Travel Frog kindles Chinese 'wanderlust' to Japan

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With a 96 percent of downloads from China, China’s Tabikaeru or Travel Frog gamers have not limited their interest to waiting to receive photos the little cute frog sends back. Their “wanderlust” to Japan has reportedly reached a new peak.

VCG Photo

According to Ctrip, a global leading provider of travel service based in China, travel searches related to Japan have had a growth of 150 percent while a 100 percent month-on-month growth has been achieved in self-guided tour products of Nagoya. The bookings to Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe also have an 80 percent increase.

Photo mailed back by the travel frog /VCG Photo

Developed by Japanese company Hit-Point, the free mobile game is only displayed in Japanese but is very easy to play. Players own and name a little frog that lives in a hut with a courtyard when they download the game.

The frog goes on adventures around Japan after players collect clovers from the courtyard and barter for some food for the frog’s journey. The only expectation for players would be the photos mailed back by their frog.

However, players have no right to interact with the frog when it is on its journeys nor to determine its destinations before its departure.

Photos seen by players are all natural sceneries across Japan, including Nagoya Catle, Zenkoji Temple, Japan’s third biggest wooden structure dating back to 1,400 ago and Kusatsu Onsen, one of Japan’s three most famous hot spring resorts.

Nagoya Catle /Photo via Travel Frog

Nagoya Catle /VCG Photo

The photos are not restricted to architecture. Oirase River in northern Japan, which is addressed as a natural monument is also seen in some photos the frog mails.

According to Hit-Point, currently the frog is only able to mail snapshots of 10 Japan’s scenic spots to its owners but the company has decided to let the frog travel more places in the near future.

According to BBC, the effortless game has topped the charts in the free game category at Apple’s App Store in China for more than two weeks.

Many travel agencies have jumped on the bandwagon and promoted their Japan tour products in the name of Travel Frog Routes. As the Spring Festival holiday is at hand, Ctrip also published top 10 destinations that the frog has visited, namely Osaka, Tokyo, Nagoya, Hokkaido, Fukuoka, Kyoto, Aomori, Kumanmoto, Kobe and Kansai.

VCG Photo

Kyodo News, citing a 30-year-old Chinese white-collar officer, said that “the frog sent many photos. I’ve seen some of these places, but I hope I will be able to travel to Japan again and see the places in the photos I have not visited before.”

The main army of gamers ringing were ages from 10 to 30 years old, most of whom were busy with their work and couldn't often travel.

A shop in Japan offers WeChat Pay particularly for Chinese tourists. /VCG Photo

More than 7.3 million people from the Chinese mainland visited Japan in 2017, forming the largest number of foreign visitors to the country for three years in a row and who spent around 1.69 trillion yen (15.4 billion US dollars), reported Kyodo News.

Meanwhile, Japan has become the second favorite destination during the Spring Festival holiday to Chinese tourists, Ctrip estimates.