#muroran city

[nobu11051991]

The best curry ramen restaurant !

The best curry ramen restaurant !

The best curry ramen restaurant! Hi I’m Nobu, I like traveling overseas and in Japan, visited 25 countries! I’m a National Government Licensed Guide Interpreter of English for 8 years. I show you hidden Japan which you have never seen and heard of! Aji no Daioh in Muroran Hokkaido I went to a restaurant called Aji no Daioh , which is famous for its curry ramen. It is located in the Muroran…

[maigeiko]

Geisha exist all over Japan...

Geisha exist all around Japan, not only in Kyoto!

Notes: -> If a city/district is crossed out, that means the Hanamachi is defunct. -> If there is no city listed under a prefecture name, that means I don’t know of any cities in that prefecture that have or had Hanamachi -> Hyperlinks lead to entries on this blog tagged with that specific city -> The content you see here is undergoing changes, since there is always a possibility that I find more informations 1: Hokkaido region 1. Hokkaido Asahikawa 旭川 Hakodate 函館 (Yunokawa onsen) Muroran 室蘭 Otaru 小樽 Sapporo 札幌 2-7: Tohoku region 2. Aomori Aomori (Asamushi onsen 浅虫温温泉) Hachinohe 八戸 3. Iwate Hanamaki onsen 花巻温泉 Oshu (Isawa onsen 石和温泉) Kamaishi 釜石 Morioka 盛岡 4. Miyagi Sendai 仙台 5. Akita Akita 秋田 Yuzawa 湯沢 6. Yamagata Sakata 酒田 Tsuruoka 鶴岡 Yamagata 山形 7. Fukushima Aizuwakamatsu 会津若松 (Higashiyama onsen) Fukushima 福島 Nihonmatsu 二本松 (Dake onsen) 8-14: Kanto region 8. Ibaraki Mito 水戸 9. Tochigi Nasu onsen 那須温泉 Oyama 大山 Utsunomiya 宇都宮 10. Gunma Ikaho 伊香保 Kusatsu 草津 Maebashi 前橋 Minakami 水上 Sarugakyo onsen 猿ヶ京温泉 Takasaki 高崎 11. Saitama 12. Chiba Kisarazu 木更津 13. Tokyo Rokkagai: Akasaka 赤坂 Asakusa 浅草 Kagurazaka 神楽坂 Mukojima 向島 Shinbashi 新橋 Yoshi-cho 芳町 Outside the Rokkagai: Hachioji 八王子 Maruyama-cho 円山町 Otsuka 大塚 Shinagawa (Oi 大井/Omori 大森) - formerly known as Konnyaku-jima 蒟蒻島 Famous Hanamachi: Fukagawa 深川 Yanagibashi 矢作橋 Yushima tenjin 湯島天神 Other Hanamachi: Araki-cho 荒木町 Dogenzaka 道玄坂 Fujimi-cho 富士見町 Gotanda 五反田 Hakusan 白山 Himono-cho 檜物町 Kobusho 講武所 Nihonbashi 日本橋 Shiba 芝 Shibaura 芝浦 Shintomi-cho 新富町 Shitaya 下谷 Yoshiwara 吉原 14. Kanagawa Atsugi 厚木 (Iiyama onsen) Hakone 箱根 Kamakura 鎌倉 Yokohama 横浜 Yugawara onsen 湯河原温泉 15-23: Chubu region 15. Niigata Nagaoka Onsen 長岡温泉 Niigata 新潟 Shibata 新発田 (Tsukioka onsen 月岡温泉 ) Jôetsu (Takada 高田) Yuzawa 湯沢 16. Toyama Himi 氷見 Asahi 朝日 (Tomari-cho) 17. Ishikawa Kanazawa 金沢 Kaga (Yamanaka onsen 山中温泉) Katayamazu Onsen 片山津温泉 18. Fukui Awara Onsen 芦原 温泉 Fukui 福井 Obama 小浜 19. Yamanishi Kofu 甲府 20. Nagano Kamiyamada togura 上山田戸倉 Suwa (Kamisuwa Onsen 上諏訪)  Yudanaka Onsen 湯田中温泉 21. Gifu Gero Onsen 下呂温泉 Gifu 岐阜 Takayama 高山 22. Shizuoka Atami 熱海 Fujinomia 富士宮 Hamamatsu 浜松 Ito Onsen 伊東 Izunokuni (Izunagaoka Onsen 伊豆長岡) Shimoda 下田 (Izushimoda Onsen) Shizuoka 静岡 23. Aichi Anjo 安城 Gamagori 蒲郡 (Mitani Onsen) Hotei 布袋 Inuyama 犬山 Kochino 古知野 Kônan 江南 Nagoya 名古屋 Toyota (Asuke 足助) 24-30: Kansai region 24. Mie 25. Shiga Hikone 彦桹 Otsu 大津 26. Kyoto Kyoto 27. Osaka Osaka 大阪 Imasato 今里 28. Hyogo Arima Onsen 有馬温泉 Kinosaki 城崎 Kobe 神戸 29. Nara Nara 奈良 30. Wakayama Shingu 新宮 Shirahama 白浜 Wakayama 和歌山 31-35: Chûgoku 31. Tottori 32. Shimane Matsue 松江 (Tamatsukuri onsen 玉造温泉) 33. Okayama Obara 小原 Okayama 岡山 34. Hiroshima 35. Yamaguchi 36-39: Shikoku region 36. Tokushima Komatsushima 小松島 Tokushima 徳島 37. Kagawa Kotohira 琴平 Takamatsu 高松 38. Ehime Matsuyama (Dogo onsen 道後温泉) 39. Kochi Kochi 高知 40-47 Kyushu region 40. Fukuoka Fukuoka 福岡 Kurume 久留米 Tenjin-ka 天神下 41. Saga Takeo 武雄 Ureshino Onsen 嬉野 (tag exists but tumblr doesn’t recognise it - therefore a “search” link) 42. Nagasaki Nagasaki 長崎 43. Kumamoto Kumamoto 熊本 44. Oita Beppu onsen 別府 45. Miyazaki 46. Kagoshima Kagoshima 鹿児島 47. Okinawa

[thelegendsledger]

ᴛʜᴇ ɢʜᴏᴜʟɪꜱʜ ᴍʏᴛʜ ᴏꜰ ᴛᴇᴋᴇ-ᴛᴇᴋᴇ: ᴊᴀᴘᴀɴ’ꜱ ᴏɴʀʏŌ ᴡʜᴏ ᴇᴄʜᴏᴇꜱ ᴠᴇɴɢᴇᴀɴᴄᴇ

When we step into the domain of Japan, we can experience how modernity aligns with ancient cultures. It is what makes Japan a vibrant and colorful city with the most jaw-dropping landscapes along with the rich history that follows this country. But what we fail to see is the eerie folklores and gruesome urban legends that lie buried beneath the art of Japan. If we delve deeper, we can uncover that these legends are the primal fear of the locals, and perhaps some tourists. These tales are whispered down from generations to generations to ignite the flame of fear which spreads like a wildfire among the society. 

So join me as we venture through the story of Teke-Teke, a vengeful spirit who haunts the streets of Japan hoping to seize her thirst for revenge on those who had wronged her.

The legend of Teke-Teke has lots of variations but commonly she was once a young woman. One variation of this legend happened a few years after World War 2. It is the story of an office woman from Muroran, Hokkaido named Kashima Reiko who was abused and beaten horribly by a group of military men before they had left her to perish. Desperate for help, she called out yet her calls were not heard. So she took the drastic measure to crawl and find her savior - only for her to fall onto a railway track before a train sliced her into two, separating her upper half and lower half. The other adaptation of this legend begins with a young girl who was mistreated by her new classmates and pushed onto a railway track, and before she could escape the oncoming train; her body was severed at the waist.

The actual horrifying element of this legend is that Teke-Teke’s spirit was not able to rest due to the hate and ill-treatment that she had received. Therefore, she transformed to an onryo so that she could get her fair-share of revenge, although in an unfashioned manner.

Across Japan, Teke-Teke is presented as a young woman with long black hair who appears to not have a lower half. Instead of fingernails, she has sharp claws which allows her to drag her mutilated body. Her name derives from the sound she makes while crawling, which obviously is “Teke-Teke”. It is said that she wanders around holding a sharp object which seems similar to a scythe. 

People have rumored that Teke-Teke usually lurks in deserted urban areas or in quiet train stations at night. Once she has spotted her potential victim, she charges at them at an alarming speed of 150 km/h with the help of her elbows and claws. 

