RAIN RAIN GO AWAY ...

In the first picture you have Taiwanese singers, Tank and Jiro Wang holding up Teru Teru Bozo Dolls. Both of them made the dolls from a piece of white cloth. Now you would be thinking, "Why on earth did the two of them make the Casper like dolls?" Is it to frighten someone. The answer is NO.

Here is how story of how they came to make the dolls that I got from the Asian Fanatics site. Tank who had been on hiatus for some time due to his heart condition was to hold a grand autograph session at Xi Men Ting. Having not been on stage for a long time to face his fans, he felt extremely nervous at the autograph session. He had also heard from his colleagues that the weather news reported that from Thursday onwards it might be the start of the monsoon season and on the day of the event the chances of it raining is 100%. TANK was worried that the bad weather would effect the autograph session and quickly asked his colleagues what he can do to make sure that the rain would not come. They told him that the answer was Once he heard that one way was to hang a teru teru bozu doll (A Japanese doll used to pray for good weather) in the window.

So after a whole day of promotions, he bought a piece of cloth and returned to his company to make a big teru teru bozu doll. Tank made an especially big one and with a lot of smaller teru teru bozu dolls to ensure that it would really keep the rain at bay. His friend, Jiro, who was at the company at that time also went to help him.

And because of that article, I have learnt something new. I also did a web search on these dolls and here is the information that I found.

TERU TERU DOLLS

Teru teru bōzu (Japanese: てるてる坊主; "shiny-shiny Buddhist priest"is a little traditional hand-made doll made of white paper or cloth that Japanese farmers began hanging outside of their window by a string. This amulet is supposed to have magical powers to bring good weather and to stop or prevent a rainy day. "Teru" is a Japanese verb which describes sunshine, and a "bōzu" is a Buddhist monk (compare the word bonze), or in modern slang, "bald-headed."
Today, children make teru-teru-bōzu out of tissue paper or cotton and string and hang them from a window to wish for sunny weather, often before a school picnic day. Hanging it upside down - with its head pointing downside - acts like a prayer for rain. They are still a very common sight in Japan.

sOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teru_teru_bozu