Yamazaru in Gold

Another street display bx ad, this one for Yamazaru (mountain monkey), coming to perform in Kagoshima on Feb. 26. He's a singer/composer, who has worked on the "Naruto the Best" CD, back in July, 2016.

Snow Day

We got a little snow overnight on the 9th. I had to get up early and rush out of the apartment that morning, so I only had time to take a couple quick photos on my way out the door.



While this winter has been cold for Kagoshima (near-freezing temps for the last few weeks), there's been almost no snow. We did get small pellet-sized hail at one point a couple weeks ago, but that melted after hitting the ground. This snow here was the first to stick on the trees, but mostly at higher altitudes.



It wasn't until later that I realized I had the camera on night scene, which is why it's monochrome here. It does give the shots a much starker quality, though...




On Saturday, I was walking to the school, and I couldn't see the volcano because of all the buildings. Finally, when I'd gotten down by the port, there was a break, and I stood in the middle of the street to take 2 quick photos. Then, I had to hurry because my classes were going to start in a few minutes.





I had a 1-hour break between classes at 3 PM, so I went down to the port to take a few more pictures.





I hate the fact that the top of the mountain is closed to hikers because of the dangers presented by possible flying rock from the volcano. Sigh.

Happy Valentine's Day

Tenmonkan had a love note stand in the middle of one intersection.



For when you want to write a note to someone you love, but don't actually want them to read it.




Meanwhile, Amu Plaza had their annual Choco Pakku sales event.



They had a lot of people window shopping, but most of the products (chocolates, bread, ice cream, snacks) were very overpriced. Still, on Sunday, some of the places were almost sold out.



In Japan, Feb. 14 is when women give chocolate to the men they have to live or work with. For co-workers, this is usually just a cheap chocolate bar, called "giri choco" (obligation chocolate). For family members, it may also be giri choco. Then, on March 14th, White Day, the men are supposed to give return gifts, but most of them don't. Which is why most office women hate this day.

Flowers on a Bush

The bushes in Japan are weird.



They've got blossoms in the middle of the winter.

Dragonball Georgia Coffee Figure

Coke owns Georgia Coffee, which is currently running a vending machine campaign for the Dragonball character toys. The machine says there will be 900,000 winners, but so far I haven't been one of them.



Since this is another one of those random things where there may only be one can with a figure in the entire machine, you're really better off only buying the coffee if this is something you normally drink, and consider winning the figure as a bonus, rather than throwing $40-$50 dollars away in trying to actually collect one of the seven figures in the series. Especially since it's 130 yen (approx. $1.10 USD) for one tiny 6-ounce can and the coffee isn't all that great.

Breathless DVD

I received the Breathless (A bout de souffle) (1960) DVD as a Christmas gift. It was directed by Jean-Luc Godard, and starred Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg. It represents the start of the French New Wave movement in cinema, and has a lot of weird jump cuts, and a wandering storyline. The dialog is in French, and the DVD, which was bought used from a Japanese rental shop, only has Japanese subtitles. That made it kind of hard to follow the storyline.

The story revolves around Michel, a young criminal that wants to be like Humphrey Bogart. He steals a car, kills a policeman that gets too close to him, and then spends the rest of the movie alternating between trying to seduce Jean Seberg and getting some other con to pay him back on a loan so he and Seberg can run off to Italy to avoid the cops.

Overall, Breathless is an interesting film if you like film history, or French films in general. Otherwise, I can't really recommend it to anyone that prefers Star Wars and the Avengers.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Beethoven's Last Night

During the weeks leading up to the last Christmas, I'd occasionally hear the Trans-Siberian Orchestra version of Ring Christmas Bells, and I'd watch a bit of their performances on youtube. Eventually, I got to wondering what else they've done, and how well they did it, so I requested a CD of their music as a Christmas gift. What I received was "Beethoven's Last Night."

TSO is an American prog-rock band formed in 1996 by Paul O'Neill, Jon Oliva, Al Pitrelli (both members of Savatage) and Robert Kinkel. Of the 9 albums listed in the wikipedia discography, 5 of them are Christmas related in some form. The orchestra is big, and the performances are staged as rock concerts, complete with pyrotechnics and massive banks of lights. Which brings me to "Beethoven." This was a rock opera, released in 2000. In 2012, it was reissued as "Beethoven's Last Night: The Complete Narrated Version," including the narration that was used in the live performances.

The basic concept is that Beethoven is dying, and he's not happy about it. Mephistopheles shows up to make an offer - "you can live longer, but your music will be erased from human memory." As Beethoven considers accepting this deal, he's then joined by Fate and her son, Twist, who more or less try to help him make the better choices. There's some similarity in presentation and solo singing that reminded me a lot of the Jesus Christ Superstar Broadway play.

Overall, the main male actors are very hammy, particularly the one playing Beethoven. Some of the music is good, but I was put off by the more weepy, self-pitying lyrics. I wouldn't recommend BLN as an introduction to TSO's music, but's it's not that bad of an album. On the other hand, if I want rock opera, I'd go immediately with the Jordan Rudess Dream Theater albums.