KYT Summer TV Line-Up Fest

(Miss Devil.)

It's the season for the local TV stations to announce their new Summer line-ups. KTS had their event two weeks ago, and now it's KYT's turn. At about Tuesday the week before, the workers started putting up the stage and the food booths, but there wasn't anything saying what everything was for. So, I was left guessing as to what the event was, and really hoping that the Kagoshima Music Fest hadn't been moved forward 2 weeks. Part of the confusion was that Dai Hanya, the big yosakoi dance fest and contest, would be on the same weekend, and they'd traditionally had some of their overflow dances held in Central Park. I didn't think these booths had anything to do with Dai Hanya, but I had no idea what else it could be.



Finally, on Friday, the workers had the walls set up with the TV show ads, and I could tell this was going to be for KYT. Fortunately, they also had the schedule on one of the panels, so I knew what the stage shows were going to be. Unfortunately, it was almost all advertising for the new shows, or the KYT TV hosts talking to each other. Very boring.



I had classes from 1-3 PM on Saturday, then a break and my final class at 7 PM.  I got out of the apartment right around 12:15, which gave me a couple minutes to swing by the park on my way to the school. Pictured above is the ninja version of the KYT TV mascot.



There were maybe 100-200 people at the time. The weather was good, and Golden Week was just starting, so families were out in force.



There were a lot of children's activities, including ball bumping.



Over at Tenmonkan, in front of Lotteria, we had an overflow space.



The overflow space included a practice set for children wanting to pretend to be a news anchor. There weren't many people early in the afternoon, but the place became a lot more crowded a few hours later.



Activities included making colored sand sculptures in a bottle.



And coloring in kids' book pages.



This balloon version of flying carp banners caught my eye.



I spent the majority of my break on Saturday down at Dolphin Port, watching Dai Hanya, and then shopping for milk for the week and having to bring that back to the apartment before the one evening class. The one time I was in Central Park, the only thing going on at the stage was a broadcast of the show hosts wandering around the food booths and pretending that the fast foods were worth the price mark-ups.



On Sunday, I swung by Central Park again on my way to Dolphin Port. I got in at about 2:30 PM, when there was supposed to be 90 minutes of live music hosted by Walk-In Studio. The schedule didn't show who was going to play, and when I arrived, one of the studio's staff was doing a sound check on the drums.

 

I figured I'd stick around long enough to see who the first group would be, and I took a few pictures of the drummer to have something to do. After a few minutes, one of the event staff walked up to me and said "no photos." Rather than bother getting angry with the guy, I simply left then and there, because I knew I'd be getting 3 solid hours of music and dancing at Dai Hanya.  Which I did. And believe me, I had a lot more fun at that than I ever would have at the KYT TV event. The crowds were bigger for Dai Hanya, too. In your face, KYT.

Wanwan Fest Apr., 2018

We need an expression to replace "when it rains, it pours."
The weather this past weekend was near-perfect. A bit cool in the shade, but very warm in the direct sunlight. A big departure from the past few weeks. The thing is, the City of Kagoshima had a LOT going on over the weekend, and there's still more coming up on Thursday and Friday. On top of all that, we're getting into Golden Week, the full 1-week national holiday in the Spring. I don't have any travel plans, and I do have some contract work I need to do during this period, but I am hoping to take it easy at some point, once I finish editing all my photos and videos (I took over 250 photos and 3 hours of video in the last 2 days...)



I'll start with Wan-Wan Fest, a celebration of all things dog, located in Tenmonkan in front of 7-11. The stage was pretty much dedicated to providing photo ops for owners and their pets, and for advertising dog care products. Nothing much I wanted to see, but I did like looking at some of the dogs in attendance.



There were a few activities for the dogs, such as this obstacle course, with fence jumping and hill climbing. The bulldog here was so busy panting, it never got around to running the course. There was also a frisbee catch event for bigger dogs at the other end of the arcade, but I didn't get to see much of that.



