Forget all the hubbub about JR East's vote to name a new mascot for its Suica smart card system. Results for which of these three critters will take the place of Suica's penguin arrive in November, but did you know JR has a whole other new mascot out and about already?
That would be Nyuzarashi, a spherical green seal introduced late in 2025 to represent a new brand of items on sale at JR's own convenience store Newdays. Nyuzarashi pops up a fair bit at most of the station-linked outlets, but can still be overlooked given how present the penguin remains. Perhaps once the bird retires next spring the seal can overtake their natural prey.
Yet Nyuzarashi does factor in quite a bit to Newdays' current selection of special 25th anniversary items, from socks to foodstuffs. There's a wide variety of snacks on sale — including a very tasty Shine Muscat-soda-flavored gummy shaped like the seal and penguin — but only the matcha marumochi features a very prominent rendering of the character on the food itself. It's fun to look at, and is solid, featuring a green tea taste that isn't going to wow any connoisseur but is just what you need when grabbing a quick bite from Newdays. In that sense, a perfect place for this still-fresh mascot to shine.