The ghastly part of the story occurs when Teke-Teke does indeed catch her prey. Once caught in her grasp, Teke-Teke will slice her victim in half at the waist, condemning them to the same fate she had once suffered. 

If you believe that you might have a chance of surviving Teke-Teke… forget about it. There is no chance. With her speed, she would be able to pounce on you before you even have the time to react. So scratch out ‘surviving Teke-Teke’ from your bucket list.

As with many urban legends, the story of Teke-Teke has several variations, each adding its unique twist to the terrifying tale. In some versions, she asks her victims a riddle before attacking. If they answer incorrectly, she kills them immediately. Additionally, another alteration is included in her motive. Though most say her reason for killings are due to revenge, there are some who say she does not kill as she is wandering around in hopes of finding her legs. There is also another motive, that she kills so that people who bully or abuse others, stop doing so because of the fear evoked by her.

While the legend of Teke-Teke may live on for generations, this blog will not, so let me draw this journey to an end. We know that Teke-Teke is an echo of the urban legends that spreads in Japan, but this legend is more than just a scary, spine-chilling tattle tale. This legend serves as a reminder of the vile consequences of the society’s cruelty and neglect. Furthermore, this legend, like any other urban legends, acts as a portal to the not-so-colorful folktales of Japan as an escape to all the cute, Hayao Miyazaki film-like aesthetic of the country. Now, I believe, is the correct way to part ways, so until next time!

…

My deepest apologies as I had forgotten to mention earlier that this legend concludes that if you hear the story of Teke-Teke, you are sure to see the ghost of a woman without her legs at night after three days of discovering her tale… Well then, that being said, stay safe, stay cautious, definitely DO NOT go to abandoned areas or train stations and good luck to you in case you do see the onryo.

[udonangya]

室蘭市輪西１丁目の、そばの小がね 輪西店で、カツ丼とうどんセット1320、ごはん−50ミニ、うどんミニ−50で、〆て1,220円也。

Pork cutlet rice and Udon noodles soup at the Wanishi branch of Kogane, Wanishi Icchome, Muroran city, Hokkaido.

[chloeunit6]

Japan urbanisation

Urbanisation is often a very recent phenomenon. Before the 16th century, only the capital cities of Nara, Kyōto, and Kamakura existed as significant towns. Most of ancient Japan's province capitals, or koku-fu, were administrative centres with official homes rather than established towns. After the late 16th century, powerful temples and feudal lords began to construct cities by assembling merchants and craftsmen near their headquarters. Feudal lords established jōka-machi (castle towns) to dominate transit routes and surrounding territories, leading to the development of major Japanese cities such as Tokyo.

The port towns, like as Hakata and Sakai, were next in prominence and had more ups and downs than the castle towns. Furthermore, several religious towns, like as Ise and Izumo, rose to significant sizes throughout time. During the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867), tranquil conditions led to unprecedented countrywide pilgrimages, resulting in the growth of temple and shrine cities like Kyōto and Nara. Dusk in central Yokohama, Japan. The late 19th century saw the establishment of international ports at Kōbe, Yokohama, Niigata, Hakodate, and Nagasaki, as well as naval bases in Yokosuka, Kure, and Sasebo, leading to widespread urbanisation. With industrialization came fast expansion in Japanese cities, and certain industrial towns (such as Yawata, Niihama, Kawasaki, and Amagasaki) were established in response to economic boom. The majority of old castle towns, particularly those on the country's Pacific coast, have grown directly or indirectly as a result of industrialization. Raw minerals and electricity resources in Hokkaido and southern Kyushu have attracted a small number of industrial units, which are solely responsible for the survival of cities like Tomakomai, Muroran, Nobeoka, and Minamata. The late 19th century saw the establishment of international ports at Kōbe, Yokohama, Niigata, Hakodate, and Nagasaki, as well as naval bases in Yokosuka, Kure, and Sasebo, leading to widespread urbanisation. With industrialization came fast expansion in Japanese cities, and certain industrial towns (such as Yawata, Niihama, Kawasaki, and Amagasaki) were established in response to economic boom. The majority of old castle towns, particularly those on the country's Pacific coast, have grown directly or indirectly as a result of industrialization. Raw minerals and electricity resources in Hokkaido and southern Kyushu have attracted a small number of industrial units, which are solely responsible for the survival of cities like Tomakomai, Muroran, Nobeoka, and Minamata.

Japanese cities are a confused combination of old and new, East and West. Mixed land use, including agricultural activity, coexists with the most modernised business centres and industrial establishments, and the fragmented, patchwork pattern of land ownership poses a formidable challenge in ever-expanding cities of skyscrapers, subways, and underground plazas. Other severe issues include a lack of adequate housing, increased usage of automobiles, congested public transit systems, a lack of open space for leisure, environmental degradation, and the continual threat of earthquakes and floods.

Havard referencing:

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannic. (1998). Japan urbanisation. [Online]. britannica. Last Updated: 27 October 2023. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/place/Japan/Religion [Accessed 23 February 2024].

[chaletnz]

Muroran and Noboribetsu Day Trip

We awoke to snow the morning of our road trip and I was suddenly running late when I realised I would have to clear off the car! It had frosted up and stuck to the windscreens making it take much longer than just brushing off powder snow, but as I pulled up Rezki and Kelly could see my debacle. The remainder of snow melted off on our drive to pick up Naoki and further to our first stop at the viewpoint over Muroran’s Uchiura Bay. It had been warm in the car but up here it was quite chilly and I had left my jacket in the car so just took a quick photo and then went back down. I had tried to drive over the bridge for the other viewpoints however we got a bit confused with the directions and ended up not actually crossing over the bridge but rather heading into the centre of Muroran. We replanned and rerouted ourselves to the café we had designated for our lunch, but now it was more like brunch. We arrived at Café Colony at 11.01 just after it opened for the day (I had read some reviews that it can take a very long time so it wasn’t a bad thing to be early!). I had the French toast pancakes which were amazing, Naoki went for bacon and eggs on pancakes, and Kelly had a combo with pancakes and a risotto. Rezki was doing his Ramadan fast so he couldn’t eat or drink anything which must be so hard for him because he is usually always eating. After our meal we went for a little walk around the city centre and got some cash out at the post office. Back in the car and we took our original route (but in reverse) through some viewpoints. It was a very steep climb up the mountain, with tight roads and hairpin turns to get right up to the top and we wondered how people usually drive up here in their Kei cars (tiny cars with maximum engine size of 660cc)... But it didn’t take very long before we reached our first lookout point Kameiwa! It was super windy up there despite the sunny clear skies that allowed us to see way down the coast to central Muroran city. Taking photos on the edge we were all feeling a little scared that the wind would blow us over the barrier and down the cliff, but we all survived to drive onwards another few minutes to Cape Chikyu. Kelly was already hungry again so she bought a few skewers to eat as we walked around the observation deck overlooking a lighthouse on the cape cliff edge. Rezki took his time getting all the shots perfect and we used the built in selfie stand to try and capture a photo but the angle wasn’t any good for getting the lighthouse in the background (only sky!). We then drove to the Hakucho Bridge again to take photos underneath but the now grey skies had started to drizzle and while Rezki and Kelly were running around trying to film the birds floating in one place in the wind it actually started to snow! Us stopping at this bridge spot had successfully disturbed the Japanese salarymen who were taking a nap in their cars and they’d driven off in hopes to escape but we were hot on their tails making our way back over the bridge and onwards to Noboribetsu. Kimbo’s noisy tyres (bad wheel bearing) rumbled us all the way to the main parking lot where we left him to walk around the observation boardwalk running through the Jigokudani crater field known as Hell’s Valley. We had it all to ourselves and could take as many photos as we wanted without anyone in the background! Kelly convinced the parking attendant to let us drive up to the other lot at the top and then return to this one and he agreed. At the other lot he checked our ticket and we walked down the road to the onsen footbath leading from the Oyunuma Pond but unfortunately the hot spring water seemed to get cooled down by all the cold rocks on the way and the footbath wasn’t warm at all! It did feel nice with all the minerals anyway so we spent a little while soaking our feet before taking Kimbo back down and then exploring the small town centre of Noboribetsu. We bought a few souvenirs and snacks and Kelly and Naoki also had ice creams. With a little bit of time to kill before the end of Rezki’s fast (and our planned meal for him) we stopped briefly at Itanki Beach in Muroran where it was again insanely windy and cold – Kelly didn’t even want to get out of the car and stayed napping in there. Rezki went for a long walk on the beach and Naoki and I did a few minutes before we were freezing and joined Kelly in the car. Our final stop was McDonald’s in Date arriving right at sunset so Rezki was allowed to eat. We ordered so much food and sat together to eat our first course of burgers, nuggets and fries. Then a second course of apple pies. But the ice cream machine was broken so there were no third course desserts unfortunately – maybe another visit will be necessary!