I had three lessons on Saturday, with a big break between 3 and 7 PM, but there wasn't much I wanted to look at in and around Tenmonkan. Instead, I went down to Dolphin Port to watch Dai Hanya. Unfortunately, I also had to do milk shopping for the week, and spent an hour at that, having to return to the apartment a mile away in the middle of the break to drop the milk off. Sigh.



I did swing back through Tenmonkan on Sunday at 2:30 PM on my way to Dolphin Port. Wan-Wan Fest was running strong again. For 500 yen (about $5 USD), you could have a professional dog groomer tend to your pet. The guy with the video camera is one half of the Party comedy duo. There's a TV monitor to his right, outside my photo, showing close-ups of the groomer as he trims this dog's fur. There was much ooh-ing and ah-ing as he worked.



Much fun was had by all.
After this, I passed through Central Park for the KYT TV event there, before walking to Dolphin Port. I stayed at the Port until 6 PM, watching the Dai Hanya dancers, then I went back home, before heading the opposite direction, to the main train station, for the big Beer Festa. I assume I didn't miss much else at Wan-Wan Fest.

Small Adventure 61

We get traffic cops at some of the busier intersections between Amu Plaza and down into Tenmonkan during evening rush hour. I never thought about them much, but there's no place for parking patrol cars nearby; I just kind of figured they walked over from neighboring police boxes (koban).

Well, the other day, I had to go to the Yamada Denki electronics store half a mile upstream, the other side of Kotsuki river. There's a major intersection just one block from the apartment, and when I got there at 5:30 PM, there were four beat cops directing traffic to allow pedestrians to cross at the lights. I walk to Yamada, taking my time and taking photos of birds down in the river. I get to Yamada, pick up my new camera battery, which had been on order for one week, then turn around and head back for the apartment. I get to the same intersection at about 6 PM, and the cops are gone. I don't really think much of this, as I keep walking in the general direction of Tenmonkan in order to get to the Shiroyama supermarket to buy juice for the next day.

About halfway between the apartment and Shiroyama is another busy through street, and on the other side, about 20 feet short of the end of the block is a senior care clinic. When I reached that street, I saw a whole bunch of people in uniforms standing on the sidewalk in front of the clinic, and my immediate thought was that one of the patients inside had suffered some kind of emergency and they'd summoned an ambulance, or that there was a fire in the building. As I got closer, I could make out the word "Police" on their jackets, and that they were wearing the crossing guard reflective vests. Then, I recognized one of the guards I'd seen at the other intersection 30 minutes earlier. So now, I'm figuring that they have a regular drop off and pick up schedule, and this is their main pick-up point.

I get to the corner about 30 feet past the loitering cops, and prepare to cross the street to their side to continue up the cross street to Shiroyama. As I do, a bus prepares to make a left turn in front of me, and the driver, another cop, waves me through the crosswalk in front of him. Which I thought was funny - the driver is another crossing guard, giving pedestrians the right of way from inside the vehicle. I get to the other side of the street, and the bus makes its turn, reaches the waiting crowd of cops, stops and lets them on.

On the back of the bus was the stamp, in metal, silver-plated letters - Citizen.

Busker 2

With the warmer weather comes the return of hopeful guitarists to the Tenmonkan arcade. Usually, they play in the evening after the shops close, but this woman was here in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday. Can't blame her - it was a nice day. She had four fans sitting and recording as she played, and I assume they were friends offering moral support.



Since she wasn't plugged in, it was hard to really hear her sing over the crowd noises. I guess she was kind of folk-pop



The sign advertises Haraguro and Reina Inada. I suppose that Haragura made the sign, and that Reina is the singer. Actually, searching around a bit on the net, it looks like Reina has been performing for a while now. My initial impression was that she sounded somewhat shaky, and she just needed more practice. But maybe the idea was to shoot a youtube-level music video of one of her songs.



If I see her in the arcade again, I may give her a more serious listen.

