Inuit Spirits!

I ran out of time before bedtime last night and I'm running out of time again. One problem is that I need to launder about 50 masks and costumes daily so that my students can have a photo op in class. I can only use each mask once and then launder it that night. Fortunately the girls are content with just draping themselves in a Halloween fuzzy streamer and those can be cleaned with an alcohol spray. 

Anyway, here are some dudes from America, the 魚霊 (Gyorei=Fisherman's spirit) above and the イシトク (Ishitoku) below. As near as I can gather, they seem to be Inuit spirits.

Below are トナカイの霊 (Tonakai no Rei=Reindeer spirits) which are also Inuit spirits. I like how Shigeru uses Native Yokai in his narrative.

キブソゴ (Kibusogo) is a weird Yokai from Brazil that has a dog's mouth attached to its back.　

鳥人 (choujin=Bird Man) is from Argentina and as you can see it's a really big bird.

 

ファニカ (Fanika, below left) is from Peru. 山の主 (Yama no Nushi=Lord of the Mountain) is from Brazil.

Some chocolates that I picked up on sale. Cool looking but taste like a chalky Easter Bunny.

Just to give you an inkling of their size.

And this is what a crushed Creature ball looks like.

I bought this from the vending machine and was fortunate to get the coolest one.

Found him!

In a separate post, I'm going to show off some drawings that my Grade 3 kids did. We didn't have time to do it in class so it was given as homework, they certainly went all out. Stay tuned...

More Than Meets The Eye.

I've fallen into the trap of being busy then lazy so I'm a little late with my entries. Saturday, I found these really cool Clear Files showing Shinkansen as Transformers.

  

   

The best thing about the cartoon was the opening theme.



Kids awesome cosplay.



The Transformers were part of a Gatcha-Capsule exhibit in Sendai Station. Here are a smattering of the Gatcha. Biggest disappointment was the lack of any Halloween Capsules. Except for this one:

I got Minnie and a Chip or a Dale. I don't know which because I can't find it now. Grrr.

I originally thought these were figures of cats as different characters and couldn't figure out why they'd be so expensive. It was pointed out to me that these are masks that you put on your cat to make it even cuter and/or humiliate it.

These prostrate animals are all the rage though I'm not sure as to why.

I guess they are rather kawaii.

Simpsons. It was just a matter of time before they became mascots.

I got Marge, I'm not disappointed.

In addition to Disney's Mickey, is Monsters Inc, Toy Story and Pooh.

Of course there has to be some Snoopy, and his new friend, Miffy.

Splatoon and Pokemon. I have one of those purple monster magnets (somewhere).

Found it!

Jojo above and Marvel watches below.

My favourite of the batch is Ms. Liberty in various poses.

   

Based on what's going on in America these days, I can understand why she's enjoying a brew.

This puking Merlion and his friends leads me into today's Kemono Friend.

She has cute little lion ears and a fishy tale, almost identical to the one in Singapore.

I visited Singapore about a decade ago and am surprised I've never shared any photos here. It'll take some searching to find them, they aren't anywhere in my photos folder.

The folks over at AEIOU and Sometimes Why have a contest going on. Check 'em out.

Flea Erections!

I'm not one to wax politically but if Obama doesn't get reelected, the Mitt will really hit the fan.

I shall let these spoofs do my talking for me.

This one is rather silly:


This one is unembeddable so you'll have to trust me that it's worth clicking the link.

I like the ending on this one...not for the squeamish:


Say good-bye to Big Bird if America gets Romnified.


Stupid HULU won't play any videos outside of America, so unless you live there you won't be able to listen to Emily Litella talk about Free Elections Flea Erections at this link.

Anyway, I really hope that Romney and the gang don't get in. I'm not rich enough to live in his world.

It Figures.

Back in the early-90s when it was worth your while to go to Buffalo and go cross-border shopping, my buddy Bob and I would hit the malls and a few specialty shops on a day trip or camping over a weekend.