[momuse]

I’ve made a pilgrimage to Higashi-Muroran, a local small town in Hokkaidou, where Abe Natsumi and Iida Kaori were born and Natsumi was raised. Muroran was once flourished as a steel manufacturing city, but is a bit rust-eaten today. The steel industry in Muroran started in 1907 and had kept developing all through the post Russo-Japanese War period, WW2, and the following high economic growth period. As Japan shifted its industrial structure from heavy to light around 1980, the fires of the blast furnaces in Muroran went out one by one. Natsumi spent her childhood in that era, and must have witnessed how the local community shrank, how her hometown lost its vigor, no matter if she comprehended the situation. Actually the population of the city today is almost a half of when Natsumi was born (1981). So it’s quite understandable that Natsumi left her birthplace in 1997 for a bright future, to become a Morning Musume. Even though Muroran’s golden days of steel manufacturing are gone, there still remains some fortunes other than Abe Natsumi. The distinctive and beautiful landscape, which Isabella Lucy Bird praised in 19th century. Itanki beach is one of those indelible fortunes of Muroran. I was impressed by its beauty and couldn’t stop imagining that little Natsumi and her family having a good time there in every bygone summertime.

[missmyloko]

What’s In a Book? Part 29

While going through my collection I managed to find a few books that have yet to be featured on here yet. I decided to go with this one as, upon further review, I noticed that it actually contained a wealth of information that I had previously ignored ^^;

