Other Websites of Interest
In the same way we did with the Shakespeare section, we would like to end this one, by adding two more links to the list for a reader with a more playful mood, and at the same time as an attempt to show to what extent Cervantes is present in the Japanese cyberspace, and therefore in the Japanese culture.
When first looking at this animated homepage the visitor might think he/she is in a sort of Japanese version of Don Quixote’s Disneyland. Actually, Don Quijote, also known as Donqui (donkey) by the Japanese, is the name of a corporate chain of shops that sell all sorts of products for the house at incredibly low prices. We might wonder why “Don Quijote” or why the pet is a penguin. The answer is not explained at all, so we might wishfully think that it is not just because it sounds good in Japanese, but because in this shop we might find all sorts of wonders in the same way like Don Quixote expected to do every time he left his home looking for new adventures.
This link also has almost nothing to do with “Don Quixote”, but we thought it would be amusing to see that the allure for the Spanish culture and the powerful influence of Cervantes was strong enough for the Japanese give the name of “Cervantes de Leon” to one of the characters of a videogame called “Soulcalibur”. As a curiosity, the character is supposed to be from Valencia.