Once My Looks Go, I've Got Nothing

      Well, it's the Halloween season again, and if you're one of the seventeen people reading this, then you know what that means: it's time for this year's installment of my decorative Halloween village! And whether you've been following my posts about this for years or you're a first-timer, I've got you covered with some pretty exciting spooky miniature stuff in this installment. In fact, in many ways I'd say this is my freshest display in years.      The central theme of this year's Halloween village is one I've never explored before, and before I reveal it, I'll explain how I got there. Some years, I hit upon my theme early; for example, I happened to be listening to The Ramones last summer and had a flash of inspiration for the  Pet Cemetery theme that would eventually manifest itself in my 2024 village. This year, however, I entered August still feeling uninspired and rudderless, to the point that I considered only a minimal village s...

  A Whopper of an Error Given how well the previous day's excursion into the more touristy sections of Tokyo had gone, it seemed like a good idea to continue along that path on Wednesday. As such, Sheila and I planned to go visit the Imperial Palace in the Chiyoda ward of Tokyo. I mean, how often do you get to see something like that? We don't even have an emperor in America, at least according to Wikipedia. Before we set out to Chiyoda, though, we needed to fuel up for the day ahead. We decided to have a nutritious breakfast at Burger King; after all, as the old adage goes, you are what you eat, and what better to be than a king? And if there is one single word to describe how I felt ordering some breakfast hot dogs, it would be "regal." Or at least briefly regal, until I realized that the cashier gave us change for a 1,000 yen bill when I had in fact handed her 10,000. At that point, you could say I was fairly nonplussed. Even when both parties are fluent in...