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Assault Suit Leynos, a remake of the classic Megadrive game (called Target Earth on the Genesis) on Steam

Masaya’s “Assault Suit” series of side-scrolling mecha combat action games is fantastic. My first exposure to the series was Assault Suit Valken, aka “Cybernator” for North America, on the Super Nintendo. I played the crap out of that game, and then I later got Target: Earth for my Genesis. But Valken/Cybernator’s control was fantastic due to the extra buttons of the Super Famicom/Super Nintendo. Playing Target: Earth/Leynos with only 3 buttons, plus the inferior graphics, did not help me to enjoy the game much. I’ve played it again more recently on my Megadrive Mini, and it still just doesn’t play as well as it could, if only there were more buttons. I did, however, play Assault Suits Leynos 2 on the Saturn quite a lot and completed it.

So this is a remake of Leynos on Steam, and it is fantastic. It features Japanese voice acting for when the anime-style characters speak. For some dumb reason, the anime characters were removed for the North American Cybernator port, and I did a review of that game on my old Super Famicom page here. With extra shoulder buttons, this game plays very well. Of course it retains the 2D gameplay, but with updated graphics and beautiful lighting effects.

The game has mixed reviews on Steam, but I suspect that many are from people who are unfamiliar with the original game. I rather enjoyed it, and I waited for it to go on sale before nabbing it. Definitely give it a try if you are a fan of the series.

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Happy Mother’s Day

Hope you had a nice Mother’s Day. This Spy Family ad for Ghana Chocolate says, “Sometimes Mom coddles me too.”

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Automated Dalek waiter robots in Japan

Crap. We’re doomed. So in the past few years, these robot waiters have proliferated here in Japan. With all this talk of AI, maybe it’s only a matter of time before these become self aware and decide to revolt against humans.

So the Chinese restaurant chain Bamiyan (owned by the Gusto/Skylark group which also owns the Yume-An Japanese restaurant chain) has this completely FAWESOME Taiwanese fry bread topped with vanilla ice cream and smothered in honey, and it reminds me of the sopapillas back home in Arizona I miss so much (which can only be found in Arizona and New Mexico). Ulan and I discovered this on their dessert menu in April and holy crap, I just want to eat that every week now.

What scares me is this robot that served us. It’s like a cross between a Dalek from Doctor Who and R2-D2 from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (back when Star Wars was cool).

I kept expecting it to exclaim, “EXTERMINATE!” Every time it came to our table, I tell Ulan, “Ohmygosh, it’s come back to kill us again!” But really if you think of it, how delightful it would be to be murdered by such an adorable robot. It even has a cute face and what resembles cat ears. How sweet.

But just think… once these robot servers become more advanced, we’ll have to face something more frightening. This man in the picture above didn’t leave a good enough tip, so now his robot waiter is murdering him to death in the parking lot. The man is obviously not having a good day. Of course, this won’t be a problem here in Japan since there is no tipping, but who knows what the future has in store?

And of course, we ordered milk tea boba drinks (called “tapioca” drinks here in Japan, despite these actually not being tapioca). Ulan loves these, and unfortunately the Mini Stop convenience stores no longer serve boba drinks and it sucks. But at least Bamiyan serves them. Happy Ulan is happy.

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She bangs the drums

Ulan-chan’s brass band performed for a street festival in town on April 29th. They played three anime songs. Mayu and I snuck around to the back of the stage to get a good view of her. Here’s the video I took. Enjoy!

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Ulan-chan’s 15th birthday

Today is May 5th, Children’s Day in Japan. It’s also my daughter Ulan’s birthday! This lucky girl has her birthday on a national holiday. So the picture above is a cake for Children’s day (Kodomo no Hi) for the rest of the family to enjoy, and this was her own personal birthday cake:

Here’s the neat crap she got for her birthday. I got her a Dragon Quest Slime pillow with some Chiikawa character stuff. Chiikawa is some new cute character animation she’s really into and watches the videos on YouTube. I think it’s boring, but whatever. Happy girl is happy. We love you, Ulan-chan.

Oh yes, and while we were having cake, a mag 6 earthquake hit Ishikawa Prefecture, right on the peninsula. Klaxons were going off and there was even a countdown to what was supposed to be a mag 3 here, but we couldn’t feel a thing.

