The Halloween Tree.

I remember reading The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury back when I was a teen but darned if I can recall how it ended. Now I've just watched the intro and a clip of the Hanna-Barbera adaptation and it has left me hungering for more. I need to find a copy, hopefully before the month's end.





Why do I bring this up now? Well, not only is it Day 2 of my Countdown to Halloween but I just happened lay my hands on my very own Halloween Tree last night! As a matter of fact I got two of them!

I popped into Mandai (Best...Store...Ever!) just to see what loot I could pick up and lo and behold within one of the UFO Catchers was a Halloween Tree. After several tries, I finally managed to land one and happily carried it around the store while I sought other cool items. I picked up a few goodies such as some Mystery Bags (to be showcased later) and with my purchase, I was given a voucher for a 2-tries-for-1-coin at the UFO Catcher machine of my choice. I went back to the machine and won a second tree, this one with ghosts!

The toughest part of assembling the trees was finding enough batteries to enclose.

I've figured out the first ornament with which to adorn my tree...

Since I don't have the aforementioned book, this is the nearest tome in tone that I own. I hope to read this on the weekend.

 I probably have a NBC Halloween Tree somewhere but I can't locate it right now. So for the nonce, here is a pumpkin bush guarded by Zero.

 Finally for my Titan entry, there isn't anything really tree-related so this little diorama of stickers on a wall is about the best I can do. I'm not even sure if I assembled it correctly, but who cares, it was on sale and came with a pack of Choco-flakes.

I'm going to link daily to another blog that I think you might enjoy and today's lucky winner is Erick at the Wonderful Wonderblog. Go there to see some Halloweeny cutouts.

Selfie Abuse.

I made my annual sojourn to the streets of Sendai on January 2nd to fight the masses for a chance at a Happy Bag. The first bag I bought was at Taka-Q and a few years back I also bought a bag from them with fine results. This time out, I got a nice coat, sweater, shirt, scarf and a sweatshirt. Not bad for a C-note.

We (Dan the Man and I) wandered aimlessly down Clis Road poking our heads in the nerdier shops but not buying much, though I did nab some Titan loot.

And then we struck the Ghibli flower shop. There were only a half-dozen left and the expensive ones had been sold out so I grabbed a 3000 yen one. Lots of Kiki stuff, perhaps anticipating the soon-to-be-released live action reinterpretation of the Ghibli movie.

And of course some of the usual Totoro goodies including a Petunia start-up kit.

I wasn't overly pleased but not dismayed with the Monsters Uni-bag. I should have noticed that it said lunch set which is why I got a bento box, cup blanket and hashi. I am tired of borrowing chopsticks at work, so these'll come in handy.

Finally though, I am most pleased with my set of Gachapin garb. Lots of goodies like hoodies, sweats and Ts.

Unlike previous years, some of the stuff is actually practical. I've already worn the coat and though a little snug around the waist (what isn't?), it is quite warm. Even the UFO catching that I did had practical results:

Okay, that last item isn't entirely practical but it is an axolotl which has been my email address line for years. In Japan they are known as Upa Rupa and are rather ubiquitous in the pet stores and in the summer you can even try to win one at UFO Catcher, this is the closest I've been to winning one.

My Pseudo-Fake Birthday.

September 29th is Archangel's Day or St. Michael's Day. It is also the day upon which my birthday was celebrated back when I was a wee waif. Having a Christmas birthday means that one gets ripped off for presents and parties so when I was a young lad, we'd celebrate it today. It worked out fairly well until my sister came along on October 1st and pretty much crushed all hopes of me getting a celebration. To her credit though, she's the ONLY one who acknowledged my birthday today!

Therefore, I decided to have a little celebration of my own and you can watch it in the following video.



I've now finished my beer and had my way with Squishy's mom and now to give you a closeup on some of those items. First the guests:

As you can see, my tablecloth is a Star Trek Into Darkness beach towel with the adorable Benedict Bandersnatch Cumberbatch.

The cake and candles were courtesy of Fujiya Bakery and since it didn't turn out well on the video, here is the cake. I've also added the bucket of candies and a few shots of Peko-chan as well.

As much as I'd like to believe that Randall et al. bought the presents for me, I purchased them at Book-Off when the Imonikai that I intended on attending was inaccessible due to lack of parking.

I have another Evangelion binder but this one was stuffed full of all of the series booklets for 5 bucks. Quite the deal.

The Japanese Horror was only 250￥ and is one of a series of Ghost stories. If it's any good, I'll be sure to pick up the rest and feature them during October's Countdown.

The Spider-Man box set originally went for 9500￥ (about a C Note) and I got it for 950￥ today. Not a bad deal, I must say. The DVD of the movie, I'll give to a friend but I may just watch the Stan Lee documentary tonight. The other goodies includes a flip book of photos, a sheet of postcards, an original piece of art, a mini-copy of Amazing Fantasy 15, a pin and a piece of film from the movie itself! Quite the haul!!

Finally, since it's getting cooler, I picked up this sweatshirt. Sweet!

Not a bad Pseudo-fake birthday after all!