*insert witty Japanese quote here*
Yo, everyone. Hope everything's going alright for you guys on that side of the world. Just wanted to say that I'm glad to hear everyone's ok in the aftermath of the hurricane. There's not much I can say about it that hasn't already been said many times, many ways, so I'll just leave that part of the post out. No point in it.
Anyways, things are going very smoothly here, couldn't ask for better. Host family is great, friends (old and new) are great, Japan is great, so yeah, things are...great. CAUTION: The next part of this post is to gamers and nerds like myself, although I have explained everything to people who have no clue what I talk about, hahaha, you've been warned! This past weekend, myself and five other friends went to downtown Osaka to a place called "Den Den Town," which is a part of town with nothing but huge shops of electronics. ANY kind of electronics: computers and parts, cameras, recorders, video games, music, movies, etc etc, the list goes on. I most certainly did not leave this part of Osaka empty-handed, considering they have video games. I bought three Super Famicom (the Japanese Super Nintendo, for those who don't know) games. I beat out Ebay! hahaha! I bought games here that can, but don't always, run for $100-$150 for next to nothing!! I shall explain: in America, there are certain Super Famicom/Super Nintendo games that are extremely rare and fetch really, really high prices at places like Ebay, which is usually the only way to find them. Most of them are RPG's (Role-Playing Games) that are highly sought after, or other random games that are just popular and hard to find. So, we visited one of the many video game shops there. Pardon the mental image, but these places are a gamer's wet dream. And yes, I did actually say that while we were there. They have ANYTHING...mind you, they only have Japanese games, not American, but that aside, ANYTHING. They have games, systems, and accessories that have long since been forgotten or deemed unobtainable. So, I was browsing the Super Famicom section and ran across some rare games...for those who know it, they had Chrono Trigger with the box, manual, etc for a bit over 900 Yen (around $9). That is unheard of. I had to pick my jaw off the floor. I own this game in America, and it can easily hit $100 on Ebay, sometimes more, depending on if you get the box, manual, etc. They had pretty much ANY game you could think of for insanely low prices like that. I bought three games, hahaha. I bought the Japanese versions of Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy V. Yes, I am a nerd. I also bought a Dragon Ball Z game that is very expensive and hard to find. I bought these three rare games for about 3,700 Yen (about $35). Yeah, I totally 0wned Ebay. And everywhere else in the U.S. that sells used games. Man, I rule.
Anyways, nerdiness is over now, the rest of you can continue reading this post. That trip to Osaka aside, I haven't been doing too terribly much otherwise. Classes are going good so far (I think). Not easy, but are cool. I've been told my Japanese has improved a lot, so I'm happy about that. Oh yeah, there's a typhoon coming, like, right now. Granted, it's nowhere near what Katrina was and no one seems to worried about it, just a lot of wind and rain. There's a good possibility we won't have class tomorrow because of it. We're hoping, anyways. This weekend, I'm going back to Kobe and I'm gonna spend the weekend with Asuka and her family (mainly Asuka). I'm so freaking excited about that. It's gonna be great.
Well, I suppose that is all I have for the time being. Again, glad everyone's "genki" and doing alright. Oh yeah, one more thing...
ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLL TIDE ROLL!
Anyways, things are going very smoothly here, couldn't ask for better. Host family is great, friends (old and new) are great, Japan is great, so yeah, things are...great. CAUTION: The next part of this post is to gamers and nerds like myself, although I have explained everything to people who have no clue what I talk about, hahaha, you've been warned! This past weekend, myself and five other friends went to downtown Osaka to a place called "Den Den Town," which is a part of town with nothing but huge shops of electronics. ANY kind of electronics: computers and parts, cameras, recorders, video games, music, movies, etc etc, the list goes on. I most certainly did not leave this part of Osaka empty-handed, considering they have video games. I bought three Super Famicom (the Japanese Super Nintendo, for those who don't know) games. I beat out Ebay! hahaha! I bought games here that can, but don't always, run for $100-$150 for next to nothing!! I shall explain: in America, there are certain Super Famicom/Super Nintendo games that are extremely rare and fetch really, really high prices at places like Ebay, which is usually the only way to find them. Most of them are RPG's (Role-Playing Games) that are highly sought after, or other random games that are just popular and hard to find. So, we visited one of the many video game shops there. Pardon the mental image, but these places are a gamer's wet dream. And yes, I did actually say that while we were there. They have ANYTHING...mind you, they only have Japanese games, not American, but that aside, ANYTHING. They have games, systems, and accessories that have long since been forgotten or deemed unobtainable. So, I was browsing the Super Famicom section and ran across some rare games...for those who know it, they had Chrono Trigger with the box, manual, etc for a bit over 900 Yen (around $9). That is unheard of. I had to pick my jaw off the floor. I own this game in America, and it can easily hit $100 on Ebay, sometimes more, depending on if you get the box, manual, etc. They had pretty much ANY game you could think of for insanely low prices like that. I bought three games, hahaha. I bought the Japanese versions of Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy V. Yes, I am a nerd. I also bought a Dragon Ball Z game that is very expensive and hard to find. I bought these three rare games for about 3,700 Yen (about $35). Yeah, I totally 0wned Ebay. And everywhere else in the U.S. that sells used games. Man, I rule.
Anyways, nerdiness is over now, the rest of you can continue reading this post. That trip to Osaka aside, I haven't been doing too terribly much otherwise. Classes are going good so far (I think). Not easy, but are cool. I've been told my Japanese has improved a lot, so I'm happy about that. Oh yeah, there's a typhoon coming, like, right now. Granted, it's nowhere near what Katrina was and no one seems to worried about it, just a lot of wind and rain. There's a good possibility we won't have class tomorrow because of it. We're hoping, anyways. This weekend, I'm going back to Kobe and I'm gonna spend the weekend with Asuka and her family (mainly Asuka). I'm so freaking excited about that. It's gonna be great.
Well, I suppose that is all I have for the time being. Again, glad everyone's "genki" and doing alright. Oh yeah, one more thing...
ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLL TIDE ROLL!