Other Natural Empress

Lost in translation.

And respect to you, Mtngmail.

Stirton Gifts

To advertise their latest twice-award-nominated movie “One Day Removals”, Stirton Productions have opened a “cafePress” site. I particularly like the sticker. The ideal gift when you buy the video.

• Gift store.
• Video store.
• YouTube channel.

Warning - Material contains strong language and graphic violence. Well, the gift store doesn’t, unless you drink some weird freaking tea out of the mug. Yuck.

プラネットＸ 惑星爆滅
（原題：ＴＨＥ ＰＬＡＮＥＴ）

Earlier movie – now out in Japan.

Planet X

Mike came round with the Japanese release of Stirton Production’s “The Planet”. It was strange hearing the dubs. It gave the film a different feel for me, as I knew some of the chaps in real life.

There is a trailer on the Japanese site.

Also, the YouTube channel has “The Making of…” parts one and two. As this was filmed at Balmedie beach, it might have a historic context after the Trump development gets underway.

Dragon Bellow Conspiracy

I finished reading Stan Sakai's "The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy" this morning. The volume had been missing from my Usagi Yojimbo collection until recently. Unlike most of his books, this one works more like a novel than a standard collection of comicbook tales. Strands come together over the pages, and later there is time for an epilogue. It is not merely a tale of how the rhino loses its horn. It goes without saying that the book is well-illustrated.

Bastish makes it into Kura

Bastish: blogger, photographer, outdoorsman and hubby of Tomoe made it, made it into the Kura magazine in Japan. Full story.

He is also in the Chunichi paper too, but I'm reading that through Google Translator:

Living in the village is connected to nature. Field, and can not say 100 per cent can live. And the city, the money is gone hopelessly vague anxiety, but I can live right here with confidence.

People are warm ties. Residents feel benevolent watch it. City, the money is not only to protect oneself. That's a really happy life? So I was "happy".

Something lost in translation, but the sentiment is there, I think. Look at his blog, then watch "My Neighbour Totoro" - yup, he lives in Totoro's village.

Yuki ga furu

Some cracking expedition shots from Ulgoods in Japan. Namches and tarps in the snow. And from Nihon too, Bastish has been to a new year festival and reported on it in his usual high standard: "I lost my sticky rice in the ashes of the burning dondo". It is so good to see the children being involved, so much of life seems to be taken up with listening to the malingerers whinging that people forget about the majority of good, active, responsible kids who just want a chance to shine and maybe run around the neighbourhood with a big stick having a laugh, performing a role in the community ritual.

And thanks to www.learn-amazing-japanese.com/blog/ for the post title.

Summertime Blues

Spring forward...fall back. I've lost track of which watches/clocks/times that I've set back end which I haven't. Never a good idea to do this after some medicinal drinks - look, honeyed beer must be medicinal. And the Isle of Arran Dark, Sunset (seemed appropriate) and Blonde, and Saké (ooh, there's a video tutorial). And medicinal pizza (5 portions covered there), and garlic bread (good for the blood-flow), and crisps (more of the 5-portions of fruit/vegetables a day).

Soundtrack

I must get hold of a tokkuri - do they make one in the shape of a hat with straws?

There's a webcam on the clock of Big Ben in London - but the quality is too poor to make out the time. Well, that's sodding useless. Oh, radio's just agreed that it is 01.30am, and we have an "extra hour from no-where" - huh? Sorry, but did I miss something? Has some Time Lord agreement given me an extra hour on my lifespan? I think not, it is just a mechanical ruse so fewer kids get knocked down walking to school, and the farmers have more daylight to work the crops.

DiceMan

Following a MadJim link from OM, I found these Japanese dice. Aren't they the cutest dice you've ever seen? I think the d6 is good, but the d10 is just the ワサビ on the onigiri.

Plus, Play.com have posted me the GITS SAC 2nd GIG collection. Plus, there's a new Usagi Yojimbo book out. I'll need to get an order off to Amazon, as two bookshops in town didn't have the next book in the PoB Aubrey/Maturin series. Kill two birds with one stone. 

I suddenly feel the need for a nightcap of sake.

Good Luck

Best wishes to Kevin (Batish) and Tomoe on their new venture: One Life Japan. A very philosophical blog entry announcing it (link).

Hey, Simon, look what I found on their new company's blog...great minds, eh?

Eco-Navigation: Seabirds vs GPS

By some small coincidence, there's a Japanese exhibition on at the Art Gallery in Aberdeen just now. I've only managed round half of it so far, but spotted one usagi and some heron, and some gorgeous netsuke.

Arai Tents

So, as the day is still overcast, I went for a wonder round the Net and found Arai Tents in Japan. Some nifty shapes of their shelters. If you have the right fonts, and don't need the translation page, click this link.

A Google of the tent gave me Daisuke Takeda's site (famous surname, Daisuke). Motorcycling around Japan, he wishes not to be added to the Engrish.com site.

Once more, I feel bad at not being able to speak a foreign language. So much for that jaunt round the Net cheering me up. Is it wrong to find humour in the fact that people have difficulty communicating in a foreign language? Although I think this means what it says. And this could be a new Gordon Brown initiative to retrain druggies. At least it's not "Tintin in the Congo"!

John has a long mustache

Yup, it is the longest day today, and it just feels like Easter was yesterday. The day drags on, but the weeks fly by.

Still, thanks to the joys of the Internet, I can look enviously at Batish and Tomoe's new home village. May all be well and happy.

Lithium Flower

Just updating the site layout to 'layouts' (I hate the smell of XML in the morning, it smells of yet another Tower of Babel). What do I notice, but a visit from Nishinomiya, across in Japan. Another good excuse to play my "Ghost in the Shell" tracks, and congratulate Japan for producing not only the movies but the Stand Alone Complex tv show.

I even ended up buying "Flowers for Algernon" based on seeing one of the Tachikoma reading the book.

• Manga site
• Behind the scenes at Production I.G
• Wikipedia info

Kusanagi is just so...well animated. The picture of her in the closing credits of series 1 could have graced the cover of FHM.

Anyway, on the wiki-write-up on Nishinomya, I notice that sake accounts for 24.3% of food production there. Keep up the good work folks. Especially as I ran out of my last bottle on Friday night. Personally, I blame Stan Sakai for introducing me to sake, that and a great oriental supermarket in Aberdeen.