Saturday: Lazy day

Still, I'm considering it a successful day.  I probably should have gone to get sushi today, but by the time I was ready to leave, it was actual dinner time.  I didn't want to wait for food, so I'll go tomorrow.  I think I need to get some groceries anyway.

Refraction.  Also an oil rig, if I'm not mistaken.

The reason sushi would have been good today is that I ended up watching KIKU TV's showing of Cocorico (I think), which had part 3 (I think) of a multipart series about sushi.  Cocorico is a Japanese (this I know) variety show (I think) where they have a big panel, and they talk about things, and then send people out to do wacky things, with the big panel commenting back at the studio, with the people who did the challenge, so the studio stuff must happen later.

Anyway, the challenge this week was "Can these guys eat everything on the menu at a popular sushi restaurant?"  Last week I caught the end of the "these girls" attempt, and I think the answer there was "yes."  The team this week made it through dish #66 (I think), out of the ~110 to cover.  

They were eating at Kura sushi, which has an interesting plate return system.  After eating five plates, you can slide the plates into a plate shaped opening beneath the sushi belt, and that starts a game of chance, in which you can win a capsule toy.  I think it also counts the plates and sends them back to be washed.  Neat idea.  Because of this game, there's a song about it, by Morning Musume (a Jpop group composed of an infinite number of female singers that are often broken into smaller groups, as transporting an infinite number of singers is a logistics nightmare.  No, seriously, look at this.  WTF, Japan?).

In conclusion, Japanese variety games are wonderful, because they take simple concepts (eat all the sushi), and make it entertaining.

One more thing that I just remembered: a similar show (maybe the same?) had a challenge of "can your children (aged 7 and 5) navigate the Japanese train system to meet you at the amusement park?"  This was interesting as in the US, the answer would have been "No, they'll be murdered by hobos.  Plus, you're going to jail for blatant child endangerment."  In Japan, the answer was "Sure, that'll be fine.  Business Man will help them buy their tickets, and Train Guy will ensure they get off at the right stops.  However, they'll walk the wrong way leaving the station, so they won't make it in time to win the challenge."

• The capsules had pins and stickers with these characters on them.  Note this is "chapter 1."  The link up top shows you there are eleven other.  My favorite of the ones obtained in the episode is A12 "サー モンキー" => "salmonkey".  It is a monkey with salmon for his face and butt.  I kind of want to translate the other names.  I'm trying to figure out what A14, the squirrel is.  "イナ リス" is "INARISU"/"INA-squirrel".  I'm unclear what that has to do with the letters.  Maybe it's a pun on inari sushi, which has little fried tofu pouches?  They could look like envelopes, so maybe that's the joke?
• Final sushi thing for today: You can buy a toy kaiten sushi.  It's super expensive, but it comes with lots of tiny sushi pieces.
• This could potentially be a sushi thing, but instead, it's a Godzilla thing.  What I learned from this post: a) there's a new Godzilla movie coming. b) it's partially filmed in Honolulu.
• This is dumb.  Was military law invented by absolute morons?
• Finally, sloths.