Escrimeshop Unfortunate Ad

I was walking through the Maruya Gardens department store and was just about to get on the escalator when this ad caught my eye. It was part of a loop of still images on a flat screen TV, and before I could get my camera out, it had gone to the next shop. I had to wait five minutes for the ads to recycle.



It was worth it.

Yamakataya Ad - Prep + Prime

Sometimes, I guess it's just better to not say anything about these ads, and simply walk away...

Small Adventure 60

Every so often, I have an hour or two to kill between English lessons at the school, and I need some place where I can sit down and just read, or something. One day, I was working on a math problem (the Collatz Conjecture), which consisted of just writing down a bunch of long chains of numbers on a sheet of paper. I decided to hang out at Junkudo Books, the big store in the Maruya Gardens department store. Junkudo has two long tables along the front wall, one on the 5th floor, and the other on the 6th, in front of the windows. Usually, people just grab books off the shelves and read at the tables for free, before putting the books back later. There's enough space for 6 people to read at each table at a time.

When I got to the 5th floor, there were 3 people sitting and reading at the table. I got my notebook and a clean sheet of paper out, sat down, and started writing out numbers. The Collatz chains consist of sequences of numbers that branch off from one another, forming kind of a tree, and they're long enough that you have to plan out how to turn them into spirals on the page. My goal was to write out the chains for 1 through 50 (the rules are, pick the number you want to start with. If it is even, divide by 2; if odd then multiply it by 3 and add 1. Repeat, and stop when the answer reaches 1.) After about an hour, I'd gotten almost done, with maybe 5 more minutes of work left, when one of the bookstore staff came up to me and asked me to leave, saying that the tables are only for people (not customers) that want to read in the store. I looked up, and all the other chairs were empty. I was the only one at the table. Rather than argue, I left (my next class was going to be in 15 minutes and I'd have to leave soon, anyway).

Still, I guess Junkudo didn't want me bothering all the non-customers not reading at the time.

Crayon Shin-chan Movie Board

New Shin-chan movie out in April - Kung-fu Boys.

Jan.-Apr. articles in the media

Here's the batch of articles to show up in the media from Jan.-Apr., regarding anime, manga and related stuff.

Japan Times

Japanese manga artist Kazuo Umezu wins French award

Nissan to become main sponsor of 'Sazae-san' anime after Toshiba drops out

Neflix is animated about anime

Sales of digital manga overtake print editions in Japan for first time

The anime industry readies for another gold rush

Popular 'Detective Conan' comic to return after four-month hiatus

Isao Takahata's gentle spirit enriched the world of Japanese animation

Japanese animation master and Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata dies at 82

'Golgo 13' assassin Duke Togo joins Foreign Minister Taro Kono in videos promoting safety overseas

Japan calls for 'emergency measure' blocking access to websites that pirate manga and anime

'Inuyashiki': It's a bird, it's a plane ... it's salaryman!

Daily Yomiuri

Satoko and Nada review

The Violence Action review

Violet Evergarden review

Pop Team Epic

Naoki Urasawa’s manga on show in Paris

Don’t mess with the film study club review

Shin Kibayashi, writer of The case file of Kindaichi

Pierre Giner, French manga translator

Diary of a laid-back life review

‘Your name.’ anime studio working with China

Eighty-year-old Mariko review

Books galore to hail manga legend Tezuka anniversary

A Place Further than the Universe review

Kumamoto Pref. honors ‘One Piece’ artist

Takahata elevated anime as Japanese culture

Netflix embarks on full-scale drive in anime business

Izakaya anime series released worldwide

Asahi

Japan-Saudi Arabia team up bears first fruit with anime short

Five Chinese arrested for translating, posting manga

‘Shin Godzilla’ co-director to helm anime on dragon pilot

Manga themed on Hansen’s disease wins wide recognition

‘Inuyashiki’ teaser shows Noritake Kinashi turn into cyborg

New buddy anime project for ‘Tiger & Bunny’ announced

Special Blu-ray box set to include new episode of ‘Yu Yu Hakusho’

‘Cutie Honey’ TV anime series to mark milestone in Nagai’s career

’Hozuki’s Coolheadedness’ Season 2 to resume in April

Aqours anime idols head for big screen in ‘Love Live! Sunshine!!’

