Awesome!

Yes! My personal Top 7. Why 7? Because it’s lucky!

I’m a great fan of short things; short stories, short animations. They’re all opportunities to show a powerfully concise moving, touching, or just plain funny story. They require a special kind of skill to execute, and all the better when they’re visually unique!

I won’t say too much about each of these animations, or else I would be spoiling them. Needless to say, they mostly speak for themselves.

This is my entry to this month’s Japan Blog Matsuri, as hosted by Muza-chan. Thank you, Muza-chan! (Not familiar with the Matsuri? Well, you should read up on it. You should also check out this month’s other entries.)

7. Takumi K. & Mayuko K. “Sarumomo”

Actually, this one is a little sad. Stories like this always make me cry… Yet, so sweet. Apparently there would be more parts to this, but I did not see them.

Click here to view the embedded video.

6. Hiroco Ichinose “ha・P”

Downright strange, and yet… I like it. I like it a lot. You know there is a story behind it. I also like the author’s description of it on its Youtube page.

Click here to view the embedded video.

5. Tannokojo “Wilderness”

I’m a real sucker for such fluid, conceptual action scenes. Leaves a lot up to interpretation.

Click here to view the embedded video.

4. Junichi Yamamoto “Hot-Blooded Alien”

He certainly is hot-blooded. There’s a strange mix of animation styles here, not to mention a strange mix of everything else. I like the ending especially.

Click here to view the embedded video.

3. Tomoyoshi Joko “Mr. Cloud and Mr. Rain”

Watching the title characters interact so fluidly (to make an obvious statement) is just so delightful. It’s kind of surreal, too. Many principles of what makes an enjoyable animation are present.

Click here to view the embedded video.

2. Hiroyasu Ishida “Fumiko’s Confession”

It’s a joy to look at, not to mention funny and adorable. I mentioned this in a post a while back, too.

Click here to view the embedded video.

1. Kousuke Sugimoto “The TV Show”

Yeah, it’s another one that I posted about a couple posts ago! It is one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen. I am not exaggerating. How all the scenes are juxtaposed with differing styles, yet come together and interact — I can’t even imagine how it was all conceived. Watch it. Watch it over. And over. And over again.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Runners Up

Fujio Tanabe’s “Fridges“; for me, it could have been benefited by a slight change of either music or pacing. I still love the animation and the feel of it.

“Melody“, another one by Junichi Yamamoto. Sweet, if not a little long.

Tomoyoshi Joko’s “Lizard Planet” has surprisingly few views, too (probably because it is newish). Go watch it!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Enjoy your happy.

First, the original:

A+ for comfort

Apparently one of the ideas behind this innovative new sleeping bag with legs is that you’ll be able to get up and run away from bears should you be caught by one while camping. There are a few things that come to mind when you hear that:

• If you’re caught by a bear, you probably can’t outrun it.
• In regular sleeping bags, you can at least pretend to be a giant rock. Bears can’t see all that well in the dark, can they? Now you’re just a giant, armless mass with easy-to-chew-off legs.
• You can’t easily stand without the use of your arms.

You’ve got to admire the thought, however. Maybe.

Now, some of my favorite Photoshop edits. Note that all of these originated as a cumulative effort of the SomethingAwful Forum Goons in contribution to yet another Photoshop Phriday, so you should probably head on over there to appreciate their work where it originated. After all these years, I do so love me some Photoshop Phriday. A friend showed me these directly — please comment to stake claim if you so desire.

Federal Reserve Note

It's a fractal!

How far we've come.

Also for dogs!

They look so comfortable.

This made me laugh a bit too much.

When you see it...

I KNEW he looked familiar!

Pengy!

You can't help but stare.

The snuggies are coming to Isengard

Such a tragedy...

All things have a purpose. This bag with legs was clearly intended to amuse us.

Click here to view the embedded video.

As I attempt to immerse myself in more independent short animation, things like this continually restore my love for the art. Restooore!

I can’t stop watching this now…

See also:

Click here to view the embedded video.

But, 10 years ago, I discovered Japanese animation. I, in fact, discovered that a lot of the things I was already a fan of, like Super Mario and Zelda, are also of Japanese origin, and from there I went to learn more and more about the phenomenon of Japanese media and more things in general.

I started out watching anime like this…

Excel Saga

…and this…

Tenchi Universe

…and also this.

