I Sent Him Into The Future!

Too pooped from a whirlwind drive to and from Kitakami to go into details, so I'll just briefly mention what I got up to last night. Before I met up with Alex, I had dinner at McDonald's. Why? Because I was hungry and they had a Street Fighter meal. I had the chicken. That orange concoction is some sort of Energy drink, obviously to help you pummel your opponent.

 

We went to BBs, but it was closed. ON A FRIDAY NIGHT! This does not bode well, that place is one of the few that are open until 6am. So searching for another venue, we discovered this very cool, mellow place that stunk of cigars (though no one was smoking) and had several huge lounge chairs that would be tough to get out of after a few of the potent cocktails they serve. We only had ONE drink. I promised myself I wouldn't drink at all, but that is always an easily broken vow.

 

Can't remember the name of the place though!

Unable to find a larger venue for our Halloween gig, we went back to Suu at Dragon's Diner and finalized plans for next week. It holds 10 comfortably, 15 with some squeezing and 20 if you suck in your stomachs. Hopefully, all the attendees will pop in for a drink or two and then scurry along to another party. There has been a lot of positive buzz about this soiree. I hope it doesn't bomb like last time we held a party there. (Alex, myself, and one or two regulars.)

 

I called it an early night and hopped on a subway around 11. En route home, I popped in the local conbini, MiniStop, and noticed that there's a new Ichiban-Kuji prize lottery for the 40th anniversary of BttF!

 

 

The A prize and the Last Prize seem to be different versions of the DeLorean. The B prize is a stuffed Einstein! I scored a C prize, a tote bag.

 

 

And the ubiquitous prize is the G prize, a poster. 

 

 

 

At least I got the second best one! (The best one is the 3D Jaws).

 

A quick Oni before bed (recommended by many of your top sleep therapists), is 鬼の妹 (oni no imouto) the Younger Sister of the Oni, a cannibalistic little scamp who dines on parents.

 

 

She looks a tad cuter in the following picture.

 

Before it gets so cold you need to put away your BBQ, check out Action Figure Barbecue, there're some cool figures hanging around. 

I have two LONG entries to get to tomorrow. And then I need to mentally prepare for a costume party for my students on Monday.

g'nite 

Little People in my Life.

Around 10 last night while finishing up my blog entry Friday's post (running late as usual), I was beginning to feel a tad blue because I was alone at home on Halloween. Then I got a call to go join some friends at the pub and leapt at the chance. 

I grabbed my new smock which unfortunately got a bit stained after slaughtering schoolkids all day on Friday and a quick mask and met my friends who normally perform at the Hap'penny Bridge on Halloween and St. Patrick's. (The main reason I didn't go there earlier is because I was told they wouldn't be playing that night. Much to my surprise, they were there in civilian garb.)

I did meet up with my pals who were in varied states of inebriation.

 

 

Fortunately my mask had a gap with which I could sip my G&T through a straw. 

I gave a few candies out to the handful of patrons (WE were the only ones dressed up) and they appreciated it and the pub owner gave me a present.

These Kitty candies were a hit.

So two hours at an uncrowded pub plus a few drinks and I cheered up immensely.

Today, I wanted to watch something as a tribute to Sean Connery so I viewed something I'd never seen before.

Sean and Janet Munro.

A spooked Albert Sharpe.

The king of the Little People, Jimmy O'Dea.

Now some of the scary bits...

First up, O'Gill's horse is a Pooka (also Púca or Phooka), a Celtic spectre that can either help or hinder a person. 

A Banshee showed up when his daughter was on her death's bed. 

When she was on her way out, Darby begged the Leprechaun to let him take her place and his wish was granted. A Death Coach was called by the Banshee to take him away.

It was driven by a headless Dullahan. 

This movie will now be on my St. Patrick's viewing list as well as Halloween.

Finally, here is the finale for my Shigeru Mizuki Yokai book. The gang all visit a marketplace.

The gang goes for a drive.

The gang participate in a wrestling match.

I'm going to try and track down these other books so I have some ammo for next year.

I'll wrap up this year's Countdown with a few odds and ends I've picked up over the last few weeks.

Who ya gonna call?

A new Cthulhu.

A Cerberus inspired Ako-beko and a Cycloptic Maneki-neko.

Finally, this cord strap sorter featuring Gegege no Kitaro's papa. See ya all next year...

Holy Crap...

I haven't been out on the town for ages, perhaps twice in the last half year!. Tonight I met Alex for a Rooftop Patio Beerfest! We went to Lion's Somethingorother near Ichibancho because it is cheaper than all the rest.

40 bucks, all you can drink and eat in two hours. We got our money's worth. About six beers a piece plus yakiniku meat and veggies. Added bonus...a cute waitress who took a shine to us and extended our last order!!

So we spent two and a half hours of chatting and drinking and eating and avoiding other patrons. It was well spaced out and everyone had to take a forehead temperature check before entry, so it seemed safe enough.

After that we, ventured over to 100 Shops Marketplace for a few more brew...

Alex knew of a joint with retro toys and so that was our next stop. So cool!

This elephant used to be out front of a Drugstore chain, but everyone kept stealing them. I'm not saying that this one was obtained illegally but...

Some menko... But it was so dark in the joint, I couldn't get a good look at them.

 Ooh, more goodies...

Best of all was this vintage Space Invaders desktop game. Whoa, that is the game upon which I was first weaned. I approached it and the old guy behind the bar yelled, "ダメだ!" Which is Japanese for "Get the F*ck away from there!" Okay, chill out man! We ordered our drinks and were quaffing our Lemon Sours when the guy went to the machine and played it the entire time that we were in the joint! Hey, way to rub our noses in it, dude!

Once we paid our tab and left, the guy was much friendlier. Still...what a douche!

We were looking for another place in which to imbibe and while Alex was peeing, I espied this joint with three patrons (including two staff). It seemed to have a bunch of vintage records so I thought Alex would enjoy it. The gal flagged us in and we were blown away by the decor. Andy Warhol posters, Che Guevera on the covers of mags, those vintage albums and then I saw this.

Holy crap! A half dozen copies of 70s Archies! I Nerdgasmed and exclaimed, "Holy Crap!" As I leafed through them, I espied a copy of Weird Worlds #1. Once again I bellowed "Holy Crap!" and then much to my surprise, she gave me the copy of the book!!

The condition was less than stellar, neither cover was attached and it sort of crumbled in my hands, but I was blown away by the find!

So we settled in and listened to several old albums (Sam Cooke, Stones, a copy of To Sir With Love, etc.) and enjoyed our Gin and Tonics. Every now and then, I'd look around the room and exclaim yet again, "Holy Crap!" as I saw some vintage items, such as this. Two Starsky and Hutch figures mint in box! Also an old school Barbie and a Charlie Brown!

Another drink and another Holy Crap later as I discovered a pristine Dukes of Hazard Colouring book with none of the puzzles or pictures touched.

I was running out of Holy Crap moments, and just settled for a photo of Bettie Page.

A few GandTs later and we wandered off to our next locale, Suu's bar, Dragon Diner. He as well as everyone else in Japan have been hard hit by the lack of customers, so he greeted us with open arms (but at a safe distance, natch.)

I knew he had a birthday coming (Saturday, sooner than I'd thought) and so I had prepared a present for him. Based on this huge figure looming in his lobby, I assumed he had an affinity for Rat Fink.

So I just happened to have a handful of RF stickers handy.

After that, I trudged to catch the last subway and am now enlightening you with this Drunken Blog.

Holy Crap! I noticed in the bag in which I carried my comic, towel and tea home that there were some fragments of paper. My copy of Weird Worlds continued to deteriorate...