‘Hisone to Masotan’ series to hit small screens in April

Exhibition devoted to Naoki Urasawa opens in Paris city hall

‘Lupin the Third: Part 5,’ with modern twist, to start in April

Evangelion bullet train set to ride into robot anime series

Miraculous ‘Sailor Moon’ attraction opens at USJ in Osaka

‘Chihayafuru’ exhibition set for Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka in spring

Less is more for manga e-reader featuring ‘Fist of the North Star’

New Tezuka magazine to run an unusual 'Princess Knight'

‘Gundam Build Divers’ to start in April on TV Tokyo network

‘Gegege no Kitaro’ marks 50th anniversary with season 6

‘Omagun’ manga heading to TV as anime series premiering April

Seibu Railway's romantic short about Chichibu now streaming

Tatsunoko studio releases workflow to help artists go digital

Panel draws ire by asking ISPs to block pirated manga sites

Hana Sugisaki caset as Rukia for live-action 'Bleach' movie

Early work from Makoto Shinkai to hit stage in Tokyo, Osaka

‘I Want to Eat Your Pancreas’ anime film to hit big screen in fall

Attack on Titan, vol. 25 review

(All rights belong to their owners. Image from Amazon.co.jp used for review purposes only.)

Attack on Titan, vol. 25, Hajime Isayama. Grade: B

Reiner is frozen in fear as the implications of Eren's presence here start dawning on him. Outside, Villy Tiber narrates a stage play for the gathered conquered leaders, initially repeating the old tale that King Fritz had been responsible for the ancient War of the Titans, until the Marle and Tiber factions joined forces to defeat the titans and banish Fritz to Paradis island. But, it's now time for the real truth to come out. Villy claims that because he has the powers of the Warhammer Titan, he has received visions. In these visions, Fritz the First was the true hero that saved everyone by luring the titans to Paradis, and using them to wall himself off from the outside world. He named the three rings of walls after the daughters of the original Ymir goddess (Maria, Rose and Sheena). It's the evil enemy of mankind, Eren Yeager, that killed Fritz and destroyed their era of peace. Villy wants to rally the people the Marle conquered to invade Paradis and defeat Eren. (In the middle of this, we get a flashback of Villy and Magot agreeing to this revision of history to justify the invasion.) During Villy's speech, Reiner cracks, begging Eren for understanding. Eren nods, heals his self-inflicted wounds, and turns into a titan as Reiner attempts to save Falco from being crushed in the enclosed basement.

Magot, at his station surveying the crowds for enemy, receives word that Peek and Porco have disappeared. They'd been approached by a Marle guard asking them to follow him, and it was a trap - they fell down a hole in the floor of one building, with Peek breaking her leg and Porco injuring his arm. They heal themselves. Peek hadn't trusted the soldier, and felt that she'd seen him before (it was Jan in disguise), so she got someone to tail them. The tail locates Peek at the bottom of the hole, and she and Porco are rescued. At this point, Eren bursts from his hiding place up through the stage under Villy, and kills and eats the guy. However, the true holder of the Warhammer power turns out to be his younger sister, and she turns titan and fights Toothy. Warhammer has the ability to create any kind of weapon it wants, from a crossbow to a big squisher hammer. To do this, though, its operator, the female Tiber, has to hide underground and encase herself in a defensive crystal. Eren almost gets to kill her, but the Porco and Peek titans (Jaws, and Armored Carrier) show up and rescue her. Eren summons the Survey crew, who had managed to hide in Eldia and prepared specifically for this moment sometime during the last 4 years. The survey crew go from building to building, securing the neighborhood and killing off all the Eldian and Marle soldiers.

