The Epic Tale of Nanaji.
So, um, I suck at this blogging thing. Sorry about that.
But I've been busy! Really! I wrote a 19 page paper the other day...and over 2000 words the other night on the construction of the foundation walls of Japanese castles. Not on the design of the castles themselves, just the stone walls. Oh, I gave a paragraph to the chalk/salt/crushed rock walls that are on top of the stone (these, once whitewashed, are what gives Japanese castles their distinctive look - there I go, once again, descending into the academic. Someone stop me before I start to discuss machicolonations [which, incidentally, is my new favourite word]), and talked about some of the different defenses, but yeah. And entire essay about castle walls. I need help.
So, although I have been known to state in loud, clear terms that the courses taken by us here aren't exactly challenging, currently, they are all doing the end of term dump. See, next week is our last week of classes. I have a grammar test on Monday, a final exam on Tuesday, and a presentation on Friday. My Monday afternoon class has been canceled, as have two of my three Wednesday afternoon classes (meaning I travel a round trip of nearly two hours on both of those days for a one and a half hour class. Wonderful). The presentation that I may have had to give on Thursday has fortunately been canceled, I buggered up a section on the test I had today (I mistook the word for pets for the word for bed. Look, these things happen! It was bad sound quality.
...and I hadn't studied enough. At least I studied the right book this time though), and the essay on castles? Is actually due this coming Thursday, but I got all confused and handed it in last Thursday instead. Oh well, at least it's off my hands now. I felt a bit odd handing it in - over 2000 words, but only based on 4 books, two of which were by the same author. And one of those books was only relevant to one paragraph, and I had to do some serious academic gymnastics to make it fit. Still, I got to talk about Japanese warrior monks, which was pretty damn cool. Didn't end up talking about ninjas though...maybe next semester.
Also, I have to write a 2000-3000 dissertation proposal/literature review by the end of the month. Erg. I'm planning to have a crack at that tomorrow night (I'm stockpiling the Chu-hi and chocolate in preparation) - it probably will be another episode when I see dawn from the wrong side. See, I write at night. My Muses tend to come out around 11pm, and give up and retire to their fainting couches around 4am. When doing the castles essay (for History of Japanese Science and Technology, for those of you who wondered what on earth I was writing about them for), I got to about 3am and the conclusion, and I looked at my subconscious, my subconscious looked back at me, and the resounding message was “can not conclude.”
So, like Meat Loaf was urging me to do, I slept on it. I wasn't so lucky when doing my 19 pager - I wrote it in two nights, and saw dawn on both Saturday and Sunday morning. Monday was a holiday, but in order to do...something, I ended up getting up before dawn. Three dawns in three days is just not cricket.
I think I'm doomed to do this academic stuff. I swear. Knowing full well that I need to do this proposal this weekend, I stopped off at the library after my last class to grab a copy of Vera Mackie's Feminism in Modern Japan (which, along with Sumiko Iwao's The Japanese Woman, is the base of my lit review) and a relevant looking book on Japanese Media. I found that, and when I was browsing the small English language section for books that would help me with my next essay (“what was the worse atrocity of WWII?” I got to make up a question, and I thought that would be an easy 2000-3000 words, since I only have two days to write that one when I get back from Hokkaido...gah!) I found an entire shelf of more books that are relevant to my research. I actually whimpered. I swear, even though I am planning of spending pretty much all of March in at the library, and probably most of my April, May, June, and definitely July - I just know I'm going to get to my last few days here in August and I'll still be finding new books that are relevant.
I guess that's part of becoming a good researcher/writer/academic type - knowing when to stop researching and just write the bloody thing. So, although I haven't translated nearly as many articles as I would have liked as part of my pre-plan research, I realised the other day that since late 2007, I've written 5 essays and done at least 3 presentations - and some of these were in Japanese to boot! - on Japanese women and their rights and relevant legislation and so on. I know my background, I know my research methodology, I'm familiar with the majority of the literature available...the time for writing is now.
Or something.
But that's enough about boring academic. I'd like to talk about the epic saga that is...The Tale of Nanaji.
