The Roving Ronin Report

I had to bear my beer aloft to see the bears at Noboribetsu Bear Park in the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. At the park it certainly wasn't bare of bear but fortunately the bears weren't grizzly and found us humans bearable especially as we had treats to bring to bear. They could barely contain themselves shamelessly pandering to us with paws to the wall antics. When the cuteness became near unbearable, I took a pawse and went to the Ainu section where they had squirrels and tanuki - Japan's raccoon dog. Despite the legends, the tanuki did not have a ginormous scrotum that kind which smothered many hapless hunters in mythical tales of freudian overtones. They also have duck racing - I lost 200¥ on a lame duck. It costs about 2500¥ to visit the park and you get a gondola ride up the mountain which has some nice scenery. This is definitely a safer way to see Japanese brown bears rather than risking an encounter in the wild. There are still grizzly memor...

It was Halloween again in Tokyo and folks got out and about in all kinds of getups from scary to funny to sexy to cute to just off-the-wall. I hit Roppongi like I usually do during the Halloween time. It's one of the few times I go there. I don't bother going to the clubs because they are generally jam-packed and you can't see anything hardly. The streets is where the action is where you can see all kinds of fun outrageous stuff. It beats standing 1-3 hours in line just to get into a club where it takes you 20 minutes to get a drink. I did go to club Feria on Halloween night to participate in a Halloween contest (didn't win). I went as a pirate samurai so I was bristling with weapons (plastic and wood) both pirate and samurai. Due to their over-the-top security protocols I had to surrender up the whole lot of them including my kasana - an umbrella with a katana hilt. It was ridiculous and pissed me off royally (which may have cost me 3rd place). I later came t...