Love Me Tendo.

Drove out to Yamagata yesterday in order to enjoy the changing leaves in the rain. (Not as enjoyable as you'd think.) En route, we stopped at HillSide Mall, which in the past has always been a lot of fun. BUT, the discount Toy Store has now become a trading card (mainly Pokemon) outlet. I did pick up a sticker and four cool postcards though.

Hey wait a sec! They're neither stickers nor postcards. Just printed off images on cardstock. I'm beginning to think that this kitsch store is not wholly legit. (Candy Land--still cool place though.)

Here are a few of the decorations around the joint.

Next stop, Otachi (Mandai-clone) in Tendo where I tried to sell some loot. They offered even less of a pittance than expected so I declined to give them a ton of items for peanuts. Therefore, they lost out on forcing me to spend my earnings on a chance to win this.

I did get a 9-tailed Kitsune* for my friend, Mr. Fox.

Normally, I would have picked up these Jumping Chinese Ghosts. But there were only three available, not the set.

Oh well, their loss. 

The next Mandai (Otachi) in Yamagata, had a pretty nice Halloween display. This gal is dispensing candies to little ones who won at UFO Catcher.

We decided to check out one more place, a Book-Off that we've never been to before. 

On the way there, it was slow going, so I had plenty of time to take photos of this Love Hotel.

The Hard-Off was very old school with lots of cheap and not so cheap items. On spec, I picked up this coffin for two bucks. No idea of its contents although its original retail price was close to 30 bucks.

 

It's a pair of Twisted Wonderland Towels.

At the Book-off across the street in an Aeon Mall, I found this Bat-Man.

Much to my surprise, they had a fairly inexpensive large pumpkin for sale. Details on that later...

I did pick up some nice Snoopy socks.

*Speaking of 9-tailed Kitsune, It just happens to be the Yokai of the day!

These powerful Yokai can be nasty or auspicious. It's best to stay on their good side.

Have I shown these already? I need to search through a few boxes for more Venoms.

Before bed, I just crashed and watched some Halloween specials I'd never seen. Such as Mad Mad Mad Monsters, fairly lame Rankin/Bass production.

Then The Flintstones New Neighbours (1980). Not bad, though I preferred the Gruesomes.

To top off the night, I watched a clip show of spooky Bugs toons. Bugs Bunny's Howl-een (1977). The clips were badly edited and the narrative between each clip was meh. Still, any Bugs is good Bugs.

Finally, I'll leave you with Garage Sale Finds, the kind of blog that showcases some eerie items one might find at a Garage Sale (or Mandai or Book-Off).

Later tonight, I'll show off the pumpkin I carved. Hopefully it'll photograph better in the dark, right now I'm not getting any correct guesses.

Nice Skies Finish Last.

I had the pleasure of driving in the rain to Yamagata (actually a small nearby town called Nagai) and in the fog on the way back. Still I managed to snap off a few nice pics en route.

 (The sky from this post's title.)

Is that a giant Kokeshi atop that mountain (Click the pic to check for yourself.)

 These top four were taken on the way home.

A clowder of cats, 9 in total, at the chapel. I couldn't get any closer else they'd disperse.

 Awesome little tree frog amidst the cedars.

I'd be remiss if I didn't make a trip to the Yamagata Mandai. Always some cool vintage embiggened posters, this one has King Kong and Le Magicien d'Oz.

Thanks to a quick Googling, it appears that the artwork was taken from this poster.

I found the store itself to be a little pricey and for some odd reason, all the best Godzilla goods were at the top of the display and I had to ascend a rickety footstool to access them. I still managed to find an Orga from Godzilla 2000.

 The second live movie really sucked but this t-shirt doesn't.

A Bearbrick X-man and Loki.

 Finally, Loki's half-brother and nemesis: Angry Baby Thor!

Ya gotta go to Yamagata someday.

Godzilla Visits Yamagata!

Not sure why but it's been a week since I updated this bloggy thingamajig even though I had lots to talk about. Last Saturday, had to trek out to Yamagata for a wedding and that day just happened to coincide with the Rokkonsai, a Tohoku Festival that is comprised of 6 different city's famous fests.

Much to my surprise, at the Rock-on concert held the same day, my favourite J=poppers, Puffy were scheduled to play along with 5 other groups I'd never heard of. But 4000 yen and they'd only play for 30 minutes! I walked past all the food and goodies booths and approached the station only to be told that it'd be another hour's walk to the concert site. I didn't want to see them that much.

I brought a travelling companion with me, and to my knowledge, this was Godzilla's first time in Yamagata. I don't think it counts that 中島 春雄 (Haruo Nakajima) hails from there and was inside his costume innumerable times.

So he took in the sights, starting off by destroying a block of buildings. (The couple selling these were somewhat taken aback by my photo op, but they didn't object either.)

He sampled a few of the goodies and washed it down with a beer.

When the Japanese Self-Defense Forces heard that Godzilla was in town, they sent out Blue Impulse to confront him. Though they flew circles around him, Godzilla was left unscathed.

So they flew off towards the sun, disappointed that they couldn't destroy the Big G.

That evening, Godzilla subbed for DJ Mokugohan at Ernies and a good time was had by all.