I got my beloved Toshiba laptop (Toshi for short) at the end of 6th form...so, end of 2003. Good wee computer, no serious problems, but getting old and a bit slow. The speakers died in mid-2007, and the headphone jack suffered some slight damage around that time as a direct result of a party. The disc driver was starting to make some interesting noises and occasionally forget that it was a disc driver, not a cup-holder, but, still, she worked. She wrote in Japanese, talked to the internet, and let me make spreadsheets and powerpoints to my hearts content. She was even up to the challenge of playing the occasional game of Age of Empires I or SimCity 2000 - and I didn't dare ask for more. I didn't need more!
But, I decided that it was time for her to retire when I came to Japan (last I knew, my Dad uses her to check his emails), and had been begging and pleading her just to last until September last year. After all, I was moving to Japan, the awesome electronics capital of the world! And I was moving to Tokyo, the electronics capital of the electronics capital! I could go to Akihabara, get something completely awesome and top of the range...maybe even something that wasn't going to be released in NZ until after I got back after a year...
I had big plans.
They went awry.
First, I found out when I went to buy an electronic dictionary (so worth nearly beggaring myself over - the amount of conversations I have had with people where we have both had to rely on it!) that Akihabara is...creepy. I'm not really that good with electronics - I'm normally surrounded by wonderful, clever people who know far more than I do and I trustingly follow their lead. Shopping for the stuff on my own is worse than shopping for clothes. Add in the language barrier...yeah. Akihabara was out as a shopping destination.
So, I turned to our local branch of a big chain electronics store, Yodobashi Camera (heh, who knew there was a Wikipedia article on it?). Perhaps they wouldn't have the absolutely latest stuff, but they are still really cheap, and convenient for me to get to (my nearest branch is Kichijoji, so a bike ride away). Also, they are a large chain store - think Dick Smith or something - so I was pretty confident that things would go well. Also, I had signed up for a points card there, and it's always nice to have credit at an electronics store.
So, the day after my birthday, I grabbed Roddy, who speaks really good Japanese and knows about these electronics things, and we headed in.
I found the one I wanted - another Toshiba. I figured, the old one had done me well, so I may as well be brand loyal. I found out how much it was going to cost, thanked the salesman, and headed home. I contacted the bank, and asked them to transfer enough money from my savings account to my Visa card - I'd been planning on buying a computer for a while, and had saved up.
A few days later, I happily wandered into the store, having heard that morning from the bank that my money was on the card and ready to go. When I got to the store, however, I was not happy to see what looked like a sold-out sign where the model I wanted was. I grabbed a salesman and managed to check with him that yes, that was a sold-out sign. But then he popped out back to check (I think I must have looked pretty crushed), and, amazingly, there was a spare out there - the sign was wrong.
So, happy as a lamb, I handed over my credit card. Only to have some flashing message pop up on the register that even my poor Japanese ability could translate as “error with card. Please call Visa.” So, the nice men did. And, since it was at about 8pm that I was doing this, of course they hit the after-hours staff at Visa Japan. Who were no help.
In the end, I ended up at on a pay-phone outside Kichijoji Station (an endeavour that required the help of 4 police officers and a lot of mime) with the National Bank back home...only to find that a block had been put on my card due to “unusual activity.”
Because although my parents' banker knew that I was overseas and I had taken my card, and I had gone into the bank in person a few days before I left NZ to buy some yen and had told them then that I was going to be away for a year and was taking my card, and I had already had to ring the bank once since my arrival with a PIN problem...somehow, the message had not gotten through to the person 'watching' my card, who decided that it had been stolen and put a block on it - without telling me.
As a result, there I was, in tears in the middle of the street in Kichijoji, with a useless scrap of plastic in my hand. I was not a happy bunny.
I went home, dried my tears, stole Jean-Alexis' computer, and emailed the bank, saying “SORT IT!!!”. But politer, of course.
A few days later, the message came back: sorry, our bad, it's all sorted now.
Back into Kichijoji I went. Having been told last time I was in there that there was free shipping since it was an expensive item and I lived locally, I took my bike.
Went in, found a salesperson, who found the laptop that had been put aside for me. With bated breath, I handed over my card...and it worked. Then the next sucker: there wasn't free delivery. It was going to cost 630 yen (so, more expensive than if I had bused in and bused back) to deliver - and wasn't going to get there until the next day. I should have just grabbed it, bused back to the dorm, dropped it off, then bused back in to pick up my bike...but I didn't. I gave them my address, the money that I was going to have used to buy a coffee and scone at Starbucks, and biked home.
