Monster Japan Travel Guide At No. 51

Above, Miki with "The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan." Photo by Armand Vaquer.

The Amazon Kindle Store ebook edition of The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan has fallen out of the top 100 Best Sellers in General Japan Travel Guides. 

But, it is still within the top 100 in Best Sellers In Japanese Travel. It is now at number 51.

To bet the paper edition, go here.

UPDATE:  An hour after posting this, it ticked up a notch to number 50.

Thank You, Japan Daily!

Maybe I shouldn't be at all surprised at the sudden upsurge of sales of the Amazon Kindle Store ebook edition of The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan.

I received an email from The Japan Daily that the latest edition of their online newspaper was posted. Although I received the email several hours ago, I didn't open it until the past half hour.

Once I went to their link, I found this:

It is linked to a blog post I made earlier today.

Thank you, Japan Daily!

Monster Japan Travel Guide Shoots Up In Rankings At Amazon

Above, Ai with "The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan." Photo by Armand Vaquer.

It appears that October will be ending on a high note as far as sales of the Amazon Kindle Store ebook edition of The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan are concerned.

I received notice that it has shot up in rankings in two categories:

It is number 27 in the Best Sellers in Japanese Travel:

It is number 63 in Best Sellers in General Japan Travel Guides:

UPDATE: Since I first posted this blog, it has crept up to number 55 in Best Sellers in General Japan Travel Guides:

And, it has crept up to number 23 in Best Sellers in Japanese Travel:

Wall Street Journal's "Tablet Wars"

Above, Apple's iPad Air.

Since the Christmas holiday season is just around the corner, a number of companies have introduced new tablet computers for you to play with and to read the Amazon Kindle ebook edition of The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan (just had to get that in).

Nokia, Kindle, Apple, Nexus, Microsoft, Nook and Galaxy are some of the brands who have new products to choose from.

The Wall Street Journal takes a look at the new tablets.

Here's what they say:

Consumers have a bevy of new and upgraded tablets to choose from to watch movies and television shows, listen to music, read books and more. See how some of the more popular tablets stack up.

To see the new tablets, go here.

Thank-You To 800,000 Viewers!

Above, fireworks over Lake Kawaguchi in Japan.  Screen shot from video by Armand Vaquer.

Armand's Rancho Del Cielo (named for President Ronald Reagan's beloved ranch near Santa Barbara, California) has reached another milestone today.

We've reached over 800,000 page views since the blog's inception in 2008! A big thank-you to those of you who've stopped by! The blog will top one million page views within the next few months.

Apparently, we're doing something right to be generating such interest. It must be because this is not a "one-trick pony" blog as some of them are. Many I've seen are self-aggrandizing and just plain too dull to even bother looking at. Viewers from all around the globe have visited here.

This blog covers a larger gamut of topics, including travel, history, current events, politics and entertainment. It helps to inject a little humor into blog posts to keep things interesting.

Next stop, one million!

Tea Party Fights Back

The Tea Party is fighting back against smears by the Democrat Party. An email containing the following is being sent out:

To go to the Tea Party's PAC website, go here.

Sticker Shock, Etc.

My employer for my security "parachute job" says we're to receive paperwork for medical insurance coverage around the first of November. I'll believe it when I see it.

Here's why:

A large security company bought out the accounts my former employer had in the San Fernando Valley. We had a big general meeting in which transferring employees had to complete our employment and benefits paperwork, including medical coverage.

Since then, I noticed in my paycheck stubs that nothing was being deducted for medical insurance, so I contacted the company's medical benefits director to find out what was going on and she said that even though I, and may others, signed up, there were "problems" and we weren't given coverage. She wouldn't/couldn't say why. She said that we should be receiving medical insurance coverage information around the first of November.

Funny how nobody with the company bothered to notify us that we were not covered medically, even though we signed up.

