https://www.instagram.com/p/BoLT-M1H7x0/

The Letter of Appointment reads:

We are pleased to appoint you as our ambassador of Takasaki City and we trust that you shall endeavour to promote the city's tourism, products and information to Singapore and the World.

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And what is a Daruma doll?

It has an interesting — and very slightly creepy — significance as a talisman of good luck and encouragement. It is often painted red, a colour associated with measles and smallpox, and given as gifts to patients, especially children who often suffered from those two diseases.

Inspired by Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism, the hollow and round doll is designed without arms or legs because legend has it that Bodhidharma's fell off after meditating for nine years straight without moving.

But despite its lack of limbs, it always comes back up no matter which direction it is pushed or knocked down.

We say it looks creepy because both its eyes are empty, as you can see from both this and Aw's picture, but it's deliberate — the idea is you draw one eye on it first when you make a wish, and for the doll to gain its second, it has to grant you that wish.

So how did Aw come to attain this honour?

We're not sure, precisely, and we have contacted Aw and her production company Picturesque Films to ask.

But we think it's possible this is connected to Aw playing one of the lead roles in Singaporean filmmaker Eric Khoo's "Ramen Teh", a Singaporean-Japanese-French film released here in end-March this year.

The film, touted as a film for foodies, was named after Japanese ramen and Singaporean bak kut teh.

Aw was also in France on Tuesday with Khoo and the rest of the cast for the Paris premiere of the film:

https://www.facebook.com/JeanetteAw/photos/a.163400217017164/2091746640849169/?type=3&theater

Film set in Takasaki

Aw's appointment as Takasaki's ambassador has probably got to do with where the film was set — the lead character runs a ramen shop there.

The city is also famous for being the birthplace of the Daruma doll, which explains the custom-made Daruma doll that Aw was gifted with.

Other than the Daruma doll, the city is also known for things like the Daruma Bento:

And a very large Goddess of Mercy (Guanyin) statue, referred to in Japan as "Byakue Dao-Kannon":And of course, as with many other places in Japan, Takasaki also has beautiful scenery:https://www.facebook.com/TakasakiDiscover/posts/1896299787099529?__xts__[0]=68.ARBJ58mSJIdG2AHCkkXgKTA7BpJDhLqBzrmxyowlRHBJ2JIZ5F_VBkaKh9gV50Q1teADSRNo67vvwN-kl9mhK1iV69Ee1JYEjoBCzcojmJYMKwaEzBOP_r_sgL5xEcPqtzijTGqyYnw3TDcVPEH-m7xhzbOAi7WMzf_pen27Gl364qhAd0yKuw&__tn__=-R

The appointment of ambassadors in Japan is a thing

By the way, it is a relatively common practice for Japanese cities to appoint famous stars as ambassadors to help promote tourism in the cities.

For instance, members of Japanese boyband Kanjani Eight — a well-known boy band in Asia — were appointed as Osaka tourism ambassadors in April this year.

Last January, Jakarta-based girl band JKT48 was also appointed as tourism ambassadors for the city of Hakodate in Hokkaido, an island in the north of Japan.

And while we certainly don't mean to trivialise Aw's achievement, we found that these roles aren't even limited to humans.

The fictional movie monster Godzilla was appointed special resident and tourism ambassador for Tokyo's Shinjuku ward in 2015.

A popular dog named Maru, a shiba inu, which has more than 2.5 million followers on Instagram was also named tourism ambassador for Mie Prefecture in 2015.

View this post on Instagram

The days are getting shorter now.✨🐶✨最近日が暮れるのが早くなってきたね〜 #気づいたらもうすぐ10月じゃん #10月といえば #なんかあったよね #まるからは言いづらいけど #いやカボチャの日じゃないよっ #体育の日でもない #もうっ😤

A post shared by Shinjiro Ono (@marutaro) on Sep 24, 2018 at 4:18am PDT

And while most of the time, tourism ambassadors are famous personalities, 19 foreigners who were all non-celebrities living in Kobe were appointed as Kobe PR Ambassadors from 2016 to 2017.

Top image via Jeanette Aw/FB