Gravitation

Of course, things like Tenchi, Dragon Ball, and Rurouni Kenshin became a regular part of the routine. (Didn’t they for everyone? Totally gateway anime.)

After years, I began pursuing anime like this…

Mononoke

…and this…

Gankutsuou: the Count of Monte Cristo

…and also this…

One Stormy Night

…sometimes to the chagrin of some of my friends. I always had strange tastes. But, as with anything, as long as it’s good or entertaining, I will look, watch, read, and listen.

I’m a fan of Japanese animation because it manages to be so distinctive while being varied, like a pool of all possible styles and genres. Even some of the most common and low-budget series manage to be very well-animated and expressive in their own way. Of course, it could also be that I never “grew out of” cartoons like some people expect you to. Must be the artist in me. I’m an animation geek in general.

If you haven’t seen it, here’s an amazing animated short done by a team of what I believe was 5 people:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here’s to another decade of creative animated media from all over the world!

Eyes like this are more common in anime aimed towards girls

It’s especially striking since in a lot of more common anime (and art in general) large eyes are used to define the looks of children, but adults (women especially) retain very large and child-like eyes as well. This may derive from a common inability to distinguish adults from children in art (something which bothers me a lot, as I prefer adults to be cute, but in a grown-up way, if they’re going to be cute at all)…or it may just be a “stylistic choice” to have adults resemble children, which at any other time would be creepy.

Why yes, I DID just Google "manbaby" for the very first time.

“Big”, however, should not be a catchall term for “detailed,” “elaborate,” or “shiny”, all of which anime eyes can also be. And it never stuck with me in correlation — lots of cartoon characters have big eyes, and other things out of proportion to the rest of their bodies. Lots of Western cartoon characters are also not intended to be as “realistic” as lots of anime characters, too, but they’re all still cartoons, many still subject to the ridiculousness that cartoons entail.

So, I give to you, a very random post of huge-eyed characters who aren’t from anime. You probably already knew they had huge eyes but you never thought “whoa, that guy has friggin’ huge eyes,” did you?

5. Tom (and Jerry)

Mouse Trouble

Forever a great cartoon. The eyes aren’t elaborate at all, but they were very emotive, like lots of animation from that era.

4. Betty Boop

Boop-boop-bee-doop

Actually, her entire head is notably huge in proportion to the rest of her. Classic as hell, but a little disturbing when you think of it.

3. Scrooge McDuck

MONEY MONEY MONEY MO-NAY

As if anthropomorphic ducks weren’t scary enough, those eyes can probably shoot lasers. (By the way, why aren’t there more characters with laser-shooting eyes? Personally I find it creepy, but lots of people seem to like that.)

2. Tiny Toons

We're all a little looney. Admit it.

As tinier, toonier versions of the Warner Bros. greats, they of course all had to have enormous eyes. Look at them. Staring into you.

1. Spongebob

I'm ready!

Considering that Spongebob can barely lift a barbell made of plush toys, eyes that size really should be weighing him down. Spongebob’s eyes have also elicited hilarious, hilarious “wrath” by being turned upside-down in the hands of overactive imaginations.

Also a close candidate: Squidward.

O_O

Another runner-up: Tweety Bird.

Do you have any idea how much Tweety gliterbling is out there? Do you??

Both of these characters’ eyes add up to an estimated 70% of their body weight.

Just like lots of anime, (1) many adults still watch these shows (when available), even when they were (2) originally intended for children.

Wow, this is making me incredibly nostalgic. See, most of these guys harken back to a time where cartoons had lasting appeal to all audiences. But that’s another article for another blog…

Anyway, a reminder from the artist in me: eyes are diverse. They should be drawn in a way suitable to your style. I wasted a lot of years trying to replicate the look of “anime” eyes before I started branching out more into drawing them however I like. Eyes in anime themselves are diverse, as designers and manga-ka develop their own styles according to their needs. So, be original.

Sample of anime-esque eyes from a brush set

One last link should give you an idea of why I personally love larger eyes in all kinds of works (and relates directly to my distaste for most of the things I drew in 2007). A post at John K’s blog explains why large eyes populate animation in general, especially considering that real eyes take up so little of our cranium: emotional investment.

Thus ends this incredibly silly post.