Ticked off, I said to her, "It was a good thing that I didn't have [a medical] need for it, otherwise the company would be in legal hot water." I am going to pursue this like a German Shepard come November. I don't take crap from anybody.

For the heck of it, I checked a website handling California's ObamaCare Exchanges and this is the lowest monthly rate I could find (I had to give them my age, weight, etc.):

ObamaCare's official name is the "Affordable Care Act". My medical insurance coverage with my immediate past employer was around $20/paycheck, so this rate is neither affordable or caring. Talk about sticker shock! Unless I get a better deal from my employer, I just might forego getting medical insurance coverage and just eat the penalty. It would be a lot cheaper over the long run (about 1% of gross annual income) than premium rates such as this one.

However, at least this day is ending on a positive note. Some insurance claim work came in this morning (work completed by early this afternoon) and some sales over at Amazon.com's Kindle Store for The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan also came in.

Monster Japan Travel Guide Still Available At Amazon.com Kindle Store

A couple of days ago, I posted about the Amazon Kindle ebook edition of The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan being available in ten countries outside of the United States.

Naturally, it is also available at the U.S. Kindle Store at Amazon.com.

Since the holiday season is just around the corner, the ebook would be a great stocking-stuffer for those kaiju fans in your life who might be getting a new personal computer, laptop or a tablet computer for Christmas. (Just make sure their platform, browser or app is compatible with Kindle's program.)

To access the guide at Amazon.com, go here.

Foreign Visitors To Japan In September Break Record

Above, the giant lantern at the entrance gate to Nakamise Dori.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Foreign tourism to Japan hit a new record in September, says the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO).

According to Global Post:

The number of foreign visitors to Japan in September surged 31.7 percent from the year before to 867,000, breaking the record for the month, the Japan National Tourism Organization said Wednesday. 

The Japanese government is worried that the concerns among South Koreans may hamper efforts to clear its goal of pushing up the annual number of foreign visitors above 10 million. 

The number for the first nine months of this year totaled 7,731,000, of which South Koreans accounted for 25 percent.

To read the full article, go here. 

Top Tub Tips and Tattoo Taboos At Japanese Baths

Above, a public bath in a business hotel.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

First time visitors to Japan, or people who've been there but never participated in a public bath or onsen, should be mindful of the rules of soaking in Japan.

RocketNews24 has posted an article of "Top Tub Tips and Tattoo Taboos At Japanese Baths."

It begins with:

There is nothing quite as relaxing as slipping into the warm water at a Japanese hot spring. But as you get ready for tub time, you should be aware of the finer points of public bathing in Japan. Besides leaving your rubber ducky at home, we have compiled a list of key bath tips to ensure the best soak of your life without having to hear someone nag about the “lack of proper bathing manners these days.” 

And since one of the more frustrating points of the Japanese bathing experience is a blanket ban on tattoos, we will also provide some context on why exactly your tribal sign tramp stamp is so unwelcome. 

Whether you are going to an actual hot spring or a public bathhouse, here are nine things to keep in mind before entering the world of bathing in Japan.

To read the full article, go here.

More Space For Godzilla Panel At Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo

We're a little over a week away before the opening of Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

This is one great show and some have called Comikaze Expo "L.A.'s answer to the San Diego Comic Con."

Comikaze Expo will be in the Convention Center's South Hall November 1-3, so there will be plenty of room. Around 75,000 attended last year's show.

Thankfully, our Friday, November 1 panel (at 2:00 p.m.) on Godzilla and Pacific Rim will be held in a larger room than the one we had last year (we had the 'A' portion of a meeting room last year, this year we'll have 'A' and 'B'). We had "standing room only" attendance in our panel's meeting room last year. With a larger room this year, we will be able to accommodate more people comfortably.

For more information on Comikaze Expo, go here.

