We were at a store called Chambre and we found a sort of beret that looks like a Slime from Dragon Quest. Ulan tried it on. Not something she’d wear regularly though.
Ulan found a Slime hat
Ulan enjoyed drawing pictures
I was recently asked to prepare an activity for junior high-level English classes to have students use gerund phrases as modifiers for verbs. I took an idea from my coworker to have the students use whiteboards draw pictures which describe sentences that they put together by drawing cards at random. I made a stack of noun cards with pictures (Darth Vader, Michael Jackson, Taylor Swift, a pencil, etc), a verb (enjoyed, started, or finished), plus a gerund phrase (baking cookies, talking to plants, reading a Harry Potter book, etc). The picture would depend on the verb, whether its something that just began, just finished, or is in progress. I played this game with my daughter Ulan. She used her digital blackboard to draw pictures. We played several rounds.
Bananas started swimming in yogurt.
Elmo enjoyed playing the drums.
My neighbor’s stupid dog started riding a dinosaur.
Gunma-chan (Gunma Prefecture’s mascot) finished wrestling an octopus.
Anya finished hunting a Totoro.
Sponge Bob started stalking AKB48.
My cat finished building a time machine.
A muffin started stealing cars.
My grandmother enjoyed punching Luffy.
Ulan likes drawing goofy pictures, so this was a perfect way to play with English on a Sunday afternoon.
More Sega love from Shimamura, plus other game-related stuff for home
These are plush tissue covers I bought on discount at Shimamura, the Mega Drive and Dreamcast. There was also an SG-1000 tissue cover, but I passed on that because I have no emotional attachment to that old console.
One more Mega Drive bath towel!
This is a blanket of a pixelated Neo Kobe skyline from Konami’s game Snatcher I bought on Ali Express. My wife is holding it up for me to take this picture. It is so soft that Ulan got jealous. So, I got her a Dragon Quest Slime blanket from Ali Express for her as a Christmas present. Snuggly girl is snuggly.
My new Sega towels from Shimamura
I went back to Shimamura a few days later and found Sega towels on sale! They were all discounted from their regular price. For each of the Megadrive, Saturn and Dreamcast, I bought hand towels, face towels, and bath towels. The hand and face towels are a two towel set.
Here are the hand towels:
Here are the face towels:
And here are the bath towels:
BONUS! Here is a set of Urusei Yatsura’s Lum-chan face towels I also bought:
My Sega jumper jackets from Shimamura
Several years ago, I bought these jumpers at Shimamura and posted them on my Tumblr feed. I’ll repost these pics here.
This next one has Megadrive, Saturn, and Dreamcast patterns. It’s also slightly warmer than the Dreamcast one.
My new Sega cushions from Shimamura
Shimamura has come through again, this time with block cushions. This time I was late, as these were released in September. I learned about these by doing a web search. Like those Sega pillows I bought last year, these are detailed on the underside and since these are block cushions, the sides are detailed too.
Neat stuff.
My daughter’s self portrait
Ulan drew a picture of herself in pencil today.
Pac-Man stuff found at the Can Do 100 yen store
A few weeks ago, a couple of students of mine alerted me to the 100 yen shop Can Do having plenty of neat Pac-Man crap in stock. On my lunch break, I had to go check it out for myself. I scored plenty of neat stuff! This photo is of my loot: clear stickers, zip storage bags, two sizes of masking tape, a keychain, stickers, a trading card, and a memo notepad. Score!
Spy Family coffee
I dunno whether to call the show “Spy Family” or “Spy x Family.” I’Ve seen a lot of Suntory Coffee Boss Spy Family products at drug stores lately. The top picture is peanut-flavored café au lait. I bought this box, but I have yet to try it. I’ll show this in the next Japanese snacks video I upload to my YT and Odysee channels.
Unfortunately, the Spy Family movie won’t be out until December! By that time, it will have been a year since the 2nd season on TV ended. They’re making us wait a whole year.
Ulan is the friend to all dragonflies
We went to the trout farm in Katashina two weeks ago, and enjoyed the cool 28°C. As always, the air was filled with dragonflies flying about.
There is a trick to catching dragonflies. As you know, they like to land on the reeds standing out above the water, right? If you point your finger up, the dragonflies might land on your finger. Ulan is a master at it!