Mikasa dislikes the number of dead children and civilians, and tries to get Eren to stop the carnage with the death of the Tiber girl. However, Warhammer is still going strong, and the tide turns against Eren, as Jeek shows up in Simian titan form. Reiner is missing, and Falco's condition is unknown. In all this, the status of the members of the younger titan-wannabe-squad are as follows: Falco - unknown; Wood - trampled when the audience panicked and bolted at the appearance of Toothy (dying); Sophie - crushed under a chunk of building (dead); Colt - last seen trying to get medical help for Wood (distracted); Gabby - she grabs a rifle and vows to kill the devil Eren (Magot was probably killed in a blast that took out his building). Simian orders Peek and Jaws to wipe out the invaders, while Jan and company are told to all come out of this alive.

Summary: Things escalated fast. All the wordy bits seem to be out of the way, and now we're getting to the big fight scenes. Both sides have loved ones they're trying to protect, so there's probably going to be a lot of disappointment somewhere in here. Still not my most favorite title, but recommended if you like the series.

High Score Girl Continue, vol. 8 review

(All rights belong to their owners.
Image from amazon.co.jp for review purposes only.)

High Score Girl Continue, vol. 8 (SquareEnix, 2017-18), by Rensuke Oshikiri. Grade: B+.
Every so often, I will get to wondering when the next volume of a specific manga will come out, and I'll do a name search on amazon.co.jp to see if something will pop up with a near-future release date. That's what I'd done for High Score Girl just recently, and there were no hints that vol. 8 was planned yet. A few days later, I'm at Junkudo bookstore, and there's number 8 already on the shelves. I wasn't expecting that, and I bought a copy right away.

There's really not so much of a story this time, though. The first part has Haruo facing criticism from his classmates, his mother, and Hina's older sister, Moemi, for his inability to choose between Hina Ohno and Koharu Hitaka for a girlfriend. All Haruo really wants is to play video game against strong opponents, and right now, Hina's the only one that can play at his level, but she's fickle and attacks him when he tries to get close to her, and Koharu is the only one that has expressed strong feelings for him. Later, Haruo is outside, looking for a game center to visit when he's kidnapped and driven to the Ohno estate. Hina's aged chauffeur has decided that Hina deserves a break from her studies, and wants the boy to spend the day with her playing fighting games in 2-player mode. Between the two of them, they easily clear the final stage bosses before going on to the next game. In the end, Haruo apologizes for her having seen him kiss Koharu, and Hina seems somewhat appeased. Haruo is allowed to return home.

But, soon after, Hina stops by Koharu's shop, and sits out in the cold wind in front of a Street Fighter machine as Koharu minds the family's shop. After an hour or two, Koharu's mother returns, allowing Koharu to accompany Hina to a game center. Hina pretty much never speaks for any reason, so Koharu finds herself compelled to talk for the two of them. She professes her attraction towards Haruo, and how she's willing to fight for him. The two girls start out with a strength test game (pulling a handle like you're doing arm curls). Koharu gets 79 kg, while Hina marks in with 176 kg. They sit down in front of the Street Fighter II consoles, and both girls accidentally end up missing selecting Ryu. Instead, Koharu plays Akuma, and Hina takes Zangief. Koharu works herself up into a frenzy by repeating that she is "a demon." In the first round, Hina simply defends, losing on points when the time runs out. Koharu starts out the second round trying to second-guess Hina's strategy, and she gets so wound up that she misses a beat in her attacks, and in that moment Hina gets in a low kick followed by a pile driver for the K.O. Koharu realizes suddenly that this is not a match between Zangief and Akuma, but between herself and Hina. Koharu is still shaken at the start of round 3, and Hina easily destroys her defense for another K.O., winning 2 rounds to 1. Koharu has to accept that Hina is the better player, and has the stronger claim to Haruo.