The next day, I collected my computer from the office where it had been delivered, and Roddy and I tore into it. We plugged it in, turned it on...to find that it was all in Japanese. Which we had been expecting, and once the initial start-up was over, Roddy took it away to put an English version of Vista on it that he had found god knows where.
Only there was a slight problem with the screen - it kept blacking out. We thought that maybe it was because it wasn't fully charged or something. But, a few days later, Roddy came to me and said that it was an actual fault - within a minute of turning the computer on, the screen would go black and the computer turn off. Also, if you pressed the plastic above the F4 button, the same thing would happen.
Brilliant. So I packed it all up, and on Friday, a week after I had brought the computer, I took it back to the store. The salesman listened to me, nodded politely, and asked to see the fault. He set up the computer, and the screen went dark. He went “oh, I know how to do fix this” and hit the buttons that should have increased brightness. Nothing changed, and then the computer powered off. All within 30 seconds of him turning it on. He turned to me and said “yep, it's ****ed. Would you like a new one?”
I didn't even have to wait for the English helper to translate (I'd gotten into the habit of always asking for the English-speaking assistant to be on hand. I was getting old hat at this). Yeah, I wanted a new one.
However, there wasn't one of that model left in the store. I had two options: I could wait a few days for the next shipment to arrive, or they could refund my money and I could buy a different computer. Not wanting to wait, I picked the second option. I produced my receipt and my card, and while the salesman went through the process of refunding my card, the English-speaking guy and I sorted out which computer I wanted instead. I ended up with practically the same model - but without the TV tuner. Which was fine by me.
We went back to the salesman, who informed me that since it was Friday night, it was going to take a few days for my money to filter through to my card. As I was already committed to this plan of action, and my credit limit was too low for me to buy the new computer outright, I said that was fine, we placed the new computer I was going to get on hold for me, and I headed home.
I checked my card balance on Monday morning. No money.
I checked my card balance on Tuesday morning. Still no money. I emailed the bank. Where's my money?
Tuesday afternoon, the bank emailed back. No idea - go ask the store. So, after classes were finished, I trotted to the store again. They umed and ahed, and were very polite, and made some calls, and got nowhere. They asked me to come in the next day during banking hours, so the nice shop assistant, the English assistant and I all agreed to meet at 11 the next day, with the understanding that I had to leave the store soon after 12 to make it to Uni on time for my afternoon classes.
When we met the next day, I was prepared: I brought homework. And eavesdropped on the phone calls the shop assistant was making while the English assistant told me about life as an electronics store salesman (he starts work at 9am, and finishes at 11pm most days. Erg) while he practiced his English reading skills on my homework.
Eventually, the nice young man on the phone turned to me with an utterly crushed expression. He bowed profusely, and I started to worry.
I was right to worry. My money had disappeared. Somewhere between Yodobashi Camera, Sumitomo-Mitsui bank (the bank the store banks with), Visa Japan and Visa New Zealand, my money had disappeared.
Brilliant. I had no money, and no computer. I was less than happy. Channeling Bree van der Kamp and keeping the calmest face I could and the fury out of my voice (and the hopeless tears out of my eyes), I informed the nice young men that I was not happy. And that unless this was resolved, I was not going to set foot in their store ever again, and would encourage my friends to do the same.
They bowed again, and went to find a manager while I stared blankly at my homework, trying not to scream. Why was everything so hard in this place?
They came back with the manager, and all three lined up and bowed. I wanted to scream. I don't want bows and layers of management, I wanted my computer. Or my money.
The manager came up with a plan. I could take away my new computer today, and they would cancel the cancellation. And give me store credit to make up the difference in prices between the two models.
I was stoked. So, so happy. I nearly hugged the guy. However, since I had class and I didn't want to lug the computer around with me all day...it was agreed that I would meet them all again at 7pm, and they would hand over my computer.
After an eternity of classes, I was back at Yodobashi. The English assistant and I had both had way too much coffee by this point, and we started making up a rhyme about the computer's name in Japanese (the model number, 77G, becomes nana-nana-ji in Japanese. It's quite catchy). A few minutes of paperwork, and I had my computer in hand. Having given up on the delivery service, I strapped it to the front of my bike and rode home. Very, very slowly. And very carefully.