Image of book’s cover courtesy of myself. Hana Akari: Showa Meigiren (はなあかり: 昭和名妓連) - Brilliant Flowers: The Showa Period’s Finest Geisha by Kobunshi Katsura (桂小文枝) (ISBN Unknown). Date of Publication: 1988 Language: Japanese and English (Some Essays and Names Only) Format: Hardcover Availability: Can be found up for auction on a fairly regular basis Price: Anywhere from $30 - $80 Errors: 0 This book is interesting, and that’s putting it mildly. Basically, it provides us with some of the best raw data for its time: The names of the most prominent geisha in each district of each city across all of Japan. It is a literal who’s who guide to the karyukai across the country in the late 1980s and is illuminating both in small essays that can be found at the front and back of the book explaining various schools and styles, but especially because it provides us with images, most in full color, of these amazing women.  The book overall is divided into regions which are then broken down further from there. The regions, cities, and districts of each named geisha are: Part 1: Hokkaido (北海道) Set 1: Asahikawa (旭川) - Kofune (小舟) Set 2: Sapporo (札幌) - Onobu (お信), Itoko (い登子), Izumi (いづみ), and Charako (茶良子) Set 3: Otaru (小樽) - Komomo (小桃), Mametarō (豆太郎), Kiku (㐂久), and Gorō (吾朗) Set 4: Muroran (室蘭) - Chonko (﹅子) Set 5: Hakodate (函館) - Nantoki (喃登希) and Kohide (小ひで)  Part 2: Tohoku (東北) Set 1: Morioka (盛岡) - Tsutamaru (都多丸)   Set 2: Hanamaki (花巻) - Kimiko (君子) and Keiko (桂子) Set 3: Aomori (青森) - Chame (茶目) Set 4: Yamagata (山形) - Kochō (小蝶) and Kinta (金太)   Set 5: Akita (秋田) - Chiyogiku (千代菊) Set 6: Obara (小原) - Ikkyū (一休), Aki (秋), and Kogiku (小菊) Set 7: Fukushima (福島) - Sakura (さくら) and Hidemi (秀美) Part 3: Kanto (関東) Set 1: Takasaki (高崎) - Kiyoko (清子) Set 2: Kusatsu (草津) - Sankoma (三駒) and Harumi (春美)   Set 3: Sarugakyo (猿ヶ京) - Kikutaro (菊太郎), Koshizu (小静) Set 4: Minakami (水上) - Yutaka (ゆたか) Set 5: Oyama (大山) - Kunika (くに香) Set 6: Tokyo (東京) - Fumie (冨美江) and Wakaryū (若龍) Set 7: Yugawara (湯河原) - Okame (お加目), Matsue (松栄), and Taeko (多恵子) Part 4: Chubu (中部) Set 1: Niigata (新潟) - Chiyogiku (千代菊) Set 2: Takada (高田) - Kazuko (加津子) Set 3: Shibata (新発田) - Renko (れん子) Set 4: Kamidayamadatogura (上山田戸倉) - Senryū (泉竜), Suzuyakko (鈴奴), Saizō (才三), and Utamaru (歌丸) Set 5: Kamisuwa (上諏訪) - Chiyomaru (千代丸) Set 6: Isawa (石和) - Miki (美樹) and Koyakko (小奴) Set 7: Kōfu (甲府) - Misako (美佐子), Kimika (君香), and Hisayo (久代) Set 8: Inuyama (犬山) - Misako (みさ子) Set 9: Hamamatsu (浜松) - Gonza (権三), Ichitarō (市太郎), Otomi (乙美), Koman (小萬), Eiko (栄子), Hatsutarō (初太郎), Tsuruchiyo (鶴千代), Yasuyo (泰世), Sakura (佐久良), Sachiko (幸子), Toshie (利枝), Komomo (小百々), Momoko (百々子), Fumiya (二三弥), Mitsugiku (光菊), Azuma (吾妻), Akiko (明子), and Ichiha (市羽) Set 10: Kanazawa Higashi/East (金沢東) - Koman (小まん) Set 11: Kanazawa Kazuemachi (金沢主計町) - Hitoha (一葉) and Kyōko (京子) Set 12: Kanazawa Nishi/West (金沢西) - Mineko (峯子), Sachiyo (幸代), and Marichiyo (まり千代) Set 13: Fukui (福井) - Makiko (真㐂子) and Yurako (由良子) Set 14: Yuzawa (湯沢) - Katsumaru (勝丸) and Hiromi (弘美) Set 15: Nagoya (名古屋) - Fukuchiyo (福千代), Takako (敬子), Tsuruko (つる子), Mitsuyo (光代), Kiku (喜久), Emiya (英美弥), Sanchō (三長), Satoyo (里代), Mitsu (未津), Ayako (あや子), Kinmaru (金丸), Naoe (直枝), Fukuwaka (福若), Hisae (比三枝), Mako (間子), Yasuko (康子), Toshino (とし乃), Koie (鯉恵), Mariko (まり子), Katsuko (かつ子), Maiko (舞子), Kingyo (金漁), Hideka (秀佳), Chiyoe (千代江), and Motoko (素子) Part 5: Kinki (近畿) Set 1: Osaka (大阪) Part A: Osaka Minami (大阪南) - Yukiharu (雪春), Kikutsuru (菊つる), Kikue (菊恵), Rikimaru (力丸), Kinko (きん子), Yukiji (ゆき路), Kōjirō (廣二郎), Yoshiko (よし子), Terugiku (照菊), Midori (美登利), Hankō (はん幸), Kazumi (かず美), Yukie (ゆき恵), Yūka (勇花), Suzuka (鈴佳), Masako (まさ子), Fukuemi (福笑), Masachiyo (政千代), Kikufumi (菊二三), and Yūko (祐��). Part B: Osaka Horie (大阪堀江) - Temari (てまり) Part C: Osaka Shinmachi (大阪新町) - Hatsuko (はつ子) and Tamao (玉緒) Part D: Osaka Kitashinchi (大阪北新地) - Komaka (駒香), Umesada (梅さだ), Umetomi (梅十三), Suzume (寿々女), and Umemitsu (梅充). Set 2: Kyoto (京都) Part A: Gion Kobu (祇園甲部) - Komame (小まめ), Hisae (久栄), Katsuyū (かつ勇), Haruyū (春勇), Miyokazu (美代一), Fukusono (フク園), Satoharu (里春), Yoshigiku (義㐂久), Kōsono (晃園), Teruha (照葉), Mamekō (まめ晃), Fukuyū (福勇), Kanoko (かの子), Machiko (真知子), Kumiko (玖見子), Kohana (子花), Takayū (孝友), Teruchiyo (照千代), Takeha (竹葉), Nakako (奈加子), Mameyū (まめ勇), Sonoko (その子), Tomichiyo (斗美千代), Yoshimame (芳豆), Kofumi (小富美), Kanoju (かの寿), Mamechiyo (豆千代), Katsufuku (かつ福), Mameji (豆爾), Toyochiyo (豊千代), Katsuji (佳つ二), Ichigiku (市季久), Mamezuru (まめ鶴), Koman (小萬), Michiko (道子), Miyokichi (美与吉), Aika (愛香), Teruyo (照代), Fumichiyo (富美千代), Kikuharu (菊春), Masuko (ます子), Momoko (桃子), Kosode (小袖), Chōji (長治), Tomigiku (冨菊), Komasu (小ます), Emiji (恵美二), Dan-e (だん栄), Koyū (小ゆう), Yukiryō (幸良), Hanachiyo (花千代), Miyuki (美ゆき), Masaru (勝), Kanoji (かの次), Hiromi (廣美), Kotomi (小とみ), and Ainosuke (愛之介). Part B: Pontocho (先斗町) - Miyofuku (美代福), Hisakō (久幸), Raiha (来葉), Momiha (もみ葉), Ichiko (市子), Shinatomi (シナ富), Mameharu (豆治), Hisafumi (久富美), Ichisen (市扇), Mameyuki (豆幸), Umeyū (梅佑), Ichitoyo (市豊), Mameshizu (豆志津), Ichisono (市園), Mamechiyo (豆千代), Hisaroku (久ろく), Ichimitsu (市光), Momizuru (もみ鶴), Hide-e (英江), Tomizuru (富鶴), Emiju (笑寿), Fudeya (フデ哉), Miyosaku (ミヨ作), Ichihiro (市宏), and Shinateru (シナ照). Part C: Gion Higashi (祇園東) - Toyoji (豊治), Fumie (章栄), Chika (ちか), Tsurukazu (つる和), Tsunekazu (つね和), Tsunehisa (つね久), Masuko (ます子), Toyohisa (豊寿), and Masako (満佐子). Part D: Miyagawa Cho (宮川町) - Wakaharu (若晴). Kanae (叶恵), Fumichō (富美蝶), Mikiryū (三木竜), Wakachika (若千加), Fukukazu (ふく和), Toshiyū (敏祐), Suzuchiyo (鈴千代), Hinachō (雛蝶), Chikayoshi (千賀俊), Mieko (美恵子), Fukusome (冨久染), Tane-e (種栄), and Tanekazu (たね和). Part E: Kamishichiken (上七軒) - Tei (てい), Emi (恵美), Katsukiyo (勝㐂代), Tamafuku (玉福), Fukuzuru (福鶴), Hisazuru (久鶴), Tsuruzō (鶴三), Hisawaka (久若), Tamaryō (玉龍), Shimeyo (〆代), Katsumaru (勝丸), Naoko (尚子), Kokimi (小㐂美), and Kohan (小はん). Set 3: Nara (奈良) - Suzumi (須寿美) Set 4: Genrō (彦桹) - Kikuyū (菊勇) and Masaya (政弥). Set 5: Otsu (大津) - Omasa (おまさ) Set 6: Kinosaki (城崎) - Tomiyū (富勇) and Kanoko (佳乃子) Set 7: Wakayama (和歌山) - Kikuchiyo (菊千代) Set 8: Shirahama (白浜) - Tsutagiku (蔦菊) Set 9: Osaka Imasato (大阪今里) - Koito (小糸) and Kichihide (吉秀) Set 10: Imasato (今里) - Kichitama (吉玉) Set 11: Kyoto Shimabara (京都島原) - Hana Ōgi Tayū (花扇太夫) Part 6: Chūgoku (中国) and Shikoku (四国) Set 1: Tamatsukuri (玉造) - Naoko (尚子), Yae (八重), and Kishi (貴志). Set 2: Okayama (岡山) - Yakko (奴) and Chizu (知寿) Set 3: Takamatsu (高松) - Hamachiyo (浜千代) Set 4: Matsuyama (松山) - Ippei (一平) Set 5: Tokushima (徳島) - Fukuyo (福代) and Akiyo (明代) Set 6: Kochi (高知) - Kimiryū (君龍) and Sadamaru (貞丸) Part 7: Kyushu (九州) Set 1: Hakata (博多) - Mieko (美恵子) Set 2: Kurume (久留米) - Okiyo (お清) Set 3: Ureshino (嬉野) - Hisamatsu (久松), Komatsu (小松), Koshin (小新), Hisaryū (久竜), and Marikō (まり幸). Set 4: Isao (武雄) - Fumiya (文弥) Set 5: Beppu (別府) - Mitsugiku (光菊), Fujikatsu (ふじ勝), Umesono (梅園), and Tomiko (富子) Set 6: Kumamoto (熊本) - Ayako (あや子) Set 7: Kagoshima (鹿児島) - Aimaru (愛丸) The only areas that I noted are missing are some of the hot springs towns. I’m not too sure why they were skipped over, but it’s possible that the author did not have any connections to them. The most informative part that I admit I skipped initially is the small print under each geisha’s name: their natori specialty, natori teachers, and natori names. This means that we can trace back what schools were the main specialty of each region going back decades. Since this is invaluable for anyone studying geisha over time, I’ll write in what schools were followed, but I will keep names a secret. Districts are as follows: Part 1: Hokkaido (北海道) Set 1 Asahikawa (旭川) - Kineya (杵屋) Set 2: Sapporo (札幌) - Wakayagi (若柳) for dance and Tadeko (蓼胡) for song Set 3: Otaru (小樽) - Fujima (藤間) for dance and Tadeko (蓼胡), Kineya (杵屋), Kiyomoto (清元), Shunnichi (春日), and Tokiwazu (常磐津) for song. Set 4: Muroran (室蘭) - None Given Set 5: Hakodate (函館) - Tanaka (田中) for dance and Matsunaga (松永) for song. Part 2: Tohoku (東北) Set 1: Morioka (盛岡) - Tokiwazu (常磐津) for song. Set 2: Hanamaki (花巻) - Wakayagi (若柳) for dance and Kineya (杵屋) for song. Set 3: Aomori (青森) - None Given. Set 4: Yamagata (山形) - Fujima (藤間) for dance.    Set 5: Akita (秋田) - None Given.  Set 6: Obara (小原) - None Given Set 7: Fukushima (福島) - None Given. Part 3: Kanto (関東) Set 1: Takasaki (高崎) - Hanayagi (花柳) for dance and Okayasu (岡安) for song. Set 2: Kusatsu (草津) -  Hanayagi (花柳) for dance.    Set 3: Sarugakyo (猿ヶ京) - Kineya (杵屋) for song. Set 4: Minakami (水上) - Kineya (杵屋) for song. Set 5: Oyama (大山) - Kineya (杵屋) Set 6: Tokyo (東京) - Taguchiko (田口湖) for dance and Kineya (杵屋) for song. Set 7: Yugawara (湯河原) - Tanaka (田中) and Fujima (藤間) for dance and Tokiwazu (常磐津), Kineya (杵屋), and Tadeai (蓼相) for song. Part 4: Chubu (中部) Set 1: Niigata (新潟) - None Given. Set 2: Takada (高田) - None Given. Set 3: Shibata (新発田) - Okayasu (岡安) for song. Set 4: Kamidayamadatogura (上山田戸倉) - Bandō (坂東) for dance and Tōsha (藤舎), Shunnichi (春日), Kineya (杵屋), and Kiyomoto (清元) for song. Set 5: Kamisuwa (上諏訪) - Kineya (杵屋) for song. Set 6: Isawa (石和) - Hanayagi (花柳) for dance and Mochizuki (望月) for song. Set 7: Kōfu (甲府) - Hanayagi (花柳) for dance and Kiyomoto (清元), Okayasu (岡安), and Nagami (長巳) for song. Set 8: Inuyama (犬山) - Nishikawa (西川) for dance and Kineya (杵屋) for song. Set 9: Hamamatsu (浜松) - Fujima (藤間) and Fukuwara (福原) for dance and Kiyomoto (清元), Yoshimura (芳村), Shunnichi (春日), Nishikiharu (錦春), and Tokiwazu (常磐津) for song.    Set 10: Kanazawa East (金沢東) - Kamizaki (神崎) for dance. Set 11: Kanazawa Kazuemachi (金沢主計町) - Fujima (藤間) for dance and Kineya (杵屋) and Mochizuki (望月) for song. Set 12: Kanazawa Nishi/West (金沢西) - Nishikawa (西川) for dance and Tōsha (藤舎), Okayasu (岡安), and Kashida (堅田) for song. Set 13: Fukui (福井) - Fujima (藤間) for dance and Utazawa (哥沢) for song. Set 14: Yuzawa (湯沢) - None Given. Set 15: Nagoya (名古屋) - Nishikawa (西川) for dance and Kiyomoto (清元), Tokiwazu (常磐津), Sumida (住田), Kineya (杵屋), Kishizawa (岸沢), Shunnichi (春日), and Fujimatsu (ふじ松) for song. Part 5: Kinki (近畿) Set 1: Osaka (大阪) Part A: Osaka Minami (大阪南) - Onoe (尾上), Fujima (藤間), Bandō (坂東), and Hanayagi (花柳) for dance and Kiyomoto (清元), Kondo (今藤), Mochizuki (望月) and Tokiwazu (常磐津) for song. Part B: Osaka Horie (大阪堀江) - Nishikawa (西川) for dance. Part C: Osaka Shinmachi (大阪新町) - Nishikawa (西川) for dance and Kineya (杵屋), Shunnichi (春日), and Ogie (荻江) for song. Part D: Osaka Kitashinchi (大阪北新地) - Nishikawa (西川) and Hanayagi (花柳) for dance and Kineya (杵屋), Tamura (田村), Uji (宇治), Tokiwazu (常磐津), Tagawa (田川), Kiyomoto (清元), and Yoshimura (吉村) for song.  Set 2: Kyoto (京都) Part A: Gion Kobu (祇園甲部) - Inoue (井上) for dance. Part B: Pontocho (先斗町) - Onoe (尾上), Nishikawa (西川), and Wakayagi (若柳) for dance and Tōsha (藤舎), Kondo (今藤), Nakamura (中村), Ogie (荻江), Bungo (豊後), Kineya (杵屋), and Tokiwazu (常磐津) for song. Part C: Gion Higashi (祇園東) - Fujima (藤間) for dance and Tokiwazu (常磐津), Yanagi (柳), Nakamura (中村), Kineya (杵屋), and Tōsha (藤舎) for song. Part D: Miyagawa Cho (宮川町) - Umemoto (楳茂都), Wakayagi (若柳), and Rokugō (六鄕) for dance and Kondo (今藤), Bungo (豊後), Kiyomoto (清元), Yanagi (柳),  Yamakishi (山岸), Utazawa (哥沢), Tadeko (蓼胡), and Umeya (梅屋) for song.    Part E: Kamishichiken (上七軒) - Hanayagi (花柳) for dance and Tokiwazu (常磐津), Shunnichi (春日), Toyomoto (豊本), Kiyomoto (清元), Tōsha (藤舎), and Kiyoyuki (清之) for song. Set 3: Nara (奈良) - Kineya (杵屋) for song. Set 4: Hikone (彦桹) - None Given. Set 5: Otsu (大津) - Yanagi (柳) for song. Set 6: Kinosaki (城崎) - Wakayagi (若柳) and Onoe (尾上) for dance. Set 7: Wakayama (和歌山) - Onoe (尾上) for dance. Set 8: Shirahama (白浜) - Okayasu (岡安) for song. Set 9: Osaka Imasato (大阪今里) - Kineya (杵屋), Shunnichi (春日), and Kiyomoto (清元) for song.     Set 10: Imasato (今里) - None Given. Set 11: Kyoto Shimabara (京都島原) - None Given. Part 6: Chūgoku (中国) and Shikoku (四国) Set 1: Tamatsukuri (玉造) - Fujima (藤間) for dance and Kineya (杵屋) for song. Set 2: Okayama (岡山) - Onishi (小西) for dance. Set 3: Takamatsu (高松) - Kiyomoto (清元) for song. Set 4: Matsuyama (松山) - Kiyomoto (清元) and Tamura (田村) for song. Set 5: Tokushima (徳島) - Yoshitō (芳膛) for dance and Kiyomoto (清元) and Tamura (田村) for song. Set 6: Kochi (高知) - Kiyomoto (清元) and Tamura (田村) for song. Part 7: Kyushu (九州) Set 1: Hakata (博多) - Kondo (今藤), Shunnichi (春日), and Kashida (堅田) for song.   Set 2: Kurume (久留米) - Tokiwazu and Shunnichi (春日) for song. Set 3: Ureshino (嬉野) - Hanayagi (花柳) and Fujima (藤間) for dance and Matsunaga (松永) and Tagoto (田毎) for song.   Set 4: Isao (武雄) - Fujima (藤間) for dance. Set 5: Beppu (別府) - Tokiwazu (常磐津), Kiyomoto (清元), and Hisago (瓢) for song. Set 6: Kumamoto (熊本) - Hanayagi (花柳) for dance and Kondo (今藤) for song. Set 7: Kagoshima (鹿児島) - Kineya (杵屋) and Tagoto (田毎) for song. The reason why this book has no ISBN is because it was self published. The original cover price was ¥30,000, which is almost $300 USD. This price was likely set due to the vast amount of research done, including acquiring the many photographs, and printing costs. This price was also likely due to it being targeted at serious karyukai connoisseurs as that price in the 1980s would have been much higher now due to inflation. Nowadays you don’t have to pay as much for this book as most Japanese sellers see it as outdated and it can be found quite regularly on Japanese retail sites, such as Yahoo Japan Auctions or Rakuten.   The only “errors: that I could find were some spelling issues, but that’s because they’re using the Japanese way of writing Romaji and not the Hepburn System. So, I’m not counting them as errors, but rather just making note of them to anyone who purchases this book. Rating: ✪✪✪✪ (out of 5)