A "Brosurance" Ad I'd Like To See

The Serene & the Surreal: 10 Unique Experiences in Tokyo

Above, the Narita Express passes through a Tokyo neighborhood with the Sky Tree in the background.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

If you are planning on a visit to Tokyo, you may want to take the advice of Ikimasho.net and get off at a "small random" train station that is not one of the main ones that are "in your face" in most travel guides and visit a Japanese neighborhood. You may also want to take their advice and check out ten different places that the travel guides don't feature.

They have a post on "The Serene & the Surreal: 10 Unique Experiences in Tokyo."

They start it with:

Tokyo is a great place to live, but a difficult one to visit. The sheer size of the metropolis can be daunting for first-time visitors, many of whom clutch to their guidebooks for dear life as they navigate the city. The result is that many tourists in Tokyo only scratch the surface, taking in the traditional ‘must-see’ sites such as Tsukiji Fish Market, the Imperial Palace and Shibuya’s famous scramble crossing. 

Here are ten unique places that may not feature in your guidebook that are sure to make your trip to Tokyo even more memorable.

To read the article, go here.

Osamu Tezuka, "The Godfather of Anime"

Tofugu.com has posted an article on the life of Osamu Tezuka, the "Godfather of Anime."

They start it with:

Starting in the 1950s, Tezuka created and wrote more than 700 manga series containing over 170,000 pages and he also penned over 200,000 pages of anime storyboards and scripts. His impact on anime and manga is impossible to overstate. His influence on the industry was nothing less than miraculous. He made Japanese anime what it is today and popularized it internationally with his great success. He inspired many others and continues to do so today even after his death. Osamu Tezuka truly is the godfather of anime and this is his story.

To read the full article, go here. 

Above, the Astro Boy figure I bought at a Los Angeles Japan
Expo a few years ago that I couldn't resist.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Superman At The Broadway Department Stores In Los Angeles

In his book, Flights Of Fantasy, The Unauthorized But True Story of Radio & TV's Adventures of Superman, writer Michael J. Hayde wrote about actor George Reeves's appearances in the Los Angeles area in April 1955.

Above, The Broadway Crenshaw in the late 1940s.

On April 4, Reeves stopped in at KTTV (Channel 11 in Los Angeles) to make a guest appearance on the Jack Owens Show. On the show Reeves plugged his upcoming appearances at The Broadway department stores in downtown Los Angeles and in the Crenshaw district (known as Leimert Park to Angelenos).

Above, The Broadway Crenshaw in 1948.  Life Magazine photo.

The following day, April 5, Reeves made the appearances at the two The Broadway department stores. He appeared at the downtown store at 10:00 a.m. before 15,000 children and the Crenshaw store at 2:30 p.m., where 20,000 greeted him.

Above, The Broadway in downtown Los Angeles circa 1951. USC Digital Archives.

I don't personally recall the downtown L.A. store, but my family used to occasionally shop at The Broadway Crenshaw in the late-1950s and early-1960s as well The May Company department store across the street.

The Broadway-Crenshaw store was built in 1947 and it was an upscale department store for the time. The building is now occupied by Walmart.

The Late, Great Centinela Drive-In Theatre

Wich Stand (named for a popular hang-out for teen cruisers from the 1940s to the 1960s) at Facebook posted some photos of the late, great Centinela Drive-In Theatre in Westchester (near Los Angeles International Airport). Those brought back some memories.

The drive-in was located next to the San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405) near La Tijera and La Cienega Boulevards. It opened in the 1950s and was a favorite movie theater of my family for many years when we lived in Hawthorne.

According to Wich Stand's post, it was first operated by Aladdin Theaters and was later taken over by the Pacific Theatres company. The Centinela Drive-In Theatre closed down in 1993 and was later demolished in 1998.

The only movies I can immediately recall seeing there was the double-feature of the 1966 Adam West-Burt Ward Batman movie and Our Man Flint, that starred James Coburn. We went there many times, along with the Vermont, Century, Studio, Torrance, Roadium and Olympic Drive-In Theatres. Those were the days!