Once again, Roddy and I tore open the box and fired her up. No problems this time. The screen didn't blank out. It worked! I handed it over to Roddy, who gave it back a few days later with an English Vista on it...to find we had a problem. It wouldn't connect to the internet. We fixed that problem, only to find another: it wouldn't read Japanese. And the usual patch didn't work.
So, we yanked the Vista on it, and put Ubuntu 8.10 on it - if I was going to download an operating system, I was at least going to do it legally. I just...I like the idea of open source. I support the principle. I'm not a Japanese woman - I tend to be ruled more by principles than pragmatism, and here was a perfect example of this.
The problem is, Roddy doesn't really know anything about Ubuntu. And I sure as hell don't. So there were a few problems - which a week or so later James pointed out, and told me to simply uninstall, reinstall.
By this stage, I had gotten to the paranoid, and had bought an external hard-drive to back all my files and photos onto. I checked that everything was backed up (though apparently I didn't check thoroughly enough, as I still managed to delete all my photos from Mt Takao, as well as a bunch of my earlier photos, which made me kinda sad), and launched into the unknown - installing my own OS.
It worked! And I have been quietly learning about Ubuntu ever since then. I have begun to lurk the forums...
There are still some little problems. I managed to remove a bunch of useful stuff from my panel, and I am struggling to get them back on. Skype only works if I plug a microphone into it (which I don't have, but am avoiding shopping for until Tim gets here, since I have started to really loath electronics stores), and if I enable my graphics card, I delete the internet.
Slight problem there, as I want the spinny desktop cube.
Still, I have the internet. I have open source. I can type in, and read Japanese. I have a music player, and a media player. I have multiple desktops, and although they don't spin and I haven't been able to get different backgrounds on them (related to my lack of driver, I think), I am in love with my multiple desktops. How do people live without them?
I particularly like the keyboard, which is of course is Japanese, but because of the way I have set my computer up, it reads the keys of an English keyboard. I have to type without looking at the keys, as while the letters are in the right place, none of the punctuation marks are. Which is fine for me, as I touch type anyway. But it's fun to watch other people's brains break. I can change it so that the keys type what is written on them, but I'm not used to that layout, so I make more mistakes that way!
And I have a computer called Nanaji, of whom I am becoming increasingly fond.
Two months after the saga began, I have a workable computer which does pretty much everything I want, except rotate it's desktops. But I can live with that.
But I've been busy! Really! I wrote a 19 page paper the other day...and over 2000 words the other night on the construction of the foundation walls of Japanese castles. Not on the design of the castles themselves, just the stone walls. Oh, I gave a paragraph to the chalk/salt/crushed rock walls that are on top of the stone (these, once whitewashed, are what gives Japanese castles their distinctive look - there I go, once again, descending into the academic. Someone stop me before I start to discuss machicolonations [which, incidentally, is my new favourite word]), and talked about some of the different defenses, but yeah. And entire essay about castle walls. I need help.
So, although I have been known to state in loud, clear terms that the courses taken by us here aren't exactly challenging, currently, they are all doing the end of term dump. See, next week is our last week of classes. I have a grammar test on Monday, a final exam on Tuesday, and a presentation on Friday. My Monday afternoon class has been canceled, as have two of my three Wednesday afternoon classes (meaning I travel a round trip of nearly two hours on both of those days for a one and a half hour class. Wonderful). The presentation that I may have had to give on Thursday has fortunately been canceled, I buggered up a section on the test I had today (I mistook the word for pets for the word for bed. Look, these things happen! It was bad sound quality.
...and I hadn't studied enough. At least I studied the right book this time though), and the essay on castles? Is actually due this coming Thursday, but I got all confused and handed it in last Thursday instead. Oh well, at least it's off my hands now. I felt a bit odd handing it in - over 2000 words, but only based on 4 books, two of which were by the same author. And one of those books was only relevant to one paragraph, and I had to do some serious academic gymnastics to make it fit. Still, I got to talk about Japanese warrior monks, which was pretty damn cool. Didn't end up talking about ninjas though...maybe next semester.
Also, I have to write a 2000-3000 dissertation proposal/literature review by the end of the month. Erg. I'm planning to have a crack at that tomorrow night (I'm stockpiling the Chu-hi and chocolate in preparation) - it probably will be another episode when I see dawn from the wrong side. See, I write at night. My Muses tend to come out around 11pm, and give up and retire to their fainting couches around 4am. When doing the castles essay (for History of Japanese Science and Technology, for those of you who wondered what on earth I was writing about them for), I got to about 3am and the conclusion, and I looked at my subconscious, my subconscious looked back at me, and the resounding message was “can not conclude.”
