AltJapan

Yokai Etiquette

"Applying makeup on the train!? It's enough to scare a yokai!"

Now here's a train-etiquette sign that would only make sense to Japanese commuters (or someone who's read Yokai Attack!) A nopperabo ("faceless one") puts on her makeup as other yokai look on, including a One-Eyed Boy, a Kappa, a Snake-Necked Woman, and a haunted umbrella.

Personally, I've never had a big problem with people (or monsters) applying makeup on the train, but maybe that's because I almost never have to commute during rush hour.

Angry Firs

Even after years of studying super kawaii characters in Japan, I come across new species that defy easy explanation.

This sign appeared in Inokashira Park several weeks back. It's posted on a bridge that's being renovated, and warns pedestrians to watch their step. It's a classic "warning character" sign, but... What are those little monsters at bottom? Trees? If so, why are they armed with spears?

Perhaps they aren't trees at all but yokai: a personification of the misfortunes that befall your feet when you don't watch where you're stepping.

Snowpocalypse: Tokyo

3 - 4 inches of snow fell here last night, which isn't much by "snow country" standards but a positive blizzard by those of Neo-Tokyo. Below: strange goings-on in Inokashira Park.

Nakano Gets Rickrolled

 

PVC

Yakitori with side of kaiju after Ilanena's gallery show (which runs through February 20th at the Alternative Cafe in Nakano -- some pics here.) 

Ilanana's tastes run deep: these toys were inspired by an obscure series of old "Kaiju Trump" playing cards that were packaged with bottles of Kewpie mayonnaise in the Seventies.

I remember penning the English text for the header card of his very first release, back in 2007. It's hard to believe he's released seventy-plus variations and collaborations on the design since then. Time flies when you're molding kaiju.

Das Foot

Close encounter of the five-toed kind: an "Ashiarai Yashiki" resin figure, sculpted and cast in holiday hues by my pal Servbot30!

Inspired by Yokai Attack, this has to be the world's first and only "action figure" based on the creature. It's a massive disembodied foot that crashes through ceilings demanding to be washed -- a terror of the Edo period. (Wash it and it leaves; ignore it and it goes on a unipedal rampage through your living room.) 

Serv says he's hard at work on other yokai, so stay tuned...