The rest of the book has Moemi convincing Haruo to try taking a driver's test to get his license. Just about everyone else he talks to thinks this is a bad idea, especially when he keeps trying to use racing games for image training. But, Moemi promises to give him her scooter if he passes, adding that this will give him greater freedom in taking Hina to game arcades farther away in Tokyo (Haruo and Hina are in the Kanagawa area, 30 minutes from Shibuya and Shinjuku by train). Haruo concentrates on studying for the test, while trying to keep his game training from making him check the wrong answers. In the end, he does pass, and Moemi gives him her scooter as promised. He immediately goes to the Ohno estate, where he finds Hina in back, working in the garden. When he brags about being able to take them together to the arcades, she takes a step forward, turns sad and stops walking. Haruo gets confused and the chapter ends.

The last couple pages are a joke about Moemi sleeping over at Haruo's house, and how Haruo's mother makes really weird snoring sounds that end up invoking a demon and a poltergeist that fight each other.

Summary: The artwork's about the same as ever, but Rensuke is getting more consistent in his character designs from panel to panel. The story is evolving from a simple nostalgia piece about a boy growing up with games in the 90's, to a kind of unbalanced love triangle. Games are still central to everything, but there's not so much anticipation over new releases, in part due to how many games were coming out at that time. Recommended to anyone that likes the series.

Goemon's Spray of Blood DVD comments

(All rights belong to their owners. Image here from amazon.co.jp for review purposes only.)

Sigh. Sometimes, the backstory is 20 times longer than whatever it is I want to write about. Anyway, in March, 2017, I posted a blog entry about seeing a poster advertising a new Lupin III movie, saying that this was the one film I actually wanted to see in the theaters. However, a couple days later when I finally had a chance to go see it, it was no longer playing. Entitled, "Chikemuri no Ishikawa Goemon" (The Spray of Blood of Goemon Ishikawa), it looked closer to the original Monkey Punch designs than anything else I've seen recently.

So, a couple weeks later I get a postcard in the mail saying that my Tsutaya rental shop membership was about to expire, but if I brought the card in I'd only have to pay 300 yen ($3 USD) to renew for another year, which would also let me get the first rental free. I walk the 2 miles to the nearest shop, and they have Spray on their shelves already. I grab a handful of movies I want to watch, including Spray, renew my membership, and return to the apartment to binge watch everything.

"The Spray of Blood of Goemon Ishikawa" is amazing. It's billed as "hard-fisted action," and it definitely is that. The artwork is fantastic, the animation is fluid, and the voice acting is almost indistinguishable from the first TV season. The problem is that it's only 30 minutes long, and is just the first half of a two-parter. Meaning that if you saw it in the theaters when it came out, it would have to be paired with another, longer film, or you'd feel really cheated (especially when regular movie tickets are $20 apiece). In the story, Jigen, Lupin and Fujiko target a casino run by an old mafia boss. The boss supports a large gang of highly trained thugs, who are getting fed up with the old man's favorite bodyguard, Goemon. Meanwhile, a massive blond-haired guy on a farm (he looks like something out of Heidi of the Alps) gets a call contracting him to assassinate Lupin. Zenigata gets word that Lupin will be at the casino.

One night, while the casino is packed, Lupin and Jigen infiltrate the place and make their way to the vaults. It looks like they may pull off this heist, until the blond guy (puffing on cigars and riding a massive motorcycle like a cowboy) shows up and starts demolishing the building with a pair of thick, short-handled cleavers. Things end with the gang killing the boss in a coup, blaming Goemon for failing his task of protecting him from the assassin. Goemon is ostracized. He also goes up against the blond, who destroys his katana, smashes him against a wall, and thoroughly demolishes his self-esteem. Lupin, Jigen and Fujiko escape, terrified of the blond. The monster gets surrounded by the police and allows himself to be arrested and locked in a cell. Lupin does a check on the monster, and it seems he's a former soldier that was badly burned in a fire, then rebuilt. His teeth are great big platinum plates. Part 1 ends at an impasse.

