The Fool on the Hillside.

When kidnapped by my computer expert, I was briefly released to visit Hillside Mall in the suburb, Nishikigaoka. There was a little festival going on where I ate a banana otherwise not much else to see. Inside though...

First stop, a new shop called Candy Land. It's an offshoot of "From USA" and deals in lots of retro goods from disembowelled Snoopy books to Rat Fink rip offs. I bought a set of 10 Peanuts pages on the hope that I receive a Great Pumpkin page and two stickers depicting a zooming Creature from the Black Lagoon and a sexy Alien with a decapitated C-3PO. 

(Update, no Great Pumpkin. Alas.)

Next stop was Kamoriya Bunkadou Shoten, a fancy name for a 5 & Dime shop that sells old toys and sweets. Best variety and cheapest prices of any that I've seen.

I bought a couple of candies because they depicted monsters and because I get a stamp with them. 

It turns out that the candy IS the stamp!

Very crunchy!

I also bought 4 Conan eggs at half price. 

Oops, they're series 1 and I have the complete set. Oh well, the chocolate is still tasty.

Yay! A pair of Gegege stickers!

Boo! I only got humans, no Yokai!

I bought some puffy stickers because they're Halloween themed (duh) and because I need some to put on the back of my phone so it doesn't slide around.

 

I also picked up a Pez because why not?

In the past I have occasionally discovered some cool Menko here. Oooh, this one has a dragon...

Doh! It's a samurai with a Dragon helmet. Still cool nonetheless.

I have no idea what to do with the obverse of these discs.

Best score though is this Boar mask used by a character from a popular manga/anime whose name eludes me.

I think the frizzled hair and scruffy beard adds to the look. Unfortunately, this will have to be a gift for a child because the elastic is too taut for my fat head.

Then the most dangerous store in the mall, Toy Store Warehouse. Some DC Domez featuring the Batman family including a few doubles for presents. Alas, I didn't get the secret one though I did complete the basic set.

Hmm. I suspect there's an intruder in the Batcave.

Also some Moji that I don't already have a SW helmet.

How could I resist this guy? He's Smoaking!

A set of five mini-towels for under 3 bucks.

And on the first day of the Countdown, I vowed that if I were to find a Backbeard for sale, I'd grab one. Lo and behold!

Here are the first few pages of my Yokai book including the index entry for World Yokai.

My kidnap adventure did not end here but now it's bedtime...

Saturday Dance Party!

A friend came over and helped me solve my computer Blogger dilemma. For some reason, my server Chrome was blocking stuff, so he gave me a new server, Opera. Bob's your uncle! So tonight's blog is courtesy of a Night at the Opera.

Unfortunately, he then kidnapped me and took me to Yamagata so I didn't have a chance to blog yesterday. BUT, I did buy a ton of loot of which I shall showcase here later tonight. 

Now back to our regularly schedule Countdown entry...

This pic shows several Boogeymen boogieing away. I'll try and enlighten you as to who is whom.

In the lower left corner on guitar, べーたら (Betara?), is a fellow from India. Although it doesn't look like one, it's probably a sitar. He may be of Shiva's avatars, Batara Guru or Bathala. I dunno.

Above him is a Cyclops called ダスザ (Dasuza?) from Brazil. There is NO other pictures or data on him in the book, so I scammed this from the net...

Next to Dasuza is a very creepy skeletal dude called ハイタデンカ (Haitadenka) from Belgium. Not sure what he's up to in the next picture, but he could be a succubus.

He (it) appears to be dancing with the lovely 樹霊 (Jurei) from Sweden. I think she's the soul of an old tree.

Also in the above picture is the seductress Lorelei (ローレライ), from Germany, a Witch-Rusaruka (まじょルサルカ) from the former USSR, ぐェティア Güestia from Spain and a French Dragon.

Back to the dance party is our old pal Frankenstein (the Creation, not the Creator), who is Swiss, based on Victor's background. Dancing beside him is the aforementioned wee lass, Witch-Rusaruka. 

The tusked character playing flute is an Onna-Yasha 女夜叉 from China.

I scammed from the Twitterers a great pic of her menacing the Gegege crowd.

Floating above them all in the upper right-hand corner is a ルーガー (Ruu-gaa ) from  New Guinea. I can't find anything on it though it appears to be some kind of fiery wraith.

On the bongos is a dude called ツァジグララル (Tsajigurararu?) who apparently comes from America yet he seems more South American to me.

In the centre of the picture is a horned gal called 夜叉マラ (Yasha-Mara) from northern Europe. Wait a sec, in the colour photo above, I thought it was a she, yet here it is clearly a guy. He looks like the worst masseur/masseuse ever!

Holding his/her hand is 悪霊 (Akuryou) from Greenland who is an Inuit evil spirit.

カー (Kaa) is not the Snake from Jungle book, but some creature from Egypt. (It's tough to Google this guy without just coming up with a lot of pictures of cars.)

Phew, that was quite the handful of Yokai. I think I'll save these colour pictures for the weekend, there are way too many characters to do it justice otherwise. 

