Thanksgiving == Christmas?

Wednesday was a Japanese holiday. I had a class in the morning, but my sleep schedule is currently bunk, so I overslept. Got up in time for the Gaiken first and third years' konpa. A konpa is a let's-get-to-know-each-other-better party. We all got together in a room in the dormitory and sat in a circle for it, with the first years ending up on one side, the third years on the other, and the guys and girls grouped together as well (I'm still not sure if that was purposeful or not). There was no alcohol because the person organizing it didn't know what the first years would want, which suited me... it started at noon, which is considerably earlier than I'm interested in drinking. There was food, though; a hearty potato and vegetable soup with konkyaku in it and curry udon.

Taste-O-Meter!

Konkyaku: 3
I'm not sure what this is. The texture was fine, with the hardness of a cooked vegetable, but none of a vegetable's texture. It was slick, but not slimy, so I had no problem with the texture. I can't really describe the taste. I asked what it was in English, and the question travelled halfway around the circle before Yuuji said he though it was just konkyaku.

Curry Udon: 5
In addition to the taste of udon not going as well with tuna as somen, it turns out that udon is intended to be cooked for a long time in a sauce, soaking up lots of moisture and taste. Result: Mm, mm, better. (Udon noodles in potato soup sauce still makes a good meal, though.)

Once everyone had food and a toast had been made there was enough time given for people to get through most or all of that first serving (there was a lot of food, everyone got more). Then started the jiko shoukai (self introductions). They started with the first years, then moved to me, then the third years. Person introduces self, people get to ask some questions. The third years' introductions were more fun, because they all know each other a lot better. I also knew them better, having talked to many of them at the post-gakusai party.

One question that got asked often was "What kind of guys/girls do you like?" with guys/girls being the opposite gender of the person in question. The first question asked of one of the third years, Hiroshi, was what kind of guys he liked. He managed to delicately evade the question by saying he liked guys like Jack (nickname of one of the others), only to have someone else ask what kind of girls he liked... at which point the guy (whose name I have completely forgotten) who asked what kind of guys he likes interrupted with "Manly ones, yes?" It was good, laughter-inducing fun.

After the introductions were done, people dug into more food, drank more tea and juice, and divided into random groups for chatting. A group formed around me, which mostly ended up being a discussion of some cultural differences and a lot of linguistic differences. I was asked what order I was taught different elements of Japanese grammar in and answered as best as I could from memory. I then offered to show them the textbooks I'd brought with me from America sometime. I have my third-year Japanese textbook and the book from my first kanji class. Which reminds me... I need to go stuff those in my bookbag...

Anyway, I'd been told by Keina that we had sadoubu that day, but I am thinking she thought I meant Friday instead of Wednesday, 'cause the room where sadoubu is held was dark and locked when I got there. *sigh*

Thanksgiving

I completely forgot about Thanksgiving. Maybe it's the lack of eggnog in stores (which makes me rather sad... it's great stuff to dip Pocky in). Yesterday, however, I was contemplating my pocketbooks and my phone and gas bills. The gas bill was about 2400 yen, which is fine, except that the guy had come along to collect before I expected. I didn't have any cash on hand when he showed up on Tuesday, and I haven't seen him since. Regardless, I had come to the conclusion that I had just enough money to pay that and still have enough in my account for the automatic withdrawal of my phone bill with a few hundred yen left over.

So I went to the bank and pulled a couple of thousand yen out of the savings account there to put into the post office account. I was five minutes too late for the bank's hours (the banks close at 3PM on weekdays), so I had to use the ATM, which meant I couldn't get out the amount I wanted (I wanted 3400 yen, but you can only get multiples of 1000) and would have to come back the next day to pull out the amount I needed for the gas bill without going below 0 on the account. I then walked next door to the post office and used the post office ATM to deposit the money in the post office account. I looked at the passbook (any transaction at an ATM or at the counter that alters your money is automatically entered into the passbook via computer) to verify that there was enough in the account.

That was when I discovered that my scholarship came in on Tuesday.

Hooray!

I decided that it was time to go blow some money on myself and get a PS2 and everything I needed to play FFXI. I got a PS2 at the recycle shop called Hard Off over by Coach and Four (the book store). I also checked out their supply of games, finding some nifty stuff but not buying any since I mainly wanted FFXI. I then walked to Coach and Four because they had a section that sold games, but they didn't have either hard drives (which in Japan, at least, is called the BB Unit) or FFXI. Urk. On the plus side, I found out that the first few models of the PS2 in Japan didn't have expansion bays, and that in Japan the bios number (starting with SCPH) is a good thing to know about your PS2. Everywhere I've seen PS2's around here, there's been a piece of paper taped to it announcing the bios number. Mine is SCPH-50000.