Fast forward one year. I've been busy with all the things I've been busy with, and haven't gone back to Tsutaya since then. I get another postcard in the mail, asking me to renew my membership again, and offering another free DVD rental in return. I debate the necessity of having a rental card, and eventually decide, "why not." I return to Tsutaya, locate part 2 of Spray, and go back to the apartment. That night, I pop the DVD in the laptop, and finish watching it. Again, this half is 30 minutes long, and is virtually flawless. Bloody, bloody, bloody, like a Sam Peckinpah flick, and simply amazing. In fact, it's the first DVD in a long time where I watched it again the following day. A little later, I get ready to type up this blog entry, and I'm convinced that I did record my impressions of part one for the blog, but I can't find the original source file anywhere. Either I didn't do the write-up, or I did and lost the file before posting it to the net.

Part 2 starts out with Goemon recovering from his shock at his loss, rebuilding his katana without a handle guard (called the "tsuba"). He then goes out to a rock tower standing in the ocean some distance from shore, and just stands there in "ready to draw the blade" stance, as Fujiko, Jigen and Lupin watch from a safe distance. A gigantic shark leaps from the waves, and cuts a long, deep gash in Goemon's back, but the samurai doesn't react. Fujiko is stunned, and Jigen replies that their friend is suffering from mental trauma and is trying to recondition himself to clear his head out. Fujiko thinks men are stupid and leaves (and is not seen for the rest of the film). Next, Goemon surrounds himself with bonfires, and then stands under a waterfall (a large tree floating down the river goes over the falls and slams into Goemon, nearly killing him). Lastly, he stands in the middle of a castle courtyard and passes out on the third day. Lupin and Jigen give up on him, try hitch hiking home, and are discovered by Zenigata, who arrests them. Turns out, though, the assassin broke out of jail, recovered his cleavers, and left a trail of bodies behind him as he stole a police bike and drove away. Zenigata had managed to locate the guy and shot out the tire of the bike, causing him to fall down a cliff. The monster simply stood back up, grinned maniacally at Zenigata and walked off.

The monster blocks Zenigata's car with a rock fall, and tries to cut his way through the car to get at Lupin. Zenigata shoots at the guy, but he blocks the bullets with one cleaver, and flicks them back, where they hit Zenigata in the leg with the force of a gunshot. Lupin and Jigen escape to a nearby shrine, and are nearly killed by the monster (Lupin gets a wooden stake through his arm). Meanwhile, Goemon staggers up a road, and runs into the mobsters from his last job. They decide to kill him after roughing him up a bit first. As he's laying on the ground, lightning runs through his body to his brain, and he suddenly visualizes how the gangsters are going to attack him. He stands up and gets into his "waiting" pose. The killers are pleased that he's trying to fight back, and they spring on him. There now ensues a blizzard of attacks, and body parts flying all over the place as Goemon kills or disables over twenty people in a few seconds. He gets the new boss to surrender, then makes his way to the shrine.

Goemon intercepts the monster, who initially just tells him to not interfere. Goemon goes into his stance, and the monster attacks. He cuts up Goemon's shoulder, but the samurai puts a deep gash in the back of his left thumb. Goemon gets another electric flash, and in the next attack has a massive slab of upper arm sliced off, while managing to lop off the monster's right arm. Things go a bit farther, and the monster's head goes flying. In fact, the blond guy has just envisioned his own death and scrambles back out of fear. He concedes that Goemon's attack is perfect, tells Lupin that he's cancelling the contract on him, and then pulls out a cigar before leaving. Zenigata limps up and tries to rearrest Lupin and Jigen, but Goemon confronts Zenigata. Zeni tells him to get out of the way, and the samurai growls, "if you're going to kill me, go ahead". Zenigata pulls the trigger, and the last thing we see is Goemon unleashing his katana before the screen goes black. The closing credits include stills of both the main heroes and the lead mobsters, while the ED song is Rob Laufer's "Satori."

Summary: Yeah, lovin' it. Not for the squeamish, though. The parts where the tree trunk goes over the falls and crushes Goemon, and the cleaver slices through his upper arm, had me cringing in sympathy. Both DVDs were marked as part of the 50th anniversary of the release of Monkey Punch's original manga. There seems to be a related DVD pair for Jigen, Daisuke Jigen's Gravestone. I'm going to have to get that next. Highly recommended to those that aren't offended by realistic-looking cartoon gore.

