Either the locomotive is tiny or the fireman is a giant.

A worker cleans the ash from a miniature steam locomotive after a hard days work in Sapporo during the 2011 Snow Festival. The cool little engine pulled a ride-on kids train and runs on coal, just like its big, big brothers. It’s not the only steam train still running in Hokkaido.

Vicious mutant beasts know as melonbears (メロン熊) attempt to build a tower and escape from the claw machine holding them captive.

The fruity creatures are from Yubari (夕張), a former coal mining boomtown in Hokkaido which is now famous for melons. The town once had around 120,000 residents but only about 12,000 people live there today. Either the coal mines closed or the melonbears ate everyone. I’m sure it’s the latter ;)

հɑքքվ ղҽա վҽɑɾ!

Remnants of faces, clay positives after they were used to cast negatives for portrait sculptures.

I made the one on the left. Clayface » mold » plasterface » artshow

There was farm fair in my city a while ago and among the agricultural exhibits, there was a bovine manual lactation extraction simulator. I didn’t get to try my hand though because this cowboy came to clean the fiberglass animal’s insides via trapdoor.

The sequence was shot with a Supersampler camera. It has four lenses with shutters that offset, allowing for four separate exposures in one frame of 35 mm film. Also, instead of using a boring wheel to advance film, the Supersampler has a pull string. It’s awesome. This photo captures slightly more action.

Now, drink your milk so you can have good concentration and defend yourself when your teacher unleashes a fury of chalk on your not-paying-attention-in-class ass.

Pepsi Cucumber, Pepsi Shiso, Pepsi Baobab, and company have a sweet new sibling. Pepsi Mont Blanc hit convenience store cooler shelves in October. I should have been eager to down a wacky new flavor of Pepsi considering I actually really liked last year’s azuki bean offering. I wasn’t too eager to try a cola flavored like Mont Blanc, a chestnut and whipped cream dessert though. Mont Blanc is delicious and I’m unfortunately addicted to cola but it sounds like sugar city (which my friend, Google Maps informs me is a real place in Idaho). This edition isn’t such a far-out flavor so the impulse buy novelty value isn’t that high compared to past variations. It’s really not that crazy and as far as taste goes, that’s probably a good thing.

I finally had to give it a go. So, I poured some Pepsi Mont Blanc into my Gachapin kiddy glass and had a taste test. It’s pretty good and surprisingly not as stupid sweet as I expected. The Mont Blanc half of the Frankendrink doesn’t overwhelm. It’s a slightly sweeter Pepsi with a slight tinge of chestnut and it’s pretty good. 4 out of 5 Pepsi globes ●●●●◌

As GIGAZINE speculates, what’s next? Pepsi Soy Sauce? Pepsi Miso? Pepsi Rice? Let’s keep it sweet.

A supersized robotgirl takes to the streets and stomps around the city to announce two types of curry and rice available at McDonald’s. The robot shares a striking resemblance to its pilot, comedian Kuniko Yamada (山田邦子), who is inside the hat. She should team up with a gigantic Grimace and battle King Ghidorah or something.

I almost wish McDonald’s Japan had giant mecha AND curry and rice. They did serve it in the early 90s, when this commercial was made.

Although a fire consumed many of Komatsuzaki’s original works in 1995, dozens of digital copies can be seen all over the internet. These are from my personal collection.

Komatsuzaki also designed contraptions for feature films like the “undersea warship” Gotengo from Atragon, which can be seen behind the scenes here.

Favorites?

TOWER RECORDS has teamed up with Evangelion, Sanrio, and Kaibutsu-kun. Now it’s Chibi Maruko-chan and her Maruko Band’s turn to take to the record store stage.

Over a dozen Maruko-themed items hit TOWER RECORDS’ shelves on October 27th. The spunky third grader transforms into a keytar-wielding, jumpsuit-sporting, Devo-esque hard hat-wearing electronic rockstar on stationery and more. She and her “Maruko Band” — which consists of classmates Tama-chan, Nagasawa, Noguchi-san, Maruo-kun, and herself — are all over keychains, pens, headphone cord rolls, buttons, folders, tote bags, towels, t-shirts, notebooks, bookmarks, mugs, socks, and BE@RBRICKS. That’s some all-out cross promotion! My fingers hurt from listing all that.

I picked up a “comic note” the last time I went to TOWER RECORDS. It’s a blank comic book that’s the same size and uses the same paper as the real deal but there aren’t any illustrated panels inside. It’s my new emojournal/scrapbook/taking over the world planning log.

Information doubledown at TOWER RECORDS and Chibi Maruko-chan’s official sites.

May Darth Vader and the new Samsung GALAXY S smartphone from Docomo be with you. The best thing about the commercial for the new phone is that it features one of the coolest villains in the universe hanging out with people doing (some) mundane — completely unevil — things like taking a boat ride, going for a stroll, chilling by the campfire, lounging around, getting a haircut, skateboarding, and walking down the red carpet.

I’d love to get an Android-powered smartphone like the GALAXY S. I am currently signed up with au though, so switching providers is a pain and I actually don’t mind them. Thankfully au’s own sleek and sexy Android smartphone, the Sharp IS03, is due out soon. Smartphone want!

A smiling oni (ogre, demon) in Noboribetsu, Hokkaido. The onsen town that is home to Hell Valley and holds an annual Hell Festival is full of hordes of sculpted demonic creatures. Some line the road as tourist photo-ops and others, like this guy, are in shrines.

Taken up close on my Fujifilm INSTAX mini 50 “Cheki” camera.