Random crap.
Fujicolor 200 slide film photography taken with a Canon AE-1 Program camera. This is the Shimokitazawa Minami-guchi Shoutengai (Shimokitazawa Station south exit’s shopping street). The Shimokitazawa district is young and alive, and is an alternative to Harajuku. I took this photo for my college photography class at ASU West.
To commemorate the release of “Macross: Do You Remember Love?” on 4k bluray, the movie has been simultaneously re-released on the big screen, shown exclusively at Toho Theaters. From where I live, the two closest Toho theaters are either in Fujimi, Saitama Prefecture or Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture.
My friend Adrian and I went to see the movie at the Toho Cinema in Utsunomiya. My friend was only familiar with Plus and Frontier, but had never seen the original. It was shown on screen 6 and there was this mini poster outside of the entrance in the picture above. It was an incredible experience to see this in a theater for the first time.
It was fully surround sound, too. In 2020, during the beginning of the madness of the era of Corona-chan when every other theater seat was taped off for the purposes of the “social distancing” nonsense (junk science), several Studio Ghibli movies were being shown in theaters to keep their revenue going. I took the opportunity to see Nausicaa at the cinema. It was in stereo only, which wouldn’t have been so bad, but only the front two left/right speakers were active. If they would have just had all of the left speakers duplicated for the left channel and all of the right speakers active for the right channel it wouldn’t have been so noticeable, but only the front two speakers by the screen were active and it took a while to get used to that. It was a cool experience to see Nausicaa on the big screen, but with the sound the way it was, it felt like I was watching it on a very big TV screen, far away. Seeing DYRL really dwarfed that experience.
The beginning of the credits with the song “Tenshi no Enogu” featured the animation from Flashback, which has been the standard since the second laserdisc release. The decapitation scenes were not edited, so this was the original movie experience (plus the Flashback concert animation). I’m gonna buy this release.
I’m glad my friend could go with me. My daughter calls this the “uaki (“cheating”) movie” because she was on Team Minmay when she first saw it, and was offended when Hikaru kissed Misa in the underwater city. I have this same movie poster on my wall, so I guess she was expecting the movie to be a love story between Hikaru and Minmay and she got pissed. So whenever I’d play this laserdisc movie, she’d gripe a bit. Now I wanna get it on bluray and make her gripe more!
We both had popcorn in the theater, but after the movie we were hungry for dinner. Since we were in Utsunomiya and it was Adrian’s first time visiting the city, we found a gyoza restaurant in front of Utsunomiya Station. Utsunomiya is famous for gyoza, after all.
There were many types of gyoza to choose from. This is “pakchi gyoza.” “Pakchi” is the Thai word for coriander, or “cilantro” as it’s known by in the USA where we use the Spanish word for the herb. Many people in Japan hate pakchi because to them it smells like stinkbugs. I’ve heard that said often. I really do not think it smells like stinkbugs at all. It has such a fresh, green smell that I find refreshing. Fortunately, my wife likes pakchi. It’s amusing because most Japanese people love eating natto, which stinks and its taste triggers my puking instinct. I can’t describe its stench, but it really smells bad. So in the same way many Japanese people cannot eat pakchi, I cannot eat natto. I could taste spicy nampla (fish sauce), giving the gyoza a Thai-style taste. Garnished with cilantro on top, it was very good. The restaurant also had “negi mayo” (green onion and mayonnaise) as well as cheese gyoza. Fantastic food. I didn’t have any alcohol because I had to drive us back home to Gunma Prefecture.
We listened to a lot of Ramones and The Clash in the car there and back. It was a great evening.
A new 7-11 opened recently in Kawaba, Gunma Prefecture and perhaps due to local town ordinances or something, this 7-11 has wood paneling and the sign is brown. It’s the only one in Japan, apparently. My wife Mayu said it’s just like the turquoise-colored McDonalds in Sedona, AZ—the only one in the world. Sedona has particular guidelines for signage, and the garish yellow and red of a McDonalds sign was changed to turquoise to comply with Sedona’s ordinances. Maybe this is why this 7-11 is made like this. This is very unique and pretty.
The Hirose River runs through central Maebashi, and the Ryokuchi Park here is a tranquil oasis in the urban landscape. Last year, Mayu and I discovered this park in summertime. On Monday morning, we had time to kill after dropping our daughter off for her sports club activity. It had rained that morning, so this July morning was pleasant and cool.
The trees grow tall here along the river. Apartment buildings (or condos?) line either side. It is envious to think of how peaceful it must be to live here, to always hear the rushing of water in the river.
Summer ornaments decorate the trees, made by students.
A poem called “Kokoro” (“Heart”) is carved into the bricks of the pedestrian path. I didn’t stop to read it all.
Here is where there is a strong waterfall.
Here is a water wheel, but no water was flowing through it. There are also statues lining the path.
This is a place of urban beauty.
Mayu and I went to a game center today and we played this Cup Noodle game called Fun Fun Cup. Insert 100 yen and the game releases colored plastic balls which you toss into the cup. the lid opens and closes… sometimes fully open, sometimes partially open. We scored 53 balls in 60 seconds.
Pointy Max finds pointy symmetry with Mt. Fuji.
Pointy Max seeks solace in Aokigahara Jukai Forest in Japan.
Pointy Max pauses to reflect upon the beauty of Shiraito Falls.
Samenyan (“Shark-Meow”) is a new character by a company called Mofusand.
Oh my gosh, this cat is so cute I could just SCREAM.
So in case you haven’t noticed, Japan is weird. I am weird. My wife is weird. Our daughter is weird. My motto is you’re either weird or boring. I choose weird.
Meow.
You may not have ever heard of these two girls from Scotland, but Strawberry Switchblade made a HUGE impact on Japanese pop music and culture in the ’80s. Resembling something like dime store doll versions of Siouxsie, these two girls harmonized wonderfully to make cheerful New Wave pop music, infusing bubblegum sweet melodies with lyrics of melancholy. That android from Robot Carnival immediately comes to mind when I see their clothes. When you watch them, you can see their impact on ’80s J-pop and Harajuku fashion echoes their cute, punk rock doll aesthetic to this day. I see where Strawberry Switchblade heavily influenced the J-pop singing duo Wink in the ’80s. I can definitely see how their fashion aesthetic was a precursor to the “goth loli” fashion which sprang out of Osaka 20+ years ago.
While I was building the KUKQ playlist I mentioned in my previous post, their video for “Since Yesterday” kept showing up in my recommendations on YouTube. I finally clicked on it and loved what I heard. Then the more I thought about it, I unlocked a forgotten memory. I remember hearing a song by them on KUKQ when I was in high school, which was probably this same song. I remember hearing the name of the band and thought that they were so cool, but since I didn’t write it down and I never heard them again on the radio, I forgot all about them.
Their song “Since Yesterday”:
“Poor Hearts” (I particularly love the chiming guitar in this song, and it reminds me of a cross between Siouxsie & the Banshees and Kitchens of Distinction.
A brief history on Strawberry Switchblade:
Interviews on Japanese TV:
Super neat stuff. I bought their CD, and hopefully it will arrive sometime this week. You can see how deeply they inspired the J-Pop band, Wink.
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.
I attended the Numata Matsuri on Thursday night.