Saturday Dance Party!

A friend came over and helped me solve my computer Blogger dilemma. For some reason, my server Chrome was blocking stuff, so he gave me a new server, Opera. Bob's your uncle! So tonight's blog is courtesy of a Night at the Opera.

Unfortunately, he then kidnapped me and took me to Yamagata so I didn't have a chance to blog yesterday. BUT, I did buy a ton of loot of which I shall showcase here later tonight. 

Now back to our regularly schedule Countdown entry...

This pic shows several Boogeymen boogieing away. I'll try and enlighten you as to who is whom.

In the lower left corner on guitar, べーたら (Betara?), is a fellow from India. Although it doesn't look like one, it's probably a sitar. He may be of Shiva's avatars, Batara Guru or Bathala. I dunno.

Above him is a Cyclops called ダスザ (Dasuza?) from Brazil. There is NO other pictures or data on him in the book, so I scammed this from the net...

Next to Dasuza is a very creepy skeletal dude called ハイタデンカ (Haitadenka) from Belgium. Not sure what he's up to in the next picture, but he could be a succubus.

He (it) appears to be dancing with the lovely 樹霊 (Jurei) from Sweden. I think she's the soul of an old tree.

Also in the above picture is the seductress Lorelei (ローレライ), from Germany, a Witch-Rusaruka (まじょルサルカ) from the former USSR, ぐェティア Güestia from Spain and a French Dragon.

Back to the dance party is our old pal Frankenstein (the Creation, not the Creator), who is Swiss, based on Victor's background. Dancing beside him is the aforementioned wee lass, Witch-Rusaruka. 

The tusked character playing flute is an Onna-Yasha 女夜叉 from China.

I scammed from the Twitterers a great pic of her menacing the Gegege crowd.

Floating above them all in the upper right-hand corner is a ルーガー (Ruu-gaa ) from  New Guinea. I can't find anything on it though it appears to be some kind of fiery wraith.

On the bongos is a dude called ツァジグララル (Tsajigurararu?) who apparently comes from America yet he seems more South American to me.

In the centre of the picture is a horned gal called 夜叉マラ (Yasha-Mara) from northern Europe. Wait a sec, in the colour photo above, I thought it was a she, yet here it is clearly a guy. He looks like the worst masseur/masseuse ever!

Holding his/her hand is 悪霊 (Akuryou) from Greenland who is an Inuit evil spirit.

カー (Kaa) is not the Snake from Jungle book, but some creature from Egypt. (It's tough to Google this guy without just coming up with a lot of pictures of cars.)

Phew, that was quite the handful of Yokai. I think I'll save these colour pictures for the weekend, there are way too many characters to do it justice otherwise. 

Now True Confession time. While researching these creatures, I came across a blog-post of MINE from a decade ago. Apparently I DO already own this book and wrote about it a long time ago. This time around, I'll try and use different pics. (Technically, I AM blogging from a different book. The one I used before is sitting on a shelf buried behind some toys. This one was recently purchased.

Mmmm, candy covered bananas resembling Minions, Smurfs (?), Pikachu or Totoro. I ate a Pikachu.

Move along now...Nothing to see here.

Happy All Soul's Eve!

I'm off to a Halloween party so I don't have time (once again) for a detailed entry. I still have a backlog of pamphlets, UFO Catch Crap, Halloweeny Snacks and other stuff that I intended on adding prior to this but, alas, it was not to be. That's why I'll have a Post-Halloween Catch up effort until I feel as though I've caught up. In the interim, here are some of the masks and accessories that I've provided to the classes so they can have a costume show in class.

Above are three hoodie/blankets that gals like to wear and the guys enjoy adding spooky masks to their get up.

My time was limited, so I wasn't able to show each of the masks individually, but you can get an idea.

