We Don't Need No Stinking Badges!

Happy Anniversaries!
#1. On March 31, 1854, 日米和親条約 (the Convention of Kanagawa or "America-Japan Treaty of Amity and Friendship") was concluded between Commodore Matthew C. Perry of the U.S. Navy and the Tokugawa shogunate. (His distant relative ended up playing Chandler on Friends.)

#2. On March 31, 1942 – World War II: Japanese forces invade Christmas Island, then a British possession. (Note: not Easter Island which would have been appropriate for this weekend.)

#3. On March 31, 1949 – The Dominion of Newfoundland joins the Canadian Confederation and becomes the 10th Province of Canada. (40 years later, they all moved to Peel Region and ended up on my Welfare caseload.)

#4. On March 31, 1970 – Nine terrorists from the Japanese Red Army hijack Japan Airlines Flight 351 at Tokyo International Airport, wielding samurai swords and carrying a bomb. (Btw, John Belushi was not among them.)

#5. On March 31, 2006, MyTwoYenWorth begins its humble journey into the blogoverse!

So 4 years ago, I began my blathering and since then I've managed to post almost daily and have accumulated almost 1500 musings. Some are amusing, some are abusing, some are a-cruising for a-bruising! The link in #5 depicts me wearing glasses. By an odd coincidink, I went for an eye checkup today and made a spectacle of myself. My optimistic optician is an old student from my Soma days and a huge Star Trek fan. In appreciation of the freebie checkup, I presented him with a Badge of Honour, a Star Trek Pin courtesy of Furuta! (Besides, I couldn't think of anything else to commemorate my anniversaire.)

Here are the 20 pins, (be sure to click on this and other pics to make them Doomsday Machine-sized) in all their glory!






























One doesn't accumulate a full set of these badges without amassing a whack of doubles and triples, so in honour of today's prestigious milestone and in order to verify this post's title, I shall hereby present badges to my loyal readership. That's right, I am starting another CONTEST. If you make a pithy comment on this post, you shall earn a badge. If you become a follower, you shall earn a badge. If you already are a follower, offer up a link to this post and you shall receive a badge. Supplies are limited, so act fast!!
(NOTE: it may take a while for me to honour my promise because I am a lazy SOB. Furthermore, I have already made 3 promises of mailing out some goodies that I have yet to act upon. I have the day off tomorrow, so I'll try to get on that post haste!)

Doraemon, Merman.

Y'know when I went to Sherlock Holmes the other night, I realized that it is one of the most prolifically franchised movies with at least 75 (I'm not counting Dracula or Frankenstein, they aren't direct sequels more like spin-offs.) Over here in Japan, we have 34 Godzilla movies interspersed throughout the last 50+ years but can anyone think of a franchise that has had an ongoing annual movie release and is still pumping them out? Well, assuming the title of this post hasn't given away the answer, that would be DORAEMON! This sheet, courtesy of McDs, gives you a peek at each of the last 30!



On the flipside is a lovely montage of all of them!




This year's offering is
映画ドラえもん のび太の人魚大海戦, Eiga Doraemon Nobita no Ningyo Daikaisen or "Doraemon The Movie: Nobita's Great Battle of the Mermaid King!" Coming up is a trailer but check out the little wind-up toys you get with your Hotto-Motto mini-bento. I got the second one.





The meal itself arrives with this cool plastic lid!



I've scanned these Happi Setto toys without unwrapping them so they are pretty tough to discern. I'd suggest you click this link to get a clearer view of them. Hmmm, they feature Doraemon and his sister as a merman or maid and swimming with whales or dolphins. I'm surprised that The Cove didn't win the rights to a McDonalds tie-in!










The theme song was sung by Thelma Aoyama. I'm not particularly fond of it, but you may enjoy it...




I picked up a Doraemon Popcorn bucket which comes with one of 30 badges for each movie! It'll take a while before I get all the badges!








I just happen to have a bucket from a few years back as well!


Tomorrow will be a special post! What'll it be and why? Stay tuned...Same Doraemon-time; Same Doraemon station...

Downey By Law!

I just back from seeing シャーロック ホームズ (Sherlock Holmes), and I must say I truly loved it! Downey and Law definitely make the best pairing since Basil and Nigel though with less buffoonery and more fisticuffs! It was purely just a FUN movie! I haven't enjoyed myself in such a long time. I didn't ever need to suspend my disbelief, it made me believe in suspense. (Whatever that means.)



What really sold it for me was the Zimmer score (Oscar...ROBBED! Thanks for nuthin' UP.) It has been yonks since I wanted to run out and buy a soundtrack, but that was exactly my feeling upon exiting the theatre. Here's a taste from the end credits (OH and speaking of end credits, they were magnificent.



Here's a snippet of the movie (in English and Japanese) for your perusal:

Palms Up!

Happy Palm Sunday everyone! To celebrate the pre-Easter weekend, let's take a look at some recent KitKats. This one is a fairly lame one, it's flavour is plain ol' chocolate but, its caloric intake is an astoundingly low 97 kcals. (BTW, to go along with the theme of the post, Nestle uses Palm Oil in several of their chocolate bars.)




Much yummier and consequently more fattening is Banana flavoured which spikes the caloric count at 243 though it is one of the more delicious ones I've sampled over the past few months.


One KK that I don't think I'd relish is this one. If you click on the Orangu-tan's finger, it'll take you to a page all about KitKat's tendency to tear down Indonesian rain forests and plant palm oil trees used in their chocolatey-fingered confection which thus eliminate the orangu-tan's habitat.

To personally protest this atrocity, I am hereby eliminating Rolo, Butterfinger and Coffee Crisp from my diet. Okay, so I don't ever eat any of those bars anyway, but a guy can't give up KitKat posts after over 75 of them, can I?


Although if we kill off the Orangu-tans, we won't ever see about the only highlight of the Planet of the Apes remake, Limbo!



Hmmm, pretty awesome, I may have to rethink my position on this...

I'm Just A Poe Boy!

Everybody loves EAP, don't they? Here we'll have The Raven as drawn by Richard Corben. Interspersed between the pages, I'll treat you to Japan's Master of Horror, 江戸川 乱歩, (Edogawa Rampo...sound it out, you'll get it) whose works I read several years ago and they are very warped indeed. Without further ado, Here is カラス (Karasu...The Raven) plus a few YouTubes of his Japanese counterpart's masterpieces.

Giger Counter.

This ad appeared in 1985 for Pioneer's ZONE. Look familiar?



My apologies for the lazy post tonight, for I am scamming this from Pink Tentacle. Check out the print ads as well...

Just so you don't think Switzerland is just Choco and Watches, go to the Giger Bar!

Circus Of Silly.

My French is a bit rusty, but I think that's what "Cirque du Soleil*" means. Y'know I don't ever recall going to a circus when I was young. Sure, we had travelling amusement parks at the Fairgrounds and maybe there was a juggling clown or something, but a full-on circus, uhn-uh. My only experience is via the stories of Ray Bradbury or the comic villains led by The Ringmaster (I had such a crush on Princess Python!)

So I am reaching out to my pals in the Blogosphere who have seen acrobatic antics of this Canadian troupe and is it worth my while to drop a few C-notes for a pair of tix? I am rather impecunious at the nonce, but if deemed worthy, I shall splurge on Corteo!








*I'm pretty sure it means, "Circus of the Sun!" No idea what Corteo means though!