A Few Random Things

I finally got a bicycle so now traveling around the city is a lot easier and a lot more fun. On first glance I was starting to assume that no one in Obihiro was locking their bike, but in fact the wheels of the front tire is locked up. Too bad someone could just pick up your light-ass bike and carry it to their apartment. Just saying.

Still, I have a nice little black bike with a little basket and a light generator (which all bikes seems to have) and is adorable. Unfortunately, I have to keep it in my room but it doesn't take all that much room. Soon my knowledge of Obihiro will be a lot batter and maybe I'll find a few more cool places.

I just had possibly the most delicious curry I've ever eaten at a place call Soup Curry Waruw... or maybe it was called Soup Curry Maruw. Now I didn't know what Soup Curry (or Curry Soup) would be like but it was absolutely wonderful. It was full of big chunks of delicious veggies and a chicken breast and rice of the side. Now I've never had curry soup before but I wasn't sure how to eat it. Curry by definition is a sauce, but you can make a sauce into a soup. Anyway, it was basically a flavourful soup with a side of rice. So I poured the soup on the rice and ate them together. In retrospect they can probably be eaten separately but they taste good together too.
The restuarant itself is a hole in the wall (though for all I know it's a part of a franchise) and looks a little rundown but it has a cozy feel to it. I also like the fact that reggae music is being played in the background, the place has a whole Hawaiian tiki look and they serve curry. A little confusing. They also have a couple of vintage Great Mazinger-type toys. Also like many small restaurants there's manga lying around waiting to be read (though I have no idea why none of there places have anything from the cooking manga genre. What the hell?

I finished reading Young Avengers Vol. 1 and my opinion of it hadn't changed. It didn't help that it was sort of obvious where the ending was heading, though I could easily see further volumes being better reads. This had a good artist and an OK writer but something didn't click.

I also am halfway through Day of Vengeance, which is one of the four mini-series that lead into the Infinite Crisis book. Unfortunately before the titular story begins there's a three-part Superman story that leads into the story that's just God-awful. Awful art but Ian Churchill (he doesn't even strike me as someone who should be drawing Superman) and a terrible script by Judd Winick. I was told this guy was a good writer but this was painful. It was an unbelievably generic story that feels over twenty years old (in a bad way) opening with a early Alan Moore wannabe type feel, then a generic Eclipso possesses Superman story (I'm positive that they've done that many times, yet they act like it's the first.) and then it's just a boring Super-battle. In fact the way Captain Marvel beats evil Superman was already done much better in Kingdom Come.

The actual story is kind of fun and the art is OK. But it also didn't click. Still the author does something I appreciate, which is taking B-level characters and making them interesting. I have a soft spot for B-level characters because their status quo is less fixed. I don't care what you do to Superman but he'll always get his status quo back. However, you can do anything you want with Detective Chimp.

Actually Detective Chimp is made into a fun character here: a talking Chimpanzee with only the ability to talk, heightened intelligence and eternal youth. Basically, he's an asshole detective in a Sherlock Holmes hat (deerstalker) who wears an "Everybody Sucks but Me" shirt. I also like Ragman who can borrow the strength of all of the people he punished for their sins, so it's like he's powered by purgatory and the souls in his costume work off their karmic debt. It's a really cool idea in my opinion.

The plot sounds fun but I'm not that into it yet: the most powerful character in the DCU (the Spectre AKA God's Wraith incarnate) is tricked into wiping out all of the magic users and the only people to opposed him that haven't been spanked or killed by the Spectre is a ragtag group (one of those things) of random magic types... and Captain Marvel, and Marvel is in the middle of getting his teeth knocked out. I'll have to wait till it finishes to pass final judgment but I have to say this is a fun story, but nothing special.

Also Justiniano art's good but it doesn't fit here. His art is good but when I read it I get the impression that these aren't the characters that he was meant to draw, except maybe Nightshade. Seeing the way he draws Nightshade, I get the impression that he should be drawing Birds of Prey. It really seems he was meant to draw when in tight clothes doing martial arts.

Also, I've been listening to I Love Movies radio podcasts. I can't promise that you'll like it (though I'm sure Darcy will) but generally obscure comedians (and Patton Oswalt on one show) and host Doug Benson. Mostly it's just talking about movie but there are times that are just very funny, though exact moments don't come to mind. So that's what I've been up to.

I Feel Like Talking About Comics

Can you pay phone bills at convenience stores in Canada? Because you can in Japan apparently. And since this was my first phone bill it's taken me aback a little (and I sincerely don't know if it can be done in North America). Just think, in the middle of the night, you get the munchies, so you head over to a 7-11 for a peach-flavoured kit-kat bar, some Wild Turkey and pay your Internet bill all at once. Nifty.

Not much happening here. I helped some guy beat House of the Dead II with all of my loose 100 yen coins (about 8-9 dollars worth). A little kid watched on and while I have no idea what he was saying, he seemed amazed by everything that was going on. I only got rookie, but that's because I allowed the continue to hit zero half way through. And I shot a guy who wasn't a zommbie so that didn't help.

