Random Pictures (8)

If it is not immediately obvious, this is a piece of very freshly made senbei (rice cracker) with octopus in it. ('Oh, of course!') When I say it's 'freshly made', what I mean is that at this stall, the staff actually put the senbei mixture down, put a fat, juicy, fresh octopus tentacle on there, and then apply the equivalent of a vice to crush it into paper thinness! If you want to try this (it was pretty good!), they are specialties of Enoshima island.

I'm not sure if this thing is supposed to be cute or supposed to be nightmare fuel for young children. Either way, I'm about as close to it as I wanna be.

Sorry for the poor image quality on this one. Here are Street Fighter 'combination' meals. Get it? Combination? Ha ha ha. Sadly I had already eaten when I came upon this restaurant, so I will probably never get to eat the same beef fried rice that Cammy likes. ^_^

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Well... you can't say they didn't give you a choice.

I first mentioned this diner, Bubby's, way back in my first month of blogging (see entry).  I finally got a picture of the sign!  As I mentioned, this is a pie cafe, and has a very homey, American-style 'mom's home cooking' kind of vibe. And as we all know, all American family restaurants include just a little bit of profanity.

Yeah, buy them a nice chew toy instead.

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Wow. The Japanese diet is known for being quite healthy, while we Westerners are thought to enjoy junk food a little too much for our own good. But I have never seen such a gargantuan stack of calories in Australia.

This is a sculpture at the Sapporo Snow Festival. The character is called Marimokkori, and is a popular character from Hokkaido, also popular with children. I thought 'oh, I have a dirty mind, that creature looks like it's got a boner, ha ha of course that can't be the case'. No. It really does.

I saw this billboard while waiting for a train in Kikuna. And no, I don't know what it is, either.

[By the way, if you have been a regular reader of this blog, you may have noticed how rarely I have been posting lately. That's because I'm actually back in Australia at the moment - these last few posts were pre-written - and running out of things to say. If I ever go back to Japan, I'm sure I will post more actively again, but for now, this blog will be coming to a bit of a hiatus.]

Random Pictures (5)

In our first picture today we have a square melon. Very nice, eh? So is the price tag: 15,000 yen. That's over AU $160. Believe it or not, this is far from being one of the most expensive 'gift fruits' on offer. I'm telling you, these things had better taste like ambrosia.

 This is a crane game. The prizes are these little characters shaped like poo. Lovely.

I spotted this cute, friendly, not-creepy-at-all fellow in a children's play area in Omiya, in Saitama prefecture.
If you need me, I'll be under my bed.

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Apparently Dilbert's pointy-haired boss has taken up dentistry.

Be afraid. Be very afraid. 

 This is exactly what it looks like - half a loaf of bread with icecream and syrup on the top.

Enjoy.

This ridiculous-looking creature is the mascot character of Nagoya's public transport system. (Don't you know that everything in Japan has a mascot character?) Nagoya seems to have a preponderance of ugly mascot creatures, but nothing is as bad as Nara's Sento-kun.

Random Pictures (3)

I don't know just what is happening in this picture. But that elevator is clearly taking malicious pleasure in that property damage. 

His perhaps slightly less well-known residence. 

Anybody want a bucket-sized parfait?

With, like, an entire pudding, brownie, fruit salad and three scoops of icecream on top?

You know, just to tide you over until you get home or something?