Shakken is Shocking.

My biannual (is that twice a year or every two years?) car inspection (Shakken) comes due this month so I have given my vehicle over to my dealer to scrutinize it and make it road worthy. Fortunately, there shouldn't be much problem and my estimate was for 66,000 yen (around 700 bucks) give or take an ichiman. I spent the last week figuring out trains and buses to and from my schools only to discover today that I've been given a loaner! It's a bit of a tank to drive, but it is better than nothing!

I recently won a pair of gloves that'll make dandy driving gloves. They're from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and there is some kind of Smart-Phone connection as well if I can figure it out.

 I recently won one of the loser prizes from an Evangelion contest and it is the worst of the lot. It's Dendou and it lights up. Big whoop!

Every day, the Conbini workers ALWAYS give you a bag unless you catch them in time and tell them you don't want one. You could be buying a piece of plastic junk wrapped in plastic and they'll throw that in a plastic bag for your convenience. It's good to find out though that this is helping me save the Earth. All this time, I thought it was ruining it!

JoJo Was a Man...

ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 (JoJo no kimyou na bouken or JoJo's Bizarre Adventure) is a bizarre adventure manga written 25 years ago by 荒木 飛呂彦, Araki Hirohiko from Sendai! (Every other manga writer gets a museum in his hometown, why don't we?**)

**I take that back, according to Wikipedia, a "Hirohiko Araki Jojo Exhibition" will open in Araki's native Sendai at the end of July to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, it will then move to Tokyo in October.

Hirohiko Araki contributed a piece of artwork to promote the historical Hiraizumi ruins which were affected by the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake (Higashi Nihon Daishinsai) disaster. Despite the devastation caused on March 11 at Hiraizumi and elsewhere in Iwate Prefecture, the 900-year-old ruins were successfully registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site this past June.

Last week, I picked up a pair of chocolate/strawberry waffle-like wafers because doing so entitles you to a JoJo Calendar. I find the artwork to be somewhat Ditkoesque (Spider-Man creator/artist) and appropriately bizarre. On the front of the box, you get a couple of drawings and on the back, you get some punch-out trading cards.

So that's JoJo. Prior to this the only JoJo I was aware of was the Get Back loner.