This just got delivered to me today. It the new quarterly magazine/book for the awesome website GameSpite. I had previously bought GameSpite Year one Vol. 1, and loved it a lot. So getting the new book was a no-brainer.
The book focuses on the Game Boy and it’s 20th anniversary. I’ve read a good part of it already and it’s fantastic. Go buy a copy now at GameSpite.
I thought I would do a post about some of the cool music I’ve been enjoying lately. Here’s some videos for you to enjoy. I’ve just listed the band and the album before each video.
Passion Pit – “Manners”
Really cool poppy electronic music, but with an indie slant to it.
Vampire Weekend – “Vampire Weekend”
I can’t stop listening to this album. It’s fantastic! Definitely some African or Peter Gabriel influence here.
The Rumble Strips – “Girls and Weather”
Great album, really catchy.
Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career
Nice 60’s style pop. A good replacement for Belle & Sebastian while they’re on break.
Who’s the most bad-ass guy in Japan? Easy, it’s Sonny Chiba! Star of tons of karate movies, and samurai dramas. This is a video showcasing some of his finest moments on film. See why Tarantino put him in the “Kill Bill” movies. Warning this video contains scenes of extreme bad-assness, bear punching, bull fighting, skull crushing, eye popping, and other 70’s karate movie violent nonsense (generally not safe for children).
For the past couple months Uniqlo has a special line of game inspired T-shirts called “UT X Japan Game”. This has led me to buy a ton of new T-shirts. I thought I would share some of the ones that I’ve gotten so far. You can click on each picture to get a slightly better view. Enjoy!
Last night after dinner we stopped by “Mandai Shoten”. It’s kind of a used item shop or as the Japanese call it, a “recycle” shop. They sell all kinds of cool things. The store is a little bit hip, and also has loud music playing in every corner of the store.
Some of the different sections that they have are: video games, manga, DVD, CD, clothes, shoes, toys and figures, musical instruments, fishing gear, and even airsoft and paintball guns. It’s quite an interesting shop. For those interested, and that live in Sendai, it can be found on the Sendai by-pass just south of Minami Sendai station.
I found this on a Japanese toy website. It’s an action figure of the new president of the United States, Barack Obama.
It actually looks like him. You can have him in all kinds of patriotic poses.
Being an action figure though, it can be put into some non-presidential poses too. Like this one.
Or kicking ass with a shotgun.
Fighting against the dark side of the force.
Or just chilling under a kotatsu table, playing some famicom.
Supposedly the figure is actually made by a company in Hong Kong. More info is here. Hilarious!
I got these cool bed sheets at Village Vanguard yesterday. They’re vintage 60’s style printed sheets.
It came with the pillow case, a zippered futon cover and a zippered comforter cover. The best part was the whole set was only 2079 yen, which is just over $20 Canadian. An incredible deal! The print is really cute.
I especially like the leopard. I originally only bought one set, but Yurie liked them so much I had to go back and buy another today. It was the last set, so she was lucky.
Bikkuriman is a long running series of collectible stickers. They appeared in 1977 when candy company Lotte combined them with a chocolate wafer cookie. Each sticker has a picture of a hero or monster on it. Pretty much every person in Japan under the age of 35 has bought some of these stickers at some point in their life. Yurie even said she collected them when she was young. So far these stickers have inspired several animation series, lots of comics, and quite a few video games.I saw this at 7-11 and decided to buy one to check it out. The cookie was quite good, very nice chocolate and a few nuts mixed in. The sticker I got was some kind of wolf creature.
His name is Master P! He looks pretty bad-ass. Of course I got an extra cool hologram too.
Filed under Anime, Collectible, Cool, Japan
Lately I’ve been watching the animation Gurren Lagann. I haven’t really enjoyed watching any animation in a while. Mostly because I’m not interested at all in any of the new shows. Well, Gurren Lagann is the first one in a while that I’ve really liked. It’s like an old style giant robot show. Every episode they fight enemy robots and peform increasingly ridiculous special moves. It’s all very campy over the top cool and kind of nostalgic, recalling the shows that were popular when I was young. I’ve posted a clip of some of the craziness below. Enjoy!
Village Vanguard is one of my favourite store in Japan. As the sign says, it’s an “exciting book store”. Actually the books seem to be a secondary thing here. This store has the most amazing mix of different things. It has to be seen to be believed.
Everything from old style cameras to toys to cool household items and joke items. I can often spend a long time looking around at all of the interesting stuff. If you ever come to Japan, stoping by one of these stores is required. You won’t regret it.
I'm originally from Canada, but now live in Japan. I like games, strange things, and trying new foods. I hope you enjoy reading my semi-interesting posts and pictures.
 | Gordon Waye on Ninja |
 | Wmpyr on Bikkuriman |
 | Lovins on Gatchaman T |
 | Eric on Return of Kewpie |
 | Rachelle Lynn on Return of Kewpie |
 | London Cremation Ser… on Heat |
| Steve J Dannunzio on Mc Hot Dog And A Quarter … | |
| Eric on Heat |
 | Femia Avianti on Heat |
 | Marco Milone on Fujian |
In Sendai 