Yoyoyosakoi!

I had a busy day yesterday accounting for such a late Countdown entry. I had to work until 6:00 and afterwards, I popped into a game center for a few rounds of Pinball.

The flippers were somewhat wonky and at one point the ball even got stuck inside a flipper.

Still, not a bad score.

I trekked along the downtown arcade, and eyeballed a few UFO Catcher prizes. Didn't bother trying though. They didn't appear too easy.

 

Wow, Gloomy! I haven't seen this bear in quite a while. There were at least 6 different machines offering up these mushrooms. Not sure why they're so appealing.

Seeking a meal, I considered one of these. (Spoiler Alert: I didn't indulge.)

 

Hark! I hear music...Ah, a gaggle of a cappella warblers!

Much to my surprise, I came across a couple of stages of Yosakoi dancers!

I did finally find a meal. (Kebab and meat on a stick.)

Here for your entertainment, is the finale of the Dance performed by the Hokkaido troupe.

I popped into a friend's bar and had a nightcap or three.

When I got home, it took forever to upload my photos, so I just went to bed. Here though is my daily dosage of Yokai, this time Tsuchigumo (Dirt Spider), a giant yokai with the face and body of a tiger and long spider legs. He likes to consume passersby who get trapped in his web.

That last spider-pic is of an arachnid hanging around my workplace and freaking out the gals.

A quick blast of Venom. 

For Your Best Halloween Ever, try that link. I'm now in the middle of a Hammer Horror Dracula marathon. After that, I hope to provide another Countdown entry.

Return of the Creature From the Black La-Kun.

Yesterday after travelling to 4 different places, I finally found what I needed to put the finishing touches on my costume. I happened to glance in the window of a Bike Shop and much to my surprise and joy was a Creature from the Black Lagoon Pinball! I poked my head in and asked if I could play and the proprietor (a big biker-dude) moved to Hogs and then put 10 FREE games on the machine for me!

I filmed a bit of the game but it's hard to hold a camera in one hand and use that same hand to hit the flipper so the picture quality is fairly jerky.



This guy did a much better job and won a free game! My score was nowhere near that.



The bike shop had a lot of American paraphernalia that I would have loved to get my hands on. An Addams Family lunchbox, some Ratfink cars and this guy!

A few weeks back Kaibutsu-Kun met the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Here he and his pals have a return encounter.

The fine folks at Cartoon Research have a wonderful article on our pal, Kaibutsu-Kun. For those of you who don't like clicking, here are the videos I scammed from it.





Yesterday was also eventful for I managed to wrangle a pumpkin from my friends at Carl School and I took the orangest of the lot. Unfortunately, the underside is kind of grotty and green but I'll try and work that into the design somehow.

There were a half dozen to choose from one weighing over 43 kg!

This Kitty Choco is rather yummy though, I broke his ear off before I could chow down.

Luke, Be a Jedi Tonight!

I have NEVER actually played a Star Wars computer game before tonight! Pal Andy gave me this a few years ago, either he found it incredibly lame or he conquered it early on and grew bored with it. Needless to say, I accepted his present graciously and it has sat on a shelf until tonight just to see what it entails. The graphics are pretty good (though the screen shots while the game was being loaded were excellent. Too bad the whole game couldn't be at that level.)

Can anyone tell me if any of these characters (apart from Luke and Lando) are canon? Have they shown up elsewhere in the massive Lucas-universe?
















I ran around a compound, blasted a few Stormtroopers and eventually found a key to open something. That's it. I managed to get the first 3 weapons and I must say the best part was zapping your female partner with the stun baton, she really gets pissed off! (Notice how the Light Saber later is misspelled as a Light Saver?)

























If I'm really bored, I may venture back to the the world of the Outcasts (misfit toys would have been a cooler name!)

Now if only someone would give me a Pinball machine from Episode one, I may never leave my apartment again! Damn, that game was a lot of fun. I can't find a single pinball machine anywhere in Sendai...I miss it! (SOB)

Byte Me!

I wasted most of my University of Guelph life playing Asteroids, Pacman and Space Invaders in the Keg. Then it was a Donkey Kong fixation when I worked at Market Facts in the early 80s, followed by Centipede, Frogger and Galaga in the later 80s. In the 90s it was mostly Tetris, Arkanoid and naughty Card games. This list is in no way comprehensive for each bar in downtown Toronto had its own attraction and this does not include the thousands of hours wasted on Pinball, Pool or NTN Trivia.

The only Home console I owned was Intellivision and to this day, I almost never play my Play Station 2...I use it mainly as a DVD player.

Here are the games I own. The Samurai one is really confusing with out a Masters degree in Japanese, the Nightmare one looks cool but I can't get past the 1st level and the others are nice time-wasters but it's been years since I broke a few bricks. I recently bought the Steamboy for less than 5 bucks but I have yet to play it!















Since I've come to Japan though, I rarely play any games. I was never much for the Shoot-em-up or Racing games though I liked to blast Zombies on Typing Of The Dead...I got to practice typing in Japanese while mutilating Zombies, it don't get much better than that!

All this brings me to the following YouTube brought to my attention by old pal Dion via Facebook. Enjoy it, it brought back tons of memories of wasted hours and quarters...And Galdurnit, I sure miss PINBALL!