The scenic pond at the Great Kannon Temple in Kamakura. Temple sites in Japan strive for the beauty in their surrounding gardens to be as breathtaking as the actual religious image enshrined.

Another view of the lily pad speckled pond with the baby koi underneath.

Small baby koi fish swimming around in the pond.

Each one of these suckers would net $150 on Ebay. All I need is a net!

What would a Kannon Temple be without a giant bell? No Kannon Temple you'd ever find me at, that's what.

Here is a small shrine for the rice god Inari and his white fox helpers. I thought the red streamers were very pretty alongside the green trees.

The entrance to a cave at the Kannon Temple. Now you can visit a religious site and pretend you're entering a dungeon in The Legend of Zelda at the same time!

Me walking through one of the cave's dark, damp tunnels. You can't really tell in the picture, but you had to hunch over while walking in the cave so as to not hit your head.

Here is a small room inside the cave with tons of tiny figures of the god Kannon. They look like those old muscleman toys don't they?

Here is a view of Kamakura city and the beach area from the top of the Kannon Temple hill. It was a little overcast, but at least it didn't rain.

Here is the spot where I arrived at the Kamakura beach.

Here's a shot of the Kamakura beach with people. This was taken right in front of the "Maniac Beach" party tent that was blasting techno music for the many shirtless guys and bikini-clad girls and serving up expensive beers. It was like MTV SPRING BREAK!!! Except during the summer...and in Japan...and not associated with a TV station....and

Victory is mine!

For the first time in my adult life, I actually won something in one of those claw machines (and it only took me two tries)! Here is my newest plush Docomo-dake. This brings my total count up to four Docomo-dakes (one on my cell, one on my backpack, one on my Columbia ID badge strap, and my latest acquisition - this little guy). Now, if I can only win the HUGE Docomo-dake I see some places, I will be a happy, happy man.

Here is a designated smoking area outside of Kichijoji Station with the clever bird-shaped ashtray with a cigarette for a beak. This made me think that Nintendo should create a Pokemon series for adults with characters like this. "Cigaroo I choose you!"

Here is the outside of Columbia Digital Media (CDM) in the city of Kawasaki (near Yokohama). CDM is Columbia's production plant where they print, package, and ship all the DVDs, CDs, and tapes that the company sells (records are produced at a different site). I went on a tour of this factory yesterday. While there were many machines that could print, label, or wrap hundreds of disks a minute, there were still human workers who had to put the disks in boxes and see that the boxes were shipped off correctly.

One Month Left!

Yesterday marked the beginning of my last month in Japan. I will be heading back to the U.S. on September 18th.

B.E.W.

Bandai Museum Part 1: Superheroes

Here is the Bandai Superhero museum in Chiba. This museum has exhibits on Power Rangers, Masked Rider, Ultraman, Godzilla and others. The museum also had lots of life-size manikins and displays that you could take pictures of. I was very grateful for the two weeks I spent interning in the anime division of Columbia Music. Thanks to my time spent with the anime folks, I am now quite knowledgeable about the history and evolution (not to mention theme music) of the Super Sentai Rangers, Masked Rider, and Ultraman series in Japan. This allowed me to enjoy the museum fully.

All of the video and music materials sold in the gift shop were products of my recently departed Columbia Music anime section (they were selling Psychic Lover’s album as well).

The pictures down below do a much better job of explaining stuff than I can in writing, so what are you waiting for?

Have a look!

B.E.W.

The Bandai Museum from the outside. You can't really see, but there are characters on the front of the building as well.

Here is a blue claw thingy that moves around the ceiling of the museum automatically. This must be from some series, but all it reminded me of are those claw games in the arcade. Ooooooooh the claaaaaaaaw!

Here are the first five rangers from the original Japanese show which first aired 30 years ago this year. The show was called "Secret Squadron Go Rangers" in Japan (秘密戦隊ゴレンジャー). Since this show was a spin off concept in the same universe as Kamen Rider, the rangers originally rode around on motorcycles just like their beetle masked friend. They sure have changed a lot in 30 years!