So, like Meat Loaf was urging me to do, I slept on it. I wasn't so lucky when doing my 19 pager - I wrote it in two nights, and saw dawn on both Saturday and Sunday morning. Monday was a holiday, but in order to do...something, I ended up getting up before dawn. Three dawns in three days is just not cricket.
I think I'm doomed to do this academic stuff. I swear. Knowing full well that I need to do this proposal this weekend, I stopped off at the library after my last class to grab a copy of Vera Mackie's Feminism in Modern Japan (which, along with Sumiko Iwao's The Japanese Woman, is the base of my lit review) and a relevant looking book on Japanese Media. I found that, and when I was browsing the small English language section for books that would help me with my next essay (“what was the worse atrocity of WWII?” I got to make up a question, and I thought that would be an easy 2000-3000 words, since I only have two days to write that one when I get back from Hokkaido...gah!) I found an entire shelf of more books that are relevant to my research. I actually whimpered. I swear, even though I am planning of spending pretty much all of March in at the library, and probably most of my April, May, June, and definitely July - I just know I'm going to get to my last few days here in August and I'll still be finding new books that are relevant.
I guess that's part of becoming a good researcher/writer/academic type - knowing when to stop researching and just write the bloody thing. So, although I haven't translated nearly as many articles as I would have liked as part of my pre-plan research, I realised the other day that since late 2007, I've written 5 essays and done at least 3 presentations - and some of these were in Japanese to boot! - on Japanese women and their rights and relevant legislation and so on. I know my background, I know my research methodology, I'm familiar with the majority of the literature available...the time for writing is now.
Or something.
But that's enough about boring academic. I'd like to talk about the epic saga that is...The Tale of Nanaji.
I got my beloved Toshiba laptop (Toshi for short) at the end of 6th form...so, end of 2003. Good wee computer, no serious problems, but getting old and a bit slow. The speakers died in mid-2007, and the headphone jack suffered some slight damage around that time as a direct result of a party. The disc driver was starting to make some interesting noises and occasionally forget that it was a disc driver, not a cup-holder, but, still, she worked. She wrote in Japanese, talked to the internet, and let me make spreadsheets and powerpoints to my hearts content. She was even up to the challenge of playing the occasional game of Age of Empires I or SimCity 2000 - and I didn't dare ask for more. I didn't need more!
But, I decided that it was time for her to retire when I came to Japan (last I knew, my Dad uses her to check his emails), and had been begging and pleading her just to last until September last year. After all, I was moving to Japan, the awesome electronics capital of the world! And I was moving to Tokyo, the electronics capital of the electronics capital! I could go to Akihabara, get something completely awesome and top of the range...maybe even something that wasn't going to be released in NZ until after I got back after a year...
I had big plans.
They went awry.
First, I found out when I went to buy an electronic dictionary (so worth nearly beggaring myself over - the amount of conversations I have had with people where we have both had to rely on it!) that Akihabara is...creepy. I'm not really that good with electronics - I'm normally surrounded by wonderful, clever people who know far more than I do and I trustingly follow their lead. Shopping for the stuff on my own is worse than shopping for clothes. Add in the language barrier...yeah. Akihabara was out as a shopping destination.
So, I turned to our local branch of a big chain electronics store, Yodobashi Camera (heh, who knew there was a Wikipedia article on it?). Perhaps they wouldn't have the absolutely latest stuff, but they are still really cheap, and convenient for me to get to (my nearest branch is Kichijoji, so a bike ride away). Also, they are a large chain store - think Dick Smith or something - so I was pretty confident that things would go well. Also, I had signed up for a points card there, and it's always nice to have credit at an electronics store.
So, the day after my birthday, I grabbed Roddy, who speaks really good Japanese and knows about these electronics things, and we headed in.
I found the one I wanted - another Toshiba. I figured, the old one had done me well, so I may as well be brand loyal. I found out how much it was going to cost, thanked the salesman, and headed home. I contacted the bank, and asked them to transfer enough money from my savings account to my Visa card - I'd been planning on buying a computer for a while, and had saved up.
