Robot Claw

An advert for a host bar on a street near Sakae, Nagoya.

An ad for a mobile game in Nagoya station.

Nagoyan pork katsu mascot. This pig is a common sight in Nagoya.

At SCMAGLEV as part of the exhibit showcasing the race (in a manga) between Cyborg 009 and a bullet train.

Posing with two ‘Onsen girls’ in Kawaguchiko.

At the Disney art collab in Shibuya.

At the Ultraman Expo at Tokyo Dome.

Posing with the two leads from Ultraman Arc.

We left Nagoya at first light, and this was providential since after our first train we were able to board the limited ‘Kaiji’ train and complete the return trip to Tokyo first class!

We’re staying in Akihabara for the next week, and after dumping out carry-ons luggage (and being reunited with our big luggage we had shipped to the hotel) it was time for lunch and some shopping.

We went to Shibuya, and spent a few hours looking in shops and making some purchases. The above photo was taken at a popup shop/exhibition of official Disney art by an illustrator. They had a section where attendees could write on post-it notes and stick them on a large wall. The face is of the artists design of a Mickey Mouse inspired girl. Her art was very good, and amongst the products for sale were large framed reproductions for ¥1,000,000 each!

Eventually we returned to Akiba to check in to our room, and it seems we got the best view in the hotel! We overlook the avenue out of the station, with the Radiokaikan building on the right. This is the main entry into Akiba, an iconic location, and during the day usually full of people.

More shopping followed, including a very special purchase for tomorrow. Details will follow…

As I’ve said these penny squashing machines aren’t unique to the USA, and the collection includes pennies from seven other countries.

The above were all collected during our German trip back in 2015. They came from at least four cities, so we must have found quite a few machines during our trip. I don’t remember pressing most of the above; perhaps Bernard made them himself?

A cursory inspection shows these to look more or less identical to the US-pressed coins, but these aren’t actually pressed pennies. Instead the machines in Germany (and most foreign countries) use blanks the same size and material (I think) as US pennies so they look the same when made. You simply feed coins in to pay, and the machine drops the blank into the die itself.

The above all came from England, and again were obtained in various cities. These are a bit different from the German ones since they use real coins: specifically British pennies!

I neglected to mention until now, but sometimes the machines press both sides of the coin. In the examples I have, the reverse is always the name of the attraction or shop in which the penny was pressed. The various pennies from The London Eye I own have pictorial fronts with no logo, but as you can see they put that on the back. These are perhaps the most detailed backs on any of the pennies in the collection.

Some of these Irish pennies are hilariously low quality: as if the machine was broken and not applying enough pressure. I’ve only got six but they’re all from different locations which intrigued me since I wonder what the other designs in the machines must have been since I pressed only one?

That’s the sixth Irish one (not in the previous pick) and looking at the reverse it seems this is also a real coin, specifically a 5 euro cent coin. We saw puffins when we visited Ireland, but our puffin experience in Scotland were much better.

Speaking of Scotland, these four were obtained there. Once again these are British pennies, and once again they all came from different locations which leaves me wondering why I pressed only one at each machine.

Urquhart Castle stands on the shores of Loch Ness, and we visited back on June 9, 2018 which is when I must have pressed this penny. Pressed pennies are often blurry or imperfect, probably because the die has worn down over the years or is slightly misaligned, but this one from Urquhart is unusually fine and detailed. It’s impressive compared to many I’ve showcased so far, but the best will come tomorrow.

By the way, do you still have the Nessie postcard?

I’ll end today with these three, which are amongst the few in the collection not originally collected by me. Obviously from New Zealand, these seem to have been pressed from blanks and not actual coins. To repeat my previous statement, we’ll see more like this tomorrow…

A short post today, since I had to mention this limited edition flavour of Funyuns onion ring snacks:

Why oh why did they have to be hot & spicy chicken ramen?!? What’s wrong with plain chicken, the flavour beloved by all??!? For this reason these were purchased, placed carefully in our larder, and then forgotten for months.

This is no exaggeration! I only ever saw these for sale once – at a petrol station of all places – and I purchased them immediately. Many times since I had considered opening them but I was always terrified of the ‘hot & spicy’. Yesterday, six weeks after they had expired, they were finally tasted.

My verdict: inedible. Quite literally I could barely even finish the sole ring I tasted, so excruciating was the mouth-scalding heat. Others (such as KLS, who didn’t mind them) may say they’re not even hot at all, but as with all True Australians I have no heat tolerance and these were torture.