Climb Every Mountain!

I went to my weekly card game on Friday as per usual, only this time instead of driving, I brought a six-pack of Corona.

I bought this cool bucket and as a bonus, it came with 6 beers! Afterwards, I went out with a friend and ended up at Karaoke until 5:50 a.m. when the first subway started. Needless to say, I took the day off from blogging yesterday. Besides, it was rainy and gloomy. I did watch the new Syfy show, Day of the Dead, before bed. Kind of cheesy writing with some truly unlikeable characters but the zombie makeup was fairly well done.

I also watched Elvira's Haunted Hills. Good mindless fun.

          

For lunch today, I had a package of ZomRamen.

Unfortunately, one only gets the purple noodles, one needs to add the eyeballs and veggies and any other desired ingredients.

I thought it'd be best to serve it in a Jack bowl.

Here it is in all its purplish yumminess. 

Hey, it comes with a ZomBear comic!

I'll sample the other two packages of ZomRamen in coming weeks.

Not much else going on today so I decided to go climb a mountain...

This video shows the beginning of my journey:

And the actual trek:

It wasn't quite as strenuous trek as I thought it might be.

The translation to the above is as follows:

Japan's lowest mountain "Hiyoriyama" Hiyoriyama is 3.0m above sea level, and according to a survey by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan in April 2014, it is widely known as "the lowest mountain in Japan". became. It used to be 6.05m above sea level. It is 40m north-south and 20m east-west, and has a good view of the sea side. It is known as a famous place for the first sunrise of the year.

Every year on July 1st, the "Mountain Question of Mt. Hiwa" is held to coincide with the opening of Mt. Fuji, which is the highest in Japan. .. The beginning is said to be an artificial mountain that was adored mainly by locals in 1902, and it was adored for the purpose of observing the sea (day-to-day) and making it a landmark from the sea side. In addition, when the Ofunairibori (now Sadayama Canal) was opened during the Kanbun period (Edo period), earth and sand were piled up, and a fish farm was opened in the Taisho period. There are various theories such as the accumulation of earth and sand when doing so.

In 1991 (1991 AD), it became "the lowest mountain in Japan" in a survey by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, but after that, in 1997 (1997 AD), it was handed over to Tempozan (Osaka City). rice field. However, due to the effects of land subsidence caused by the 2011 off the Pacific coast of Tohoku Earthquake (Great East Japan Earthquake) and erosion caused by the tsunami, it became the "lowest mountain in Japan" again. rice field. Ten years have passed since the disaster, and many people have come to visit again, but from now on, it is also a mountain that plays an important role of "passing on the scars of the disaster to posterity."

Traditional Hill Preservation Society.

(Sorry for the Google translation and the blue background.)

Here are a couple of shots of the ocean. First a couple of pano shots.

And a couple of wading birds off in the distance.

After the beach, I drove along for a bit and discovered a mini-shrine at the side of the road parallel to the river. Undoubtedly it was a tribute to the tsunami of a decade ago.

I like the juxtaposition of the pre-tsunami guardian lions and the recent re-sculpts. 

And we have a kick-ass sky in the background.

En route home, I passed a large Garden Centre that I'd always intended of visiting. And it has DINOSAURS!!

There are a few other animals on display (all part of a competition).

I was hoping I'd be able to buy a pumpkin. I haven't seen them for sale anywhere!

These were not for sale. There were a couple of those mini pumpkin-shaped gourds as I came in but the place was closed at 4:30. I did manage to snap some bushes that were in costume.

And some final shots of the sky...

Finally I popped into a BookOff near my home and grabbed a pair of Maleficent Qs.

Finally, here is the t-shirt I wore today, courtesy of LootCrate.

I'll be back tomorrow with more Ukiyoe art.

Breakfast at Tiffanys.

Once again, my attempt to complete this set of Chucky has been thwarted thanks to Tiffany!

As much as I like Tiffany, I don't need FOUR of her!

I need a Good Guy and the couple's spawn, Glen, for the set but I am always sh*t out of luck.

The intention of this set is that you can seat them on a little stool or have them hang on a mug or whatever. (Or keep them in a plastic bag until you can complete the set.) If anyone wants to take any of these doubles off my hands, I'd be happy to sell or trade.

Probably the best item I've ever received from LootCrate is this blanket! Great for decorating my couch.

Oh yeah, as for the new Chucky show...I loved it. Good to see Brad back doing the voice, though I wouldn't mind it if he faces off against Mark Hamill at some point in the series. 

I scored some Halloween Donuts today, which shall be consumed tomorrow at breakfast.

Today's Ukiyoe is "Minamoto-no Tametomo rescued by long-nosed Goblins" by Kuniyoshi. 

Here is the full picture, not just the tengu helping out Tametomo.

For more details, check this out.

I watched the 32nd Simpsons Halloween special and liked it, especially the updated version of Ringu using TikTok. I should probably snap some screen grabs, but I don't feel like revisiting the episode right now.

Let's surf around the Countdown participants, I came across helloween horror, it has some cool gifs and things for you to peruse.

Do ya feel Chucky, punk? Well, do ya?

Just a quick update for it's almost bedtime. I have a full set of this Chucky-Gatcha where they hold on to a string or cord. 

