Random crap.
Ulan asked me what picture I wanted her to draw, so I asked her to draw a picture of Yoda fleeing from seagulls. This is what she drew.
“One day I was walking and I found this big log. Then I rolled the log over and underneath was a tiny little stick. And I was like, ‘That log had a child!'”
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.
As I was growing up, back in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, in the far end of the parking lot of the shopping mall , you’d see a little booth with a drive-through window. A lone employee would be inside (I always wondered how he/she takes restroom breaks). There you would drop off your photographic film for overnight development. So instead of taking your film to the drug store, you could just drop it off at one of these kiosks without having to leave your car.
According to Wikipedia, the film was developed and prints made on-site. I always assumed that the film was sent off to a lab somewhere and then re-delivered to the Fotomat location. It was convenient and I remember in the ’80s how I was in the backseat of that Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme when Mom would drop off film for developing.
With the advent of digital photography, eventually Fotomat went extinct. I hope someday that many big, evil companies like Pfizer and Bayer-Monsanto will someday go extinct and their products never used again.
I’m a day late, but it’s still technically Christmas in America now…
I took a photo of my nerd cave late at night, two years ago. I have a better camera this time. I also have added more stuff since then, like my light-up Starship Enterprise atop my monitor. This is a better view of the iron bead pixel art on the wall.
A closer look at my Pac-Man light. It’s actually LEDs, made to look like a neon sign.
My Pac-Man lamps, with a Dragon Quest Slime in between, atop my Megadrive game collection.
My blue paper lantern now lights up the far corner of the nerd cave.
My Aliens and Empire Strikes Back posters, and to the left side are my Record of Lodoss War action figures.
My video gaming pillow collection: Megadrive, Saturn, and Dreamcast cushions, pillows and tissue covers, as well as Pac-Man pillows. Ulan likes to plop on these pillows and chill out. I’ve shown the Sega stuff from Shimamura previously on this blog.
Tonight we went to Keyaki Walk Mall in Maebashi and at Loft there was a big selection of Dragon Quest goods. Neat stuff.
Plenty of Slime plush dolls and other items.
Sofubi figures.
“Paper theater.” I wonder what these are?
This slime cushion looks comfortable.
CUTE.
So much neat crap, like pens and rulers.
The pen was tempting, but I bought the sticker sheet and roll of tape instead. My daughter Ulan isn’t has big into Dragon Quest as she used to be a few years ago. From when she was in elementary school, she especially played the Slime Adventures games on the GBA, DS, and 3DS so much. She also played the heck out of DQ9 on the DS and read the manga over and over again when she was younger. Now she doesn’t get as excited over Dragon Quest stuff like she used to. Oh how kids change…
Last Saturday, we were visiting the Takasaki Station area and while shopping in the Opa Mall, I suggested we visit the cat cafe there on the 4th floor. For 700 yen per person, you can spend 30 minutes inside, and incremental minutes after then are paid extra if you wish to stay longer. You must buy one drink, so I ordered a chai latte. It was so delicious! I haven’t had chai tea in a very long time.
As we sat down, the meow-meows were keenly interested in us, most likely looking for treats that we bought for 200 yen at the counter. Some were very excited about the chai latte, and one was like, “Dude, CREAM. Kick ass!” He lunged his paw into my drink and began licking it off. One kitty with a blue scarf just parked himself on my leg and I let him lap up a lot of the cream.
The kitties there were beautiful and very well-groomed, but they weren’t very affectionate. It seems like they were selected for their appearance rather than their personality. I think it’s mostly because they see people come and go constantly all day, so they don’t really bond to people. You can pet them, but most seemed a bit indifferent and selfish. Their attitude was like, “Oh, you no longer have any treats? Well, bye then.”
There is a black cat I often see in a side street I often take to get to my car after work. I think she must be old as I can feel her bones under her skin. I call her “Mya-Meow.” I call out to her and she replies, and she comes up to me. We can keep up a dialogue that way as she is rather vocal. She’s usually under a car in a driveway. She is always happy to see me, and she lets me pick her up and cradle her like a baby. When I leave, she follows me for a while, calling out to me, begging me to come back and spend more time with her. Her fur is usually dirty and she isn’t well-groomed, but she loves me and never wants me to go.
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.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly two years already! In summer ’22, my wife Mayu brought home a baby toad from her work. A coworker had a batch of baby toads and gave one to Mayu. He was so tiny at first! Some toad species are hatched as toads rather than as tadpoles first, but I believe this species are tadpoles although he already had legs when we got him. This guy was tinier than a grain of rice! He was such a dark color, nearly black. When we put him in the plastic box with dirt, he was so dark and tiny that he was hard to see. You couldn’t see him unless you looked very hard. Ulan named him Kuromaru, which is a ninja-sounding name (kuro is “black” in Japanese). It was an appropriate name, since he was nearly black and could blend in with his surroundings, like a ninja.
A few years ago when I first started this blog, we had a Japanese rhinocerous beetle named Pun-chan whom we cared for for a very long time. She lived much longer than expected because of the care we gave her. Now we have this cute toad. He has grown so big since we first got him!
Kuromaru has such a big belly! Here he is posing with his bath. When we first got him, his bath was a bottlecap. Now it’s a big plastic container. Toads like water, but they are not good swimmers like frogs are. They also do not sing like frogs. He is always quiet.
He’s so cute!