Meet MiniKawa: Ryo Ishikawa's Cute New Club Cover

Photo: Yoshihiro Iwamoto

If you happen to be in Nagoya Japan this week for the Coca Cola Tokai Classic, you may notice a cute little guy in blue tagging along behind superstar golfer Ryo Ishikawa.

Well that would be MiniKawa, latest addition to the Bashful Prince's club cover collection.   With spiky black hair, a visor and cool looking Swans he's clearly another Ryo wannabe... and on the fairways and greens of Miyoshi Country Club he'll protecting his idol's equipment... so to speak.

However, covering Ryo's club is just a part-time gig for the diminuative MiniKawa.  He's actually a full-time mascot for Aquarius, an ultra-popular sports drink manufactured by The Coca-Cola Company and promoted by Japan's top athletes, including the amazing Japanese women's soccer team and the "Three Kings": star swimmer Kosuke Kitajima, stellar soccer midfielder Keisuke Honda and of course, the awesome Ishikawa, Ryo.

From what I gather, Aquarius comes in quite a number of flavors and is uniquely tasty/refreshing/energizing/AWESOME!  Unfortunately it's not available in the US, and as a result there are plaintive postings on myriad message boards by Aquarius-addicted Americans who tried the bubbly beverage in Japan... and are now desperately seeking a stateside source for the elusive elixir. Apparently there isn't one.

For now, if you're in the US you'll have to enjoy the elusive elixir vicariously, through Ryo and the other athletes at the impressive Aquarius-sports website.  The site's packed with videos and interactive games and MiniKawa will be there to greet you, he's not bilingual however, so if your Japanese language skills are lacking you may want to bring a translator.  



Special thanks to Noriko Imada for keeping us up-to-date on all things Ryo.