A few of these excursions were memorable: high score on Arkanoid over Buffalo wings and beer; a trip to Xanadu and our first Zima, watching Stanley Cup finals in a tiny hick town one year, doing the same 2 years later and the having the proprietor remember us; and the infamous "Hooters tour" when we hit several Hooters while camping in New York (now I have to go to Hooters in Tokyo the next time in Shibuya) ... what surprised me is how these establishments showed up in a mall and were promoted as family restaurants!

We would go to all the fast food joints (McD, BK, KFC, Pizza Hut...helpful hints: bring your own vinegar for the fries and try and convince them that you have an invalid kid at home for those unwilling to sell Kids' Meals to adults...I'm talking to you Pizza Hut!) to see if they had different Happy Meals/Kids Meals, etc.; grocery stores to stock up on different cereals, chips, sodas, etc. to see what premiums were inserted ; comic stores when we could find them, Borders Books to pick up whatever was unique or much cheaper than Canada's huge markup; and I would insist on going to whatever toy stores around, Kay-Bee, Toys Am Us, maybe a Walmart (before they came to Canada) and enlist Bob in locating anything I might find cool. I managed to compile an entire set of TICK toys at a huge discount one time by going to several different Kay-Bees; acquiring sets of Pizza Hut X-Men comics, or grabbing the last few PeeWee Herman toys before they were yanked off the shelves during the scandal.

My favourite coup had to be my acquisition of an entire set of Bandai Godzilla figures with a sound chip inserted proclaiming each Kaiju's famous roar. I tested these out and only 3 of them still work, I'll have to track down new batteries. I have NO idea what happened to Ghidorrah & Mecha-Ghidorrah's tails...they seem to have vanished!

We The People!

For my American friends, enemies and others...



For my Scot friends...



For me...

'Ellava Kid!

At 00:15 on 30/06/10, I became an uncle to yet another niece. Not a great-uncle to one of my current niece/nephew progeny but rather an uncle from my younger brother's loins. Apparently the grandmother of this waif is older than me but younger than my eldest bro. That puts Stephen's mother-in-common-law around 51 so I'm guessing the proud mama is about half that age. Since Stephen turns 50 in September, I guess he wanted to sow some oats before that milestone is reached. So welcome to the Jones' clan, Ella! I hope to see you in person someday.

But it's still yet another niece, so it's up to me to carry on the Jones' name with a male heir...any takers?

In other news, the KitH have started up a new series! At least I know that my old High School rival, Scott Thompson won't be rearing any kids in the near future (wait, that doesn't sound quite right.)





For no particular reason, Frankenstein...with CATS!



In honour of Canada's Southern neighbours, Independence Day, here's Frankenstein for President.

My Kind Of Town!

I haven't been to Chicago (or any other American city apart from an airport) in almost a decade yet it's my third favourite behind New Orleans and New York. Today the Chicago Blackhawks beat the Philly Phlyers 6-5 in a topsy-turvy game where no one ever had a two goal advantage and a goal was scored about every 4 shots! A great game and I managed to blab about it on my Facebook page much to the chagrin of most of my cronies. The bad news is that if they should win Lord Stanley, they will break a Cupless streak since 1961. That will leave the Leafs with the longest dry spell!



My first Christmas back in Canada was 2000-2001 and since the only flight I could get was in transit via The Windy City, I invited BigBob and the two of us stayed there for a week before I flew back to Japan. It was bitter cold, about -30 daily with the temperature on the final day jumping up to a toasty -15! We managed to hit the Blues bars at night and enjoy the days at heated Museums. I think it was at the Museum of Science & Industry where we saw "The Art of Star Wars" and fortunately my camera had a panorama setting.










We also went to the Field Museum where we saw Sue the T-Rex and her pals!



























Heads up to Follower, Roy of Chicago Ghouls fame who is suffering from an Attack of Crabs at the moment.
Oh yeah, we also saw the Blackhawks play the Oilers there. I suspect we were the only two Oilers fan in the Arena, so when they won 2-1, we quietly made our egress without drawing attention from the 16000+ Hawks fans!