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Exercising our 2nd Amendment rights on aluminum cans

I was going through a box of photos and found this picture of two right wing terrorists massacring some aluminum cans. This was over two decades ago! I believe this was autumn 2002, after we had moved back from Japan that August. My uncle Gary took us to his favorite spot called Yellow Jacket off of the Black Canyon Highway and Mayu got to shoot my .22 rifle. I still had some hair then. I think we had a picnic and it was a fun day. The only ones who didn’t enjoy themselves that day were the aluminum cans.

Here is Mayu with Uncle Gary. She enjoyed shooting that day.

The neat thing about Yellow Jacket is that the soil has washed away underneath the tree roots, so the trees just stand up from out of the ground. It’s pretty wild. Here is Mayu sitting underneath one of the trees.

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A heartwarming father to daughter talk regarding the movie Aliens…

The local grocery store now carries pita bread, so I made Greg-version Turkish/Greek kebab sandwiches for dinner Saturday night. While eating, I put in the Aliens DVD again. My daughter Ulan voiced her displeasure at the first chestburster scene. I said, “Hey, this movie is about FRIENDSHIP. Because when everyone is getting killed in horrible ways by hideous space monsters, friends are all you have left!”

She probably thinks I’m crazy, but someday, she’ll learn. She’ll also learn that there were only TWO Alien movies ever made. The rest are feldercarb.

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“Hide Yer Eyes” by Slowdive

This song reminds me of a wonderful girl from Ireland I once knew. She was a girl whose kindness had helped lift me from a dark cloud of loneliness and despair, yet I couldn’t do the same for her as she was wasting away from anorexia and became withdrawn. I then found love with another girl, so far away in Japan. But this Irish girl was a kindred spirit, a hurting soul like me. When she transferred to a college out of state, I felt her absence and it made me sad. Although I married the girl in Japan, I wish I could have held onto the Irish girl’s friendship forever. I was always such a lonely nerd, yet I found myself in a love triangle between two beautiful, lovely foreign girls with black hair. This was 24 years ago…

Silly girl
You don’t look so good
There’s nothing here that makes you feel the way you should
The summer’s gone and you’ve lost your way
Why hide your heart
You know it’s always such a waste
Seeing you cry and it makes me sad
Makes me think that I should hold you everyday
Miss you always
Even if you hit the ground
Miss you always
Even if you’re here someday

Silly girl
It’s just a way to go
There’s nothing cool that makes my heart stay away
I’ve seen you cry and it makes me sad
Don’t hide your eyes
You know it’s always such a waste
Miss you always
Even when you hit the ground
Miss you always
Even when you’re here to play

この歌は、知っていたアイルランド出身の素敵な女の子を思い出させた。 彼女は孤独と絶望の暗い雲から 僕を助けてくれた優しい女の子だったが、彼女が拒食症で衰弱していたので、 僕は彼女のために同じことをすることができなかった. そして、遠く離れた日本で、別の女の子と恋に落ちた。 しかし、このアイルランドの女の子は、 僕と同じように心の傷を負った魂のようなものだった。 彼女が州外の大学に転校したとき、 僕は彼女の不在を感じ、悲しくなった。  僕は日本の女の子と結婚したが、アイルランドの女の子との友情を永遠に保ちたいと思っていた.  僕はいつもとても孤独なオタクだったが、黒髪の2人の美しくて素敵な外国人の女の子の間の三角関係に陥っていた. これは24年前…

愚かな少女
君はかわいそう
ここには、本来あるべき姿を感じさせるものは何もない
夏が過ぎて君は道に迷った
なぜ心を隠すの
君はそれがいつもとても無駄なことを知っているさ
君が泣くのを見ると、僕は悲しくなるよ
毎日君を抱きしめるべきだと思わせてくれる
いつも会いたい
良く出来るときも
いつも会いたい
いつか君がここにいても

愚かな少女
それはただのやる方法だ
心を遠ざけるようなカッコいいものはない
僕は君が泣くのを見てきて、僕を悲しくさせる
目を隠さないで
君はそれがいつもとても無駄なことを知っているさ
いつも会いたい
良く出来るときもいつも会いたい
遊びに来た時も