults or children? Puppet man was unsmiling and stiff and did not want to answer my questions. Not what I expected when I rolled into work that day, or even when I eyed his cute pink puppet. I had to just do my best.

The sweat reappeared and to my horror continued to roll down my face. I mouthed to the young woman who was managing the shoot "Help! I'm sweating!" She patted my face with some tissues. All I had done was move some chairs into the next room and try to survive a puppet interview.

It was at that moment that I realized "Ohhhhhh. This is menopause. It's here."

Puppet man left me a mini version of the puppet, whose name I thought was Fernandez kun. For years I'd quiz my friends about the character because I really wanted to know what his deal was. There's a tag on the little guy I have, but whatever it says is in a crazy font that isn't helpful.

Yesterday I got a wild hair again to figure out Fernandez kun. I did image searches for Fernandez-kun pink Japanese puppet and such. Nothing good (or at least nothing appropriate). And then I looked up Fernandez kun in google translate and put the japanese in the google search box. Hadn't I tried this before?

フェルナンデスくん is his name in Japanese.

This is the show he's from:

https://www.ntv.co.jp/hirunan/

https://www.instagram.com/hirunandesu_ntv_official/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=791194bb-3abc-4e0b-9239-71703cf26478

And there you have it. The mystery of Fernandez-kun is now solved.