The End of Days, Part VI: The Takoyaki Stand, The Best Fries, and a Failed Toy Run. Again.

As one final adieu "until next time, of course!" with Beetchie in the Summer, we went to our old haunts in St. Marks.

H1 and Beetchie are obsessed with takoyaki, as I'm certain I've mentioned before.  What's not to obsess over though? Takoyaki's pretty fabulous what with its gooey, chewy, salty masterful texture and flavour.  We have yet to find another stand that makes it fresh outside of Tokyo but are thankful enough to Beetchie to have discovered this one.

Never you mind the hipsters on the street.

Karma: Some The Times a Bitch

In the history of Smoking Monger Toys, let it be chronicled right here and now, that I have managed something incredible.

I have managed to best Beetchie.

For our one last Toy Tokyo send off for the Summer, Beetchie and I did our usual picking of the Random Toy Ritual.

I went with not my first choice, but my second choice of box.  I also, did not let Beetchie pick it.

The result is as follows:

There is something completely awesome about Major ThrockMorton.  Maybe it was the fact I ate bonchon (korean fried chicken) right before, or maybe it was the fact that Karma finally caught up to Beetchie and kapowed her in the face for her years of laughing at my ill toy luck.

Or maybe it was the fact that she really wanted Cabo Labbit and snicked a little at the prospect that I'd more than likely get the lamest thing the box could offer as per my history.

Yes, just maybe...

...a Cabo Labbit was not meant to be for Beetchie.  

(Though I have to say, I am sorry she did not get it.  It's damned funny)

And for her snickering, she would get...

....the lamest thing in the box.  

The very thing she thought I would get.  Drake.  The baseball.

That sure looks like a strike to me, Beetchie.

I am not gloating now.  That was yesterday, and only a little because I am still 99% doomed to a life of crappy toys.

However, let me have a brief moment and let us take another two moments to enjoy the slap Karma failed to give me:

There is something very disturbing about this picture.

 P.S. H1 and Beetchie went for Takoyaki too.  H1's now obsessed and wants to eat it everyday.

New(-ish) Adventures....With (Non-Life Threatening) Incidents, Part III: No Toys and No Takoyaki (Before 1 PM)

The walk to Toy Tokyo was a good one minus the sun.  It turned out to be a nice enough day - not hot, cold or rainy but comfortable.

Toy Tokyo was not yet open when we got there, so instead we headed to the Takoyaki place to discover they too were not opening until 1 p.m.

With half an hour to spare, we made our way to a pet store and used their A/C without shame and I took some pictures of the Takoyaki shop.

I did not get good pictures of the place the last time and with the area being so quiet, I figured it was the perfect time to do so.

Having never been at St. Mark's at that time of day, the experience was rather odd and nostalgic of Japan.  Without the hustle and bustle of people since we usually find ourselves there in the evening, the area was reminiscent of the time Beetchie and I were looking for our very last Ryokan in Tokyo at the end of our trip.

Shady, quiet streets littered with unassuming Ramen shops, baths and a tea house made it very much pleasant.

And the gOOd times continue...

...this after a week of craziness in the work place. Work does that sometimes. It sometimes produces 'buckets full of helluh' for me. But anyway...on to the gOOd times!
Beetchie and I stormed Toy Tokyo again today after work. Did I not say to mark my words that I would storm again soon? I got all I needed for my Halloween costume and a few Christmas pyos for some people. But Beetchie, being very awesome, brought me, 1 or 2 bags of fun times. One filled with stuff from her European trip (and I feel a little itchy...fleas from Germany perhaps?! Aha) including Belgian chocolate and the love of my life...printed on a T-shirt. "Bells". Future husband that.
In bag or 2, I received birthday presents. It's my birthday month...good to see people remember. Kidding. And I say that because she might read this one day...heh heh. But seriously, she gave me toys. And not just toys...Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit toys! "WOOOOOoooooooo!" Goddamn I love those rabbits. Why I can't find any pictures of them though is beyond me.
Then we trekked off again to Kenka for some eats. And eats we did eat. A quick evaluation of the selection today:
1. Japanese Beef Curry (over rice) = B- (curry should be spicy, not sweet - apparently the Japanese can conquer lots of things but curry, not so much)
2. Pan-fried pork with kimchee = A (for the extreme spiciness, for the pork as pork is most always good times and for another fine display of showing up Koreans by the Japanese)
3. Onigiri with salmon = Ummm, as expected. It's rice and seaweed. It's good but it's rice and seaweed. The salmon however was quite tasty. The salmon gets a B+.
4. Grilled Quail = A (nothing like eating little skewered birds)

Then we headed off to the Japanese grocery for our ritual 'let's buy something new to eat'. Well we couldn't make up our minds so we bought a new drink instead. Two, actually. The first was this tiny can with a cactus or something on. Bitter Melon flavour..."Ew! Melon!" Yeah, we were not really concerned about the bitter part when bought it. But we certainly were when we were drinking it. Ooo, the aftertaste. Let's not talk about it. And by the time we got to the second drink, we couldn't handle anymore. Turns out the second one wasn't so bad but bitter melon had us reeling. All we could do at that point was stuff down a specialty pumpkin cream puff to forget our Bitter Melon woes.
5. Specialty Pumpkin Cream Puff = A+ (How to fanagle getting more of those pumpkin cream puffs within the next week...)
6. 2nd Japanese drink = meh. Taste like gatorade mixed with tang to me. So I guess it really deserves a B+ since tang and gatorade are B+ kind of beverages. But what does that make B+ + B+ = this is why I failed Math.
7. Bitter Melon Japanese drink = U (for Unsavory)
8. The Bitter Melon packaging = T (for Trickery)

It's raining again. We're hoping no mini-pool parties are thrown in the basement tomorrow.