[agent-7-at-your-service]

The Hamartia Arc: Through Brine and Tides (Part 2)

((Agent 7, Bigfin Splatoon, Kimun and the Neanderthal Tribesmen, and Laguna “Garza” Rayne, Abigail Atled Calliostro, and others belong to me

Agent Blueshift belong to @myzzy

Wonder Inkling and Wonder Inkling Jr. belong to @inklingleesquidly

Agent 0 belongs to @son-of-joy ))

The naval ink-mine fields that were lined from the Koma-ga-take Mountain Peak to the city of Muroran have been breached. The fishing boats that were mustered at Aomori were able to carefully disarm the bombs as quick and efficient as possible. The entire right side of the first line was clear, and the counterattack fleet proceeded to sail into the bay, starting with an attack on Muroran. The other cities in the bay were being fired with ink-artillery: Date, Oshamambe, Yakumo,Toyoura, Toyako, and Mori. 

The counter-attack is already begun.

Colonel Jenna and Gravis arrived in the port city of Muroran. The waters were occupied with Agent 7′s counter-attack fleet.

All the Amemasu Military units stationed at there were all wearing gas masks with red-lense eyes. It was a sign that they would stand and fight. Sharklings, who are the commanding officers of the militia, welcomed the neanderthal and the pikeblenny with a salute. 

Gravis and Jenna proceed to the Institute of Technology where they will deliver the commands from. 

“Report!” Gravis commanded.

“The ships have been deployed to stop them at the Hakucho Bridge, but it seems they have fishing boats that are rendering the ship propellors immobile,” an Amemasu Commanding Officer reported.

“We cannot risk any more warships to be deployed until those fishing boats are eliminated!” Another Amemasu Commanding Officer reported.

“All ground units stationed in Muroran are placed on hold,” An inkling Amemasu private reported, “All commanding officers gave the order to rally at watchtower points, marked with spotlights.”

Colonel Jenna looked at the private unit. “Where’s your commanding Officer? I expected them to come to me instead of a messenger boy.”

“He was wounded critically. One of the enemy warships shot his flag vehicle at the Hakucho Bridge—” The inkling gets shot by Colonel Jenna by an Octo-shot.

The colonel took a deep breath and proceeds to have a map layout of the city along with some pieces to represent the units of the Amemasu Federation and Agent 7′s Campaign Army. 

“I heard there were attacks before this, on Hokuto and Kojima Island.” Colonel Jenna taps her fingers on the two areas. “I will not risk sending reinforcements less risk splitting up defenses. Radio them to fight with all they got until the last man is dead. If Jason wants to deliver a piercing attack, he will need to pierce deep through these defenses. Let’s play his game.”

The officers saluted. “Glory to the Federation!”

Under the Hakucho Bridge...

“Beta 4.13, Beta 8, with me! Agent Recruits, the navy is yours. All able soldiers prepare to super jump onto the Hakucho Bridge!” 

“Right!” Beta 4.13 responded.

“That’s crazy! But whatever can get us out of these waters!” Beta 8 replied.

“Wonder Inkling and Wonder Inkling Jr. are right behind you, Agent 7!” Wonder Inkling replied.

“I’m ready to splat some Amemasu!” Agent 0 hyped.

