Pepsi Nama

I saw this in the store recently, and decided to get it strictly for the bad English on the can. "Nama" can translate to "life" or "raw," as in "nama gomi" (raw garbage). It's sugar-free, and tasted horrible.



"Pepsi NAMA is super-refreshing
cola made with some ingredients
including freshly-harvested cola
spice, produced under non-heating
process. Its taste gives you the great feeling."



Come on, people, it's the 21st century, you're an international corporation with a multi-million dollar ad budget. The least you can do is spend $200 for a good proofreader.

Monster Strike Card

I was at Donkey one night, and I noticed a set of Monster Strike cards next to the cash register. These are unusually big cards, maybe 3"x4", and I was wondering what could be in the packaging, so I got one for 100 yen ($0.90 USD).



Turned out it was a thick cardboard image of one of the game characters, plus a tiny piece of flavorless gum.



If you like the game, you'll like these cards.

Evangelion Pop-Up Shop, Yamakataya

The Yamakataya department store set up a small goods shop for Evangelion for about 2 weeks.



Not, and Anti.



More goods.



Eva manju and tote bags.



The actual shop.



Some of the models available.



Eva shirt.



Eva model. This is about 6 feet tall.





Grrrr.

Thank you, Eagle

Banner in Tenmonkan, thanking pictures of eagles for scaring crows away. Note the bad attempt at photoshopping away the tethers on its feet.

Aug. Update

Well, Obon was a bust. The week-long holiday ended on Aug. 16, and Kyushu had rain every single day. A couple Typhoon warnings, but all the big storms keep breaking west and slamming into Kumamoto and Nagasaki farther up the island. Just meant that there's been nothing to do outside and the weather's been crappy. Travel restrictions to most of the rest of the country right now, so there's no point in trying to visit shrines, parks or tourist sites outside the city. And, all the restaurants, bars and eateries have 8 PM curfews until Aug. 23rd, so even if we did go somewhere, there'd be nothing to do there at night.

So, anyway, still nothing much to write about on the blog right now. (Side note: Even my 3DS handheld has gone wonky, so I can't play used games anymore. The thumb controller seems to have gotten sticky somehow, and once a game character starts running in a particular direction, they don't stop running. Cleaning doesn't help. I think it may be a heat-related circuit issue. Can't justify spending $175 USD on a replacement used machine, and there are almost no more used games available at the half-priced shops to buy for the 3DS anyway. Sigh.)

MOS Kirby Tie-in.

I've never figured out just exactly what the point of these tie-ins is. The only artwork is on the place mat, and I haven't seen any "Kirby Burgers" or "Kirby Malts." Maybe they have Kirby toys with some kind of happy meal, but again, I haven't seen any. But, hey, here's a place mat.

McDonald's Hawai'ian Loco Moco Cheeseburger

Micky D has a new campaign going on, focusing on fake Hawai'ian stuff. This one is supposedly a Loco Moco. It's an egg puck with cheese, lettuce, a burger and two unknown sauces. The top sauce seems to be a teriyaki of some kind. The bottom is unsweetened mayonnaise, I think. It's not bad, but not great. Entire set was 720 yen (about $7 USD).



I tried getting their Hawai'ian triple berry sauce pancakes (290 yen), but they were sold out. Probably just as well, because they looked like little biscuits with growth defects. Maybe later, just to take one for the team (blog).

IMAX Logo

Never have figured out what IMAX does or sells.



But the logo looks like an extremely excited eye with its arms up...

Nothing

If you've been wondering why I haven't updated the blog lately, it's because there's pretty much nothing going on down here right now. Kagoshima is a long way from Tokyo, so we've had very little to do with the Olympics activities farther north, or with the increase in COVID cases in the big cities. BUT. For some reason, the city has mandated an early shutdown of eateries during Obon (Aug. 8th to 15th).

The big summer holiday period, Obon, is when most people return to their family towns to have ceremonies for their ancestors and other family members that have passed away. It's also traditionally a huge opportunity to travel to other countries. But, well, pandemic. So, most people can't even travel to other prefectures within Japan because of the travel restrictions. And now, it seems that in Kagoshima, at least, all restaurants, cafes and fast food joints have to close their eating areas by 8 PM pretty much for the rest of the month. And, take out orders end at 11 PM. I don't know how this affects bars, live music houses or movie theaters, but I'd assume that they have to close by 8 PM as well.

I haven't seen any advertising for free events in the city for weeks. None of the regular summer festivals have happened, from what I can tell. There was a short 15-minute fireworks display from the parking lot of the hotel at the top of the big hill next to my apartment last month, which was nice to watch, but I still have no idea what it was for. I went up to Amu Plaza this evening to see if they had anything going on for the week, and they literally had the tables torn down and the carpet rolled up. We'd been expecting typhoon #9 this weekend, and the Amu management rolled up the astro turf in the plaza in front of the department store to protect it from the rains and heavy winds that never showed up. We never get typhoons. They always break east and go up to Tokyo, or break west and smash into Kumamoto, Nagasaki and Fukuoka. Always.

Anyway. Nothing to report this week.

Sunset

Little camera did better at capturing the sunset than I'd expected.

Moth

Current visitor to the city.

Godzilla vs King Kong campaign

Boss coffee has a campaign tie-in with the new Godzilla movie. Scan a QR code with your smartphone and be entered into a rock-paper-scissors game for themed masks. I bought one can, and lost. I can live with that.

Demon Sword Vending Machine campaign

Saw this decal on a vending machine recently, but none of the drinks seemed to have featured Kimetsu no Yaiba artwork or anything. Not sure what the actual campaign is.

Dalicafe

A new cafe opened up in Tenmonkan a few weeks ago. The dog's name is "Dali." Apparently, the concept is a middle eastern hookah shop. I don't smoke, so I'm not likely to go inside. I just liked the character art.