Sauerkrauts.

 I never knew Germany had so many Yokai. Here's a smattering of them...

First up, above is the アラウネ (Araune) which, thanks to Google translate, very loosely translates to some kind of pod creature that takes over the foetus before birth and tries to take over unless you put it in a box or some such nonsense. (I had a hard time figuring out the gibberish.)

A creature with the same name is definitely cuter as a Dragonquest figure.

Also not to be confused with the J-Pop girl band, Araune.

嵐の精 (Arashi no Sei, above) is a storm spirit. It doesn't seem benevolent and can be either violent or just mischievous, such as blowing up a girl's skirt.

コーボルト (Kobort?, on the right) seem to be helpful little dwarfs who help prepare meals and do chores.　木霊 (Kodama, on the left) are spirits that inhabit trees. Based how they look in the picture, they seem knotty, not nice.

パン Pan is your typical god of the wild, shepherds and flocks. He befriends nymphs and plays a wicked Pan-flute. I am very surprised to see here that he has Germanic roots. This particular Pan tends to seek out children for most definitely despicable reasons.

水精 (Mizu-sei, above on top) is a water spirit, similar to a Kappa. A male is called a Nix and a female is Nikse.　妖虫 (Youchuu, above on bottom, directly translates as Chrysalis or Larva). Apparently the one in the picture likes colourful hats!

Furthermore: It appears that there is a cool little story written by the mystery writer, Edogawa Rampo (read that slowly and you may understand the pen name) about the Youchu. You can read most of it here. 

I couldn't find this particular short story, though here is my favourite Rampo, "The Human Chair"...

Finally below here, we have ラウヒエン: "Lauhien appears in the snow blown down. A messenger of the god of death who invites Hoshiyama to the world of death with a voice that rubs metal." That is the wording from Google Translate. I hope you can decipher it better than I. 

　

I found a better translation of it here and as a bonus is a colourized version of the picture. (The gist is that if you're a mountain climber, don't fall down in the snow especially if you hear the sound of rubbing metal or else death shall pay you a visit.)

This particular picture probably is more suitable to yesterday's post of UMA yet I thought I'd share it tonight because I just thought of it.

I usually start the Countdown Blogging at 11 and always run out of time before bedtime. This time I'll end early with a picture of the cider I'm drinking. Not very tasty but it does look cool!

Oooookama Crater!*

(*sung to the tune of Oklahoma, you'll need to accent the ka.)

I had a hankering to visit somewhere today, either Morioka or Yamagata and the driver has always wanted to travel along the Zao Echo Line...so...Yamagata won the coin toss. We wound our way to the Zao Echo Line (I don't know if it actually echoes anywhere) and drove up Mt. Zao. Near the top, we stopped for a photo op. Here is a pano.

As you can see, we stopped for a pee.

A little further up the mountain, we snapped a few more pics...

 Snowy!

Another pano.

Rather than park for free and walk up the rest of the way, we opted to pay 550 for parking. A wise choice as my back has been acting up lately.

Okama Crater!

Yet another pano. That may be Sendai in the distance.

Back to the Kettle/Cauldron which is what Okama means.

My friend trekked up the path to the peak of Kattadake, (a secondary peak of Zao). I'd done it before, so I opted out.

While he was gone, I snapped a few more random pics.

This may pique your interest, take a peek at the peak to the right of the crater.

It is called Goshikidake which means Five Colours Peak. I can't really discern which colours compose the five, but I admire their creativity.

Almost everyone there had masks on, except for a few dudes who were too cool to do so.

In the tiny gift shop, I considered buying some Pocky but decided against it.

I did buy a Clear File depicting the crater.

With Snow Monsters on its reverse.

Because there was an anime gal on this bottle of cider, I decided to give it a try.

Dan (the Man) who knows all there is to know about anime told me that she is Tohoku Zunko who is named after the green Zunda beans. (Click that link if you want to learn more.)

A few shots of the other side from the crater.

If you squint real hard, you might be able to discern Yamagata.

It was nice to get out in the fresh air and since it wasn't crowded, that made it even better. (If you go, take a jacket, it gets chilly.)