“Ready when you are, Seven,” Blueshift replied.

Currently, the fleet cannot go any further past the Hakucho Bridge less they ram into the enemy fleet. Their propellors may be down, but the ships were still armed and ready to board with enemy ink-shooters.

A number of counter-attack fighters volunteered, numbering up to 75 people; the rest remained in the ships to help stoped the boarding enemies. All of them were armed with Inkopolis brand ink-weapons. Despite the numbers, their power was enough no matter the situation, especially in war.

“On the count of three, jump,” Agent 7 commanded, “One... Two... Three!”

They all turn into their cephalopod forms and jump out of the ship and onto the concrete platforms of Hakucho Bridge. Abandoned cars were present, and there was no sign of the enemy coming.

“Okay, so far so good.” Agent 7 move onto instructing where to go. “Two-thirds of the counter-attack will go south of the bridge to make it look like we made out attack on the peninsula, Hijack some vehicle and go Mad Max on them... I mean just fight them with vehicles! I will lead a third north of the bridge to head straight to the Takasagocho Ward.”

“Agent 0 and I take care of things around the peninsula,” Blueshift offered.

“This is going to get interesting.” Agent 0 prepared his ink-blade.

“Then that means we’ll be with Agent 7, fighting towards Takasagocho,” Wonder Inkling stated.

And with that, they split up, Blueshift and Agent 0 went off to do some hit-and-run tactics and hijack some vehicles with the two-thirds of the counter-attack. Agent 0 swung his ink-blade, splatting the Amemasu’s militants; he even hit a sharkling elite down with his built-in shield. 

Blueshift was able to clear a vehicle parking area with his ink-disks. They disks ricochets around and splatted the militants and knocking out the elites. When it was clear, their contingent went into to steal keys and take over the wheels.

Agent 7 and the Wonder Inklings would go north of the bridge to fight their way through rushed defense who didn’t prepare for this lightening attack.

Since Agent 7 and the Wonder Inklings were going on foot, they and the third of the counter-attack took a while to reach the Takasagocho Ward. They had to pass through a few facilities, neighborhoods, and hills to get to Chiribetsu Park. At this point, they looted some intel to get an understanding of the terrain and how the defense was planned. Here, this is where they’ll take the high-command by surprise.

Agent 7 instructed like a military general, barking orders at his men.“The contingent will split into teams of four. Create a chain of diversions to keep the Amemasu busy and confused. Make sure they don’t see you. Don’t get caught. Cover your tracks. I need five volunteers to come with me and the Wonder Inklings to go further north. Our target is the Muroran Institute of Technology, and we will set up a beacon.”

Agent 7′s contingent did so and split up; they would be wreaking havoc on several vital spots of the military heart. It left many of the Amemasu forces in disorder, reacting strongly to all the attacks but lacking any protocol to rebound. 

Agent 7 and the Wonder Inklings made their way towards one of the buildings of the Institute. They would encounter a few guards and splatted them without warning. When they reached a room where the operations are being handled, there are no signs of anyone working there. Equipment and computers were still on, but no one to operate them.

“No one?” Junior questioned.

Agent 7 puts his N-zaps away and searched. “Maybe they left something.”

For minutes, they would be going through the data that was left behind. They weren’t able to figure out where everyone in the room went. It was until Agent 7 searched through a personnel computer that he found a lead. 

“From Colonel Jenna...” Agent 7 presses the button.

A screen popped up and it showed a recorded video message. A Neanderthal in military uniform was glaring at the camera. 

“Agent 7. You sure came quite quickly to this area.” Colonel Jenna adjusted her military cap. “I was going to stand my ground along with Gravis, but the attack you’re throwing seem to hit hard on my defenses. However, I was able to mitigate the attack by forcing my men to fight until the last man is dead. Look to the windows.”

“What does that mean?” Agent 7 then looked at the windows which had closed blinds.

“Hmm...” Wonder Inkling Sr. walked over and opens the blinds. She is then shocked. “Get down!”

Agent 7 and the Wonder Inklings quickly took cover and avoid and inkling blast stronger than any blaster in turf wars. The ink bubble sent bursts enough to cover the room in ink and sabotage the equipment and computer present.

Out the window was a view of the athletics grounds. Gravis and Jenna were there along a few Amemasu Sharkling Elites. Gravis, the yellow pikeblenny, is carrying a cannon that he ripped off a tank. He was using it as his personal weapon of choice. 

When Agent 7 and the Wonder Inklings recover to look out the window, Jenna and Gravis were already boarding a convoy.

“They going to escape!” Junior alarmed.

“We have to follow them...,” Agent 7 ordered, “We have to rally everyone... at Date.”

“Agent 7?” Wonder Inkling Sr looked at him.

“Forget the beacon... they’re a living target...” Agent 7 took out his N-zaps. ‘They have to be...”

“Seven!” Wonder Inkling Sr objected.

Agent 7was silent for a moment, and he took a deep breath. “Stay with the counter-attack.... stay with the counter-attack... Alright, let go then...”

Despite the hesitance, they leave immediately. A flare is fired into the sky to signal a rally and the contingent responded and followed. Agent 0 and Blueshift already had their contingent arrive when the streets of Muroran. They hijacked a number of jeeps and armored cars. 

“Took you long enough!” Agent 7 actually didn’t expect the two agents to do this. “Some of the elites are retreating to Date.” He gets into the jeep with Blueshift and Agent 0.

“Why a retreat?” Blueshift questioned.

“They’re probably retreating to another defense point,” Wonder Inkling Sr speculated.

“Who knows, I want all fleets to stop at Date. We’re camping there for the night.” Agent 7 ordered as the wheels started turning. “I’ll radio the fleets the message.”

[cheswirls]

tether notes 2/3

pt. 3

i mentioned this in the last part, but i used muroran as basis for veilstone, not abashiri. actually, if you want my opinion, i think shari, hokkaido, is a better depiction of veilstone than abashiri. mostly, i used muroran bc i could find pictures there that were more than just boat-icebreaker-drift ice-boat. abashiri is cold. and full of drift ice. if you need context, it’s level with toronto, canada. a pretty cold place to live. muroran is further south, and it’s also a port city, so i jus used that.

shari looks nicer, but it’s more into the hook of hokkaido (that piece on sinnoh map that jutts out right below battle zone) and not nestled into the mountains, so. mostly it was out.

makino’s cafe/bar is based on the diner in veilstone. so, walk in, counter bar to your left, tables to your right, possibly a happiny underfoot carrying trays of food. 

but, compared to the more rustic and colored veilstone, i wanted to depict more of hokkaido city here. so, more rundown, rusted due to sea breeze, older things without much repair. passable, sure, for daily life. but new and extravagant? no. far from.

if makino is so close with luffy, how come she doesn’t know sabo?

simple. she’s not close with luffy. makino has a fulltime job running a diner in veilstone, sinnoh. luffy grew up on the sevii islands, kanto. when he was in sinnoh, he was training with shanks. yeah, sure, they would come by for food, and makino is good friends with shanks, so of course she and luffy have a relationship. but, also at this point where shanks began to bring luffy around, instead of teaching him out in nowhere, sevii islands, they began to keep things secret. luffy was here “just visiting” to anyone who asks, but they wouldn’t seen him much around, not in the isolation shanks trained him in. also also at this point, because i derailed that sentence completely, ace and sabo were already out traveling. it just never came up. makino is friendly with luffy, she knows luffy, but she doesn’t know him, not really.

pokemon hunters is another anime concept i wanted to use, again to make the story more gritty. no evil teams here with world-domination plots, just poachers. pretty standard. still awful, especially if they’re poaching people, now, but nothing as wide-scale as team galactic.

i had so much fun writing ship captain jinbe. i wished i got more of a chance to write his crew, too. at this point i think i had just caught up reading blackbird by milo, and i was hooked on the idea of biker fishman gang and leader jinbe, so i adapted it into ship crew here. praline is there, yes. she’s badass. i said so, you heard it here. 

i talked a lot with my big bang partner, and we eventually decided jinbe’s a mix of hoenn and sinnoh descent. so, darker skin, almost polynesian, from hoenn’s more pacific island vibe. dark, curly hair. i drew a picture once? oh, here it is. jus a little sketch. he probably actually comes from hoenn, but he does cargo runs throughout sinnoh now. [i should probably say around, since there arent rly canals thru sinnoh?]

regarding law’s map error, i really jus wanted to reference flower paradise. of course the map he got was a tourist version, so of course it’s gonna include the magical pathway connecting the sinnoh league to an island of flowers. but it doesn’t actually exist, or if it does, it’s not always there, since they sail through the space with ease. just another fun easter egg. 

