Sanrio show at Ciputra Mall

JAKARTA (JP): Japanese Sanrio cartoon characters appear today at the Ciputra Mall, West Jakarta, on the first day of the Japanese Sanrio Festival.

The festival, part of the mall's end-of-year celebrations, will run until Dec. 23. The mall's other celebrations will run until the New Year.

The festival includes a Sanrio product display, activities and competitions like drawing, coloring in, origami and martial arts demonstrations.

The show features Sanrio characters like Hello Kitty, Kero- keroppi the Frog, and Monkichi the Monkey. It is called Dreams Come True.

The Mall's General Manager, Joni Sutanto, said the festival was designed to entertain families.

Ciputra Mall is near three private universities and about 60,000 students alone go to the mall each day.

The mall stages four family events a year.

The last one was in June and called Celebrating Donald Duck.

Joni said the festival cost about Rp 400 million and was sponsored by the Mall and Sanrio Co. Ltd.

In Indonesia PT Modern Indocitra is Sanrio's sole manufacturer.

PT Modern's managing director Irwan Ryanto said the company expected to get Rp 300 million from the exhibition.

Sanrio was set up 30 years ago and has created more than 1,000 characters. (02)