Latte Light Capsule Ball Figure

One of my students is currently working part-time at a restaurant, where one of her tasks is making latte art. I figured that I'd get one of these night light key chains from the capsule ball dispensers for her. $2 each, and about 1" tall. Not bad for the price.



5 patterns in the series.

Caricature Update

Some time ago, I ran a blog entry about a guy doing caricatures on the top floor of Amu Plaza (intended to show the artwork to Greg Cravens, who has some experience with this type of work). The guy had two more paintings for display, and I decided to add them here. He does good work, but I'm not sure I want him to do me.

KTS Spring TV Shows Fest

KTS TV had another of its live broadcasts at Amu Plaza to promote its new Spring season show line-up this weekend. Last Thursday, I'd checked Amu Plaza's online event schedule, so I knew this was coming up, but I had to work most of Saturday, and we'd had heavy rain all day, so I didn't bother walking the mile from the school to Amu Plaza to try to get photos for the blog. The weather was much better on Sunday, but the schedule just showed some rock-paper-scissors games, some manzai, and a couple bits with the TV personalities advertising the new shows.



There really wasn't much I had any interest in, so I got to Amu Plaza at 2 PM, took a few photos for the blog, then hung out at Seattle's Best Coffee to read the latest volume of Attack on Titan. Above, we have the ever-popular KTS "stupid bird" mascot.



There were a couple photo-op sets for people to take selfies with the KTS logo.



The booth tables were limited to promos for the new shows. No food this time.



Two of the station's on-air personalities challenged the audience to jan-ken-pon (rock-paper-scissors), for prizes of candy and advertising gimmicks. I got lucky with the above shot - the actual jan-ken went really fast, and the kid lost. Here, though, the photo makes it look like the announcer had already given himself away and the kid should have been able to easily win.



The manzai duo. Manzai is a Japanese type of stand-up comedy that often includes slapstick. These two guys just joked with each other. The audience ate it up, but I had difficulty following the dialog.



Not a really eventful weekend. I'm waiting for the Amu Plaza beer fest on the weekend of the 28th, and Dai Hanya at Dolphin Port the same weekend.

Yamakataya Culture Class Demo Apr. 14, 2018

I've mentioned this one before. The Yamakataya department store in Tenmonkan offers "culture classes," such as for hula dancing, Go, guitar, taisho harp and Japanese calligraphy. And then, every 3 months or so, the store has the students put on demonstrations in the nearby open space for what they've been studying.



This time, the demo ran from 11:30 AM to 4 PM on Saturday. Unfortunately, I couldn't get out of the apartment until 1:15, and I had English classes from 2-5 PM. I was only able to catch 2 groups of one of the hula classes. (The schedule showed that other groups included a few guitar players, more hula dancers, and some traditional Japanese theater. So, I wasn't missing too much.) In past events, I've enjoyed taping the taisho harp and Italian classical singing groups.



Otherwise, the weather was bad again, with heavy rain all day. So, I didn't bother trying to get to Amu Plaza during my mid-afternoon break. I just hung out at a nearby coffee shop and waited until my evening class started.

Bright - Car

The next in the chalk art signs for Bright Used Clothing.
(At least, this time the sign says what the place sells.)

Slime

Slime was a hair and nail parlor a few blocks from the apartment, in the basement of one of the buildings that houses a soba restaurant. A few days ago, I noticed this sign for the first time, outside a new building half a block away. I guess they've moved.



"In 2006-6-10- Slime opened quietly in underground Takamibaba. The theme of the salon is a wonderland... and darkness... Now we creep out of the shadow and challenge to survive on the earth. 2018.2.1 Renewal open!"



Slime, at its best.

Kuroya Volcano

I found this amusing. A little volcano display in front of the Kuroya restaurant entrance. It doesn't look like Sakurajima at all, but it does stand out on its own.



Reminds me more of a reactor meltdown, actually. Maybe the food's just really spicy...