Mothra (モスラ, Mosura) is a 1961 monster movie from Toho Studios, directed by genre regular Ishirō Honda with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. It is the kaiju eiga debut of screenwriter Shinichi Sekizawa, whose approach to the genre grew to prominence during the 1960s. The film stars Frankie Sakai, a popular comedian in Japan at the time, and Hiroshi Koizumi, in the first of many academic roles he would adopt in tokusatsu. Jerry Ito (transliterated as "Jelly Ito" in the credits of the U.S. release) stars in the film, his only contribution to Toho's kaiju eiga genre. Ito also appeared in 1958's Japanese/US co-production "The Manster" (a.k.a. "The Split"), and in Toho's 1961 end-of-the-world science fiction feature "Sekai Daisensou" ("The Last War").
It's basic plot was recycled in King Kong vs. Godzilla and Mothra vs. Godzilla (1962 and 1964, both also written by Sekizawa), and the daikaiju Mothra would become one of Toho's most popular, appearing in seven more Godzilla films and her own trilogy in the 1990s.
City officials this week spotlighted a surprising revelation involving red-light camera tickets: Authorities cannot force violators who simply don't respond to pay them. For a variety of reasons, including the way the law was written, Los Angeles officials say the fines for ticketed motorists are essentially "voluntary" and there are virtually no tangible consequences for those who refuse to pay.
The disclosure comes as the city is considering whether to drop the controversial photo enforcement program, with the City Council scheduled to vote on the matter Wednesday. Even if the program is shut down, it will be little consolation to the tens of thousands like Brickman who already paid fines.
Legal questions about how intensely the city can enforce red-light camera tickets have been circulating at City Hall for months, and some officials have been publicly decrying the problem for some time. But many motorists were shocked this week to read reports that the Los Angeles Police Commission and elected officials consider payment of the hefty fines and fees to be "voluntary."
Although refunds may not yet be available to those like Brickman who paid their tickets, Sherman Ellison, an attorney who has dealt with "hundreds" of such traffic cases, said some class-action lawyers are watching the Los Angeles County situation closely and determining whether there would be grounds for a lawsuit to recover red-light camera penalties.
Above, the clock tower of the Wako Department Store in Ginza.LOS ANGELES - Still recovering from March’s devastating earthquake and tsunami, Japan is stepping up efforts to draw foreign travelers, even recruiting Lady Gaga to spread the word that much of Japan is safe for visitors.
As part of the effort to lure visitors before the summer travel season ends, the Japan National Tourism Organization recently posted online the radiation levels for downtown Tokyo that the tourism group says are lower than in tourist destinations such as New York, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Among the group’s efforts are online videos of race car drivers, ice skaters and other celebrities, including Lady Gaga, urging travelers to visit the country.
"I can’t say enough to people all over the world that the majority of Japan ... is very safe," the singer says in an online video shot before a benefit concert in Tokyo in June.
But Japan’s tourism industry faces several hurdles, including lingering fear among foreign travelers about potential radiation hazards and increasing fuel prices that keep airfares to Japan high.
"Some people are still kind of hesitant because of the radiation," said Yuki Koguchi, manager of Japan Deluxe Tour, a travel agency in Gardena, Calif. "Summer is popular for families to travel to Japan, but many are not booking because the parents are worried about taking kids there."
In addition, airfares to Japan have continued to climb with the increase in jet fuel prices over the last few months. For example, an economy seat on a round trip from Los Angeles to Tokyo on Japan Airlines costs nearly $1,300 per person, including nearly $600 in fuel surcharges.
After the disaster, the number of U.S. visitors to Japan dropped about 45 percent in March compared with the same month last year, according to preliminary statistics from the Japan National Tourism Organization. The tourism group estimates that American tourist numbers dropped 55 percent in April and 38 percent in May, compared with those months in 2010.
Asia Travel Guides is a aggregator of content for the topic Asia Travel Guides.
3anime started out as an anime video streaming, the site owner (our master lol) Tosh decided to shift away from providing illegally obtained copyrighted content. Fast forward a few months.. 3anime now tries its best to cover worthwhile news stories from the anime and manga scene and also cover from time-to-time stories in the gaming world.
Casino Royale (1953)
Live And Let Die (1954)
Moonraker (1955)
Diamonds Are Forever (1956)
From Russia With Love (1957)
Doctor No (1958)
Goldfinger (1959)
For Your Eyes Only (1960)
Thunderball (1961)
The Spy Who Loved Me (1962)
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1963)
You Only Live Twice (1964)
The Man With The Golden Gun (1965)
Octopussy And The Living Daylights (1966)
Above, Shibuya in Tokyo.
Above, Astro Boy in a Niigata bank window.Founded in May 2009, Comtrya Sugoi (comtrya.com) is operated independently by a dedicated management team with offices in Seattle, WA.
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Mission
Comtrya Sugoi’s mission is to give people a range of Japanese pop culture news and items that we hope you’ll find both interesting and enjoyable.
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Our main page will have articles posted on a number of different anime, music, and other culture topics. Interior pages contain syndicated posts from Akihabrara News (new technology product information), Anime News Network, and JPopfun for Japanese music and celebrity news. Be sure to check out the left side bar links to 918thefan’s 24/7 music station playing a range of Japanese and Korean artists and a number of related sites and their recent articles.