the marsh scene was another i’ve known i wanted since the beginning. i had so much fun drawing the map for it. i actually based the scenes entirely off the map, so while i knew the general direction i wanted it to go in, and that they would run into sabo, the part about wandering into the rain and encountering volcarona spawned while marking the map. crazy how things work, huh?

i think i made the chase move a little too fast, so most of the time out of their 12 hr limit is spent after departing from the marsh, wandering thru route 212. don get me wrong, the marsh scene spans over the course of hours, but its still less time from leaving the ship to leaving sabo than it is to get back to the ship.

the aegislash scene is the first one i conceptualized, of the marsh scene series. introducing law’s team was strategic, especially once i revealed luffy only had four pokemon. it was always meant to be a readers gamble how many law had. at the end of part 3, it’s pretty easy to gauge how many, but still, the surprise of the sixth pokemon in pt 4 is something im still proud of c:

anyway, yes, the first sense of real danger. poachers have no qualms in using their pokemon to harm other people. they’re there for the money, which they get from capturing and caging rare pokemon. who cares if they hurt a few people along the way? who cares if they brutalize them to take a particular pokemon, a-la mr. cleffa sir? law reacts to this very quickly, in part because he’s used to it, as explained in tragic backstory number 2, right behind one-brother-dies-and-the-other-runs-away from protag #2. 

actually, i guess the first danger was the wild kadabra, but this is the one in which someone gets hurt! . . . or, worse-hurt, because law’s scratch doesn’t count. luffy’s gash in his shoulder? that’s a big injury. especially when they can’t just stop to treat it, especially when law still has blood on his face from it, especially when they have to go right back to running around the marsh.

and then sabo appears!! i lied, this was the first marsh scene. i drabble-wrote it in my series-of-drabbles-to-add-to-the-outline before i made pt 3′s outline, and then wrote it for real. the aegislash-being-badass-therefore-law-also-by-proxy was the second. one of the first sentences i ever wrote for tether was law realizing the face from luffy’s picture was right before his eyes. 

so why do the hunters ignore luffy calling for sabo while running away?

yes, why the no consequences? i realized at this point they were too far away to hear and law too out of it (its law’s pov, still) to figure what they were saying, to i had to play it off. it’s another scene where i almost wrote a few paragraphs from a different perspective [the other two were the tsuru-caesar confrontation and the mr. cleffa dude ft. sabo scene, both of which i had to expand upon by talking, instead of a flashback to show it. i rly went full soul-eater approach here, huh? explaining everything through present means. well. save for law’s backstory, but that’s about the only thing.] but decided not to in the end.

here’s how the scene plays out, full disclosure. law and luffy spot the two hunters. a third person, sabo comes into view. the hunters tell sabo the situation, that they were being chased. law recognizes sabo, luffy does too, and calls out to him, loudly. this causes the hunters to panic, and they tell sabo, there, there’s the people chasing after us. law figures sabo has some secret reason for posing as a hunter and pulls luffy again out of view, not wanting to give him away. all three hunters take off running in the opposite direction. luffy calls out for sabo again, and sabo turns to question the other two, asking which pokemon they stole that was named ‘sabo’. he has a fake name, obviously. they don’t know he’s sabo. before they can figure it out, he derails the topic. but then he slips crossed fingers behind his back at the same time, signaling silently to luffy, who stops calling out.

so, tldr, sabo’s not using his real name while with the hunters and is smart enough to cover his ass from luffy’s mistake.

i wanted law carrying luffy, on their way down the route, to the stormclouds, and i’m pretty sure the one reason i didnt go thru with it is because law’s backpack. and, y’know, luffy being caked in mud. 

okay, do. panic attack time. ptsd time. a mix of both, ig. whatever you wanna call it. originally, this scene was going to be a bit different, and happen way earlier in the story. it didnt bc of sinnoh’s lack of fire types [there are only 2 i think, 2 lines i mean, so like 5] and the fact that ace’s team featured none of them. and then i thought, oh, i’ll jus make the same thing happen w sabo, except none of sabo’s team were one of them as well.

originally, it was going to be that law/lu encounter a clan of a specific type of wild fire pokemon. i think for the longest time it was talonflame, not sure anymore. anyway, so it was gonna go that luffy recognizes ace’s former pokemon outta the bunch, and they recognize lu as well, and the two reunite and all that jazz, and meanwhile law has his attack bc the group they encounter are one of the pokemon that tormented him in alola.

and, nope, now i remember why it didnt happen. as much as i hate dof, i had to craft a team for him for plot purposes, and that ended up being a bug team to go w the whole string motif. the problem was i had this scene planned for a looooong time, and it needed to be w a fire type, one of ace’s pokemon. except there are like no fire/bug pokemon, except for volcarona, who wasn’t on ace’s already-planned team at this point. i debated for foreeeeever and finally decided to screw it, and i made it sabo’s unova pokemon. so, instead of getting a unova dragon, in the land of dragons unova, sabo gets a volcarona and ace a darmanitan. all for plot purposes. no sense here. none at all.

[not that it matters, since sabo morphs into a fire trainer anyway after ace dies]

so, after i decided it would be sabos pokemon, the point came back to how they would encounter it. no hordes of wild volcarona in sinnoh. i sadly had to scrap the idea. this is what i came up with instead: volcarona coming to luffy to deliver a letter, and scarring law in the process.

Law has a chocolate bar, because he’s ten and anxious and chocolate seemed good at the time.

-aka my favorite line of the whole entire story!!!

and then law’s backstory time. so!!! for the longest time i was torn between setting the story in sinnoh or alola. this was my big compromise. i wrote a draft-outline for law’s alola backstory before i wrote a real outline for tether as a whole. this was the first part of the story i really wrote. i was done with it before i started pt 1, because i wanted to outline before i started writing. 

the thing abt law is that his life is so much of a tragedy. oda writes it so well, to the point where you’re thinking this can’t get any worse and then it gets worse, every time. i wanted to mimic that here. i didn’t do it justice, but i at least tried.

law’s life is filled with mistrust. his whole village dies, he nearly does as well, and so he packs up and runs away, and hides his one pokemon abra because he’s not a registered trainer and he refuses to abandon abra so theres mistrust towards everyone who can turn him in, and everyone who didnt care enough to help with the water crisis. he’s done with sinnoh. so he spends a bit holed up in a library, and once he reads about alola, he’s sold. he’s so mistrustful it’s not a matter of ‘anywhere is better than sinnoh’, its a matter of ‘i can’t end up in another place just like this’. alola is the solution.

except, he’s still mistrustful. so he hides abra, and he hides his money, and he doesn’t speak with anyone, and he leaves the city as soon as he can. he doesn’t know the rules of this place, but abra is all he has. he can’t lose abra. and then things go wrong.

because he’s out of sinnoh, but alola is different. he’s ten, and he’s never had a real pokemon battle, and all the wild pokemon of alola are too eager. he’s ten, and a pangoro attacks and he loses all his supplies on his very first day, because abra’s too exhausted to teleport them away this time. [in hindsight, i did a really bad continuity error here, throughout the entire flashback. it’s thru law’s eyes, so i describe the pokemon he doesn’t know about, and yet sometimes i name the pokemon he really shouldn’t know about. my bad.]

he’s ten, and the only food he finds is being guarded by a giant sumo crab, so he crawls to the other side of the beach and falls asleep on the sand, hungry. he’s ten, and he’s living off berries because money is only so good when you can exchange it, and he’s far away from civilization. he’s ten, and he spends the very last of his money on money for abra, for his only pokemon and his only ally, because going to a pokemon center would mean being seen and asking for a license to verify and its too risky, he can’t risk it. 

he’s ten, and he’s hungry, and he has nothing but the abra clutched in his arms and his ripped clothes clinging to his body, and he witnesses a murder. and they catch him in the act, and then he’s stuck, because he shouldn’t have a pokemon so young, and he’s a witness to a crime, and too quickly he’s in a very bad position.

he’s ten, and to keep abra alive, he joins a gang in alola.

he’s ten, and he’s blackmailed into working or risking abra being taken away. he’s ten, and he has morals, and there’s some tasks he won’t do, but the family boss punishes him for it, harshly. he stops having morals. it wouldn’t do him good here. 

law turns eleven, and suddenly gang tasks involve pokemon battles. law’s eleven, and doflamingo trains law himself, beating the weakness out of him, burning him, scarring him, terrorizing him because he can, and because law can’t refuse. 

