Yoga Fire!!

Today I actually managed to convince my wife Yurie, to play Street Fighter IV. It was the first time shes ever played a fighting game ever. She tried a few characters, and was getting a bit bored, but then she saw Dhalsim.

The strechy armed, yoga master from India. After trying him out she suddenly got interested. After a few minutes she was pulling off special moves like “Yoga Fire”, and “Yoga Teleport”. She was even able to do some super and ultra combos. I was very impressed. I have trouble pulling off super and ultras. Maybe she has a natural talent for Street Fighter. You’re awesome Sweetie!

Holy Pharmaceuticals

Last night while we were on our way to an all you can drink party. I spotted this dispaly at a drug store in Sendai.

When looking closer you see some that is either holy or blasphemy.

Stamp Rally

A few weeks ago 7/11 had a sort of stamp rally involving the popular kids show Kamen Rider. Every store had a different stamp so kids would have to bother their parents to take them all over. If you collected enough you could get prizes.

I thought the ink stamps were really nice, and me being basically a big kid, I decided I would get one too.

I wonder what the clerk at the store thought when he saw a 33 year old foreigner getting a Kamen Rider stamp. Here’s a scan of the whole collection. I only managed to get one, because I’m old and busy, not like kids.

Street Fighter IV Gets!

Today I picked up the PS3 version of Street Fighter IV. It came out today in Japan. You unlucky people in North American won’t get it until next week.

As a bonus I got some DVD which I haven’t had time to look at. I’ve been too busy playing.

I also picked up an awesome Hori fight stick.

It feels just lick playing at the arcade. The base is metal so it has a good weight to it. It doesn’t slip or slide on a table thanks to some huge rubber feet on it. The buttons and stick also feel really nice. I’ve only played just a little bit, but so far it’s really fun.

The graphics are so nice.

The only bad part so far is the menus are all in Japanese. Usually fighters have both languages available. You can set the audio to English though. I’ll just have to get my wife to help me with some of the menus the first time.

Licca

In Japan Barbie is not popular, instead they have Licca. She’s a lot like Barbie except she has cuter features and brown hair. I learned all about it on a Japanese TV show.

She’s supposed to be half French and half Japanese. Much like Barbie, Licca has seemed to do every type of occupation, including pop star.

Being Japanese, there’s also a version of Licca wearing a kimono.

On the show they also showed a pregnant Licca. Supposedly in the fictional history they invented, Licca got married to a French guy, got pregnant, and had a baby girl. The strange part is that the baby was also named Licca. Licca even has favorite books, “Anne of Green Gables” and “A Little Princess”. Hell, Licca even has her own blog. Thanks go to the nieces for letting me scan their Licca book.

Define Awesome

Some things is life are just amazingly awesome. It’s hard to explain, but when you see it, you just know. Well I picked up something really awesome today at Village Vanguard.

Yes, a mug with Michael Jackson and E.T., and it says best friends. I defy you to find anything more amazing than that. It is now officially my at work mug.

Suzuki Lapin

A few weeks ago we went to the Suzuki dealership to have our oil changed on the Wagon R. While we were waiting I was looking around the showroom and saw what could be the most feminine car ever. It’s called the Suzuki Lapin.

It’s not just the fact that you can buy it in powder blue, or other pastel colors. The logo is also a very cute rabbit.

You can see it on the inside door handle. It can also be change to a photo of you choice. I did  think the dash board layout was cool. Kind of simple and retro style.

To top it all off, they were giving out Lapin cookies in a little bag with a bow on it.

If that’s not to bring in the girls, I don’t know what is.

Kotatsu

The “kotatsu” is a truly Japanese invention. Basically it’s a table that has a bunch of thick blankets on top, and then a wooden table top on top of that.

Underneath the table is an electric heater.

So you put your legs under the blanket, and you’re kept warm by the heater. The only problem is some of them have short legs on the table. If you have big legs then watch out, the heater is super hot and you’re likely to get burned!

Baked Slime

Today we decided to bake some small buns. My one contribution was making a Dragon Quest slime bun. I thought it would be easy to make the shape with bread.

Here’s what it looked like before we baked it. I put cheese, bacon bits and hot sauce inside.

It looks pretty cute! Unfortunately something happened during the baking process.

He became slightly sad faced and a big crack opened in his head.

From that angle he looks a little bit like Mayor McCheese from McDonalds! All in all, it was still really delicious. I’m definitely going to try and make it again some time.

Dragon Quest Figure

I saw this Dragon Quest figure collection at a convenience store this week. I love Dragon Quest and am looking very much forward to the first English release of Dragon Quest V. Most of the figures in this collection are from 4 and 5, so I had a good chance of getting a figure I wanted.

I really wanted to get the hero character from 5 that is featured on the box. What I did get was his father, “Papasu”.

The detail on the figure is really nice. I often wonder how these kinds of things are painted. Can a machine actually do this?

I spent a long time choosing which box I would buy. Not knowing what is inside can be tricky. I tried to find one that was heavier than the others. Some figures shown on the box are a lot smaller, so they must be lighter. Well when I opened my slightly heavier box I found this mysterious bag.

I wondered what might be inside, was it candy?

No it was just useless leftover plastic bits to make the box feel heavier. Damn you Square, and your trickery!