Dude, you know this shit is dope! Pooper has a one man show, and you couldn’t look away even if you wanted to. I think that the word “poop” is not used enough in the right context. “Pooper scooper” just sounds lame, but when a little guy named “Pooper” is cheerfully flippin’ the bird while getting a piggyback ride (from a bigger Pooper) it not only makes sense- it was Destiny.
On a side note, look at how baby Pooper has his head turned way over to the left, while he is extending his backhand way out to the right. If you try to do this, you will notice how hard it is to adequately present the middle finger clearly without straining. Clearly, the kid is talented.
Look at how this picture is framed. Widescreen, just like a movie. Brings Resevoir Dogs to mind for some reason. Notice that although the Pooper who is about to be executed is keeping his cool, and the bead of sweat rolling down his “Simpson yellow” forehead is the only indication of his true mental state. Or maybe Poopers are always happy no matter what, and under their omnipresent state of happiness are other layers of emotion. Maybe its just a hot day. Even though one of them is about to execute the other they both look like they are having a good time, and isn’t that what its really all about?
Pooper looks like Qoo, but Pooper is a bad muthafucka (thanks to C. B.’s Hasty Musings) and Qoo is merely the mascot of a tasty line of beverages in Japan. Other pictures include a WWF/Mad Max king of the ring where they are all Mortal Kombatting eachother, Pooper taking a poop, Pooperette letting out a noxious fart cloud, and many more with Pooper giving the finger. The act of giving the finger, much like the act of exacting revenge, is best done with a smile on one’s face. It makes the experience that much more satisfying, and adds insult to injury.
Your New Favorite Character
Aeon Flux: The Movie!
![PION-F~4[1].gif](http://www.cosmicbuddha.com/adam/archives/PION-F~4[1].gif)
(Credit: http://zed.9hells.org)
About ten years ago Anime was not really mainstream, at least not to the degree that it is today. I mean, we had a bunch of good dubbed imports but American animation had nothing really to compete with Japanese Anime, in terms of excitement, raw energy, and coolness. Except for Aeon Flux, that is. Aeon Flux was kinda noir-ish, and kinda cyberpunk: a future dystopia with lots of action and a fast paced story. I remember that I had to stay up late past my bedtime to watch this series on Liquid TV, abut the consequenses of getting in trouble were well worth it. Now, it seems that the movie is finally going to happen! And its not gonna be starring Angelina Jolie, either (that would have been my prediction). If the movie successfully interprets the cartoon, then this is gonna be one badass flick.
Read more about whats going on here.
Yufuin Car Museum
The Yufuin Car Museum is in bad shape. If you look closely at the mural, you can make out areas where the wallpaper glue has decomposed. Also, this room is so small, that it is impossible to take a good photo that shows off the whole car. I’m sure that it must’ve looked much better 30 years ago…
I want to see how people react to hearing me say that “I drive a midget”.
A powered tricycle- this is a direct ancestor of the modern tuk-tuk.
You can’t really tell in this picture, but the black mechanic has a huge smile on his face. Why? I can only guess that he is much happier to be working on a Model T than in the cotton fields (who was the Japanese guy who thought up this display? Thats what happens when people grow up with images of Sambo etched into their memories.).
I think that the old Mazda logo is pretty cool, and predict that someone will see this pic and create a kit for Miatas and RX-7s (dunno if it would look as good on an RX-8).
I’ll just let the picture speak for itself. Feel free to write a caption…
All of the cars in the Yufuin Car Museum are in sorry shape, cramped together, and are poorly lit. This was actually a GOOD idea for an underfunded museum, as the low light, and the cars being placed RIGHT next to each other hide the blemishes much like the ugly in bars and nightclubs is hidden by low lighting and the crowd (especially after a few drinks…). Surprisingly, they had many rare cars and some of them, after a LOT of work, have the potential to be real gems. I think it would be great if the museum sold its cars to a museum with a lot of money, so that these cars can receive the restoration and maintenance that they deserve.
Holy Water
Every once in a while, I take a picture that I really like. This one was taken at a lake in Yufuin (in Oita-ken), and I had to venture out into the water to get it.