Now True Confession time. While researching these creatures, I came across a blog-post of MINE from a decade ago. Apparently I DO already own this book and wrote about it a long time ago. This time around, I'll try and use different pics. (Technically, I AM blogging from a different book. The one I used before is sitting on a shelf buried behind some toys. This one was recently purchased.

Mmmm, candy covered bananas resembling Minions, Smurfs (?), Pikachu or Totoro. I ate a Pikachu.

Move along now...Nothing to see here.

Playing Trump.

No, I'm not getting political here (and rarely ever will), even with the big news today. My speculation is that it's a lie. A certain someone has been known to prevaricate before. I'm talking about "Trump" as in the Japanese term for playing cards. I often play cards on Friday nights so I'd love to get into a match with this table full of players.

These are the players in question though it’s difficult to discern their actual names.

The vampiric ブイイ (Buii from 旧ン連 = Former Soviet Union.) who is often portrayed phallically.

Here’s another picture to prove my point. 

I wouldn’t mind buying this if I see it at a reasonable price. 

(Those last two pics were scammed from the Net, not my book.)

In the lower right corner is a ケースマンテル (Kesmantle from Austria and I have no idea what it is).

バックベアード (Backbeard?? Some kind of strange spider-like eye from America.

Backbeard has quite the history with the Gegege gang as well. 

Your basic run of the mill ポルターガイスト (European Poltergeist).

Below him is a balding ピクラス (Pikras) from Latvia

I hope I win the pot legitimately, I don't think that this crowd takes too kindly to strangers cheating. 

Maybe if I were to wear this. (Thank you 100¥ shop.)

I have a video of this mask but am having difficulty uploading it (thank you "improved" Blogger.)

Woohoo! Success!

Today’s treat is a pack of Pocky, which I plan to send to a friend in Canada if I get around to it. 

Hey! You even get a cutout mask!

See ya tomorrow, I'm off to go play Trump...

Mooning you.

Until I can figure out how to upload from my pc, looks like I’ll have to do so from my phone!!

I scored this book on sale for 50¥ a few weeks back and I’ll borrow photos from it daily  

Boy the spacing is very wonky.

This book is all about non-Japanese yokai and monsters, written and drawn by Shigeru Mizuki who created the manga series Gegege no Kitaro.

Since today is お月見の日 (Autumn Moon Viewing Day), I’ll include this entry about a werewolf. 

Here’s another entry only it’s about moths (well they’re attracted to moonlight, aren’t they?)

That’s pretty gross.

I was very pleased to find this dude greeting me as I entered one of my schools today. If I have time closer to Halloween, I’ll teach them how to carve it, rather than just drawing in a face with markers.

Another addition shall be my Trick or Treat. Today’s treat are these incredibly sweet yet tasty choco-pops.

Finally, here are a couple of shots of last night’s moon taken with my phone. Lameness guaranteed or your money back!

Moon over Mandai!

Fortunately one of my roving reporters with far more patience and a superior camera snapped this for me.

Alas, my entries are going to be short and sweet until I can overcome my Blogger woes.

My thanks to the Countdown’s new crypt keepers, Michelle and Michael.  

See ya tomorrow!

It's Countdown to Hallowe'ene'en!

'Twas the night before Countdown, when all through the house, Michael neglects blogging, oh what a louse. 

I may have missed the deadline to join in the annual Blogger Countdown event  but regardless, I shall persevere and plug away at an entry (or two) a day between now and October 31st. 

Okay this is my first entry since the NEW IMPROVED BLOGGER and the spacing is all out of whack. And I CANNOT UPLOAD PHOTOS! What's up with that? IF I can't figure this out, perhaps I shan't be joining the Countdown! ARRRGH!!

You Blockhead!

Last Friday, I just happened to be doing some banking at Aeon Mall in Natori, when I noticed that there was a Snoopy Sports Arena event.

 

The first thing I found was a Pop-up store selling tons of overpriced Peanuts goods. I did manage to find a few items that suited my fancy. (Clear Files, natch.)

A couple of classics in A-4.

And Snoopy as a ninja in B-5.

 

Around the corner was a makeshift game room for kiddies but the winner receives some stickers so I dropped my 200￥ and tried my skills. I got two out of three baskets which ain't too bad.

My putting was not that great and managed to get one in the bunker, all the others overshot. There was a game where one jumps rope which powers a rocket to the moon. Since I couldn't skip to save my life, there was a fortunate alternative where you just shake a leather strap up and down. I aced it! Finally came the soccer challenge and unsurprisingly, I managed to only succeed in getting one ball through the 10-point target. Regardless, I still scored my stickers!!

I convinced some passersby to snap a photo of me outside the Pop-up. Who is more かっこいい, Joe Cool or I?

Finally the gals at the Sporting event gladly took my pic amongst my fellow Peanuts.

Unfortunately, the Pop-up is now defunct but keep an eye out, it could pop up in another Aeon in the future.

I was planning on writing this on Sunday but got too caught up in watching The Peanuts Movie. It was only shown here in a dubbed version and titled "I Love スヌーピー" so I never got a chance to see it before.



Nice to see Charlie Brown receive the accolades he deserves. (Oops. Spoiler Alert...)