Gegege Mangga

Mizuki Shigeru came home with only one arm after the war. Japan economy was at its lowest after the war with high unemployment. With only one arm and what with the bad economy, Shigeru used his only talent to live. Drawing cartoon.

A few years when the war ended, he sold his cartoon to a small printing company. But his comic books did not sell well. His family lived a very poor life. The electric to his house was cut off due to unpaid bills. They eat very ripe bananas (almost black), to survive the hard life.
NHK is showing this drama now, GEGEGE Nyobou or Gegege's wife. The drama recalls the cartoonist life as recollected by his wife.


Shigeru break came when his talent was found by a friend who owned a printing company. Then, after several issues of his mangga, a well-known comic book company found his work. At first, Shigeru was asked to produce sci-fi cartoons but he rejected this offer because he feels his talent was not in sci-fi.
Then, Shigeru was approached again and this time he was given his choice of any comic. He agreed but the printing company gave him one condition. That he must also produce his mangga (comic story) for the TV company.
That was the beginning of GEGEGE KITARO on television.

Shigeru already have a theme to his mangga. All the characters in the mangga are ghosts. His comic ghosts are the One-Eye Cup baby, the flying carpet ghost but the heroes among the ghosts is the One-Eye boy named Kitaro.

There was no turning back after his first mangga came on the first comic book followed by series program on television.

To make story short, Shigeru is now a very rich man. Selling his mangga on television, mangga magazine and they even make video games out of it!

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The laughter of past
comes but once in a lifetime
wilting rose petals

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Summer Vegetable

Summer Vege

These are summer veggies on this island. You can see banana but that is a special banana, sweet. I know some people named it as Monkey banana. Then there is square beans (kacang botor), red chillies, long beans (kacang panjang), ciku (those brown egg-like fruits, pink-bell jambu and of course not in the photo is bitter gourd (peria) and petula (sponge gourd).

Petula or sponge gourd, strange thing is the Japanese on the mainland don't eat it, instead they use it as body scrub! But Okinawa people use it as food!

Anyway, this is the best time to get good red chillies, so I bought 6 packs in one go.


Words from her red mouth
sparkle and burn back her face
Red chillies and friends.

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Tanabata

Image:Wikipedia

Today Japan celebrate Tanabata, 7th July or 7-7. Its a cultural tradition.
On this summer night, in this atmosphere, two brightest stars will cross the bridge on The Milky Way (Bimasakti). They cross only once a year.
The Japanese believe one star is a male named Hikoboshi (Altair) and the other is a female star called Orihime (Vega). These two stars are lovers. They meet for one night a year (on 7th July) and make love till the sun comes out in the morning.
Romantic dont you think!
But unfortunately, if it rains, the sky is not clear and they might not find each other in the whole galaxy of stars.
And in Okinawa today, it is raining. Poor Hikoboshi and Orihime. Maybe this year they don't see each other.

So, even the stars have hard time perpetuating their love, what do you think of lowly people like us!

Traditionally, people in Japan will gather outdoors for picnic but tomorrow is a school day, I doubt they do it tonight.

Every shopping complexes will put up bamboo trees and children write their wishes and tie it on the branches. (Orang Islam tak boleh buat ini, sama dengan buat doa bila tiup lilin atas kek hari lahir. Kita hanya minta doa kepada Allah dan hanya Allah akan makbulkan doa kita...mana pula buluh, tiup lilin boleh makbulkan doa kita...kuat sangat ke power benda Allah itu...chish).

There is one haiku by Basho about this Tanabata thing. People who study this haiku, will feel the rain in the middle of the sky when the two star lovers make love. This haiku has sexual connotation.

The word Basho used is Uchuten or rain in the heaven.

Tanabata no
awanu kokoro ya
uchuten

Now my version of Tanabata

Tanabata sky
my husband sleeps on the couch
with the teevee on.

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So gaga this lady!

Image:Yahoo

It was announced that she has 10 million friends in Facebook, not 1 million. Staggering 10 million!
Common people like me cannot figure this at all. How to have 10 million friends?
Not that I'm aiming for it, far. I am just one common person.
But one thing we have in common is that on a humid summer night like right now, we are both sweating!

Deep on summer night
even the fast turning fan
is dripping in sweat.

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Baring all

Paraguay model

She is a model from Paraguay. She said she will bare all if Paraguay gets into the semi-final. Such patriotism or is it?

That virgin melon,
break into such happiness
when her skin is pricked!

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