Scary dudes

Was just out for a drive when I spotted these characters in a rice(?) field. Looks like somebody had a go at the one second from the right... nearly decapitated!

Hotel ZERO

Probably not the best named love hotel to take your date to. I mean, Hotel ZERO? I suppose it could be named after the fighter planes they used in the war. I don't know. Maybe I should have gone inside and asked.

Want to lose your child?

Was driving behind this car, there were two little kids inside jumping on the back seat and waving their arms in the air as the driver went faster and faster along the mountain road. I took this after we got to a town and the driver slowed down. At one point the kids were jumping so much it looked as though they were gonna pop right out of the sunroof.

It's also still amazing how many parents sit in the front with a child on their lap. Crazy.

Need to pee?

I discovered something interesting... this can of grilled cheese Pringles (very nice, I might add) is totally inadequate in size. I mean, when you are totally busting to pee, there's no toilet nearby, what are you supposed to do? Yes, I could have jumped out of the car and flopped it out, but people over here sometimes stare at gaijin at the best of times. I'd rather not have to deal with their looks while trying to pee. So I went for the Pringles can. No problem... except the can was getting fuller and fuller, and I really didn't want to stop. I finally shut it off when the can was filled to the brim, unfortunately it was really full, overflowing to be honest, and my jeans got wet. I nervously checked around me, nobody watching, so I opened the door, tipped out the can, and went for the second act. What a relief! But maybe I should complain, the can was too small. However the plastic lid did make it easier to take this photo.

Dokdo / Takeshima video

Korean animation about what would happen if Japan tried to take back the disputed islets known as Takeshima in Japan and Dokdo in South Korea.

More info about the islets here

Chance it!

Sounds good to me!

One of these days I'll have to try pachinko. But I wonder if they'll let me in with a camera. Sounds like an excellent way to get into even more trouble!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachinko

Dr. Pepper

I'm not sure if this drink is packaged the same in other countries, but over here in J-Land they are using some rather interesting labels. Click on the pix for a bigger version. I'm not really sure what "it" is, when she's offering it a little tighter.

Sorry about the crappy scan.

North Korea missile test

North Korea launched up to six missiles this morning, although all had come down in the Sea of Japan. Four of the missiles were shorter-range Scud-type weapons but officials said that two of them were apparently a long-range Taepodong-2 model.

Chisato Morishita is a much more beautiful model, born in 1981, and at the moment totally distracting me from the fact that we could all be blown to smithereens. Thanks Chisato!

My photo collection

I've decided to link my photography site with this blog. Please go to

http://burnable.zoto.com/

You'll also find many of my photos related to previous posts, including the Japanese Self Defence Force episode, something that I'm not likely to forget.

I was bored... and I was looking through my photo's [WTF? I thought the plural of photo was photo's, with an apostrophe... but it seems that I am horribly wrong. How embarrassing.] Anyway, I was checking my photo collection, and found that I rarely take pix of people. So, rather than actually going outside and risking interacting with actual people (persons?), I spent a couple of minutes (hours?) drawing the above pix. It may be difficult to believe but this really is my own original work, honestly. I'm quite proud of it!