My Mom wants to visit me in Japan some time, but I don't know when she's coming or what she'd do. Too my knowledge, winter is Hokkaido's big season because of the mountains used for skiing and I really don't know if the sakura bloom up here in Spring (I believe one student told me they bloom later here than anywhere else, but I don't know when that would be) so I really don't know what there is for my parents to do here.


I've been reading the comics that have been sent to me (and I at my KD) and have finished Astonishing X-Men Vol. 3, which might have been better in one sitting than one chapter a night (but still, I want it to last a while) and is a little disappointing, though mostly because all of the big surprises were ruined for me before I picked it up. Still, there are some great moments (Wolverine spends much of the story mentally regressed into his 12 year-old pansy self) and some interesting developments (the real secret behind Cyclops' optic blasts are revealed), but too much of it is setting up for the forth and final story arc. And since I'm not too into X-Men in Space stories, I'm not looking forward to that one too much.

Nonetheless, I'm definitely gonna get it because while I'm not all that interested in X-Men in Space, I want to know what the Hell's going on with Emma Frost and I want to know where Cassandra Nova's (Xavier's creepy and positively evil twin sister) consciousness went. I guess my biggest problem with this is that instead of a proper ending, it ends on a cliffhanger and I wanted at least a little bit of closure before blasting headlong into the next story. This story is clearly too attached to this next story and I really want to read the next one simply to clear up that one important plot point. Frankly, I don't even care is Colossus is destined to bust up a planet.

Right now, I'm in the middle of the first volume of Young Avengers, one of Marvel's most critically acclaimed series. It was created by veteran TV writer Allan Heinberg (The OC, Sex in the City, Grey's Anatomy and many more) and drawn rather well by Jim Cheug. It has a really good premise, a lot of critical acclaim, a good hook at the end of the first issue and a lot of potential but it's really left me cold... so far. The premise is an Avenger's themed super-group of teens shows up after the original Avengers team is decimated by one of their own. The characters look like side kicks and are all modelled after classic Avengers (Iron Lad, Asgardian, Patriot and Hulkling) but their origins and connections to the Avengers turn out to be not what anyone expects. I like the fact that Iron Lad is actually a young Kang the Conqueror and the revelation that the team was planned by the Vision before he "died," but the characters' aren't doing all that much for me. Of course, I am reviewing a book before it's finished, but at the same time, I'm just not that into it yet. Now if we're talking awesome teen super-book, I much prefer Runaways.

I also am close to being all caught up in Gantz and I always have to say that this series impresses me in terms of art, story telling and just how far the creator can go with keeping things fucked up. I do like the fact that the series feels a little less cynical in some ways, yet doesn't manage to betray it's feel. No matter what the character Kei Kurono is like, you root for him simply because of the fact that he's place in oer his head in an unfair situation. I really like the evolution of his character and where the series is heading. The best thing about this series is that whenever one question is answered it manages to raise many, many more. I love everything about this series and am constantly confused as too why no one is fighting for the rights to publish this series in North America.

I haven't read any manga that's been too impressive beyond that and I keep hoping whatever I'll read next turns out to be a nice hidden treasure (hey, it happened before with Level E... which none of you have read yet. Shame on you). I did catch up with One Piece a few month ago. I love the series still, but I have to say... END! It's been 10 years and there's no sign that they'll find the treasure. Now it doesn't feel monotonous as some series (Inu-Yasha) but I really feel that a series chronicling the characters quest for a single goal should end after 10 years, just because the fans deserve an ending. Just make sure it's satisfying and appears before people stop caring about the characters (time can do that).

As for what's happening in American comics right now... well, I'm not actually terribly interested in the death of Captain America. Not just because he'll be back, but also because I'm just exhausted of anything related to Civil War. I do like the direction for a lot of books that Civil War ignited but I don't think it was worth all of these talented creators giving readers a tired and wildly uneven (and sometimes even contradictory) final product.

I'm much more interested in seeing how 52 ends. I like 52 not only because it's well written, but it's tapping into the kind of things I love about super-hero comics: crazy ideas, the idea you can go anywhere or do anything while retaining the sense of danger and suspense. Luckily, the cast is all B-level characters so there's also a sense the things can be done with them that you can't do with the big iconic characters like Superman and Batman. Also, I really like Booster Gold, an athlete from the future who came to our time and become a super-hero simply to get popular and make money. He's always been kind of a neat character. There are other great ideas working here too: an island inhabited only by mad scientists, Booster using his knowledge of the future to stop crimes before they happen (and covering his uniform in stickers like a NASCAR car.... car) and Lex Luthor's giving ordinary people super-powers (including flight) only to turn them off at midnight on New Year's eve and watching them fall from the sky. Dick.

I'm not necessarily in favour of more weekly series on this scale, but I think that this series was certainly a success for the most part, especially considering this is the first American attempt at a weekly comics series in who knows how long. I'm very interested if all of the stories are in fact interconnected and what the 52 are.