Slow Around Here…

As to why I haven’t been updating this blog very much, my time is divided among many, many things (and more recently among them, personal language studying). That’s only one reason(s), however. I created this blog for a very specific purpose once I got a deal on web hosting and finally came up with a name which I didn’t hate (and in fact like quite a bunch). And perhaps I did it too early — I plan on traveling and living in Japan as a contributor to society eventually (sooner rather than later), among other places to come later in my life. I would document the experience here. World travel is something I aim to do — and Japan is very interesting to me, for reasons I’ll cite shortly.

The possibility of doing so — traveling and living abroad, in Japan especially — is slightly distant, and certainly not immediate. So until then I would update with things about Japan. And while as a culture and language I know more about Japan than most other countries besides my own (ignoring how I could stand to pick up a few world history books and refresh myself on a lot of things), I need to flex my blogging creativity: I cannot simply post about games and comics I am interested in, or recycle every quirky little thing that becomes the next big “zany thing that happened to occur in Japan”.

Note, I love said zany things; I like quirky, culture-specific news in general. It highlights the few things that make people so varied from each other. But you don’t need me to tell you about that guy who married his DS in Guam, because you know already.

~*Wacky!*~

I got my thoughts together about this post after reading Lisa Katayama’s article about Wacky Japan and why we need to tone down our views on it. She makes amazingly correct points. Among them:

• Japan is fascinating to some of us (Americans) because Japan is like America, but with something “off”.

Personally, Japan intrigues me because it’s ancient (America’s come a long way in a short time, but it’s not ancient and I love ancient cultures), with a language system relatively unchanged over millennia, and what it has become now is a blend of old, OLD culture and Westernization. That’s what makes it seem “like America, but different”, and not in the way that England is “like America, but different” (England being more like a parent, and Japan being kind of like an adopted cousin or something). It is so far away, and yet so close — and a mere few centuries ago, it was a totally different place. It’s full of different faces, different mannerisms, and yet not quite so different.

Because of this, I want to make it my first place to travel abroad. There are many similar, and then many different, ancient-cultured towns, cities, and villages underfoot in my future, to experience firsthand. I don’t want to harbor or foster delusions about any of them — which is why travel to Japan is especially important to me. I can only know so much by reading and hearing. And in a world where worldwide news is instant, it’d be nice for a person like me — creative, easily inspired, determined, and concerned about people — to be able to experience more of it for herself.

Now, honestly, whenever something wacky comes up relating to Japan, I don’t even bat an eye anymore. It’s mostly because

• My home country already does a ton of dumb and/or “wacky” stuff. I try to filter it out of my mind sometimes.
• It’s a different culture. ALL other cultures do things that seem weird to us. It’s just normal. We do stuff that’s weird to them. (Some cultures have women that are afraid of mice. Does that make any sense to you? Did it ever?)

And you know, I honestly would not have chosen to be born anywhere but America if I had the ability to, but the way the American people (and people in general, but especially now with a generation raised on the Internet on open forums, possibly exposed to global communities but having no more cultural insight than normal) react to certain things outside their own norms is just gross sometimes. I don’t understand it; such ignorance shouldn’t be a big part of our culture, especially (if we’re going to seriously take on all this “we’re an example to the world” stuff), but it is. People shut things out that differ in the slightest. It’s all over the place, in the media, online, and it’s invasive; when you were a kid, you had no idea adults could be so dumb, but you grow up and suddenly are faced with it daily.

Then, you try your best not to be like that. Sight is a value! Insight moreso! That kind of thing needs to have a school class.

Is it that people who feel that way — who reject “different” things while keeping their own personal quirks under wraps — tend to foster that feeling in others? I can only assume. It’s pretty deep-seeded here, though. It’s almost…a cultural thing. Gah!

That’s part of why this Japan stuff especially gets blown out of proportion — that and because we can get away with it, while pussyfooting around the “quirks” of other cultures.

As Katayama noted, people in Japan aren’t nearly as serious about this supposedly “zany” stuff. That may relate to some of the country’s issues, too — I don’t know, it’s a consideration — but on the whole, a lot of it shouldn’t be approached with such somber judgment as some more unfamiliar people are fast to deliver (especially on the Internet — but God help the Internet). It’s just going to wear you out.

In summation: The Windows 7 Burger. Do you know whose fault that is? That’s out fault, people. Not Japan’s.