Then there are the headpieces used to adorn heads (natch), some girls like to just wear a single pair of ears, others go all out and wear three or four (which I think looks silly.) The boys especially like to wear 3-4 masks at a time which looks very dumb and then they can't see. Not my style of choice. I do like to see the Iron Man or Hulk mask worn with a pair of bunny ears. That is fashion at its best.

With my smaller classes, the entire class puts on a single mask and we parade into the Teachers' Room and then they are given a treat after they say "Trick or Treat". I am amazed by how few children bother to say "Thank you" or "Arigatou" afterwards until their homeroom teacher admonishes them.

They each get a few of these Craft supplies and the students then place them in their name cards.

Here are the highlights of the artistic efforts by today's tiniest school. 13 Grade Five students and only 8 Grade Sixers.

I've said it before and I'll reiterate it, Japanese ghosts are very cute.

I dig that elaborate font she used for Halloween.

See my comment above about ghosts and add in anthropomorphized felines.

Unfortunately, she was rushed. I know she wanted to add more.

Another adorable witch.

Not sure what is going on below.

What follows are the Grade 6 kids' works. I do like the witchy Pikachu who has a case of the Munchies

I don't question why the cat has an apple upon its head, I just accept it.

This lad insisted on finishing his creation. I give it 5 stars.

An anxious ghost.

Is that a robot or Frankenstein wielding a crossbow?

This cat is adorable.

And this one wins my pick of the 6s.

For the last of the Kemono Friends this month, here is キュウビキツネ Kyuubi-Kitsune, the 9-tailed fox.

Scammed from Wikipedia (you can tell by the change in font), "The nine-tailed fox or Huli jing (狐狸精; literally: "fox spirit") or jiuweihu (九尾狐; literally: "nine-tailed fox"), having been originated from Chinese mythology, is a common motif in the mythology of East Asian countries. In East Asian folklore, foxes are depicted as a familiar spirit possessed of magic powers. Nine-tailed foxes appear in Chinese folklore, literature, and mythology, in which, depending on the tale can be a good or a bad omen."

That's it for now, I probably won't get back to reporting on tonight's party until tomorrow, so until then...
Happy Halloween!!!

It's Talk Like a Pikachu Day!

In honour of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, here are a few mash-ups you might enjoy! (Not much difference between them, I'm afraid.)





No real Pirates here but it features my favourite character, ホラーマン (Horrorman).



And I'd be remiss if I didn't include キャプテンハーロック Captain Harlock!



I really have to do a Harlock post one of these days!

I managed to do this entire post without talking like a pirate. Aaaarrr!

Oh Make Omake!

おまけ or Omake or those little hunks of shaped plastic that are attached to PET bottles of pop or cans of coffee are my Achilles heel. Rather than an arrow to the ankle though this particular weakness is the tendency to see a bottle in the conbini and if it has an attachment I simply must buy it! Stop me before I shop again...

What's worse, I don't necessarily want the particular item but if it's a choice between a drink with omake and one without, I choose the little plastic piece of crap. For example, here are some little doodads that will end up as Christmas stocking gifts.

I mean Fred Perry Bearbricks and some Japanese Space Comedy movie?
These have a little more use to them: mini-hankies, a business card holder, Smart phone pens, pouches & a stand.

Not useful but still very cool would be these James Bond vehicles or Lupin figures that came with cans of coffee. I don't particularly enjoy coffee but my addiction is such that I still have to get them.

Equally cool and also useful are these memo pads featuring several characters. I'm sure I have a full set of these figures but I can only find 3 of them. 

Why I got the AKB straps, the mini-clear file or the Moomin puzzle, Rirakuma bottle opener or Miffy clip is anyone's guess.

What's most frustrating is when I don't get a complete set of something even though I've bought several of them. Case in point, the Kikuman Wrestling Bearbricks, the Dragonquest characters, Mario Brothers straps, etc.

Just when I thought I could give up, out comes some Olympic badges and Pikachu mini-spinning tops!

I'll keep you posted once I complete the sets!