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My nerd cave late at night, updated August 2024.

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.

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Dragon Quest campaign at Loft 2024

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…

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At the cat cafe

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.

YUM.

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.

It’s Mya-Meow! (I don’t know her real name.)
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Ryokuchi Park in Maebashi

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.

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“Fun Fun Cup” Cup Noodle arcade game

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.

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Mayu’s beloved pet toad, Kuromaru

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!

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Ulan found a Slime hat

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.

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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.

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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.

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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: