Awesome gifs from awesome friends!

Look what arrived by male to my new address!

There was an envelop from scowling_hermit: a beautiful Halloween card, and two coolest hand-drawn by her artistic bookmarks. Yay!:) Thank you very much, dear! ♥! Sasha expropriated the flying fang-head bookmark at ones, but I said - back off from my vampire dude!:[ )


And then there was a small package from jade_teacup that contained only one thing - but what a wonderful thing it was: a messenger bag, all handmade and hand-painted by my talented friend! WOW! And look at the design: it's a little purple Daruma with bat ornament! It's like our family's ultimate symbolical representation: purple is my favorite color, Daruma is Anton's folklore favorite, and bats are Sasha's favorite animals. How thoughtful!:))) Thank you so much, Ben, I absolutely love the bag!♥

( +2 pics )

And notice the tiny kokeshi doll on the bag! Her name is kimmi Yazzy, I bought her yesterday in in Denver on Sakura plaza especially as a charm for this bag. Kawaii, desu ne?:)


Thank you, my dear scowling_hermit and jade_teacup
I am so lucky to have such generous, artistic, and talented friends! ♥

Kamikaze bye-bye cups (Japanese Military Sake Cups)

Sake plays a central role in Japanese traditional culture and even religion. Naturally, the Imperial Japanese military adapted this tradition to validate ceremonies ranging from the celebration of victory to a final toast for kamikaze pilots about to embark on suicide missions.
I was quite impressed to find an exhibition of Kamikaze cups at my favorite Japanese restaurant Domo where we had lunch yesterday. There are several cases of those sakazuki cups and sake bottles... The cups were painted individually for each pilot, each bears the pilot's name and some special design, sometimes - poetry... Now those cups are a great interest for the collectors.

Dunno, each time I am stumbling upon some unknown for me aspect of the Japanese culture, it makes me feel amazed by how special, how twisted, and how cool it is:)

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Сакэ играет важную роль в культуре, трацициях, и даже религиях Японии. Милитаристские традиции тоже туда же, адаптировали церемониальное потребление сакэ для разных случаев, будь то празднование победы, или последний тост камикадзе.
Вчера мы проболтались весь день в Денвере, зашли на ланч в Домо, наш любимый японский ресторан, и я очень впечатлилась, обнаружив в тамошнем миузейчике (да, Домо - место не простое, там имеется и японский садик, и крохотный но насыщенный музейчег, и айкидо дожо...) целую нехилую выставку этих самых камикадзных саказуки. Чашки расписывались для каждого пилота отдельно, На каждой - определённая символика, имя пилота, порой - поэзия...

Вот ведь, блин. Всякий раз, когда спотыкаюсь об очередной неизвестнымй мне аспект японской культуры, поражаюсь её вывихнутости и классности:)




( Kamikaze bye-bye cups=5pics )

This is my cup of tea:)
А это моя чашечка чая :)