That's two versions of Chucky on the left, Good Guy in the center, Tiffany and Glen on the right. 

That's it for tonight, I'm gonna watch some Chucky before bed. Hopefully I'll survive the ordeal and can review it tomorrow along with another Chucky-Gatcha...

Spooky Ukiyoe or Spookiyoe!

I went to bed early last night, therefore, I missed out on an entry. Here then is one about spooks.

The other day, I happened to link a picture of Cookie Monster as the Great Wave of Kanagawa by Hokusai. Sometimes, those pesky little algorithms actually benefit us and this little video about the artist showed up on my suggested list of YouTubes. 

Pretty interesting but I noticed that Hokusai also painted something called, "100 Ghost Stories" so I was off to the Google! This article has a few of these paintings, my favourite of which is this:

This led me to discover A Gathering of 100 Supernatural Tales and the recitation of Kaidan. Which coaxed me into an old post of mine about the Kaidan Restaurants stories. But let's stick to ghosts for now. such as this painting by Maruyama Okyo depicting yurei (ghostly spirits) for the first time entitled The Ghost of Oyuki.

Now that's creepy!

Dinnertime now, hopefully later this evening, I'll get up to my usual hijinx and feature more than just ukiyoe.

Dragon my Ass!

One of the Kuniyoshi postcards I purchased is this one of "Recovering the Stolen Jewel from the Palace of the Dragon King" painted way back in 1853.

I can't find much written about it (in English, anyway) so you'll just have to use your imagination.

The postcard shows only about 2/3s of it so I scammed the entire battle from the Met (NY). There are a few other paintings at this link but they are nowhere near as interesting or dramatic.

I've been watching Walking Dead: World Beyond and I just can't get into it this season. Hopefully it'll pick up the pace but for now it's Dragon along. This is one of the stupider scenes:

Felix decides that it is wiser for an inexperienced crossbow archer to shoot the "empty" in the head, perhaps as a tribute to William Tell. Good thing she nailed it and the arrow didn't go through the skull and into Felix. Just...so...dumb...

When at my favourite Gatcha place at the mall, I saw a new series of Mythological Aka-Beko. These are the ones I already own.

That last one appears to be a Dragon Aka-Beko. Oh no, more in the series including a different Dragon!

For no particular reason, I'll end with this Mortal Kombat towel from LootFright. I've never played the game nor seen a movie. Is there a Dragon in it?

I don't have any other Dragon tidbits handy, so that's it for tonight...

Muppetational!

Muppets Haunted Mansion was terrorfic! It was nice to see Ed Asner, however brief his appearance was. Cool cameos from Sweetums and was that Emmet Otter?

This will definitely become an annual event for me.

I don't know much about the original Haunted Mansion but I must say I liked this song:

Of the above Sesame-Kaiju, I do believe the Cookie Monster is the only one that has actually been produced by a fan. The others are probably photoshopped. It's the first time I've seen Big Bird (Bighidorah?)

This is the only Muppet I've snagged lately, First Mate Piggy, as a Bearbrick perhaps?

Finally, a piece of Ukiyoe that I've scammed from the net, Cookie as the "Great Wave off of Kanagawa".

As part of the Countdown to Halloween 2021, I checked out one of the blogs there and, hoping there'd be something Muppet-oriented, discovered the Cult of the Great Pumpkin. No Muppets, but lots of great spooky tunes! 

Spiders, Man!

I have to admit that I scammed this one from the InterWEB because I needed a Spider-Yokai and I didn't have one handy. This is called The Earth Spider Generates Monsters at the Mansion of Lord Minamoto Yorimitsu and is fortunately by Kuniyoshi.

Raiko Tormented by the Earth Spider (Note: Earth Spider = Tsuchigumo) can be seen here:

Two weeks ago a friend and I tracked down Sendai's very own Spider-Yokai, Kashikobuchi. I saw a few spiders at the Shrine monument, none of them Yokai-sized, though fairly big.

Not too easy to see so I drew a ring around it. 

This is what Wiki has to say about Kashikobuchi:

"Various areas have a legend about people being dragged into a waterfall by a jorōgumo as well as the use of a tree stump as decoy. In the legend of Kashikobuchi, Sendai, a voice was heard saying, "clever, clever", ("kashikoi, kashikoi"), after the tree stump was pulled into the water. The legend is thought to be the origin of the name Kashikobuchi or "clever abyss". The jorōgumo of Kashikobuchi was worshipped for warding off water disasters, and even now there are monuments and torii that are engraved with "Myōhō Kumo no Rei" (妙法蜘蛛之霊)."

Be sure to click that link to learn more about the main Yokai-Spider, Jorōgumo. 

Here some other photos of the monument.

Here are some alternative angles of the photos courtesy of one of my roving reporters.

For more about the Kashikobuchi and a translation of the Monument, check out this.

Yesterday morning, I started the day by watching a truly good bad movie called  The Giant Spider (2013). No cast of note, shoddy effects, insipid dialogue and a goofy looking spider make it a treat to watch. 

Best part of the movie, has to be its theme by The Night Hobs.

Speaking of Spiders, here is Japanese Supaida-Man.

And another Japanese-produced Spider-Man.