In other news, I have some more posts ready and lined up for soonish. Keep an eye out.

Also, I’d been planning to do an elaborate header for a long time now, but you know what? I kinda like it as it is now. There’s still graphical stuff I need to fix/refine on the site, however. I’ll be getting to that.

Here, have some English trailer:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I actually like this more than the original trailer: it retains the wacky spirit while being more self-explanatory.

I love fun, nonsensical stuff like this, so you can bet I’m buying the hell out of it.

Go to its official site

Beautiful.

The Beach Rock Treehouse was designed by Takashi Kobayashi. What’s best is this is the thing in which we’ll likely make first contact!

Kobayashi, a leading treehouse-maker, also made this:

I want it

One speculates that because of this skill, he would be the ultimate father.

A concrete Gajumaru tree.

The Naha Harbor Diner is a fun idea. It certainly sticks out. Unfortunately (but for obvious reasons), the tree is fake. Certainly looks real, though.

Now I want to visit Okinawa even more.

I loved treehouses when I was a kid, but didn’t have enough friends or siblings to warrant having one of my own. The thought of having a small house all to myself was absolutely titillating, however — I loved miniature versions of things, as I suppose some girls do, with doll houses and such. (That was back when Polly Pocket was good, and yes, I loved and collected those, too.)

Having seen fine examples of crazy treehouses from around the world, I decided to see how many notable treehouses are in Japan.

I found another cool one by Terunobu Fujimori, one that looks a bit structurally unsound and is all the cooler for it:

Takasugi, "a teahouse built too high"

I’m not sure if I’d like to stay in a treehouse that can be regarded as “an extension of one’s body“, but it’s still really, really neat. It’s the kind of private getaway I could appreciate as an adult. It’s actually a teahouse built in the style of a treehouse, which makes it even more brilliant. Watch a video about it!

There is a Tree House Village called Gankoyama in southern Boso, Chiba. If you’ve been waiting to refine your forest survival skills, it’s the place for you!

It's probably harder than it looks

Apparently it is a wholesome and organic experience, and all the energy used is renewable. Cook organically, practice archery, hike, and build your own shelter (that is, build an entire treehouse). I’m a big softy, but I’d like to try.

I never learned how to climb anything vertical

I’m a big fan of the organic.

Inspiration is a wonderful thing.

Also, this treehouse isn’t Japanese-created, but it is inspired by Japanese lanterns, and that’s good enough for this blog.

Sweet lord.

Japan has pretty much cornered the market on cute. And since Japan appointed a cartoon ambassador of anime last year, it stands to reason that the next step would be appointing (non-cartoon) ambassadors of cuteness.

They're so cute it's killing me

It’s no surprise they’re already popular in Harajuku. They look like they stepped right out of anime. They might start glittering and undergo a magical transformation at any moment…and then giggle innocently, completely unaware of why you gape and stare.

Foreign Ministry head of cultural affairs Tsutomu Nakagawa said this:

“We want people abroad to know these kind of people exist in Japan and to feel close to them.”

I think what would surprise us more is letting us know that people other than this exist in Japan. Because, let’s face it — all these foreign otaku and other sorts obsessed with Japan abroad would like to think one out of every two Japanese people they would encounter would appear to be this way.

Anyway, I like it. I’m all about style, and “kawaii” never dies. Japan already has huge cultural appeal, but still seems aloof to many. This will help.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Old culture meets new culture – Shamisen rock from the Yoshida Bros.!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Basically, a guy walks up to people and screams suddenly to frighten them. I wonder how well that’d go over in the US.

Click here to view the embedded video.

When two hotdog-eating champs meet…

Click here to view the embedded video.

This dalmatian is riding a freaking bicycle. I’ve waited all my life to see something like this. Thanks, Japan!

Click here to view the embedded video.

I watch this video whenever I’m down. Japanese guy rambles over gameplay of Super Mario Land in broken English.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Yeah, they’re all basically singing “P-E-N-I-S! PENIS!”
My favorite thing is “Chinko, welcome to the Chinko!”

Ah~~~~

Of all the live streaming websites and resources I’ve tried (see: a lot), this one is the most consistent (there’s barely any lag or video flubs, aka it actually works as intended) and the most helpful. It’s also very entertaining, if you with only the most rudimentary of Japanese language familiarity have no idea what’s going on are amused even further by that!

