Cute lion tshirt - why do people giggle?

Hi all
I purchased a cute red tshirt with a huge lion face on it while in Kyoto from a shop in the Kyoto train station. I have seen bags and other accessories with this lion for sale at Commes Ca Ism stores also. My question is why do people laugh and giggle when I wear it? What does the lion symbolise, or what is his character? I bought it purely because I thought it was kawaii - and am not worried by peoples' reactions, just interested!
Can anyone help me out??
Cheers!
Lion wearing girl!

Can you post a photo of it? Not everyone will be familiar with the character.

That's a great suggestion.
A pic of the shirt can be found at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kawaiikay/3017423802/

Please help me solve this mystery! I am just very curious to know the story behind the lion!!
Thanks heaps
Lion wearing girl

that shirt / lion was made by a comedian named takando toshi, he was popular for a while. the people laughing are probably remembering him when they see the shirt.

pleeeeease stop mixing kawaii with english, it sounds weird and wrong and it's not interchangeable. cute is the word you want.

Being a bit of an outsider from the stand-up comedy scene, I didn't know that Takando Toshi had designed this, but from an ordinary Japanese perspective, I think the shirt would look too childish for someone older than 13 or so. But then, that's the charm of it, I suppose. "Oh, how daring to wear something as funky as that, ha, ha!" might be the meaning of some of the responses. Some might think it's good to be daring, some might not.

Btw, I don't really mind people mixing kawaii into English. I mean, imagine all the people mixing the word "kyuto" into English.

My friend bought the lion shirt last year and wore it in Japan. Most people smiled/laughed and pointed at him while some people actually wanted to take a picture with him.

Its actually the logo of Taka and Toshi (not Takando Toshi), a manzai duo from Hokkaido.

They were pretty popular last year and are the ones who originated the "obei ka" phrase.

There's a bunch of translated videos of them on youtube:

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=taka+and+toshi&sourcei...

Cool T-shirt! Yep, the association with Taka and Toshi (as above, two people, not one called Takando Toshi!) would make people laugh.

Winterwolf, you would be fighting a losing battle to get people not to mix Japanese with English- you might as well try to convince Japanese people not to use katakana English words when speaking Japanese, it's never going to happen.

It's probably not just the shirt itself that made them laugh. They probably found it amusing that a foreigner was wearing the shirt. It's similar to the way some people laugh in America when they see a 70 year old lady wearing a South Park shirt.

thanks heaps for your info, I am glad that I now know the meaning of the shirt and I can totally get why they were laughing.... Japanese have a great sense of humour!
Cheers