Numa, Numa!

On Saturday, a friend and I took a drive to see the last of the changing leaves and they had pretty much all changed. We planned to drive Bandai-Azuma Skyline to our destination which was a group of ponds called Goshikinuma. The actual Skyline was closed, so we had to make do with the regular highway. Unfortunately, the high altitude and a slightly wheezy bout of asthma prevented me from hiking too far, so we just chilled at Bishamonnuma. (Must have been the asthma along the Azuma.)

Plenty of rowboats aboot. (NO ONE wore life vests.)

We didn't come across any bears. I'm not particularly worried, they're tiny compared to Canajun bears.

That Amabie is a yokai that has become the mascot for preventing Corona. I was given one from a friend, the last one they had.

Back to the pond...

A couple of carp.

Numa is the term for marshland or pond so I scammed the title for today's post from this unusual video.

 

This and most of the surrounding bodies of water were created when Bandai erupted back in 1888. The recently founded Japanese Red Cross helped to keep the death toll down to under 500.

After the pond, we wondered into a mini-Conservation museum and there's a very cool suzume-bachi (Murder Hornets) nest.

The swamp wasn't very impressive. Too cold for froggies, I suppose.

Manhole covers are always a welcome sight. I often forget to look down.

From there, we drove around Lake Hibara.

We couldn't figure out the name of these floating fishing lodges/docks. Any ideas?

That tree is gnarly, dude. 

And... woohoo! It's Bandai-san!

The secondary goal for venturing out this way was to go to a new Mansaido (Like a Mandai, nerdy used shop) in Kitakata. This place was SO CLEAN! Unlike the dingy ones I'm used to. I managed to pick up a few things and I may have a date for the next furry convention.

Finally, I didn't really get a chance to comment on the passing of fellow Canadian, Alex Trebek, so I'll let the Simpsons do it for me.

Cultural Ambassador.

I had the day off today due to "Culture Day" and what better way to spend it than to showcase Japan's most famous ambassador, Godzilla!

I grabbed a book off the shelf and this is a good one. It has the Manga adaptation of Gojira and a few other titbits between 1954-58. First up, here is the book jacket and some frontispieces. 

As you can see by the Table of Contents above, the movie adaptation is 124 pages. Therefore, I shall only show off the highlights of Gojira mostly doing destructive things.

His debut...

 

 

 

 

 

Uh oh, Dr. Serizawa hatches a plan.

 

Putting the Oxygen Destroyer to good use.

RIP!

I finally got some batteries for my new piggy bank. Let's try it out. 

I only had one Japanese coin so I had to resort to some Canadian quarters. I hope they don't give him indigestion. Speaking of Canada, a friend found a mask I might like and finally got a chance to pass it along. Looks like I'll be Canada's cultural ambassador from now on.

Happy Culture Day and Gojira Day!