So... I walked the 20-minute walk back to my place, dropped the PS2, and headed to the area of Posful -- a 45-minute walk in another direction. I got myself a Teriyaki McBurger at Posful (after running into Ryoko and bragging about having bought a PS2), then went to Geo, a "media store" (read: games, CD's, DVD's, the like). I looked at their selection of games for a bit, not seeing FFXI, but seeing the hard drive. Went to the desk and asked them about it. According to their inventory, they had neither FFXI nor hard drive. I bought the hard drive that was on the shelf after being all o.O and taking the guy to it, but was still FFXI-less.

So I went to Homac and got me a TV. It's a 14" TV (which I know for a fact because somehow, despite the fact that this country runs on centimeters, is written in English on the front) with good old-fashioned CRT technology. I had no intention of carrying it home. I went to the taxi stop outside of Posful and hopped a taxi home.

The taxi driver was fairly awesome; just like American taxi drivers, he was talkative. He was impressed with my Japanese pronounciation skills. He didn't know exactly where my apartment was, but I was able to give him directions. Muahahaha! Anyway, got inside the house and sat down with my loot. TV and PS2 both powered on fine, though I discovered that TV is apparently not broadcast through the air here; I need a coaxle cable to get television, for which I'll have to go back to Homac, 'cause no stores around here sell those. Also, although I couldn't really read the directions, I quickly realized that there was no way to connect the PS2 hard drive to the PS2 without a network adapter... which I had forgotten to get.

So there I was. Brand-new TV, not-so-brand-new PS2, and a PS2 hard drive. No video games. No TV channels. No way to plug the hard drive in.

How lame is that?

Not much I could do about it, though. Hard Off was closed, and I didn't want to pay the money for a new game at Coach and Four. I didn't think the nearby Geo, a much smaller outlet on the other side of the Kushiro river, would be open at10:30-ish. So I did stuff at home, deciding that Friday would be a good day to pull out some more money to pay rent and do more shopping with, for me if I could find what I needed, and to try to finish getting stuff for Nacilik after that.

Friday

It started out like a normal Friday. My screwy sleep schedule continued, and I woke up around 11:30. Did random cleany-stuff and some other things before grabbing a 7-11 Bacon-Mayo Roll breakfast and heading to the library for a bit of pre-class kanji studying. Then I went to Japanese class. I have trouble understanding this teacher's accent for some reason, but he's a very nice guy, and I'm learning quickly from him in spite of only understanding like half of what he says.

Class got out and sadoubu was to start at 4, though I knew that Keina or Ryoko would be there earlier, getting things set up so that when Ikajima-sensei arrived we could just go to work, so I took that opportunity to go to the post office. I also went to the bank to get some information I needed to finish setting up a Japanese-based Paypal account for transferring money to and from people in the states. When I got back to the school, I ran into Sato and chatted with her for a few, then headed to the tatami room.

Lo! Sensei was already there, and it wasn't even 3:30. I got to have some more of the thick tea (not as thick as the stuff made for 5 people, but thicker than the stuff I've been taught to make thus far). It's so delicious. I helped Keina in putting a lot of the equipment away after I had my go at the ceremony, then realized we were putting stuff up early. More entrance exams tomorrow, apparently... no wonder sensei was early. Gar!

So, as I had planned and dressed for before leaving the house that morning, I headed immediately for Hard Off. Maybe I can't have FFXI yet, but I can have something! I bought two games, Fantavision and Tales of Destiny, for about 500 yen each, and a PS1 memory card with a spiffy cactaur sticker for about 800 yen. I also hit the nearby grocery store for some snacks and some necessities and came home. I followed that up with a trip to the nearby Geo store, which did not have FFXI, but did have the PS2 network adapter. Yay!

So now I have two games, a PS1 game w/ a memory card and a PS2 game w/o a memory card. Luckily, the non-memory card game is a puzzler. I also have installed the PS2 hard drive (whose software made the PS2 menu even spiffier-looking than it started and improved the music playback feature). It's 5 AM on Saturday; now I sleep, and after I wake, I am going to the game store in Posful to see if they have FFXI and to Homac for a coaxle cable.

I'm reconsidering purchasing a bike.

Farewell.

Realizations of the Period

1) DUH! The Japanese are trendy people... with the new slimline PS2's out, no one wants a bloody PS2 hard drive or any game that requires it. God damnit! The nearest place I know for sure sells FFXI is Sapporo!