I Beached Myself.

I often go to Shichigahama for an evening lesson; yesterday, I had one there in the afternoon. Sooo, afterwards I head to nearby Shobutahama or Shobuta Beach.

Not a bad looking beach. It formally closed last weekend though there were a few stragglers like me wondering around.

I saw a colony of seagulls (above) and a few cormorants (I think) below.

A couple of wacky pano shots.

There were of course a few body surfers and you can see them if you squint.

The only action was parasailer (?) who took a few passengers up for a birds-eye view. (I wasn't brave enough to try it.)

A huge tanker and if you look way up, you can see our flyboy.

I strolled along the beach (as seen in the video) until I came upon an upsetting sight.

As cool as it is to see a sea turtle up close, the only reason is because this dude has eaten his last plastic bag. According to the lifeguard, he was probably killed in last night's nasty waves for they also found a dolphin beached earlier that day. The authorities had been called to haul him away.

If you look at that top picture, there's a little restaurant there in which I ate lunch. I splurged and had a canny kani pasta with a nori salad. 

The place is called SeaSaw and it's worth checking out if you're in the neighbourhood.

Since I'm talking about the Sea, I saw a movie called, Meg: the Monsters 2 which you may have guessed is the Japanese title for Meg 2: The Trench-mouth (or something like that.) It has more Megalodon-sharks, dinosaurs called Snappers, and a Kraken yet is somehow really boring since it focuses on the Humans for far too long. But don't worry, it'll do really well in China so we're certain to get a third one.

While there, I saw a couple of nice posters for the new TMNT movie. I liked the preview, so I might just check it out in a few weeks.

Here's a copy of the flyer.

 

Finally, last weekend I ventured out to Morioka to sell a few items (I actually made a profit!) and en route there, stopped off in Kurihara for a mini-Matsuri. The area has one of my favourite mascots, this big anthropomorphized stack of hay.

I knew it'd be stuck in a hot car all day, so I didn't even attempt to catch one of these imori (newts).

I'll finish off with me consuming a fish on a stick...

Sea you later...

UPDATE! I just discovered that August 30th is National Beach Day. So that seems apropos. 

I'll Beach You Off!

If you're one of the multitude of attendees for the new Barbie movie (that finally opened here in Japan), then you'll know what the title of this post refers to. Or maybe you're one of those disgusted by its "wokeness" and just don't know how to have fun. Either way, click this YouTube to enlighten yourself!

That link above has lots of fun for it's the official Barbie page for Japan. Click around for several movie clips, BarbieLand, or a Selfie generator.

They had a couple of cheap Barbies for sale at the cinema. I think I'll just make do with my Captain Barbie and First officer Ken. (Or is it the other way around?)

No other merchandise that I really wanted though I did pick up some Tape for my collector friend.

Apart from the above Star Trek pair, I've never been a collector of Barbie. My sister had several over the years and with three older brothers, they definitely turned into Weird Barbies afterwards. 

My mom used to make bootleg Barbie clothes to sell at the Church bazaars, and they sold out every time. I didn't dress up for the cinematic experience (I don't own any pink) although I did bring this umbrella but didn't get to show it off cuz it stopped raining.

Just to show support for the lead actress, I did wear my Harley Quinn socks.

Speaking of Harley, I'm enjoying the new season of her cartoon and I just happened to photograph several of the figures I've collected since Suicide Squad.

And a few of her Bat-pals.

Since this is a Warner Bros. picture, here's the Barbified logo.

I recently purchased some Bugs Bunny Clear Files that celebrate the Bros. 100th Anniversary. Here are a few mash-ups.

I like that last one a lot. Here is Betty Boop in a similar tribute.

Speaking of Bugs, I almost gave away my Looney Tune stuffed characters at a recent Festival. I decided to hang on to them for a little longer.

So, bottom line. Go see Barbie! It's a ton of fun...