Quote of yesterday, since it's now way past my sleepy time and I'll regret it at work tomorrow, was this "I'm not like other people. I don't like pain. It hurts me." - Daffy Duck.

Currently Playing: "When You Wear That Velvet Dress (Live at Foro Sol Autodromo in Mexico City, Dec. 1997) " by U2

Let's Go Back...To The Before Time

As in September 24th, 2005. Don't worry, it's not that far back. I'd like to recall some good times that happened the week leading up to October. Seeing Corpse Bride with my friend Beetchie. The movie itself was alright. It wasn't of the "Nightmare Before Christmas" variety/quality storywise but animation wise, well...We don't expect anything but greatness.

Good times, I believe I said. I'm getting to that right now. Beetchie and I went to St. Mark's right after the movie. We strolled over there from Union Square and found ourselves in the most hideous, boring street fair. We talked about her three week adventure in Europe this past August. The bottomline: Spain is full of thieves. Germany is full of fleas.

Then we milled around the Japanese grocery trying to decide to buy one item neither of us had tried. There were lots and we felt a little overwhelmed but finally we agreed on a strawberry type pancake thing. It was decent but meh, I think we've had better.

Then we stormed Toy Tokyo. And I will storm it again sometime soon, mark my words! We had fun and we bought tons of Gloomy Bear things (hence the picture at the beginning of this post)...Postcards and toys. I love the dead white boy. I know it's wrong. I know. I'm sorry. Truly.
We were having a hard time finding Luigi paraphernalia for Beetchie to have signed by the man himself - Shigeru Miyamoto san. For those of you who don't know and I'm sure there are many though it's not right. He is the creator of such legendary Nintendo games as...Wait for it. The Legend of Zelda (ooooo....ahhh), Mario and Donkey Kong. To put it this way: he's often described as the spielberg of video games.

The signing was on the day after and Beetchie and I had every intention of going early on the day of the signing to line up. However, after overhearing our conversation about looking for Luigi, a patron of Toy Tokyo approached us and said, "oh, you guys are going to the signing by Miyamoto tomorrow, right? You should probably go soon. My friends are already lining up there." What? No...

So with this in mind we traipsed some more in St. Mark's on a hunt for Luigi (Toy Tokyo can give us Yoshi and even stinkin' Toad but not Luigi...Poor thing, he gets no respect). We came up zilch. I was sorely disappointed to see that a mario pocketgame which I rocked as a kid back in Trinidad (and no longer had in my possession) was being sold in this vintage videogame shop for 129 dollars.

We then went to Kenka - this funky Japanese restaurant in St. Mark's which Beetchie fondly refers to as "the one with the raccoon with the big balls and red glowing eyes out front". It was quite good. Next victim...uhh, friend who comes around, they're coming with.
Dinner was followed by cream puffs are too good for me to talk about right now because it makes me sad that I don't have one to stuff into my mouth right now...
After the ...Dessert...Yes, dessert...We made our way to midtown to scope the situation with the Nintendo store. When we got there at 8.30 pm - like the guy said, people were waiting. People had been waiting from as early as 7 a.m. Freaks.

So what do we do? We became freaks too and camped out! Securing spots 46 and 47 in line was good times and thank goodness we didn't give it up considering when we left after the signing over 1,000 people were waiting to see the Man and he was supposed to do only 200 signings. So yes, I became a 48th & 5th Avenue Ho. Sleeping (using the term lightly because at most I got only 30 minutes of sleep before an idiot whose name was ironically Isaiah started preaching about the Zelda series) on the street next to my good friend and some random kid from NJ.

With no Luigi to have signed, Beetchie opted for the only worthy thing at the stupid Nintendo store - a 1UP Mushroom t-shirt. I bought a copy of "The Wind Waker" as backup. But thanks to the other awesome HOchie - my little figure of Link was brought to me the next morning. I happily went with him to the signing. Fiddling in front of the Man who was wondering what the hell I was going to give him to sign since I had nothing in my hand and finally fishing little Kujaseph (that's a gross misuse of a name to give Link, I know) out of my pocket to have signed. I gingerly put him on the table in front of Miyamoto san and Link unceremoniously decided to throw himself down. Miyamoto balanced him and started signing away but could not give me his English/Japanese signature. Instead I got it in Japanese and I was confused as to why the Man was drawing on Link's little green hat. Oh, and I was laughed at when I brought Link out of my pocket...either because a/ Miyamoto thought I was cute or b/Miyamoto thought me an idiot. I suspected the latter so I had to research the internet to ensure he actually signed his name and not 'To Idiot" on it.

After being on the street and dirty for so long, Beetchie and I wandered angrily (thanks to the messed up subway runnings and that thanks to the damned yankees game and ha, they're not in the w series anyway...muwahahaha) over to her Aunt's sushi restaurant for some good time lunch. Unfortunately I was not very hungry so I could only manage one roll but it involved soft shelled crab and eel. What was really good was that lychee iced tea. Mmmmmm.
Ok, so finally after being on the street and dirty and in a sushi restaurant and dirty we parted ways and I went home. Took a shower. Came out smelling like 5th Avenue as opposed to 48th & 5th. Went to bed soon after...went to work the day after. Was persecuted for my insanity. Came home. Got incredibly ill. Stayed home for two days due to the cold I mostly likely got from the random NJ kid who sat next to me on the street. Went back to work...still ill but had no more days to spare. But it was still worth it!

October 1st: It's Saturday!!!! And I was taken to dinner by the family and it was awesome. Ah, good times...good times.

Goo'day.

Music currently playing: "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" by The Cast of Avenue Q.