A few days later, I happily wandered into the store, having heard that morning from the bank that my money was on the card and ready to go. When I got to the store, however, I was not happy to see what looked like a sold-out sign where the model I wanted was. I grabbed a salesman and managed to check with him that yes, that was a sold-out sign. But then he popped out back to check (I think I must have looked pretty crushed), and, amazingly, there was a spare out there - the sign was wrong.
So, happy as a lamb, I handed over my credit card. Only to have some flashing message pop up on the register that even my poor Japanese ability could translate as “error with card. Please call Visa.” So, the nice men did. And, since it was at about 8pm that I was doing this, of course they hit the after-hours staff at Visa Japan. Who were no help.
In the end, I ended up at on a pay-phone outside Kichijoji Station (an endeavour that required the help of 4 police officers and a lot of mime) with the National Bank back home...only to find that a block had been put on my card due to “unusual activity.”
Because although my parents' banker knew that I was overseas and I had taken my card, and I had gone into the bank in person a few days before I left NZ to buy some yen and had told them then that I was going to be away for a year and was taking my card, and I had already had to ring the bank once since my arrival with a PIN problem...somehow, the message had not gotten through to the person 'watching' my card, who decided that it had been stolen and put a block on it - without telling me.
As a result, there I was, in tears in the middle of the street in Kichijoji, with a useless scrap of plastic in my hand. I was not a happy bunny.
I went home, dried my tears, stole Jean-Alexis' computer, and emailed the bank, saying “SORT IT!!!”. But politer, of course.
A few days later, the message came back: sorry, our bad, it's all sorted now.
Back into Kichijoji I went. Having been told last time I was in there that there was free shipping since it was an expensive item and I lived locally, I took my bike.
Went in, found a salesperson, who found the laptop that had been put aside for me. With bated breath, I handed over my card...and it worked. Then the next sucker: there wasn't free delivery. It was going to cost 630 yen (so, more expensive than if I had bused in and bused back) to deliver - and wasn't going to get there until the next day. I should have just grabbed it, bused back to the dorm, dropped it off, then bused back in to pick up my bike...but I didn't. I gave them my address, the money that I was going to have used to buy a coffee and scone at Starbucks, and biked home.
The next day, I collected my computer from the office where it had been delivered, and Roddy and I tore into it. We plugged it in, turned it on...to find that it was all in Japanese. Which we had been expecting, and once the initial start-up was over, Roddy took it away to put an English version of Vista on it that he had found god knows where.
Only there was a slight problem with the screen - it kept blacking out. We thought that maybe it was because it wasn't fully charged or something. But, a few days later, Roddy came to me and said that it was an actual fault - within a minute of turning the computer on, the screen would go black and the computer turn off. Also, if you pressed the plastic above the F4 button, the same thing would happen.
Brilliant. So I packed it all up, and on Friday, a week after I had brought the computer, I took it back to the store. The salesman listened to me, nodded politely, and asked to see the fault. He set up the computer, and the screen went dark. He went “oh, I know how to do fix this” and hit the buttons that should have increased brightness. Nothing changed, and then the computer powered off. All within 30 seconds of him turning it on. He turned to me and said “yep, it's ****ed. Would you like a new one?”
I didn't even have to wait for the English helper to translate (I'd gotten into the habit of always asking for the English-speaking assistant to be on hand. I was getting old hat at this). Yeah, I wanted a new one.
However, there wasn't one of that model left in the store. I had two options: I could wait a few days for the next shipment to arrive, or they could refund my money and I could buy a different computer. Not wanting to wait, I picked the second option. I produced my receipt and my card, and while the salesman went through the process of refunding my card, the English-speaking guy and I sorted out which computer I wanted instead. I ended up with practically the same model - but without the TV tuner. Which was fine by me.
We went back to the salesman, who informed me that since it was Friday night, it was going to take a few days for my money to filter through to my card. As I was already committed to this plan of action, and my credit limit was too low for me to buy the new computer outright, I said that was fine, we placed the new computer I was going to get on hold for me, and I headed home.
I checked my card balance on Monday morning. No money.
I checked my card balance on Tuesday morning. Still no money. I emailed the bank. Where's my money?
Tuesday afternoon, the bank emailed back. No idea - go ask the store. So, after classes were finished, I trotted to the store again. They umed and ahed, and were very polite, and made some calls, and got nowhere. They asked me to come in the next day during banking hours, so the nice shop assistant, the English assistant and I all agreed to meet at 11 the next day, with the understanding that I had to leave the store soon after 12 to make it to Uni on time for my afternoon classes.
