In other news, I'm an idiot.
No, I don't think that's particularly news to anyone who knows me really. So you know my bike? Since I bought it, the light has been broken on it. I've been pretty lazy, so I haven't bothered to get it fixed until today. So I head back to the place where I bought it, Kuroganeya, which is like a Home Depot type of place. I go over to the guy and tell him about how the light on my bike is broken. It was broken when I bought it. I bought it at that store. That's pretty much a direct translation of what I said, simple language and all. I think he was getting annoyed that I kept talking. Anyway, he promptly went into a really long speech using plenty of "node"s (because) and the ba-form at least once (can be an "if" clause, amongst at least once other thing, I think. Shame I didn't get the verb proper, only the ba-form suffix) Basically, I didn't understand him. I said as much, and he dumbed down his Japanese a ton (think never-taken-a-class-before level) and I was able to figure out he wanted to know if I had my bike with me. (Which I figured he was saying before, but couldn't really know. He could just have easily been saying they didn't fix things there and telling me where to actually get it fixed.) So anyway, I go get my bike and he looks at it. Two seconds later, he flips a switch and the light works. Do you understand me? It worked this whole time. I just didn't know how. So while thoughts of how I'm an idiot run through my head (and, undoubtedly, his) I simply say "sumimasen" and go away. But words don't begin to convey the stupidity I felt there.I didn't even go back to get the product I intended to buy but put down near the bikes when I left the store to get my bike. (I went to get a new one from where I found it in the store instead.)
Also, I'm sick. Day after Christmas, headed into Tokyo with one of the other ALTs. She doesn't speak any Japanese practically, but can understand some. I can speak, but can't understand. So together, we're almost compenent! So aside from finding out that Akihabara, just like Kofu, becomes dead at 8pm (well, to be fair, people still walked the Akihabara streets even if all the shops were closed, unlike Kofu) We went hotel searching and then ended up getting something to drink at a bar. Well, the wind was blowing. And it felt like I was wearing a T-shirt. Not the winter coat I was really wearing. So the next day, we return to Akihabara and I strt feeling sick. We ended up heading home that day instead of the next day as originally planned, and didn't even go to any of the sights we'd planned to visit. Had a headache, bad cough, runny nose, chills, etc. Still have the runny nose and the bad cough though. Hope itll b gone soon. I've gone through all the free tissues random people gave me in Tokyo and will probably finish this box by tomorrow. (Luckily, I got another box for free when I went to pay my gas bill, for some strange reason.)
Hmm... Tomorrow, this Japanese guy in the city, goes by the name of "Columbo" for whatever reason, is having this moch-zuki making party thing. Basically making mochi for New Years. He does it every year, and invites all the ALTs. So I hafta get up at 8am tomorrow and get picked up at 10. Hope I feel better.
Christmas was quiet. Most of the other ALTs are gone elsewhere, so me and the aforementioned ALT above bought Christmas dinner and made it in her apartment. (Huge salad with ham, apple, crutons, and more) as well as some salmon and roasted ham, and mashed potatoes. She ended up making most of it, but I did help a bit.
Come to think of it, I was sick around this time last year. Stupid reaturant cook.
So Lost Odyssey is boring me. Maybe that's not the right word, but I'm not loving at, and I find the dreams- a substantial part of the game where a huge part of the main character's development takes place- depressing. Like, really really really depressing. So I beat disc 2 and shelved it for a while. Played less than two hours of Tales of Vesperia and already love it. The graphis, the theme song (Ring a Bell by Bonnie Pink-- first time the English release of a Tales of... game has had a proper theme song, and by the same artist as the Japanese version too! You DID all buy a copy of it on iTunes for me, right?) Also got Viva Pinata 2 for Christmas, but have yet to play it obviously.
Other Christmas stash included Doctor Who season 4, Sarah Jane season 1, the Doctor Who animated short on DVD, As well as three books that for some reason my parents decided not to wrap. Yeah.
So, Doctor Who christmas special. The Next Doctor. No spoilers, but it was certainly fun. Pretty creative too. No idea when Sciffy will bother to air it i the US since there's no proper season to go along with it, and the next special is (agonizingly) not scheduled until Easter(!) so yeah.
Hmm... anything else? I sent out presents to my parents, ended up sending them in two boxes seperately, from two different post offices. Long story. Anyway, yeah. Tired now, sick, etc.
Later.
Also, I'm sick. Day after Christmas, headed into Tokyo with one of the other ALTs. She doesn't speak any Japanese practically, but can understand some. I can speak, but can't understand. So together, we're almost compenent! So aside from finding out that Akihabara, just like Kofu, becomes dead at 8pm (well, to be fair, people still walked the Akihabara streets even if all the shops were closed, unlike Kofu) We went hotel searching and then ended up getting something to drink at a bar. Well, the wind was blowing. And it felt like I was wearing a T-shirt. Not the winter coat I was really wearing. So the next day, we return to Akihabara and I strt feeling sick. We ended up heading home that day instead of the next day as originally planned, and didn't even go to any of the sights we'd planned to visit. Had a headache, bad cough, runny nose, chills, etc. Still have the runny nose and the bad cough though. Hope itll b gone soon. I've gone through all the free tissues random people gave me in Tokyo and will probably finish this box by tomorrow. (Luckily, I got another box for free when I went to pay my gas bill, for some strange reason.)
Hmm... Tomorrow, this Japanese guy in the city, goes by the name of "Columbo" for whatever reason, is having this moch-zuki making party thing. Basically making mochi for New Years. He does it every year, and invites all the ALTs. So I hafta get up at 8am tomorrow and get picked up at 10. Hope I feel better.
Christmas was quiet. Most of the other ALTs are gone elsewhere, so me and the aforementioned ALT above bought Christmas dinner and made it in her apartment. (Huge salad with ham, apple, crutons, and more) as well as some salmon and roasted ham, and mashed potatoes. She ended up making most of it, but I did help a bit.
Come to think of it, I was sick around this time last year. Stupid reaturant cook.
So Lost Odyssey is boring me. Maybe that's not the right word, but I'm not loving at, and I find the dreams- a substantial part of the game where a huge part of the main character's development takes place- depressing. Like, really really really depressing. So I beat disc 2 and shelved it for a while. Played less than two hours of Tales of Vesperia and already love it. The graphis, the theme song (Ring a Bell by Bonnie Pink-- first time the English release of a Tales of... game has had a proper theme song, and by the same artist as the Japanese version too! You DID all buy a copy of it on iTunes for me, right?) Also got Viva Pinata 2 for Christmas, but have yet to play it obviously.
Other Christmas stash included Doctor Who season 4, Sarah Jane season 1, the Doctor Who animated short on DVD, As well as three books that for some reason my parents decided not to wrap. Yeah.
So, Doctor Who christmas special. The Next Doctor. No spoilers, but it was certainly fun. Pretty creative too. No idea when Sciffy will bother to air it i the US since there's no proper season to go along with it, and the next special is (agonizingly) not scheduled until Easter(!) so yeah.
Hmm... anything else? I sent out presents to my parents, ended up sending them in two boxes seperately, from two different post offices. Long story. Anyway, yeah. Tired now, sick, etc.
Later.