I really like the shrines that are built in or around water in its various forms. They seem more powerful, or at least more interesting. This one made me wonder: did they drain the lake in order to set the concrete columns in place and then fill it back up, or did they build it and then create the lake, or did they just sink in the columns pre-fabricated? Of course, it would be cool if it just magically appeared from the void or if it was built by supernatural beings, but if this were the case, I would hope that they would use more exotic building materials, like an all knowing oracular slab of midnight blue sapphire that could only be awakened by the one who was foretold of by the prophecy, or a rock that would be indistinguishable from ordinary concrete, that if touched would instantly cause its victim to be disintegrated, transomgrafied, or transported to a different dimension.
Come Again?
This sign lacks the standard misspelled words and strange grammar, but somehow it is still distinctly Japanese
Oh, how I was dying to go into this ramen-ya and mime my way through every interaction with anyone in my sphere of influence. I remember finding this same sign 4 years prior when on an epic roadtrip with Justin, Taro, and Sayaka, except this time we (Natchan and Pitia, visiting from Nara) decided to eat here. The tonkotsu was dissapointing- the broth had no soul, the noodles were limp, and the pork was too fatty. This was the type of ramen that you wouldn’t even feel like making slurping noises with, because it just wouldn’t seem fitting to draw any attention it.
Beppu, as a place, is kind of a dissapointment for me. They have no great specialty foods like Kumamoto and aside from the jigokus (hot springs, litteral translation is “hell” supposedly because the steaming strange colored pools matched descriptions of the hells depicted in Buddhist scriptures), onsens, and the sex museum (worth a visit to see Snow White and the 7 Dwarves: the XXX version) there are few places of interest. Despite this, I have had a great time here on both times I have visited, but this was due to the company rather than the setting, as is usually the case.
We had a good time visiting Yufuin, taking pictures, resting in the sand baths, eating sushi from the conveyor belt (stay away from the sea centipede, nato/quail egg combo, and the yellow egg sushi- trust me on this), and finding places of interest in and around Beppu.
If you are planning to come to Kyushu one day, let me give you some advice: There are many more interesting and worthwhile places for to spend your time and money instead of Beppu. Most people come either to see the jigokus or to visit the onsens. I admit, the Jigokus are kind of interesting, but I don’t see how anyone can burn a whole day looking at boiling hot pools of interestingly colored mineral water, and the cheesy, poorly maintained decorations that seem to detract rather than complement them. Their onsens aren’t bad, but Kurokawa is still my favorite place to soak in the hot mineral water while listening to the wind blow through the leaves and the gentle roar of the river below.
Chinese Meat Market
The “butcher/deli” section in a market in Shanghai.
Shopping for ingredients in Shanghai is an adventure of sights and smells. We wandered in a large, grey, hulking building and found each section of the two floors packed with a huge variety of food in its virgin state (more or less). Nothing is nicely packaged here, there is no celophane wrap or styrofoam (Chris, does this ordinary word conjure up any memories?) and everything sits out in the open. You can tell things are pretty fresh, because the air is balmy, and there is no stench of decay, just the odors of vegetation, spices, blood, dirt, slime, and slowly decomposing generic cellular material.
Hah, people in California think that shopping at Trader Joe’s is supporting struggling co-ops and individual farmers and craftsmen while supporting the organic farmers of the world. Shop at a real Chinese market and you know that your cabbage was Certified Organically Grown with the contents from that farmer’s outhouse. It don’t get much more organic than that. There are no processed foods here. And you won’t be asked “paper or plastic?”- they will simply take a sheaf of yesterday’s newspaper and reuse it to tie up your package of meat. If you don’t bring something to put your purchases in, then you will carry them in your arms.
What kind of “meat” is that, do you ask? Dunno for sure, but it sure looks like it would make for some kick-ass barbecue. If you really want to eat disgusting meat, I don’t think it can get any more mysterious, unsanitary, or unidentifiable than the “meat” found in the common taco of Tijuana. Tu quieres carne de gato y perro?
A Good Beach Day, A Good Day To Be At Work
Nam is chasing the sea gulls next to Huntington Beach Pier, on a fabulous afternoon in January. Justin is sitting on the pale sand smoking a cig, and I am taking pictures. This was exactly what we wanted to do on our Winter vacation.
Today the weather is excellent. The sky is a clear blue- the kind of blue you only see in the deepest reaches of the country when there is a stiff wind blowing. A good day to fly a kite, or to go sailing. And my work for the day mirrored the weather.
