Spudkins!

I've been neglecting Junji Ito of late, so I took 90 minutes and watched Uzumaki (Spiral), the movie from 2000, not the recent anime. It was suitably creepy with some interesting effects from the manga interpreted in live action, no easy task.

If you have nothing better to do, give it a look.

Did you watch it? This guy has an interesting take on the film.

Okay, enough Junji for today. Moving on to my daily Yokai. We get the Baku, which is chimeric creature using a lot of spare parts from other creatures. The baku is a strange, holy beast that has the body of a bear, the head of an elephant, the eyes of a rhinoceros, the tail of an ox, and the legs of a tiger. Despite their monstrous appearance, baku are revered as powerful forces of good and as one of the holy protectors of mankind.

Nice to see a benevolent guardian spirit for a change.

They feed on the dreams of humans—specifically bad dreams. Evil spirits and yōkai fear baku and flee from baku-inhabited areas. Because of this, health and good luck follow baku wherever they go. 

Dream-Catcher, anyone?

Legend has it that when the world was new and the gods were making the animals, the baku was put together from the leftover bits and pieces at the end of creation. That explains its bizarre appearance, and why it is considered a favorite of the gods.

You can see why the Tapir has been named after this Yokai. There are similarities.

I discovered something today. A raw Sweet Potato is very tough to carve. 

I did my best and though I've never seen the show, I thought I'd attempt a Mr. Potato Head of a different kind. Enter: Frylock!

The magic marker goatee didn't turn out so well.

Oh wait, that's how I can add the fries.

I can't figure out how to share the video. I'll take another later after I solve the beard problem.

I bought a bag of a half dozen spuds for my students to try their hands at carving. I think I'll nuke them for a few minutes first to soften them up.

No Gatcha today. I'll dig one up from the archives. Groot has veggie roots, doesn't he?

I tried twice more and got duplicates of the above.

I've also neglected my comics collection. Let's see if I have anything appropriate.

She's the poster child for Flower Power!

You find a little magic over at The Manhole Cover or be sure to try any of the other bloggers participating in the Countdown...

I have another wedding early tomorrow, so it's off to bed for me.

Doh a Deer, a Really Big Deer!

Today, we drove out along the perimeter of the Oshika Peninsula. 

Though it may look like one, it is in fact a Peninsula and not a Penisula! 

More specifically we went to Oginohama on the Oshika Peninsula, facing Inujima in the Seto Inland Sea.

Our destination was wrapped in mystery by my driver and I was not disappointed by the result. That's one heck of a big deer!

"O" at the beginning of a word usually means "BIG" and "shika" means "deer". The story goes that some enterprising lads took a stuffed toy of a deer and used a 3D Printer to make this Big Deer! Oh dear!

Here are some pics of the view from the shore.

And the shore itself, lots and lots of shells!

A few tall Hinoki Cypress.

After that, we drove to Oshika Whale Land in nearby Ayukawa Port. By some fluke, we found it.

 

First a little building with a few displays of interest.

Oh cool, an imori (fire belly newt)

Then the next large building with lots of whale bones on display. 

Hey cool. It's the second largest sperm whale on display in Japan. (Wanna see the largest? I've seen it, it's on display here.)

A dolphin!

A poster for a 1957 Ken Takakura movie called "The Man Who Fights With a Whale".

This will be shown at the next Whale Festival at which this float is carried along the street.

oops, I should have cropped this.

The museum attendant was very helpful and chatty. (And cute!)

She even tolerated me when I held this baleen denture from a Minke whale and exclaimed, "I'm Trump!"

I bought a sticker and tried my luck at a home-made Gatcha, (as opposed to Made in China.)

I scored a Grey Whale skull.

Next we went aboard a whaling ship. 

Avast ye mateys!

The view from the bow.

I took a harpoon to the belly!

Dropped into a gift shop. 

I didn't buy any canned whale or eel. ( When I snapped the photos, the clerk seemed concerned. "Are these guys going to go on a rampage complaining about Japan's whaling policy?") We didn't.

I bought a cider.

A few more cool photos and we were outta there.

We took the Cobalt Line over a mountain and snapped a few more shots of the ocean from way up high.

While driving along here, we actually espied a deer alongside the road!

Ya know how the Japanese pride themselves on their cleanliness. Well not always...

Alas, we didn't have any garbage bags with us.

Once in Ishinomaki, the sun was setting and I tried to get a few shots of the peach-coloured sky.

All in all, a very nice day. BUT now I'm too tired to write a Halloween entry for the Countdown!

I'll double up tomorrow.