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Above, the Asahi Beer Hall and the Tokyo Sky Tree.
Above, Tokyo Tower from the Sumida River.
Above, Asakusa girls.
Above, Miki with "The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan." Photo by Armand Vaquer.
The world's premier news source for anime and Japanese pop-culture, Anime News Network, has posted my news article "Japan Safe For Monster Fan Tourists."
Anime News Network (ANN) has an enormous reach on the Internet. They feed into other websites, anime-related and otherwise. Nobody can even touch ANN in influence and reach.
More people will see that going to Japan on vacation is safe, thanks to Anime News Network.
To view their post, go here.
Above, Space Shuttle Atlantis rolls to a stop at Kennedy Space Center.The 135th and final flight of America's space shuttle fleet landed safely at the Kennedy Space Center early Thursday -- ending the three-decade lifetime of a technologically remarkable and versatile spacecraft the likes of which the world is unlikely to see for a very long time. The shuttle Atlantis and its four crew members touched down at 5:56 a.m. after a 13-day mission to the International Space Station.
Above, yours truly with Space Shuttle test vehicle Enterprise in 1977.
Above, the Fukuoka Yahoo Dome featured in "Gamera: Guardian of the Universe." Photo by Armand Vaquer.
Above, Miki Hayashi with "The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan." Photo by Armand Vaquer.
Above, with "The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan." Photo by Armand Vaquer.
Topix's Tarzana Newswire picked up the article "The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan vs. The Japanese Media."
The website bills itself as the "Comprehensive Real-Time News Feed for Tarzana, CA."
To view it, go here.
SYNOPSIS: A twisted treasure from Hollywood’s pre-Code horror heyday, Island of Lost Souls is a cautionary tale of science run amok adapted from H. G. Wells’s novel The Island of Dr. Moreau. In one of his first major movie roles, Charles Laughton is a mad doctor conducting ghastly genetic experiments on a remote island in the South Seas, much to the fear and disgust of the shipwrecked sailor (Richard Arlen) who finds himself trapped there. Erle C. Kenton’s touchstone of movie terror is elegantly shot by Karl Struss, features groundbreaking makeup effects that inspired generations of monster-movie artists, and costars Bela Lugosi in one his most gruesome roles
•New high-definition digital restoration of the uncut theatrical version (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
•Audio commentary by film historian Gregory Mank, author of Bela Lugosi and Boris
Karloff and Hollywood’s Maddest Doctors
•New video conversation among filmmaker John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), Oscar-winning makeup artist Rick Baker (An American Werewolf in London, Videodrome), and genre expert Bob Burns
•New interviews with horror film historian David J. Skal (The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror); filmmaker Richard Stanley (Hardware, original director of the ill-fated 1996 remake of The Island of Dr. Moreau)
•New interviews with Devo founding members Gerald Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh,
whose manifesto is rooted in themes from Island of Lost Souls
•Theatrical trailer
•PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by critic Christine Smallwood
Above, "Island of Lost Souls" was featured in a recent issue of "Famous Monsters of Filmland."
Above, Itsukushima Shrine and its torii gate at Miyajima Island near Hirohima. Photo by Armand Vaquer.Tourism to Japan is down — dramatically down — since March, in the aftermath of one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded. Part of the problem is misconceptions. We traveled the country over eight days in late June and early July, and here’s what we found:
† Japan was not destroyed by that earthquake. In Tokyo, the temples, shrines, restaurants, shops and pachinko parlors are open. In Sendai, which took a pretty good jolt as the city closest to the epicenter, evidence of damage in the central district — and there was some damage — is rare.
† Radiation levels from that damaged nuclear plant near Fukushima, 150 miles from Tokyo, are negligible except around the plant, an area that’s been evacuated.
The so-called Plan B is taking shape in quiet discussions between Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) and Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), away from unhappy House Republicans who don't favor the approach.
It would link a package of spending cuts to a plan Mr. McConnell proposed earlier this week that would give the president the power to raise the debt limit through 2012 in three installments, unless two-thirds of Congress voted to block it. It likely wouldn't include any tax increases, a senior Democratic aide familiar with the discussions said.
Right, actor Michael Landon joins former Governor Reagan at a private reception on the night of the 1980 California Primary at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Photo by Armand Vaquer.Above, the official Citizens For Reagan bumpersticker for the 1976 primary campaign.
Above, several bumperstickers were issued during the 1980 primpary campaign. The bottom one may be from the 1984 general campaign (didn't I say I was going by memory?).
Above, more from the 1980 primary campaign.
Above, the top sticker is definitely from the 1980 general election campaign. The one in the middle was a metallic sticker produced by the Young Overseas Americans for Reagan and Friends, an "independent voluntary work group." They were based in New Mexico. The sticker was printed in Hong Kong. 
Above, these are from the 1980 general election campaign.
Above, this 1984 Reagan-Bush sticker is the the large one issued by the campaign. It is longer than the scanner bed so some of the image's edges were cut off.
Above, this 1984 Reagan-Bush sticker is the smaller of the two and was able to fit within the scanner bed.
Above, the top two stickers were produced in 1984 by an organization called Freedom's Ring. The bottom one was produced by the California Republican Party.