"The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan" Now Available At Amazon Kindle Stores In 10 Countries Outside of the U.S.

We're almost into the holiday season and what better way to brighten up the kaiju fan in your life's day than to give him (or her) the ebook version of The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan to go along with that tablet computer or other device that awaits under the tree?

The Amazon ebook edition is now available at Amazon's Kindle Stores in ten (10) countries!

To date, they are (each one is hyper-linked for your convenience):

Canada

United Kingdom

Japan

Germany

Italy

France

India

Mexico

Spain

Brazil



Make sure Kindle files are compatible with your device's platform or app!

"Pacific Rim"

I've finished watching Warner Bros./Legendary Pictures' Pacific Rim. What do I think of it?

For starters, it has plenty of action and lots of city destruction, stuff that kaiju fans enjoy very much. There's no disappointment in that department.

The acting was very good and the movie had characters people could have empathy with and care about (unlike the 2008 Godzilla, but like Cloverfield). At last year's Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo panel on kaiju and giant robots, I pointed out having the robots (Jaegers) manned was a good idea as it would make the viewer have an emotional investment in the characters instead of just having the Jaegers operate by remote control. In this aspect, the movie did very well.

I still feel that CGI giant monsters don't give one the feeling of mass as do the "old school" method of having a man-in-a-suit smashing miniatures. But this movie came close.

I did notice that it seemed to rip off some elements from Godzilla x Mechagodzilla (2002) and Godzilla x Mothra x Mechagodzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003). Having helicopters lifting the Jaegers, like the planes that lifted Mechagodzilla in those movies, doesn't quite seem plausible. It would seem to me that choppers wouldn't/couldn't even budge the heavy Jaegers off the ground in real life. If a plane can lift a space shuttle, then several planes lifting Mechagodzilla seems more plausible to me.

Pacific Rim was an action movie, more in the style of Toho's Godzilla movies. It didn't even come close to the creepiness of Cloverfield. It is likely intended that way. Thus far, Cloverfield is still the best giant monster movie I've seen in the past ten years.

Still, I enjoyed Pacific Rim for what it is, a good roller-coaster movie.

I was going to grade it B+, but since the acting and story were much better than average for a giant monster movie, I'm giving it an A-.

Let's see if next year's Godzilla tops it.

Sarah Palin: D.C.'s "Corrupt Bastards Club"

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin takes a look at what's going on in Washington, D.C. and compares it to her experience with the entrenched corrupt politicians in Alaska whom she fought and won.

Over at Breitbart.com, her article is entitled, "D.C.'s "Corrupt Bastards Club"", but it could also have been titled "Why ObamaCare Sucks."

She lays it all out why the fight against ObamaCare must go on.

Here's a snippet:

So what was the GOP establishment’s game plan to fight this march towards socialism? They’ve been busy denouncing Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee and their supporters, along with the good House Members who fought for our one chance to defund Obamacare. But what were the wayward Republicans’ alternative plans? They thought we could ignore the implementation of Obamacare and simply focus on some future electoral victories in the hope that some day the stars will align and we’ll have super majorities in the House and Senate along with a Republican president who would hopefully repeal this disastrous soon-to-be set in stone new “entitlement.” 

There’s a big problem with that scenario. It overlooks the everyday reality before our eyes. As Obamacare is being implemented, Americans can’t afford to pay for it. We can’t even sign up for it on the impossibly cumbersome websites, but the IRS will fine us for not doing so anyway! Obama gave his pals, and Congress gave themselves, tickets off this train wreck via waivers. Cruz and Lee fought for us to get the same relief the big guys got. The media and disloyal politicians turned on them and, divided, we lost. Now we little guys are stuck on this train, which will soon collide with hardship and real-world economics that don’t pencil out. Friends, by the time the electoral stars align for this hoped-for GOP hat trick the country will be out billions, if not trillions, more of our tax dollars and will have already begged D.C. to relieve us of this corporatist nightmare even if it means a socialized single-payer system. And once there, do you think we’ll ever go back and strip this “entitlement”? Unarguable history proves otherwise.