When I first heard of it, there was only a PC version, but now there are Mac and Linux versions, enabling me to run KeyHole TV on my laptop finally. With it, you can watch live Japanese TV, or you could use it as video broadcasting software yourself (password-protected, even), or for video conferences. You should definitely give it a try.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Marvel Entertainment and Madhouse have adapted Wolverine into an anime. This pretty much guarantees a new generation of fangirl submissions on deviantArt, drawing him all over the place, with perhaps one hand sweeping through his beautiful, flowing mullet, the other held up, tongue delicately licking sheer adamantium claws.

Um…

Yeah, so anyway, how about that?

(Oh, and there’s going to be an Iron Man anime, too. It looks much better. In fact, it’s awesome – especially if it’ll consistently have as much action as it does in that trailer.)

tell me this isn't the greatest figure ever

Kamina, from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, is one of my all-time favorite anime characters, and probably the first one I’ve both inwardly and outwardly fangirled since I was a teenager. I’ll admit it: I love him. I can’t explain why, but it should be fairly obvious to anyone who’s seen him in action: he embodies everything a fiery-hearted anime character should be!

This figure is mad rare and mad expensive. You can see why. It speaks quality: screams it at you!

Customizability triples the fun!

Evidently there was also a very rare limited edition that came with Boota.

Knowing this makes me extremely happy, and yet extremely sad that I will never own it.

Another from the same series is coming up: Viral, impossible not to love, even with those teeth.

gently caress

A prototype of this is out, and only looks to get better. This is good. This is very good. I like Yoko’s design as much as the next person, but it’s about time the men to shine. Take it from me and my fellow man-loving figurine-lover.

I don't remember Triceratops looking this silly

Augmented reality dinosaurs! That’s cool as hell! I was a big ol’ dinosaur fanatic when I was younger (to the point where I wanted to go into paleontology—yeah, that big), but unfortunately I’ve never so much as seen dinosaur bones. Visiting this would at least somewhat make up for it. OR, with that camera pressed to my face, it could just feel as silly as my audio-guided Egypt museum trip (not that it wasn’t awesome).

This will be going down in Chiba, Japan in a museum exhibit including well over 200 different species. I hope the dinos render at 1:1 scale. I would have eaten it all up as a child. If you’re in Chiba, take your kids!

Mmm, Japan just can’t get enough of gigantic reptiles.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I…what?

It has this Watership Downish feel to it, and thus my soul keeps preparing to be depressed while watching that.

Apparently it’s based off a manga series, called Apocalypse Meow in English, by Motofumi Kobayashi. The manga was based in Vietnam; the movie is set in the Middle East. Hmm. It will be developed into an anime, too. It’s just that good.

But that’s not why I’m posting. I’m posting because the ridiculousness of Japanese movies has led me to watch yet another bizarre trailer that I’m not sure I’d be able to endure for more than the length of 4 minutes.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Behold, RoboGeisha. NSFW! You might not want to watch if you don’t like gratuitous violence, including hip-katana-induced wounds, fried shrimp eye-gouging (although this was more funny then violent), female bleeding backsides, or Engrish voiceovers that may just make your ears bleed.

This movie would be ADORABLE if not for the masses of blood. It has a cute air about it, so the violence truly feels out of place. Good job, Japan.

GIGANTOR THE GIANT ROBOT

Tetsujin 28-go, or Gigantor, will be nearly 60 feet, standing forever in the midst of Wakamatsu Park in Kobe. Apparently it’ll be unveiled in my birth month. What an awesome present! No, actually, this is much better regarded as an awesome homage to Mitsuteru Yokoyama. I can only hope to get something so awesome after I die.

yay

Read more about it/watch videos here.

Michael Jackson, at a mere 50 years of age, died of cardiac arrest. I had been expecting to see his pale old bones moonwalk to the age of 70, relating stories of his glory days to my children in the year-and-yet-still-distant future… So this has hit me and my family with shock.

Who knew what he would become?

MJ is one of the most popular men in the world. He’s one of the few public figures I actually kind of cared about throughout the whole of my lifetime. You never really expect them to die while you’re still young.

You can see why even the Japanese love him

In honor of his memory, here’s a video of a Japanese MJ impersonator (JACK from MJ-Performance Group [DICSYU]).

