Brave Story!

I'm officially on summer vacation now and what better way to start it off than with a trip to the Clinic for an inflamed throat and heat rash? I have my ton o' drugs and am now on the road to hale & heartiness. Since I was downtown, I dropped into a few old haunts and a few new ones.

Lunch was at Sasebo Burger, 880￥ for an Avocado Burger, fries, salad, dessert & a drink. Yummy!

I popped into Daiei Depato and picked up a Hawaiian shirt on sale yet I considered picking up one of these Kitty/Kiss knockoffs but they were a little pricey.

I had some time to kill so I wondered through the UFO Catcher Centres looking for some Bat-goods and was finally rewarded with a Batman High Stage Figure. It retails for 25$ and I dropped about 20 bucks trying to win it, so I guess I came out ahead. I also popped over to Frozen Garden for a cold frosty one. It took a bit of getting used to licking one's way through head to get to a beer and honestly, it wasn't that tasty. But I bumped into a Bridge partner and got to ogle passers-by so it all worked out.

My ultimate destination was the Cineforum in Bivi in order to see a flick.

First up was a Toy Story short:, Small Fry. I don't know about you, but I'd be all over some of these Kid's meal toys!


We had another short, La Luna. Very cutsie but not really my cup of tea until the final shot. That made it for me.

The main feature was "Brave" or as it's known in Japan, メリダとおそろしの森, Merida and the Haunted Forest. I'd picked up some advance preview tickets a while ago with a few goodies (shown at that link.) I simply adored this movie, best Powerful-Pixar-Princess Production ever!  I went with the Yvonnderful Wonderful-Yvonne and gave her one of the Merida straps that I'd acquired when I bought the tix. I also picked up some sticky-notes & clear files for my collection.

Wednesday is the First and thus cheap movie day. Go for it!

Bane There, Done That.

On Friday I saw "The Best Comic Book Movie Ever"! I may revise that when we finally get to see The Avengers in a few weeks, but for now, I'll stand by my declaration. Go click on ダーク　ナイト　ラインジング or The Dark Knight Rises to see a message by Christopher Nolan about the massacre in Aurora. But I didn't let that catastrophe deter me from enjoying the movie. No spoilers whatsoever (unless you call designating it  "The Best Comic Book Movie Ever" a spoiler), my friends and I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and when I go to Tokyo in a few weeks, hopefully I'll see it again in IMAX.

Alas, there was no special cup or popcorn for it so I was forced to buy a Pikachu Popcorn instead. I also got Spidey-cup for Alex and a skinny Spider-Man Pez dispenser for myself.

Not as much cool swag as with Spidey but I got a few items. Such as a binder with 10 pages of Bat-paper.

The first 3 photos at the top of this entry are from a clear files set that I got and I picked up another file as well only to realize upon returning home that it is recycled from Batman Begins!

I also picked up a beach towel in case I get to go to a beach this summer.

But the coolest item I acquired was put to use the following day when I helped out at my former employer's Summer Festival. I was in charge of the "Lucky Draw" room and I managed to strike fear in the hearts of the  younguns when I donned my Bat-Mask!

I'll show off the movie pamphlet.tomorrow!

Dark Knight Risible.

Oh dopey me went to work 4 hours early (misread a schedule, I actually had the morning off) so I drove out to nearby Minami-Soma on a lark. It was a pretty dull little journey so I decided to spice it up with a fact-finding mission. Wandering through the Conbinis and a Supermarket, I sought any Bat-goods in honour of the new flick tonight. NADA!

I managed to get a couple of Olympic pouches, a Praying Mantis, some Kitty/Chopper magnets and a Kung Fu Dugong/ Chopper plate though.

Speaking of Dugongs, check out what happens on an alternate Earth when Superheroes develop in another species. I especially like Wonder Womanatee and Supermanatee.

I also found a funky little museum but still NO Bat-crap!

Those tadpoles are HUGE!
Disappointed, I trekked over to Yodabashi Camera and no little funky figures or candies or straps! Just a few high-end collectibles that'll break upon first use.

I'm off to the cinema now to watch the movie. Hopefully there'll be some Bat-swag to keep me happy!

Spider-Setto.

Well the Spider-Man Happi Setto is finished only to be replaced by a Pikachu Picnic set. Here is the final tally of my acquired Spidey-Swag.
3 bowls, 2 plates, 2 mugs and 1 bento box.

Of the watches, I managed to snag 2 each of the littluns and 4 red-strapped ones but NO blue-strapped one. Not that I'll ever consider wearing them, but if anyone has a blue-strapped one, the completist in me is itching for it!

The weekend giveaways include a set of stickers and a mini-magnet. Not too shabby.

I suspect that that's it for any future Spider-Mania, for starting tomorrow, the Dark Knight is in town and hopefully we'll see a surge of Batmania! Surprisingly, DKR is only a week later than the rest of the world, still 3 more weeks until Avengers! Bat-review tomorrow!

Ultra-Lemon!

First up a bit of bitching! Ages ago, Blogger insisted that I upgrade to Google Chrome and after much hemming and hawing, I finally succumbed. It took a few tries to figure out the New Improved Blogger but once I did, it has improved. The problem is that 9 times out of 10, Chrome improperly downloads or it takes ages to do so. This is the main reason that my blogging has been sporadic of late. After a frustrating hour of trying to get  going, I"m too tired and it's time to retire.

This time only took me about 40 minutes to get going, so here goes...

Once again, CC Lemon comes through with an intriguing give-away, this time Ultraman via PansonWorks. I almost completed the set and then they started another promo (Pikachu.) Here is the completed version an almost completed set, I accidently got two Ultraman Zeroes and didn't get Ultraman Seven. I DO wish that the heroes didn't all look alike!

Another bitch. I took the picture right-side up, why does it upload upside-down? Ah well, the heroes aren't the important thing in the Ultra-universe, it's the bad guys!

When I get the 8th one, I'll revise the post but until then here are 5/8ths of the Pikachus!

Now Pepsi has come out with Dragonquest characters. When will it all end? I can't keep up!

Speaking of Pepsi, they've come out with a new summer flavour, Salty Watermelon! I tried one today (HINT: get them at the Supermarket, they're about 50 yen cheaper than the Combini!) and it was surprisingly tasty. Kind of like a Salty Watermelon without the seeds.

Now if they packaged the DragonQuests with this, I'd get the series post haste!

Olympikitty.

I've never eaten a McVitie's biscuit but Kitty-chan sure seems to be enjoying them.

While everyone is gearing up for London's Olympic extravaganza, I hope you can take the time to ride on one of their funky buses, courtesy of Coke.

While we're in a Brit-mood, I hope all those in Tokyo can enjoy a UK Retro night at Amate-Raxi on August 11th featuring old pal, DJ Mixture! Hopefully I'll be making the trek to Tokyo to boogie down with the best of them! Pick up your tickets here.