When we met the next day, I was prepared: I brought homework. And eavesdropped on the phone calls the shop assistant was making while the English assistant told me about life as an electronics store salesman (he starts work at 9am, and finishes at 11pm most days. Erg) while he practiced his English reading skills on my homework.
Eventually, the nice young man on the phone turned to me with an utterly crushed expression. He bowed profusely, and I started to worry.
I was right to worry. My money had disappeared. Somewhere between Yodobashi Camera, Sumitomo-Mitsui bank (the bank the store banks with), Visa Japan and Visa New Zealand, my money had disappeared.
Brilliant. I had no money, and no computer. I was less than happy. Channeling Bree van der Kamp and keeping the calmest face I could and the fury out of my voice (and the hopeless tears out of my eyes), I informed the nice young men that I was not happy. And that unless this was resolved, I was not going to set foot in their store ever again, and would encourage my friends to do the same.
They bowed again, and went to find a manager while I stared blankly at my homework, trying not to scream. Why was everything so hard in this place?
They came back with the manager, and all three lined up and bowed. I wanted to scream. I don't want bows and layers of management, I wanted my computer. Or my money.
The manager came up with a plan. I could take away my new computer today, and they would cancel the cancellation. And give me store credit to make up the difference in prices between the two models.
I was stoked. So, so happy. I nearly hugged the guy. However, since I had class and I didn't want to lug the computer around with me all day...it was agreed that I would meet them all again at 7pm, and they would hand over my computer.
After an eternity of classes, I was back at Yodobashi. The English assistant and I had both had way too much coffee by this point, and we started making up a rhyme about the computer's name in Japanese (the model number, 77G, becomes nana-nana-ji in Japanese. It's quite catchy). A few minutes of paperwork, and I had my computer in hand. Having given up on the delivery service, I strapped it to the front of my bike and rode home. Very, very slowly. And very carefully.
Once again, Roddy and I tore open the box and fired her up. No problems this time. The screen didn't blank out. It worked! I handed it over to Roddy, who gave it back a few days later with an English Vista on it...to find we had a problem. It wouldn't connect to the internet. We fixed that problem, only to find another: it wouldn't read Japanese. And the usual patch didn't work.
So, we yanked the Vista on it, and put Ubuntu 8.10 on it - if I was going to download an operating system, I was at least going to do it legally. I just...I like the idea of open source. I support the principle. I'm not a Japanese woman - I tend to be ruled more by principles than pragmatism, and here was a perfect example of this.
The problem is, Roddy doesn't really know anything about Ubuntu. And I sure as hell don't. So there were a few problems - which a week or so later James pointed out, and told me to simply uninstall, reinstall.
By this stage, I had gotten to the paranoid, and had bought an external hard-drive to back all my files and photos onto. I checked that everything was backed up (though apparently I didn't check thoroughly enough, as I still managed to delete all my photos from Mt Takao, as well as a bunch of my earlier photos, which made me kinda sad), and launched into the unknown - installing my own OS.
It worked! And I have been quietly learning about Ubuntu ever since then. I have begun to lurk the forums...
There are still some little problems. I managed to remove a bunch of useful stuff from my panel, and I am struggling to get them back on. Skype only works if I plug a microphone into it (which I don't have, but am avoiding shopping for until Tim gets here, since I have started to really loath electronics stores), and if I enable my graphics card, I delete the internet.
Slight problem there, as I want the spinny desktop cube.
Still, I have the internet. I have open source. I can type in, and read Japanese. I have a music player, and a media player. I have multiple desktops, and although they don't spin and I haven't been able to get different backgrounds on them (related to my lack of driver, I think), I am in love with my multiple desktops. How do people live without them?
I particularly like the keyboard, which is of course is Japanese, but because of the way I have set my computer up, it reads the keys of an English keyboard. I have to type without looking at the keys, as while the letters are in the right place, none of the punctuation marks are. Which is fine for me, as I touch type anyway. But it's fun to watch other people's brains break. I can change it so that the keys type what is written on them, but I'm not used to that layout, so I make more mistakes that way!
And I have a computer called Nanaji, of whom I am becoming increasingly fond.
Two months after the saga began, I have a workable computer which does pretty much everything I want, except rotate it's desktops. But I can live with that.