Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?– from “The summer day” by Mary Oliver
Gudetama (ぐでたま)
I just discovered the brilliant “Gudetama” (Lazy Egg) and he has become my new favorite character! He’s so lazy and kawaisou… I love it. I know what I am spending my money on when I visit Japan this summer. I thought the Sanrio character “Kirimi-chan” was okay, but there wasn’t anything really special about her. Sure, she’s a salmon filet, but I get the feeling she’s trying too hard. Perhaps it’s the pressure from Sanrio. I’m sure they can be pretty demanding, so I have to give her the benefit of the doubt. She’s probably a good kid. But Gudetama has a genuine personality that I don’t think Sanrio can pretty-up, no matter how much marketing they throw at it. It’s probably his down-to-earth qualities and sincerity that strike a chord with me; his lifestyle is one that I can really identify with. I want live my life like Gudetama!
Follow Gudetama (if you have the energy) on Twitter at @gudetama_sanrio
Kaiju Party
Kaiju Shirt
This past weekend we hosted our 3rd Kaiju party at our house. The usual suspects arrived at about 7pm, and we immediately started in on the beer and wine. Mikey wore his Kaiju t-shirt and provided the movies and expert commentary. He also brought over toys which included Baragon (the monster from the first movie on the list) and a Maser Cannon, which makes its first appearance in the second movie we watched. The toys are always a nice touch! It’s really cool that Mikey gives us some history to each movie, and what to watch for and also some cool bits of trivia about the movie production, actors, etc. And the toys!
Baragon vs. Maser Cannon
The movies we watched were “Frankenstein vs. Baragon” and “War of the Gargantuas”. Both of them were really wacky, silly, but cool too. There were lots of really stylish convertibles and also both movies starred Kumi Mizuno, who is gorgeous and always wearing some cool outfits. It was interesting that the second movie was sort of a sequel to the first one, but not really. Lots of the plot was carried over, and the main characters in both movies were a trio of scientists, one gaijin (white), a woman, and a third Japanese scientist. Only Mizuno starred in both movies, but all the characters’ names were different. It was weird, and didn’t make much sense, but just made it all the more interesting. The monsters in the second movie were related to Frankenstein from the first, and I am sure there are plenty of theories on how the monsters were connected. I preferred the first movie because Frankenstein was really funny-looking, and the other monster “Baragon” was really cool and had some nice jumping moves.
Toy Maser Cannon fights the Gargantua
Hanging out with the Kaiju gang and watching more monster movies was so fun and I’m really looking forward to Kaiju 4! I’m pretty sure Mikey will bring over a Gamera movie or two, plus some neat toys. It’s bound to be another good time!
Quote for Today
Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
– Mahatma Gandhi
Nightly Reading
Just Another Day − Our days our organized around numerous small actions we repeat over and over. What’s your favorite daily ritual?
My favorite daily ritual is actually a nightly ritual: reading in bed. Usually this ritual of nightly reading lasts about five minutes because once I lie down with my head on the pillow I am pretty much history. Even if the book is an exciting thriller, or if I am close to the end, I just cannot keep my eyes open. If I read a paragraph, then don’t remember what I just read, that means I will be asleep in a few seconds. If I drop the book on my face, I’d give myself about 20 seconds. I’m lucky if I can “get it together” and place my bookmark in the book!
However, last night (this morning) I was up until 1:30am reading Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami. It was fascinating and engrossing. I was truly amazed that I was not getting drowsy and by 1:00am I was nearing the end of the story. I was in the home-stretch! Then all of a sudden, my eyelids got heavy, and I had trouble remembering what I had just read. I quickly decided to not try to power through it; it would be better if I saved the ending of this wonderful book til another time when I could fully concentrate. I felt like I owed the author that much. So, I am really looking forward to tonight’s “nightly ritual” and finishing Sputnik Sweetheart.
This post was prompted by The Daily Post from WordPress.