I strongly suggest you go here to real Palin's full article.

Ex-Leader of Mexico Drug Cartel Killed By Gunman In Clown Costume

Above, Roger Moore in "Octopussy" (1983).  United Artists photo.

When I first saw this story, for some reason it reminded me of the 1983 James Bond movie (starring Roger Moore), Octopussy.

Fox News posted:

LOS CABOS, Mexico –  Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix, the eldest brother of Mexico's once-feared Arellano Felix drug clan, was shot to death in the Baja beach resort of Los Cabos by a gunman wearing a clown costume, authorities said Saturday. 

A photo from the scene showed his body sprawled on the tiled floor of the open-sided, beachfront house, covered by a sheet. 

An official of the Baja California Sur state prosecutor's office said Saturday that the killer wore a clown costume complete with a wig and a round red nose. The official was not authorized to be quoted by name.

Maybe MI6 (Her Majesty's Secret Service) is operating in Mexico?

To read the full story, go here. 

Don't Miss Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo!

Above, Comikaze Expo 2012.  Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Described by some as "L.A.'s answer to the San Diego Comic Con", Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center is only weeks away.

Last year, Comikaze Expo was held in September. This year's show is set for November 1-3. The panel on Godzilla, Pacific Rim and other kaiju will be held at 2:00 PM Friday, November 1.

It is a show that you should not miss. You won't be disappointed! To give you an idea on what you can expect there, go to this link for highlights of last year's show.

To see the official website for Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo, go here.

Stan Lee's Comikaze Expo Schedule Announcement

PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE ANNOUNCEMENT! The moment you have all been waiting for - The Stan Lee's Comikaze 2013 PROGRAMING SCHEDULE!!! Be sure to check out what's going on in all of our panel rooms and DO NOT MISS out the AMAZING action on the HOT TOPIC MAIN STAGE located on our main exhibitor hall! You can't miss it… there’s a jumbotron!! CLICK HERE to plan your day! Spider-Man fans rejoice Superior Spider-Man artist Humberto Ramos and his team will be on the our floor doing commissions and meeting fans. Also comedian Louie Anderson will be making his first convention appearance EVER! He will be doing a panel, a pop up store and signing autographs Nov 2-3. Don't miss out on the Stan Lee Comikaze EXCLUSIVE FUNKO. Available at  Stan Lee's Mega Museum and the Convention Exclusives booth! Here are just SOME of the highlights from the HOT TOPIC MAIN STAGE: Friday: Edward James Olmos Ian Ziering and cast members from "Sharknado!" the cast of AMC Movie Talk the cast of Fangasm! Comikaze's Geek Fashion Show! Saturday: Bruce Campbell "Weird" Al Yankovic Alyssa Milano The Comic Book Men The Walking Dead's Michael Rooker a Pete & Pete reunion a Powerpuff Girls Reunion the Comikaze Cosplay Contest plus several special surprises announcements and even MORE to be announced! Sunday: Louie Anderson Tara Strong Laraine Newman Adrianne Curry Legacy Effects a Her Universe Fangirl Open Fashion Shoot This is just a peek at the awesome guests and events we have waiting for you, so get pumped! CLICK HERE to see the COMPLETE Programming Guide! Download the Buzzmob app to your phone to have all our programming at your finger tips. Tickets are going fast, and if you get ‘em now, you can get 10% off by using promo code HOTTOPIC3 ! CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR TICKETS RIGHT NOW!   And don't forget to watch our NEW SHOW on SyFy - FANGASM! Where 7 super-nerds help build Comikaze 2013.  It airs every Tuesday at 10pm on SyFy. Watch and you could win the ultimate Stan Lee's Comikaze dream vacation!