Kabuki-Mikie

When I was at the Fukushima Aquamarine the other day, I glanced upon a small gathering around a Kabuki display. I joined the queue and chose my mask. Afterwards a computer rendering of my face was completed.

Afterwards, we shuffled into a room then my image entered Lawnmower Man territory. Here's a video showing my transformation.



Oops, sorry. That is Lawnmower Man. Here's my video.



My very own Jimmy Olsen was on hand to take a few pics.

I was given this paper mask as a souvenir.

Another intriguing yet ultimately unsatisfying display at the Aquarium were several works of kinetic sculpture by Dutch artist Theo Jansen. Upon arrival, he was on hand signing copies of his book or kits though I didn't stick around. Here are a few of the sculptures.

Listen to Theo talk about his "Strandbeast" here.



His TED TALK is slightly less entertaining though more educational.



I bought a Gacha-capsule and received this.

My last fishy post was interrupted so I could sleep so here are a few more piscine pics.

 Straw squids.

I consumed a quick lunch and then we went on a Kappa hunt.

I didn't eat the whale.

There was nary a Kappa in sight.

Some interesting items at the gift shop including these fugu snacks with a catchy tune.

These paper-crafts looked cool so I bought them. Only a buck a piece.

I really doubt whether mine will look like these.

Finally, there was quite the tribute to my favourite prehistoric fish, the coelacanth. (Hey Google, get with the program, that's a real word.)

This giant grouper (not groper) is a distant cousin of coelacanth though they didn't have a living example of this creature. Here are some non-living examples.

A robotic coelacanth that didn't move.

And a cool metal sculpture of one.

Nat Geo goes fishing.

We went to a nearby tourist trap hoping to buy something cheap. All I got was some water and a date.

En route home, we came across Rocky and the Golden Gorilla! Now that's a Rocky movie I'd like to see!!

The Asset.

Yay! Kudos to The Shape of Water (SofW from here on in) for taking home four Oscars. Here is a deleted scene from the movie where the Amphibian Man aids an injured Pepsiman.

I saw the movie last Friday and wish they had kept this scene. Here is the flyer for the film.

   

Biggest disappointment would have to be that there were NO goods to be bought, not even a Clear File! Good news that it won Best Picture, Director, Production Design, and Original Score. Bad news that none of its actors won awards and that it was snubbed for Best Makeup.

Best Picture: Of the 9 nominated, I've seen Dunkirk, Get Out and SofW. The others have yet to be released in Japan so I can't really comment on them.

Best Actor: Yay to Gary Oldman for finally winning. Too bad to Daniel Kaluuya for his great performance in Get Out.

Best Actress: Frances McDormand can do no wrong, so no surprise here. Too bad to Sally Hawkins in SofW.

Best Supporting Actor in a Supporting Role: Richard Jenkins was great in SofW and it would be nice to see fellow Canuck, Christopher Plummer win another. I'm certain Sam Rockwell is deserving though even if he did edge out costar Woody.

Best Supporting Actress in a Supporting Role: Apart from the sassy Octavia Spencer, I can't really comment on the others cuz I know nothin' about their performances.

Best Animated Feature: I'm certain Coco is great and I look forward to seeing it when it's released here. But since it'll inevitably be dubbed only, hopefully it'll be on the flight home in a few weeks. I am just SO pleased that Boss Baby didn't win. Though I must say, the stickers are popular among my students.

Best Cinematography: I am not disappointed that Blade Runner 2049 won. That is all.

Best Costume Design: Of these choices, I'd only seen Beauty and the Beast (meh) and SofW. Phantom Thread? What's that all about?

Best Directing: Woohoo! Guillermo del Toro won. Say no more.

Best Documentary (Feature and Short): I know nada about them so I'll say nada about them.

Best Film Editing: No complaints about Dunkirk, it was great though I would have liked to see Baby Driver get a nod.

Best Foreign Language Film: I know nada about them so I'll say nada about them.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: When did Hairstyling get added to this category? About the same time that monster designs stopped getting nominated thus I am thoroughly annoyed that SofW was snubbed. That being said, kudos to Kazuhiro Tsuji for his Makeup on transforming Oldman into Churchill.

Best Music (Original Score): No complaints with SofW winning this one. John Williams has enough Oscars.

Best Music (Original Song): Get ready for Remember Me to be the new Let It Go!

Best Production Design: All good choices but way to go to SofW.

Best Short Film (Animated): I am angry that Revolting Rhymes didn't win. Nice to see that an alleged rapist won instead. (Sarcasm alert!)

Best Short Film (Live Action): I know nada about them so I'll say nada about them.

Best Sound Editing and Sound Mixing: Dunkirk sounded great.

Best Visual Effects: Quite frankly, I think all of these movies would be deserving recipients though Kong or Apes should have edged out the others.

Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay): Dang, it would have been so cool for Logan to have won. Alas. Maybe Black Panther can win next year.

Best Writing (Original Screenplay): Woohoo Get out of here, Get Out got it out of here!

Over the next few days, I hope to see some of the speeches on YouTube. Let me know if there are any I should definitely keep an eye out for. So far the only one I've seen is the In Memoriam clip and I was very pleased that Haruo Nakajima (Godzilla suit actor) made the cut.