Chinese Garden

~Yesterday I went on a road trip to the beach with some friends, and on the way we stopped to look at a Chinese Garden. I wasn't expecting much excitement here, but it turned out to be hilarious (as do many things in my life):

Above: The entrance to the garden. If you click on the picture, you can see the lion (?) statue to the left of the middle portal. To the right, of course, are a couple of clueless gaijin and a Japanese friend to keep us in line. And through the entrance...

Above: I just LOVE the expression on this statue's face. It's as if he's heard the world's funniest joke, or he's watching an episode of MXC. I think he's holding a rake in his left hand. Meanwhile, the statue with the crown seems not to have heard any jokes.

Above: This statue looks like he's disco dancing. Speculation: perhaps his dancing is what the other statue is laughing at? The laughing statue is looking in the direction of the disco dancer, after all.

Above: I'm about to Summon the Gods by ringing this bell! Awaken, ye spirits! Spirits such as...

Above: A large frieze featuring MONKEYS; I think they're supposed to be gods. I created this image by using a program to stitch together several different pictures; please click on it for the full effect. My favorite panel in the frieze is the second from the left, where a monkey god is painting a book with copper, and the actual copper color appears on the frieze.

Above: Behind the statue park was this building, which at first I took to be a temple. However, it turned out to be a combination museum/food shop, selling ice cream and various unidentifiable foods (when in doubt, "Rice is Always Nice").

Above: This amazing model of a golden ship was in the museum. No, it's not real gold, but it does look really cool. It would look great on top of my bookshelf.

~Lastly, here's some more quasi-Japanglish for you, visible from the Chinese garden:

Above: My first thought was, "I don't even want to know what they do in that factory." I had this image of a call center where frantic callers would say that they'd lost their wax, and the company would dipatch wax-finding specialists.

Later, I googled the name and was surprised to learn the truth about the lost-wax process, an industrial method of creating machine part moulds, which of course is what Hayashi Lost-Wax Industries manufactures. Wow, Japanglish and a science lesson, aren't you lucky?