I'd also really like to read SHAZAM!: the Monster Society of Evil, created by Bone creator Jeff Smith. there aren't enough high quality super-hero comics you can give to young readers and Jeff Smith's take on SHAZAM! is exactly the kind of book I want to see. It looks like it has the same humour that made Bone such a great read and has an old fashioned super-hero style that isn't drenched in kitsch. It's just a comic in the vein of the original series: a boy who gets to be a cool grown-up super-hero with a magic word. It's doesn't get any simpler than that.

I'm also excited about what's coming next in Heroes (not a comic, but close enough). I've been let down in ome elements of this show and have been very impressed with others. The origin of HRG (as the fans call him) episode was very impressive (though I have no idea how the crap he survived that much radiation) and was the kind of episode I wanted to see since the series began. I also liked Mohinder taking out Sylar (if just for a short bit) and am quite interested to see where that it heading. I'm just hope that the November explosion is taken care of at the end of this season, because I already want the show to move beyond that. I'm also interested to see if Hiro's father really wanted him to save face for his company or if he was just trying to protect him from "the Company."

I still don't care that much for the Petrelli family. They don't interest me that much. And Linderman's appearence was a bit disappointing (what won't you star in Malcolm MacDowell). I think my biggest beef with this series is that there's a lot of stuff I can see coming that the characters can't. Matt Parkman often strikes me as annoyingly incompetent (I'm never surprised he never made it as a detective). What I love in super-hero comics is seeing super-types doing intering, clever things with their powers. There's some of that (shooting Claire to appease Ted, Sylar telekinetically turning off his IV) but I'd like to see more of that as the series goes on. And some more subtlety. Not many people strike me as subtle on this show. Do something about that.

But now I have to wait a month to see. Crap.

Wha's Hap'nen

So what's going on in Japan right now? Not much really.

For work I was recently observed, which is never a comfortable experience. Still, it went by pretty painlessly. However, it doesn't look like my probationary period will end quite yet and I might have too wait another month or more.

Most of the students are really nice, and even the ones who are pains aren't too bad. The only real pain is this one guy who's in a much higher level than he deserves to be. He doesn't participate all that much either. It's like he's spaced out unless I'm giving him constant attention. In fact, he's one of the few cases where it might be better to have him and him alone in a class, simply because I can give him as much time to talk and stop him from nodding off.

There are students from all walks of life, but where I work seems particularly popular among older women. Most of them are pretty nice and are really interested in learning the language. But there are also people ranging from high school to their elder years. There's even one young kid from Jr. High, although he's incredibly quiet. Things, for the most part, are going pretty good on that end.

Oh, and I finally got my comics from home (and a box of KD) so now I got Astonishing X-Men, Day of Vengeance, Doom Patrol and Young Avengers to live off of for the month. I'm trying to stretch it out by reading a single chapter a night, which is almost painfully for more slowly paced books. I feel sorry for people who read certain monthly books. I was only able to find one place with English books (more than I thought, but less that was implied by my roommate). I had very little options so I just picked up the classic Heart of Darkness and Dragonball Vol. 10.

I've also been reading lots of manga, including Eyeshield 21, which is much better as a manga than an anime. I like the fact that even the series artist likes mocking the characters insane proportions (the artist points out that certain characters are ten feet tall but only during the games. I also recommend Eternal Sabbath (less generic than the title implies), My Name is Zushio (a little too hyper at times though), Mr. Fullswing (one again, sometimes a little too hyper) and Freesia.

I've been keeping up with my English TV, watching the Daily Show and Colbert Report on the Comedy Central website. I've been good with downloading everything thing else I would miss but there isn't that much I watched on TV that wasn't reruns, so I'm downloading some other shows I haven't completely watched before. I'm also renting movie from Tsutaya, the "culture convenience" store that rents movies and, interestingly enough, CDs. So if there's some J-pop you want me rip and send you I'll see what I can do.

Tsutaya actually has a really good selection of new and classic films (Darcy would be happy to know there's a silent film section), but apart from sections, it's hard to tell where to find something if you're looking for it. Now I'm just picking a few random movies that I heard were good or look like their good. Or are really old looking. Apparently, DVDs of American TV series are very popular in Japan, particularly 24. Frankly, I prefer to download my shows, so I'll probably just stick to that. Right now I have the first season of Masters of Horror downloaded and have found it mostly disappointing. I know Dario Argento can do better.

I went skiing yesterday, which was a lot of fun, and it was nice to just get out there and do something. Stil, it's been quite a while since I went skiing so it was a little choppy, though I got the basics down pretty quick. The weather on the mountain was quite crazy, ranging from very clear to completely closed in. I should also try to get my legs ready for next winter so I can ski longer without my legs feeling the strain. Still, I had a pretty good time and I was somehow able to get some rental boots for my giant feet.

I'm thinking of getting a DS (partially because Jordan nags me to get one and I'm a pretty malleable guy), but aside from Wario Ware and New Super Mario Bros., I'm not sure what to get. I hear Shonen Jump Stars is good, but will it be good as a one player. I'd like Eyeshield, but I'm tempted to wait until the next game in hopes that they add more stuff from the manga. Also, I can't read Japanese. Any ideas for games when I bite that bullet?

Anyway, I'll try to update more often (especially since I'm done those 2 back to back six day work weeks.