Category: Miscellaneous

Wildlife Update

  • April 10, 2026

Ok I’ll be honest: I forgot about our new wildlife camera. It had been happily sitting at the edge of our back patio, snapping away for four months now and when I rediscovered it yesterday there were more than 1600 images on it!

Most were empty and probably the result of snow, rain or a rogue leaf triggering the sensor, but there were quite a few animals to be seen as well.

As usual there were a lot like the above (which was taken on Christmas Day while we were in Japan), but also this shot of a squirrel being a bit more industrious:

Is that an acorn in his mouth?

There were also many – hundreds – of rabbit photos, all of which were at night in the snow. As you see there’s two in the above shot (taken early January), but what also caught my eye are the footprints in the top right. Here’s a better photo of them from a few days earlier:

They’re fairly big which suggests a deer, but they could also simply be a rabbit hopping through the snow? Unfortunately the camera didn’t catch them being made.

Two different cats visited these past few months, one quite a bit portlier than the other. Each was only in a single photo, so they were just passing through.

Here’s the fox from the last set, also passing through. Was he looking for rabbits, or perhaps smaller prey?

Such as whatever the above is? This is too small for a chipmunk so I assume some sort of mouse, and as we can tell from the blur it was legging it past the feeder. The white streak is its eye reflecting the UV light from the camera.

Chipmunks are also speedy little guys and difficult to catch on these cameras so the above is a good photo of one. This is fairly recent, so maybe it’s gotten warm enough for them to emerge from their burrows?

Birds are also somewhat rare on these photos, but here we see a mystery bird, a cardinal and a robin. Can anyone identify the one on the left.

And lastly this skunk visited us one night! There were a half dozen or so pics of it, all at very close range so his face was never visible. The camera is right next to the house so he came very close. I wonder if Loppi (who often monitors the yard from a window perch) saw him?

And if you’re wondering, there wasn’t even a single deer photo. This is highly unusual to say the least. I wonder where they’ve been?

Japan Pickups: Five More

  • January 22, 2026

Last pickup post, and today I’ll share five random things, chosen for how unusual they are.

Kristin had wanted a vinyl figure for a few years now, and had even spied this guy (in a different paint job) on a previous trip. He’s a demonic little frog, and this particular version has what appears to be a dipped paint job using metallic paint.

There’s an entire industry of creators sculpting and manufacturing small batches of figures, and lots of collectors eager to buy them. This guy wasn’t expensive, but some of them are very pricey indeed. And if you’re after originals from the 70s or 80s… that’s a path to bankruptcy 🙂

This guy fits in your hand though and is very cute. I doubt he’ll be our last vinyl figure.

I bought this Krull movie program at a tiny used bookstore in Kobe. I only found it by accident after seeing a sign on the street, and the store was up a narrow staircase and occupied a single small room with no other door or even cupboard. An elderly man sat at a desk with a skull on it and quietly read as I browsed dense bookshelves full of magazines and movie programs.

I have fond nostalgia for Krull, and given this was only ¥50 (about $0.32) I grabbed it at light speed. It’s a beautiful little booklet, and will happily live in my cupboard for ever. Or at least until I send it to Bernard as a birthday gift.

The above is ‘Blood Pond Ointment’ and was purchased at the ‘Blood Hell’ in Beppu. It’s a small pot of mud from the bottom of the red pool at the ‘Blood Hell’ (seen in this blog post) and is sold as a cosmetic item. Or maybe medicinal? We haven’t opened it yet, and before traveling we sealed the sealed paper bag in two ziplock bags since it absolutely reeks of smoke.

The above photo – I found online – shows what this product looks like. It’s literally mud, and makes wild claims about curing skin conditions and even removing blemishes or liver spots! Allegedly when it dried out you can submerge the pot in water to regenerate the healing power of the mud. KLS purchased this with some excitement, but since she hasn’t even opened it yet I wonder if she’s scared?

I purchased the above set of five postcards at Mandarake for the surprising price of only ¥200. This was surprising since it’s a 27-year-old Ultraman item, but at the same shop I also purchased two other postcard sets for a similar price. I suppose Mandarake doesn’t value postcards very highly?

To my amazement once I opened the set I discovered these are pre stamped cards! This postage is still good, which means I essentially purchased ¥250 worth of postage for only ¥200! A small profit admittedly, but one of the deals of the trip. I’ll send them all next time I visit Japan. If you want one let me know.

In Arima after exhausting myself walking up a steep the hill to the Postage Museum, I reunited with KLS at a strange little shop that houses the salt and pepper shaker museum on the second floor. KLS waited downstairs while I whirlwinded through the museum, and she noticed (as I had not) that the shop predominately sold bucket hats!

I love bucket hats. I wear them all the time, and even wrote a eulogy for one I lost! But the ones I had purchased always had a weakness: they weren’t warm enough for winter!

Which is why that little store in Arima was so special: they sold woolen bucket hats for cold weather. I was delighted to find the above, and from that day on wore it more or less nonstop during the entire trip! It’s now my favourite winter hat, and I love it so much I regret not buying a few.

As mentioned this is it for pickups from this past trip. The dozens of books, 9 Switch games, anime figures, endless piles of candy and trading cards: all this will remain unmentioned on this blog. Except maybe, one day, the cards 😉

  • Posted in Miscellaneous
  • Robert

Jigsaw Time

  • December 21, 2025

I made a jigsaw. Can you identify where the photo was taken?

I’m sure you guessed by now (or read it on the sign), but this is Akihabara! Here’s the reference photo they used for the puzzle:

Specifically this photo shows the view of the lane adjacent to the Akihabara JR station. The photographer is standing just outside the station facing west, and the famous facades of the Radiokaikan and Gamers buildings are visible in the shot.

I wanted to date this, and the sign on the Gamers building on the right was useful:

Volume 1 of an anime called Punch Line was released on DVD back in July 2015, so this photo is ten years old.

I have of course been to Akihabara many times now, both long before and after this photo was taken. I’ve stood in this exact same spot and taken many similar photos myself. We’ve even stayed in hotel rooms that overlook this street, and this shot I took last year shows more or less the same view (with many less billboards!) from an elevated room window:

Tomorrow we leave for Japan once again, and after some travels around the country will end up in Akihabara toward the end of our three-week trip. When I’m there, I’ll try to duplicate this puzzle photo more closely 🙂

  • Posted in Japan
  • Robert