Once Upon a Tokyo

Spider-Man versus The Wall

Sometimes it's funny to see where my last name can end up. In this case, in an old comic book, based on the Spider-Man segments from PBS' The Electric Company.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the supervillain known as... The Wall!

No one can stop him.

Not even Spidey.

To quote from Spidey Super Stories #8 (1975) by Tom Whedon/Jean Thomas with art by Winslow Mortimer:

"The Wall was once a happy high school student...

... with an after-school job.

Then the walls came tumbling down!

BOOM!

That blast turned the happy boy...

into the Wicked Wall!"

He then proceeded to "wreck Spider-Man's day off" by brazening trespassing onto the field of Shea Stadium where Spidey was watching the Mets game, complete with a little pennant and a cap. Dutifully swooping in to save the players from being knocked over by a guy who looks like a wall, both Spidey and the Wall were kicked out by the true evil of the day -- the Umpire!

"Too bad, Spider-Man."

Sometimes you just gotta watch...

UCLA

Apparently, this isn't a college extension, but actually a bar. I didn't ask if they give discount to alumni.

Synchronized Walking

Apparently, there was a synchronized walking competition. (Hey, it's making the viral video sharing rounds.) If you ask me, it's like a sophisticated marching band without the instruments. Can watching 8 minutes of guys in suits walking in lines be entertaining? Kind of! You tell me:

Sorry for the lack of posting. I was in a rhythm but the bad "habits" of having too much work to do and not enough time to do it is raising its ugly head again! Man, that's such an ugly head!

Camping on the Izu

This weekend was spent camping with some friends on the other side of Tokyo bay, really on the other side of the Izu peninsula that helps form the bay. It takes a few hours to get there, but the place is really secluded (although that could be because technically there are big signs that read, in Japanese, that you aren't supposed to camp there until October 1.)

But the water was great, the friends were cool, and the weather allowed for a healthy tan. The campfire was awesome and, best of all, the water held a surprise for us.

We were camping along the beach in an area dotted with giant cliffs rising nearby from the beach shelf, and there were plenty of kelp beds and interesting fish to snorkle by. (There's even a local scuba scene!) And while it was certainly a nicely-sized inlet for a beach, in some ways the place naturally formed tide pools as the evening went on and the ocean crept up to meet us.

The surprise was discovered as the campfire died down and we noticed the crests of the incoming waves held an eerie reflection. In fact, it was not a reflection at all, but bio-luminescent microorganisms that ignited with sparkles when kicked up by the action of the water! We gathered close to watch the water wash over the rocks in the tide pools, and sure enough, the ripples glittered with flecks of bio-electricity-- a thousand tiny fireflies in the water. We trailed our fingers and created stardust. We jumped in and had speckles of light all over our bodies. We laughed and played like little children discovering something new about the world for the first time.

And it seemed to be that it was only us few who were able to enjoy this. Perhaps this only happened once a year, or maybe it never happened before. Perhaps the big sign warned everyone away and so no one could ever notice it before. But at some point, we had to come out, wistfully say goodbye, and trundle off to bed so we could finish off the weekend. It was a great way to enjoy the weekend, for sure! 

Samurai Star Wars

Not sure who else would be interested in this, but I need a quick blog post while I process the experience of camping with my friends all weekend.

This is from a figure maker in Japan who reimagined the Star Wars characters as samurai-era characters instead.

Detailed descriptions of the figures and his creative process are at his site, Sillof's Workshop. I'm kind of jealous! How did I not think of this before!

Hottest Day on Record, still?

The hot weather reminds of the time there was this octopus who lived in a tree, and his best friend, a giant peanut, wanted to go to a pool, except there was this giant jellyfish in it. Only, once they lured the jellyfish away with music, there wasn't any water in the pool, or in the river, or in the well that they had to build from scratch and pump all night. Finally a badger came by and told them the water was shut off, and they fell asleep.

Facebook Ads are Weird

Why was this in the corner of my Facebook? Don't they have robots that pick up on key words in the rest of the page so that the ads target me specifically? I can assure you, there's no key words remotely resembling this issue. I think some robot got a little sense of humor.

Shibuya Then and Now

The Tokyo Times has a blog that I just got clued into. Depending on the author of the day, you'll get a lot of Japan geekery, which personally I'm tired of and think people are long overdue to outgrow, but there are also some interesting features, such as one that shows some archived pictures of what is now the most populous intersection in the world -- Shibuya crossing.

Here's Shibuya station and the intersection THEN...

And here's the same station and intersection NOW...

What a wonderful future, I mean present, we live in!

Potato Chip Hand

Next up in strange Japanese objects, we have a real item with a wonderfully fake commercial. I present to you the ポテチの手 (Potechi no Te) or Potato Chip Hand. Ever wished you could eat potato chips with chopsticks? Well, that's just silly. But you still don't want all that salt and grease on your fingers, right? Now you can use the Potato Chip Hand instead! Check out the cool features, such as the "No Broken Clutch System," "Finger Easy Cleaning System", and "Non Touch Table System." The video is meant to mimic a home shopping channel TV show, but the product is real. It's from Takara Tommy, the same toy-slash-food manufacture that brought us Giga Pudding. Who wants one for Christmas?!