Another Happy Unbirthday to me!

I never get due acknowledgement on my actual birthday (December 25th--Stupid Jesus), thus I continue the tradition of celebrating it on Michaelmas, September 29th. My family adopted the custom when I was a wee lad so that I could spend a normal(ish) day with my friends. Then my sister comes along on October 1st and ruins that gig! So now, it shall forever remain my Unbirthday. 

This year is relatively low key. I cajoled my students into wishing me "Happy Birthday" and I picked up a couple of new toys to add to my ever growing collection.

I also scored a magazine. 

 I bought it mainly for this instructive/destructive map of Japan. 

 

Wait a second, Sendai isn't listed! THIS shows that Sendai Station was demolished in Godzilla vs. MechaGodzilla II!

 

Oops, my mistake. Skip to the 24 second mark and you clearly see that Rodan destroys it. 

Phew, now I can add this road trip to my bucket list with an untarnished record.

It also has a cutie with a collection:

 

My personal collection has a long way to go to match this guy's!

 

Then again, maybe I do have that many figures. I just don't have the shelf space!

Anyway, another pseudo-fake birthday comes and goes. A Very Merry Unbirthday To Me! 

Sticking Your Neck Out.

This giant Yokai, 大入道 (おおにゅうどう) or Ōnyūdō may resemble a priest but they are unrelated to the clergy. Ōnyūdō is a catchall term for giants and "can be separated into four general groups: those that harm humans; those that help humans; transformations of other yōkai; and other, truly unique ōnyūdō that do not fit into any of these categories."

"Regardless of how good or evil at heart a particular ōnyūdō is, they are by nature extremely dangerous. It is generally wise to leave them be. Better to avoid all contact with them than risk enraging an ōnyūdō and bringing destruction upon nearby villages."

Here is one in a parade. He will stick his neck out for anyone.

 This Junji Ito creation is not a Giant, but is an old man. Check out Professor Kinda.

As for me, I too am feeling like an old man, a dinosaur of sorts. We had a fun Halloween party for a bunch of school kids.  Mostly Marios and Princesses but there were a few standouts such as a Grim Reaper gal.

We had a fun game of Quidditch hosted by one of the Gryffindor Professors.

In the background there, you can see Alice has been mutated into a Cheshire Cat. (The Cat part of her attire was home-made.)

We were also aided by a shy witch and a Jack o' Lantern.

I paraded around in my Gachapin track suit. The epitome of lazy costuming.

This time I brought along a little friend.

After the event, I went shopping at the mall and had more gawkers than usual and a few whisperers of "Gachapin!" I took every opportunity to show off in the various displays.

I dropped another 30 bucks on Halloween decorations on sale. I'm a sucker for this.

Speaking of suckers.

And I even won a King Caesar at UFO Catcher (after innumerable attempts.)

I scored a couple of old comics as well for two bucks a piece!

All in all, a pretty good day!

Bad-Ass Angel Day!

September 29th is St. Michael's Day (or All Angels Day) AND it is also my pseudo-fake birthday. Born on Christmas means that I was ripped off from having birthday parties/cakes/presents so when I was a wee lad, we celebrated it on St. Mike's Day. This worked for a while and I could have an actual birthday party, until my sister came along on October 1st and stole my thunder.

This article explains how much St. Michael was a BAD-ASS. He appears to be a tad wussy in this picture.

Yet that is very deceiving. He kicked the arse of Lucifer and his minions.

He also slaughtered the Demon, Belial.

Read the rest of that article for more details...

To celebrate my "birthday" today, I went to the sea and took a pano shot. (Lots of beach, not so much sea.)

After that, I popped over to the Agricultural Center to check out the Straw Art. Roar!

First thing I noticed was a distinct lack of straw sculptures. NO dinosaurs, NO King Kong, NO mini Gojira Shrine. You can check out last year's straw art for those. There was a cool Dragon at the entrance though!

There were only two more! Very disappointing.

Oh, Pumpkins!

Sigh. FAKE Pumpkins.

At least there's a slight tribute to Alice that's kind of cute.

Finally, I popped inside to grab a Muscat Soft-cream.

On the way out I snapped a pic of this dog posing for its Instagram page.

All in all, rather humdrum this year. Maybe there'll be some action next month.

To perk up, I bought myself a present, HAPPY PSEUDO FAKE BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Wow, only one day left in September and then the 2024 Countdown to Halloween begins? 

What tricks and treats do I have in store? No idea!

Reptilia!

I was out Tagajo way for a lesson and decided to check out a café that I've driven by many a time. 

I figured I'd drop in, have some spaghetti for lunch and pet an iguana. Much to my surprise, the café part of the place is non-existent. (Probably a Covid precaution.) It is a full-on pet shop specializing in exotic reptiles and other animals. (Too bad, I really wanted something to eat.) On the first floor was a young Goth gal stripping the slime off a newborn gecko and I also noticed a meercat, a pot-bellied pig, a few budgerigars, and lots of lizards. She was fairly busy, so I head upstairs and there were numerous other reptiles, and this guy was trying to feed some liver to a pair of monitor lizards. I asked if I could snap a few pics and proceeded to do so.

This guy was chowing down on a toad or something.

As you can see, they aren't cheap, ranging from 15,000-120,000 yen and higher (hundreds to thousands of $). IF I could afford it, I'd love any of these creatures. And this place supplies the crickets!

Nearby was the T*tty Twister. I was pressed for time, otherwise I would have dined there. Someday...

I found a Kaiyodo figure from Alice in Wonderland. I need to dig up the others I have from this collection. They're very nice.

Since I've switched from reptiles to amphibians, I should further switch to my favourite Yokai, KAPPA!

Here is the latest entry from my little book of Yokai. 

Avid readers of this blog may recall that I attended a Kappa festival last July and even participated in a parade.

I'm going to briefly switch back to Reptiles for a second and mention that when I got home, Reptilicus was showing this Danish masterpiece messterpiece. I'd watched a dubbed version of this extravaganza a while ago, this time I watched it subbed. I still don't think the poor guy deserved to die! Or did he die???

Once again, I've run out of steam, so here's a Venom/Carnage poster to end with.

Before I sneak away, is there a fellow blogger who may dwell on similar topics as shown above? Not really. I haven't fallen down the Manhole cover recently. Give it a try.