Trick or Treatment.

I'm late with my Halloween wrap up. For a change, it's not because I'm hungover. Just a lazy day.

100 bucks for a pumpkin! And it was too big to take on the subway.

The highlight lowlight of my day yesterday was receiving a Flu AND a Covid vaccination both in the same arm. I felt no real ill effects other than a lackadaisical attitude toward the rest of the day. I did the shopping and handed out some candies to random costumed passersby. The cutest were a mother/ daughter duo who wore matching Cop outfits, including kiddy cuffs. This quintet agreed to have their photo taken.

These are the treats I handed and eared and nosed out (Body parts gummies). 

When last we spoke, I was just about to retire before watching Hunger Games Battle Royale. I don't remember much about the movie though it was nice to see it with subtitles so I could figure out what was going on. Director's cut: though I'm not sure what footage was added/subtracted. Seems like there were more shots of their JHS before they were kidnapped to the island. If you've never seen it, watch this trailer and see why I mistook it for Hunger Games.

But before I watched this, I viewed another movie called Kwaidan. (Click for the Wiki page.)

It has four ghostly tales and my favourites were as follows: "The Woman and the Snow", now let me interrupt for a commercial from Yokai.com.

雪女 (ゆきおんな) or Yuki Onna is a Snow Woman. This description sums her up rather well. "Yuki onna prey on travelers lost in the heavy snowstorms that blanket the Japanese Alps in winter. They have an otherworldly beauty, with long black hair and dark, piercing eyes. Their skin is ageless and as white as snow, but their bodies are as cold as ice. A mere touch is enough to give a human a deep, unshakable chill. They feed on life force, sucking it from human’s mouths with an icy breath that freezes their victims solid." Check out that link for more info.

In the Kwaidan tale, a woodcutter named Minokuchi falls prey to AND falls in love with a Yuki Onna. At about the 3:20 mark of this video, you can see the highlights of the story.

The other story was regaled to me by two different students of mine. I asked my adult classes to tell me a Yokai or Ghost story and they both came up with similar versions of this tale, "Hoichi, the Earless" which is the third story in Kwaidan.

Once again, our sponsor interrupts.

耳なし芳一 (みみなしほういち) Mimi Nashi Houichi or Hoichi the Earless. "Hōichi was a blind biwa master who resided at Amidaji, a Buddhist temple in Shimonoseki. He was renowned for his skill at performing The Tale of the Heike–particularly his rendition of the Battle of Dan no ura and the death of the child emperor Antoku. His playing was said to be so splendid that he could even make ghosts and demons cry."

Although there aren't any subtitles, this story is fairly easy to follow.

I know I promised to present Junji Ito's works daily, well that plan didn't work out very well. I need to plan ahead better. Here are the covers of a few of his works that I purchased for a few hundred yen weeks ago. Someday, I hope to read them so I can get my money's worth. (Note: a few covers have been shown before.)

Speaking of covers, I was planning on showing lots of Phantom Stranger, Deadman, Spectre, etc. I didn't get around to them very often.

 

 

That's enough for now...

All in all, a pretty good Halloween day yesterday and I went to bed and had a good night's sleep, even with the sore arm.

Be sure to wander over to the main page of Countdown to Halloween to find other bloggers' missives.

I'm going to take a break and then do a Round-up of a lot of tidbits that I intended on showing earlier. 

Only 333 days until the next Countdown to Halloween!

Monkeying Around.

Satori (覚 さとり) are strange intelligent ape-men. "Satori appear to travelers on mountain roads, or folks living in mountain huts far from civilization. If the opportunity presents itself, they gladly dine on anyone they can get their hands on. In cases where they encounter a lone human female, they often take her away into the mountains and rape her. Satori are most well known for their uncanny ability to read people’s minds and then speak their thoughts faster than the individuals can get the words out themselves. This makes it very difficult to hunt, trick, or escape from a hungry satori. However, should something unforeseen happen, such as being unexpectedly hit by an object, satori grow very frightened and run away. One of the only ways to avoid being eaten by one of these yokai is to completely empty one’s mind; with no mind to read, the satori grows bored and wanders away."

 I'm about 1/4 the way through a 48 hour marathon of Japanese Horror, and the movie that's on now (Exte) is one that I've seen twice before. I gave a very brief review of it last year. I came home from work today while Unholy Women (2006) was on. Too bad, I missed most of the first part (Katakata/Rattle Rattle), it seemed to be the best one. Well, what do ya know, I can catch up on it here. The second part was about a girl with a sack over her head who was beaten a lot (Hagane) and the third part (Uketsugu Mono/ The Inheritance) had child abuse going on which was unsettling. So seek it out if you wish, I've linked to the only worthy section.

Next up I watched "Pulse" (2001) which I found rather dull, lots of ghostly dudes and disappearing people. Apparently it was popular enough to be remade in America and spawn two sequels. 

I kind of enjoyed "Marebito" (2004) about an underground dwelling vampire gal. If that's your cup of tea, it's worth seeking out.

Exte ended and "The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch" (1968) has just started. It's worth watching, pretty creepy and it also almost satisfies my Junjo Ito quota for it is based on a work by his mentor, Kazuo Umezu, 蛇娘と白髪魔, Hebimusume to Hakuhatsuma.

Fortunately, since I watched it last year (see link above), it makes for good background viewing so I can keep typing as I watch it.

"Pyrokinesis" is up next. That may be my last viewing before I nod off. It was called Crossfire stateside.

I had a costume party (thanks to my suitcase full of attire) and it went over well with my class of engineers who really got into it. The other class wasn't quite as enthusiastic. 

Here I am with one of the lads. (I'll upload pics of the gals once I can figure out how to blur their faces.)

I treated myself to some Halloween goodies from the Supermarket, neither were very good.

To match my Yokai theme, here is another monkey of sorts, when King Kong fought the JLA.

Here is Chimp with a bow tie by Mr. Ito.

As for a fellow blogger, Chad Savage, fits the bill.

I'm going to lie down and watch the rest of Snake Girl. I'll update you on what other flicks I view tomorrow. (It's nice to have three days off in the final hours before Samhain.)

Five, Six Grab your Crucifix!

I got home late from school today and ate some Halloween Gyoza.

Pretty good and enough for tomorrow's dinner as well.

My students spent the day decorating their classrooms. They did a great job and a pretty good job.

How did that get there?

Last week's Potat o' Lanterns have gone extremely bad. They put the ants to good use.

They decided to spook up the loo.

 The class of all gals (but two) did their typical half-assed attempt at their task. This is the result.

It's not entirely their fault, the first class had first crack at the decorations and chose the best ones. (Then again, 1/3 of the class just sat on their duffs and did naught to assist.)

Tomorrow is a costume party with Trick or Treating. Let's see if they all participate when snacks are on the line!

A truncated post tonight, for I spent the evening watching Wes Craven. First, "Invitation to Hell" a TV movie with a very sexy looking Joanna Cassidy. Then halfway through "A Nightmare on Elm Street", it dawned on my that I have never seen this in its entirety. Apart from Wes, ya know what connects these two movies? Joanna was in Roger Rabbit and the voice of Roger (Charles Fleischer) was the Doctor at the sleep clinic!

Pleasant dreams!

I almost forgot, I popped into the mall and found a box of Junji Ito pins. 

I bought Slug Girl!

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!