Soon all three hoikuens will become one, under the watch of the windmill. I have enjoyed working at the smaller hoikuens because I have gotten to know the little kids one on one. I am closer to the little ones than almost any other JET in Japan has ever had the opportunity to be, I think. So I am enjoying the last of our time together, before I must divide the time among all of the kids in a huge group as impartially as I can. My successor will never be able to connect with the kids as I and my predecessors before me, but then again working at only one hoikuen will make the job much easier. For me, the extra work was well worth the opportunities and experiences.
Today, we all played outside, everyone shoveling sand in a pile to build a huge mountain. Everyone pitched in, and we had a small hill built in ten minutes. I taught the preschoolers about volcanos and lava, by pouring bucketfulls of water in the caldera and breaching the side to let the slurry wash down a curvy channel, filling a lake. Thats what I did for work today- playing with sand and water- I mean, who else gets paid to do things like this? It’s strange teaching English to such little kids because they are probably learning concepts and symbols in English at the same time or even before they learn them in Japanese. I only wish I could teach them every day…
At the shogakko, I made a huge mural with the 5th and 6th graders of Kumamoto city, complete with a street, buildings, cars, people, and anything else that they wanted to make. Giving the kids open reign on a large, communal canvas is a great way to get them interested in learning about things in English and you can feel their desire to learn English grow. Working interactively in a lesson really helps the kids to retain what they have learned well after it is taught, even without review. As of late, I have been more informal in class than usual, and this works with my students because we have developed a good balance between fun and learning, so that they make no differentiations between the two. Learning is fun, and fun is learning for right now. I hope that I have built up enough momentum in their interests so that they continue to pursue their current interests in English and the world outside of Japan.
Putz Master
This is a close up of a concrete pump in Shanghai, in front of a new gargantuan shopping mall under construction along the Bund. I had never seen a Putzmeister until then, and so I assumed that Putzmeister was a Chinese company that made cheaper versions of Caterpillar equipment.
“Putzmeister is considered world-wide as the pioneer for equipment plant and systems for concrete, mortar and high-density solid pumps”, but the one thing that sticks out to me about this German company is its name. I know nothing about German except that:
“Jager” = “Hunter” and
“Meister” = “Master”,
therefore, “Jagermeister” = “Master Hunter”.
In this vein “Putzmeister” means “Master Putz”.
I am guessing that “putz” is an onomatopoeic word, roughly equivalent to “putt” as in the sound that a running engine makes. If this pump does belch out the greatest of the putts, it must sound like all of the Titans letting out trouser-ripping farts in quick succession. I’m just trying to say that I think that Putzmeister has a nice ring to it, in a German-ish sort of way.
Nastiness
Today I was eating lunch at the new Hoikuen with the Yuri-gumi (Hoikuen is divided by age groups from oldest to youngest: sakura-gumi, yuri-gumi, and ume-gumi) across from a 4 year old boy, while the 4 year old boy in back of me was chewing on my sweatshirt refusing to stop or to admit that it wasn’t “oishii”. When I finally got his jaws open and made him sit a safe distance away, the kid in front, mouth full of fried chicken and rice, lets out a monster sneeze, blowing chunks of partially masticated saliva coated food mixed with atomized snot globules. Yup, the post mortem is right there on my tray. But the teachers didn’t see it and suggest that I should get a new tray full of sanitary food, so I sucked it up and cleaned my plate. All throughout the meal, the 4 year old had an evil smile on his face, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he had done it on purpose. I think that was nastier than involuntarity eating bugs in Thailand.
Today’s random link: Kushami Otaku– for people who really dig sneezes.
It’s Gonna Be A Bright, Bright Sunshiny Day
The rim of the largest caldera in the world, overlooking Aso-machi. If you look closely
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you can see steam rising from Aso-san. Sulphuric fumes released from the top of Aso kill a couple of people each year, mostly the old or sick. Recently Aso mountain has been acting a bit “sassy”, and so sometimes you can’t go up (depending on how the volcano has been feeling recently).
Lately the weather has warmed up considerably to the point where I can comfortably wear two layers of clothes in the mountains, and a shirt and shorts in the city! Bugs have begun to come out of hibernation and are slowly making a comeback. I can no longer use my whole kitchen as a giant refrigerator. The snow is disappearing slowly, although the shady sections of the roads remain slick and dangerous (last year, around this time, a friend of mine flipped his car on a warm, sunny afternoon and had to get driven to the airport so that he could make it up to Osaka to watch J5 perform). Hanami is just around the corner, and I think that I am finally getting over my cold (that I caught right when I came back from Korea). Its Monday and I’m exhausted already, but at least we have good weather.