Beetle Attack!

Flee now while you can! Well maybe not but these giant beetles were invading a Shopping Mall in Kanagawa.... only in Japan.

Unfortunately i was only able to take a quick shot but now wish i had taken a movie... yes they were moving too simulating a battle... :-) I wonder if they are available in my local toy shop.

Beetles are popular pets for Kids in Japan during the summer. The average kid has two choices, they can try to capture a beetle in the wold somewhere... (not so many of those in Tokyo but possibly in some of the bigger parks) or buy one from a local pet shop. Pricey at times a couple of years ago some thief stole some beetles from a Beetle Farmer, apparently they were worth a total of 2,000,000yen... thats a lot of beetle.

Softbank

Since the new year been having problems with Docomo, it seems i have the worst luck when it comes to cellphones, they always break.. anyway since Softbank are offering a good range of cheaper call plans now thought i would get myself to the local Softbank shop and see what was what. Came away with this new handset, managed to keep my old number which was cool for no extra cost and hopefully the new monthly bill will be smaller....


Anyway in addition to that the new handset has all the features you could ever want...and then another 100 more that you didnt know you needed... TV, Satellite Navigation, Mobile e-Wallet, 3.2 M Digital Camera and Video Camera, Video Phone, MP3 player with 1GB of internal memory.....

Ill probably just use e-mail, and the phone function.... oh and the camera does come in useful though....

Fugu

Fugu, (box fish/puffer fish) are are delicacy in Japan, and also my pet. The actual fish to eat is bigger than the ones I have but deadly poisonous. Chefs need a special license in Japan in order to prepare the fish for eating (removing all the poisonous parts). The taste is rather bland in my opinion but it obviously appeals to some as it is also fairly expensive.
Of course I would never eat my fish, they seem to have a character all of their own which i have never seen in fish.. they are also constantly hungry!!!

iPhone

Its arrived :) The long awaited and much speculated about item...the Apple iPhone. Tired of carrying your phone and your ipod around separately? No problem pick up this dandy device and your all set for any eventuality... ok well maybe thats going a bit too far but eventualities involving phones and ipods anyway :-)
It looks nice! but...has a touch screen, i dont know exactly why but never been a fan of these... end up getting your finger marks all over the screen, sometimes the wrong button is pressed by mistake etc..... oh well its not available in Japan anyway (not sure if it ever will be since the phone networks here are quite tightly controlled, we only just got razor)

Kamakura - Enoshima

Well today I decided to go out somewhere... was playing with the idea of going to FujiYoshida (near to Mt.Fuji) but the weather was just 'OK' so changed my mind and ended up at Kamakura. This is a popular seaside place for both foreigners and Japanese alike. Its famous for temples and shrines but decided to not go that route today and ended up at the beach... pretty deserted but nice all the same.
Started walking along and along and eventually found myself at Enoshima which is another famous seaside resort along the coast. A good workout at any rate and it did present some photo opportunities on the way.....