Happy Berated Birthday.

Last week I had, for the first time in decades, a birthday party! Sure, only a half dozen showed up and two of them skipped out after dinner, though it was considered to be a natal anniversary for me. (#65, don't ya know, so I didn't want it to pass in silence.)

I was even given a few prezzies. A care package of cookies and treats including the following:

The top three items are almost finished, I have yet to sample the others. Best present of all was a Piggiless Bank. I'm not sure how Zane knew I'd like it.

If you click this link, you can see it in action.

After dinner, we went bowling and I am definitely out of practice! The other attendees skipped a trip to the pub, but Zane was kind enough to buy me a beer or two. Two young lads got chatty with him, though once they slithered away, I decided to take my celebration in my own hands and convinced some lassies to take a photo with us.

When their third pal joined us, they all sang "Happy Birthday" to me and we left shortly thereafter (sans ladies, alas.)

I grabbed a cake on the way home and sang the tune again, solo this time.

I held off writing about my prezzies until now for yesterday, another friend who was visiting her daughter in Okinawa, gifted me with these:

I am very pleased with this mascot, ルーティ (Rooty) and she brought me an Orion beer 

SO, Happy Birthday to me!

My New Years was wholly uneventful by choice. I watched a dorky movie

and drank a few brew.

Unfortunately, Bib flew off the handle when I was washing him. Sigh.

New Year's Day was spent hanging around the apartment and I broke out a couple of my Dragons. 

Happy Ryu Year! (Ryu = 竜 = dragon)

Hey my blog is approaching a million hits! I need to figure out how to monetize this. (Sure most of the hits may be Bots, but it still seems impressive!)

Have a great 2024, cuz 2023 sucked big time for me!

Ghost Hunters.

I suppose the original title of John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China doesn't make much sense in Japanese, so they renamed it ゴーストハンターズ or Ghost Hunters. I came across a copy of it today and thought it would make a nice addition to the Countdown.

 

 

Here's the theme sung by Coup de Villes...

Since Big Trouble in Little China has a lot to do with China, I thought today's Kemono Friends would include the Four Gods. I mentioned one of them (Seiryu, the dragon) back here.and the other three are as follows.
ビャッコ (Byakko): I like how she is heterochromic, her left eye is yellow and her right eye is blue. Her claws and adornments reflect this colour scheme.

(Scammed from Wikipedia)   also called The White Tiger or Byakko in Japanese and Bai Hu in Chinese, is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations. It is associated with the element metal and it represents the west and the autumn season.
It is also a symbol of force and army, and so many things entitled Byakko in ancient China are related to military affairs. In this capacity, Byakko was seen as a protector and defender, not just from mortal enemies, but also from evil spirits. Byakko is believed to have divine power to ward off and punish evil, praise the good, and bring wealth and good match for marriage.

Another God (Goddess?) is ゲンブ (Genbu) who is known as the Black Tortoise of the North sporting a rather adorable serpentine tail. 

It is known as Xuan wu (玄武) in Chinese and Genbu in Japanese, it is associated with water and it represents the north and the winter season. the tortoise has black back, and is said to have the ability to enter the nether world to inquire forthcoming things. After getting the answer, it would come back showing the answer with some certain signs.

The last of the Four Gods is スザク, the Vermilion Bird of the South. She seems to hold golden bracelets surrounding her wrists which are filled with feathers, she also bears a feather crest behind her back.

スザク Suzaku represents the fire-element, the direction south, and the season summer correspondingly.

Thus it is sometimes called the Vermilion bird of the South. It is known as Zhu Que in Chinese, Suzaku in Japanese. It is said to have the ability to reborn from the fire, just like the immortal bird in Western mythology, so it is also named fire phoenix. As a mythological creature, the phoenix is considered as a symbol of good luck.

When I picked up the pamphlet above, I also scored a few tidbits, such as this little Godzilla charm.

I saw these two Inari Fox heads so I had to add them to my Foxy collection.

I did not expect to receive a bear's head eating a salmon.

And YAY, another Migi to add to my collection!

If you want some Halloween music that gets you dancing, Whatever Happened to the Transylvania Twist is the place to start to boogie.