Crayon Shin-Godzilla-chan!

On Sunday, I happened to be wandering S-Pal in Sendai Station and discovered a new shop embedded between a Snoopy Store and a Rirakuma Shop. It's the Crayon Shinchan Original Shop.

I'm not a huge fan of Crayon, but I browsed around just to see if there were any unique Halloween goodies. Nope. But I did discover this pair of socks!

Hey Michael, didn't you write about Crayon Shinchan vs Godzilla about 5 years ago? The answer is Yes I did. At that time, I didn't bother to look into any merchandise though, thanks to one of my roving reporters, this has been discovered...

Okay, unless you are able to enlarge that, you won't know what I'm talking about. Here we go again.

That tailless kaiju is actually a coin bank and by removing the buttocks, you can access the loot.
One lucky recipient of 怪獣シリマルダシ (kaijū shirimarudashi) shows off his purchase:



Wait a sec., how come I'd never heard of this before? Shinchan vs. Shin-Godzilla!



Just in case you couldn't figure it out, here is a subbed version of one of those previews:



There is a full-length crossover movie out there somewhere, I just need to research further...
Meanwhile, here are a couple of pics:

Ya know, speaking of crossovers, here is a independent comic written about a young gal with a Shin-fetish checking out a bunch of military vehicles. It's called Einsatz Gruppe and Manitou vs. Shin-Godzilla and it is pretty wacky.

Here's a sampling of its contents.

The author/artist hard at work.

Finally a friend reminded me of this crossover between Kemono Friends and Shin-Godzilla.

You can see a few more pictures at the bottom of this blogpost.

Stay tuned, it isn't long until the Countdown to Halloween!

Coypu Copes.

Over the last several years, I've added a new tongue twister in honour of Groundhog's Day and the query, "How much wood could a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" Some past rodential queries can be found here. There is a Chilean beaver-like rat called the Coypu (Also known as a Nutria) and she is the focus of today's twister.

"How many cops could a coypu copy if a coypu could copy cops?"
(Admittedly, not very good, but let's see you do better.)

Here is what a Coypu looks like.

Oops, that is the Kemono Friends version. Here's a real one.

There is no clear prognostication as to an early Spring or not though it appears that Wiarton Willie has predicted an early one. Woohoo! (Click that link for a video and a summary of famous Groundhog Gurus.)

Speaking of Kemono Friends, the nearest pal they have to a Groundhog is probably a Prairie Dog.

I can see the resemblance.

Yesterday, I encountered several other Kemono Friends at the Umino-Mori Aquarium. Such as these Penguins.

And a Commerson's Dolphin.

Though my favourite by far has to be the Caiman.

Disappointingly, there were no goodies to celebrate the collaboration between the Aquarium and the Friends except for a badge. Ah well.

For the first time, I had a chance to witness the Dolphin and Sea Lion show. Much to my surprise, it was very entertaining!

The Sea Lions (Andy-kun and Asuka-chan) put on a fun show, ably assisted by a genki gal.

Then a quartet of dolphins joined in the act.

It was warmer than usual today but I suspect that their assistant was still pretty cold.

Here is a sampling of pictures of other creatures. (ps. If you notice that the photographs are of a superior quality to my usual fare, that's because I'd forgotten my phone and scammed all the pics from my friend, Dan.)

The scariest creature of them all!

I didn't buy a Kemono badge, yet I didn't leave empty handed. I had the opportunity to win a big dolphin but didn't and had to settle for a tinier one.

I wanted a Spider Crab so I tried my hand at a Gatcha.

This Indo-Pacific Finless Porpoise is a recent addition to the Aquarium. He swims with the sharks and sardines and had managed to separate one of them from its swirling shoal. He spent the next few minutes pursuing it and much to the joy and fear of the crowd, successfully grabbed and gobbled up the fishy. I'm fairly certain, he did it on porpoise.

Perhaps tomorrow for dinner, I'll eat some of these pasta pisces pieces.

I usually throw in some Setsubun festivities but this year, I don't have many oni to show.

That's about it. So Happy Groundhog's Day and Setsubun to one and all!