Sad news today from my little corner of the world. Yesterday, three new kittens were added to our pack of stray cats that live in the parking lot of our building. From the looks of them and since we know which cat is the mother, I’d say they’re about 2 weeks old.

The friendliest kitten among them (pictured above) we found dead early this morning. From what we can tell she was in the street at the wrong time, and couldn’t make it out of the way of traffic. It seems that many of our neighbors were also saddened to find out. I could hear a lot of people talking outside, and the body was recovered quickly.

The rest of today was a downpour of rain with thick clouds blotting out the sun. A very depressing end to the week.

My Wife and I are even more worried about the other two kittens now that this has happened. If anyone knows of an animal adoption agency in Sendai, please let us know.

Sorry to bring all of you down, especially the bait and switch picture of a cute kitten…

Monday marks the end of my “Pirate Week” experiment, so hopefully that was enjoyed.

Thought I should give an update on what’s going on here as it has been QUITE busy. July 4th was celebrated with class here in Japan. A group of Americans (including myself) met at a public park, and proceeded to blow things up, throw exploding ninjas at one another, and tie roman candles to a camel (dubbed the “Roman Camel”). Great fun was had by all, and much alcohol was consumed…FOR AMERICA!

We’ve also booked a trip to Thailand for a summer vacation. We’ll be leaving Sendai and heading for Bangkok on July 27th, and I won’t be updating comics during the trip, but you can bet that my characters will at some point themselves take a trip to Thailand (Who can resist with cities named Bangkok and Phuket? COMEDY).

The 5 day a week comic routine will begin again on Monday August 4th. I had hoped that if I took a cartooning break I could use the time off to finish up some other work (I have a ton of code to monkey out for the website), as well as catch up a bit more on my comic buffer, but I don’t think I’ll be drawing much in Thailand, I’ma ride me an Elephant and pet a tiger.

I will leave you with a small preview of the newest stories. Coming up next: Bob and Nicole visit Sendai Castle, a magical playground of ninjas, samurai, and booby traps! Following shortly after: Bob’s addiction to crane games hits a fever pitch, while Nicole goes wild for purikura! Exc!amat!on Ma!rks!!!

Yo Ho Ho! It’s Pirate Week here on The Life of Bob. For the rest of the week we’ll be doing something a little different with the comics coming up…Pirates!

If this goes over well, I’ll be doing another Pirate Week in a few months. If it doesn’t then meh, you can pretend the pirate ship sank.

Hope you guys enjoy it, regular strips will resume on Monday with a new storyline kicking off on Wednesday…yarrrr.

Ah, fresh fruit. So delicious, so tantalizing, so…expensive. Especially the tart is dearly missed.

We picked up this stationary set at one of the many 100 yen shops around town. Many good hours spent looking at things with jacked-up English on them.

Lately the prices of fresh fruit have gone down a little bit as things come into season. You even start to think “Wow, the watermelons are down to $16.50!” and then you remember that back home they’re $6 and the size of your entire body.

I did see some “Sweet America Cherries” imported from California the other day. Made me smile, and they were a bargain at $5 for 10 of em. I MISS FRUIT!

A big welcome to visitors finding the site through Japan Probe, hopefully a healthy marketing decision was made there, so we’ll see how things go for the next month.

In the spirit of giving, I have some Engrish for you today. Coupled with a green Santa Clause VooDoo Doll (I took this picture after some Christmas shopping last year).

If the bag is a bit difficult to read here is what it says: “The master of the proper trip which I saw by now collects baggage small, and acts lightly nearty.”

I hope that clears up any confusion from the photo.