Click here to view the embedded video.

And here’s Thriller, which will always and forever be the greatest.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Rest in peace, King of Pop.

I’m going to play the “ABC” stage of Elite Beat Agents in your honor.

oh my god

Now that we’ve realized the dream, we can relish in what is a statue of Pure Awesome smack in the middle of Odaiba, Tokyo’s Shiokaze Park. It was built to scale in honor of Mobile Suit Gundam’s 30th anniversary.

In a matter of time they’ll have made the thing fully functional – THEN we’ll be seeing a new era of… actually, that would be slightly terrifying. (I’ve never particularly been a fan of Gundam – I think the robots could be more sleek – but I know awesome when I see it.)

You can see more awe-inspiring pics here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

To quote Japan Probe,

Each scene of the Bush lookalike acting goofy/stupid is followed by a message letting you know that Herbal Clear is supposed to help wash away bad things.

Click here to view the embedded video.

There are no words to describe this.

However, for a Wiiware game, I love the concept. It’s fun and silly. It’s like Hole in the Wall, which would probably be even more interesting as a video game franchise.

Hinokicho Park. 3 AM. Kusanagi, drunk, just feels like being naked in a park. Is that so wrong? Arrested while chilling on the grass, I see a surreal humor in this. He’s the least-outspoken member of SMAP and certainly looks the part.

Party boy.

In everything, I can’t help but feel a little sorry for the guy; then again, you realize what a discomfort it is to everyone else when someone is drunk, even more when someone is drunk and wants to take off all his clothes right next to you.

And to say this guy was drunk is a vast understatement: dude was pissed out of his mind. Ten rounds of sake will do that to a fella.

This presents a problem: his face is everywhere. Companies commercially associated with him are considering blacklisting him (or already have). For a little drunken mid-night nudity, it seems harsh, yet may very well be justified, as I can’t imagine him appearing anywhere anymore without someone bringing up his “scene”. Now all his planned appearances and TV commercials have been canceled. You’d think he killed a guy.

Unfortunately, I can’t say I’m affected as a fan (flash back to when I discovered Daishi Kajinaga was arrested for possession of cocaine and measure my reaction against this – basically, I was heartbroken); I’m not much for pop, and the only song of SMAP’s I’ve ever heard was one in Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2, in which I liked the female cover more than the actual song.

Actually, that's...not as cool-looking as you'd expect it to be. Function, not form, right?

This is all thanks to Yahoo! Japan, which is kinda like Japan’s Google, if you get what I mean. It won’t be long now—this fall, in fact. First they’ll start off small, then grow and expand—! Soon these boards will be able to scan pregnant women and tell them what brand of clothing is best suited for their eventually-newborn baby son. (Comel and NEC Soft, developing this in tandem with Yahoo!, didn’t say that, but it’s only the next logical step.)

Like almost everything else from Japan that I have heard of or encountered, this is kind of creepy, but REALLY cool at the same time. I had anticipated similar technology ever since I watched Minority Report a few years back. People involved with the movie, and others’ predictions for how life and technology will be approximately 40 years from now, are kind of like this. Brace for it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Is everyone in on the idea? Awesome.

I imagine that in America people would either stare at you, ask you what the hell you’re doing, or ignore you. Or sue you for assault. BANG.

(I found this link through Sister Claire, hee.)

I was watching The Colbert Report and saw this: a Japanese 2009 calendar made out of solid gold.

Doesn't get any more straightforward than that.

They’re ¥30,000,000, or, in USD, still a crap-ton of money. And it’s not like there’s just one, a prize for a single elite; no, Ginza Tanaka is “taking orders” for them.

As if there were a demand, a need, for golden calendars.

(It’s not even something that everybody wants, like a golden toilet, for instance. No, it’s just a calendar. I prefer my calendar to be more interesting to look at.)

It could have been art, yes. But actually, it’s rather plain (and shiny, but still plain). Just an expensive block of gold with numbers and days printed on it, encased in wood. Some of the other things Tanaka Corp does looks interesting. Unfortunately, this particular block of gold fails to be both enticing and useful! I mean, you can’t even mark off days.

Better things could be done, is all I’m sayin’.

In the end, I actually don’t care that much; I mean, it’s kind of neat. It seems as though some people out there deserve gold calendars, anyhow.