Gin no Sara

It is true that there are some crazy commercials over here, like these two from sushi chain “Gin no Sara”. They show what will happen to you if you don’t eat their sushi.

You really have to be careful of those robots, giant bears, cowboys and ninja these days.

Zao

I know I’ve been slacking off on the posts lately, but with sickness gripping me yet again, I’ve been stuck in a zombified state in front of the TV.

I thought I would throw up a picture I took when I went to Zao a couple months ago. I have to say even then it was freezing cold at the top of the mountain. I’m sure there’s piles of snow up there now.

The volcano is quite a stunning site I must say. Both times I’ve visited it I’ve been lucky to have a nice clear view of the crater. Some unlucky people just see fog.

Still Some Color

I took these photos this week. The trees in our garden are still sporting some nice red leaves. It’s amazing they still have them, and we’re almost half way through December.

I’m still not used to seeing blooming flowers at this time of year. Hell, our chili pepper plant is still growing peppers!

New Toy

This Friday I got a new toy, an Amazon Kindle International e-book reader.  So far I really love it. Now I can avoid all the terrible price inflation charged by Japanese book stores on English language books (I once saw an issue of Rolling Stone for 1800 yen!!).

The screen has to be seen to be believed, pictures don’t do it justice at all. The Kindle uses a new type of screen called e-Ink which simulates a real printed page. When you see it in person it’s really quite stunning, and incredibly easy to read, much like reading a real book. I can also read some manga on it too.

It looks really nice as well.

You can also do some basic web surfing, and also buy books from Amazon wirelessly. You can see my blog right down below.

Granted the browser is nothing fancy, mostly text and some pics are all it can handle, but it’s good in a pinch for looking up info on the go. Did I mention that the 3G internet connection is completely free, and works in  tons of countries. Pretty cool! I look forward to reading tons of books thanks to this device.

Gegege

One of my students went to Sakaiminato to visit the Mizuki road, which is named after the creator of Gegege no Kitaro, the famous ghost manga nad anime.

He brought back a souvenir for us, a bunch of really cute Kitaro shaped cakes.

Here’s some closer looks at them. First Kitaro.

Next Cat Girl.

Rat Man.

And Kitaro’s Dad.

Not only were they cute they were also delicious.

Halloween

I forgot to post this a while ago (OK I’ll admit I was just lazy). For Halloween Doritos came out with a special edition filled with shapes like ghosts, pumpkins, bats, etc. It was just normal old cheese flavor though.

Music I’m Listening To

Since I did a round-up of the games I’m playing right now, I thought I’d also do what music I’m listening to at the moment. Just for fun.

Coeur de Pirate – Coeur de Pirate

A beautiful album by Montreal native  Beatrice Martin. A really great chill out album. By the way the album is entirely in French. (Unfortunately I wasn’t able to post any of the real music videos since they don’t allow embedding.)

Fool’s Gold – Fool’s Gold

Lately I’m into African type rhythms, and this album really caught my attention. Just listening to it makes me so happy.

Gang of Four – Return the Gift

I’ve always been into Gang of Four, but recently I’ve listened to them a lot. I love the rawness and attitude. They also came up with one of my favorite lines in a song ever, “To hell with poverty we’ll get drunk on cheap wine”. Check out some awesome dancing below.

Matt & Kim – Grand

Another fun and catchy indie album full of great songs.

Friendly Fires – Friendly Fires

I’ve basically been listening to this album steadily for over a year now. It’s so fantastic.It kind of reminds me of the Talking Heads a little bit.

Games I’m Playing

I thought I would do a post about the current games that I’m playing now. Today in the mail I just got two games from Play Asia. The first being “Modern Warfare 2”.

I payed it for a couple hours tonight, and so far it’s really fun. I also got “Lego Rock Band” to continue my addiction to all things Rock Band.

It’s a bit easier than normal Rock Band, but still fun.Of course I’m still hopelessly entrenched in “Rock Band 2”. Unable to escape the rock.

I’m so addicted to playing drums. I’m actually able to play on hard difficulty now. Which is incredible since I had previously believed that drumming would be impossible for me.

A couple weeks ago I also picked up the Japanese version of “Uncharted 2”. Like most PS3 games it has multiple languages, which makes it easy to pick up English games while living in Japan.

Some people have said that the Japanese cover is terrible, but I actually kind of like it. I like it more than the American version.

On the go I’ve been playing the video game version of German board game “Carcassonne” on DS.

It’s quite fun and is great to play in small bursts, like on a short train ride.

Finally I’m still playing the terrifying and extremely difficult “Demon Souls”.

Currently I’m working my way through the second world. Super hard, but still really fun.

Rock The Floor

If you been reading my blog for a while, you’ll  know that there are a lot of Pringles flavors coming out all the time in Japan. I think they’re starting to run out of ideas for new names for the, because these latest two are a little bit strange. Like this one, “Night Star”.

Or how about “Rock The Floor”!?

In terms of flavor they were both good. The top one being a “nothing special” cheese flavor. The second on having a delectable Thai red curry taste. Mmmm yummy!

Super Small

I got this really cool DVD/CD burner for my netbook PC made by Pioneer. It just plugs into the PC by usb and requires no extra power source.

The best part is it’s size and portability. The whole thing is roughly the size of a CD case.

It’s amazing how small and also how cheap it was. Isn’t technology great!