law’s eleven when he realizes his picture-perfect alola was nothing but an illusion, because the lack of monopolies and corporations and factories actually had nothing to do with how much the natives cared about their own, or cared at all, about anything. just because alola didn’t have a pokemon league didn’t mean it wasn’t a bad place to be.

he’s eleven when he meets corazon, and finally, finally, gets a breath of fresh air, gets a taste of a person who isn’t there to ridicule him or abuse him. he’s eleven when he meets his first real friend since his sister died, meets someone that finally treats him like a human being. and it doesnt matter that he’s doflamingo’s brother, because he’s kind to law.

law’s eleven and corazon works to repair the damage done by the gang, little by little. he gets law out on an island challenge, and he wanders through melemele and akala and meets kind people and has fun and experiences the real alola. and he realizes, somewhere along the way, that he never wants to go back to the family ever again.

law’s eleven when he realizes he has no choice. because he belongs to doflamingo, because he has to skip out on ula’ula to accomplish a task for the family, because corazon sits there and lets it happen. 

law’s eleven when he’s given a pokemon egg, and when he’s given hope.

corazon was going to take care of everything. he was going to get them out, safely. they were going to rescue a captive pokemon. law was going to be free. law was never going to be hurt by the family again.

except, that’s not how it goes. corazon dies. corazon’s pokemon are tortured in order to lure law out. corazon’s pokemon all die for him and law has no option left but to run with all his might, all the way from one tip of ula’ula to the other. and then, because he can’t trust anyone, anyone, law runs away into a desert with no supplies to speak of.

law’s eleven when he comes face to face with the most temperamental tapu in the alola region, and even with all he’s been through, it’s the most scared he’s even been in his entire life. and then, when he comes to, he finds himself stranded in the kalos region. he’s eleven. he goes through all of this and he’s not even a teenager yet.

so, backing up just a bit, you can see how seeing a volcarona is going to invoke some rather strong emotions in law. he panics. he passes out. luffy puts volcarona away, because me might be oblivious on a lot of things, but he can understand the pure terror in law’s eyes.

alright, what else. the letter. of course luffy disavows the letter, he’s luffy, he can’t follow a plan to save his life.

[nobu11051991]

Feel the earth is round! At chikyu misaki ( cape earth)in Hokkaido!!

Feel the earth is round! At chikyu misaki ( cape earth)in Hokkaido!!

Feel the Earth is Round ! At the cape earth in Hokkaido Hi I’m Nobu, I like traveling overseas and in Japan, visited 25 countries!  I’m a National Government Licensed Guide Interpreter of English for 8 years. I show you hidden Japan which you have never seen and heard of! Cape Earth I went to Cape Earth in Muroran City in the southwestern part of Hokkaido. It is famous for its 100-meter…

[naoro-naoro]

Walking Railroad 11/13/2019

Kamihoromui Station

Walking to Iwamizawa City.

Muroran-line joins.

Arrived in Iwamizawa.

[bryanharryrombough]

Japan’s government has been criticised by rights groups after it introduced a bill last month to recognise the country’s ethnic Ainu minority as Indigenous people for the first time.

The Ainu people – many of whom live in northern Hokkaido – have long suffered the effects of a forced assimilation policy and while discrimination has receded, inequality persists.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party said the objective of the bill was to "realise a society which will respect the pride of the Ainu."

If passed, legal restrictions would be relaxed to allow the Ainu to continue traditions such as salmon fishing and timber collection, and 1 billion yen ($12 million) would go towards growing tourism around their culture.

However, some representatives of the ethnic minority said the bill does not do enough to reverse the historical injustices they suffered since losing control of their ancestral lands more than a century ago.

Yuji Shimizu, chairman of the Ainu Kotan no Kai association, said it was full of “empty words”.

“There has been no apology,” he told the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan.

“There are no clauses in the bill which guarantee indigenous rights, such as the right to self-determination or land rights.”

A new national Ainu museum and a park scheduled to open in the Hokkaido town of Shiradoi next year are expected to bring in up to one million visitors.

“This is going to feed a few mouths but this is not a typical situation in our Ainu society,” said Satoshi Hatakeyama, chairman of the Mombetsu Ainu Association.

“I would like to see actualisation of inherent Indigenous rights such as the right to fish and to harvest whales.”

Professor Hiroshi Maruyama, an expert in environmental and Indigenous studies at the Muroran Institute of Technology in Hokkaido, has denounced the bill as being reminiscent of colonial-era policies.

He argued that under international law “free, prior and informed consent” is required by revising the legislation based on in-depth consultation with Indigenous groups.

 “The bill is set to be enacted into law in the Japanese parliament without explicit consent or endorsement from representatives of the Ainu community,” he said.

When the Meiji Restoration began 150 years ago, Japan did away with the military rule of shoguns and rapidly modernised under the consolidated power under an emperor.

The Ainu people were banned from practicing their customs and using their language and, like many Indigenous people around the world, struggled to keep their traditions.

A law passed in 1997 replaced the previous assimilation law and acknowledged the Ainu as an ethnic minority – not an Indigenous group.

The proposed legislation aims to change that, but has not appeased everyone.

Activists from Ainu groups holding banners and flags took to the streets of Hokkaido's capital city Sapporo on Sunday in protest. 

“Positioning Ainu culture at the centre of proposals and measures to promote tourism is nothing other than a scheme to sacrifice or exploit Ainu as a resource for tourism,” Mr Shimizu said.

[bloggstar247]

The Wikipedia article of the day for December 26, 2018 is Allied naval bombardments of Japan during World War II. Allied naval bombardments of Japan during the last weeks of World War II in 1945 targeted industrial and military facilities. Warships of the United States Navy, the British Royal Navy, and the Royal New Zealand Navy, mostly cruisers and battleships, caused heavy damage to several factories, as well as nearby civilian areas. One goal was to provoke the Japanese military into committing some of its reserve force of aircraft into battle, but the Allied forces were not attacked, and none of their warships suffered damage. US Navy ships attacked the cities of Kamaishi and Muroran, a joint American and British force bombed targets around the city of Hitachi, and cruisers and destroyers shelled areas including Nojima Saki and Shionomisaki. In the final bombardment on 9 August, Kamaishi was hit again by American, British and New Zealand warships. Up to 1,739 Japanese were killed, and as many as 1,497 were wounded. The Allies lost 32 prisoners of war during the bombardments of Kamaishi.

[rjbailey]

Wikipedia article of the day for December 26, 2018 -- Allied naval bombardments of Japan during World War II

The Wikipedia article of the day for December 26, 2018 is Allied naval bombardments of Japan during World War II. Allied naval bombardments of Japan during the last weeks of World War II in 1945 targeted industrial and military facilities. Warships of the United States Navy, the British Royal Navy, and the Royal New Zealand Navy, mostly cruisers and battleships, caused heavy damage to several factories, as well as nearby civilian areas. One goal was to provoke the Japanese military into committing some of its reserve force of aircraft into battle, but the Allied forces were not attacked, and none of their warships suffered damage. US Navy ships attacked the cities of Kamaishi and Muroran, a joint American and British force bombed targets around the city of Hitachi, and cruisers and destroyers shelled areas including Nojima Saki and Shionomisaki. In the final bombardment on 9 August, Kamaishi was hit again by American, British and New Zealand warships. Up to 1,739 Japanese were killed, and as many as 1,497 were wounded. The Allies lost 32 prisoners of war during the bombardments of Kamaishi.

[cutsliceddiced]

Wikipedia article of the day for December 26, 2018

The Wikipedia article of the day for December 26, 2018 is Allied naval bombardments of Japan during World War II. Allied naval bombardments of Japan during the last weeks of World War II in 1945 targeted industrial and military facilities. Warships of the United States Navy, the British Royal Navy, and the Royal New Zealand Navy, mostly cruisers and battleships, caused heavy damage to several factories, as well as nearby civilian areas. One goal was to provoke the Japanese military into committing some of its reserve force of aircraft into battle, but the Allied forces were not attacked, and none of their warships suffered damage. US Navy ships attacked the cities of Kamaishi and Muroran, a joint American and British force bombed targets around the city of Hitachi, and cruisers and destroyers shelled areas including Nojima Saki and Shionomisaki. In the final bombardment on 9 August, Kamaishi was hit again by American, British and New Zealand warships. Up to 1,739 Japanese were killed, and as many as 1,497 were wounded. The Allies lost 32 prisoners of war during the bombardments of Kamaishi. via https://cutslicedanddiced.wordpress.com/2018/01/24/how-to-prevent-food-from-going-to-waste