It's still going...
~ . ~
Saturday I woke up around 3 pm, showered, and headed down to Iidabashi to meet up with Bryce (who had still not slept) and Will. Picked up my PASMO card (which lets me travel from Nishikasai station to Iidabashi, where school is, for a flat monthly fee, and I can put money on it to use as a regular train pass... and I just need to pass it over a sensor to have it read!) and grabbed some lunch before heading back toward Nishikasai. We were supposed to meet up with Joe and Luke to all go get cell phones at the same time, but we couldn't find them. At some point they were going to head down to Shinjuku and meet up with some other friends anyway, so we headed off to look at phones without them. This is where the private sectors bureaucracy came in. The first store we went to was a designated Soft Bank store (and by the way, Bryce is so tired that he was falling asleep just sitting waiting to be called up). Bryce asked about the White Plan (which is what he has, pays 1000 en (less than $10) a month, has a year contract, got his phone pretty cheap) the lady was saying that we had to sign a two year contract and went on about the different fees and options (prepaid, month by month, crazy prices). So, after grabbing a little booklet with all their information and plans in it we headed out to check out another phone place. The next place was a shop that dealt with all different companies and we went in with high hopes. Of course, because we are just that lucky, they were saying that we had to sign at least a two and a half year contract and had their own list of prices and fees. Once again, when Bryce mentioned what he has they looked extremely confused and said they couldn't do that. So, once again defeated, we wandered off to find some food.
We ended up going to this kaitenzushi (the sushi place with everything on the moving track) place that is right next to the dorms. The prices weren't too bad, but it wasn't the 100 en a plate that we had hoped for. Will was able to get a full salad (that actually looked pretty good) and some vegan friendly sushi (which included a few plates of natto sushi, and if you don't know what natto is the short of it all is fermented soy beans). We, as usual, sat around and talked for a while before we left, said goodbye to Will and headed up to the dorm. At 3 am the next morning was the live streaming of the BSU-UO game, and Bryce subscribes to Bronco vision on line, so we were going to watch the game with Luke. Bryce laid down to grab a few hours of sleep before then, and I just killed time on my computer.
At about 3 Luke came down and knocked on my door. We went in to Bryce's room where he was still sleeping. We woke him up to see if he still wanted to watch the game and told him that it didn't make much of a difference to us if he just wanted to get more sleep. Well, he sat up, put on his glasses, and in that half asleep way fumbled through a couple words. At that point Luke and I told him it was ok, that he should probably go back to sleep, and we headed off to our rooms to go to bed. The next morning (and this is the fun part), Bryce come in to my room to hang out for a bit and he apologized for missing the game the previous night. After I told him that it was fine and that he had looked pretty tired when we woke him up, he looked quite confused. Apparently he has absolutely no recollection of us coming in and waking him up, or anything close. The best part of all of this, was that while talking he started scratching his chin a bit, got a really confused look on his face (again), and asked me when he had shaved. Of course I told him I had no idea, and that I had just assumed he had done it before going to bed the previous night. Turns out he had done this all in his sleep, and he actually did a pretty damn good job for not being conscious.
~ . ~
Sunday afternoon Bryce, Luke and I grabbed some food from the store and sat down to watch the first half of the game, which was still up to stream on the website. While sitting around I picked up the SoftBank booklet and flipped it open to the English section. The fun part about this, is that when I looked up the White Plan the first thing it say about it is, and I quote, “Regardless of the usage term, everyone receives: Basic Charge 980 en (incl. tax)/month.” So basically, someone was either misinformed or just lying to us about the availability of the cheap plan for one year. Fun times with companies! After that we got Joe and we all went down to Kameari to the SoftBank store that Bryce had gone to and met up with Akiko, Zach, and Will. After a little talking to the same lady that had helped him it turned out that the exact deal on the phone and everything that Bryce had gotten had ended the week before. However, the lady looked into it and was able to get us a very similar deal (our phones were a bit more expensive, but that was really it). Since Joe and Luke are both still 19, Will and I had to take one each under us on our plan as a second phone. This is no problem, as Luke turns 20 next month (and then he can switch the phone to his name) and Joe is in December. Until then they will simply pay us each month when we go to pay the phone bill. Our phone deal was that for the very first month we have to pay roughly $40 for the plan, but after that we can switch to the White Plan and then only pay around $10 a month. So finally, after our efforts we were all able to get cell phones and now it will be a LOT easier to get in contact and plan things.
From the SoftBank we wandered to a store to pick up a bottle of Shochu (alcohol) to give to Akiko's parents as a thank you present. It was mostly from Bryce and I who have been wanting to get them something for letting us stay at their place, but we said it was from all of us as her mom had invited us all to their place for dinner. Akiko's father thanked us and said that it was a good choice, so that was good to hear. From that point on we all (numbering 7, not including Akiko's parents) sat around and ate a full meal of tempura, curry rice, ramen, fries, these tasty fried cheese wanton things (her mom had even made a few vegan items for Will), and talked, as per usual. After a while of the delicious meal where no one left hungry, she gave us each a bunch of some of the most delicious and gigantic grapes I have ever had (I wish I had taken a picture of them before devouring them), and we all headed off home.
~ . ~
Saturday I woke up around 3 pm, showered, and headed down to Iidabashi to meet up with Bryce (who had still not slept) and Will. Picked up my PASMO card (which lets me travel from Nishikasai station to Iidabashi, where school is, for a flat monthly fee, and I can put money on it to use as a regular train pass... and I just need to pass it over a sensor to have it read!) and grabbed some lunch before heading back toward Nishikasai. We were supposed to meet up with Joe and Luke to all go get cell phones at the same time, but we couldn't find them. At some point they were going to head down to Shinjuku and meet up with some other friends anyway, so we headed off to look at phones without them. This is where the private sectors bureaucracy came in. The first store we went to was a designated Soft Bank store (and by the way, Bryce is so tired that he was falling asleep just sitting waiting to be called up). Bryce asked about the White Plan (which is what he has, pays 1000 en (less than $10) a month, has a year contract, got his phone pretty cheap) the lady was saying that we had to sign a two year contract and went on about the different fees and options (prepaid, month by month, crazy prices). So, after grabbing a little booklet with all their information and plans in it we headed out to check out another phone place. The next place was a shop that dealt with all different companies and we went in with high hopes. Of course, because we are just that lucky, they were saying that we had to sign at least a two and a half year contract and had their own list of prices and fees. Once again, when Bryce mentioned what he has they looked extremely confused and said they couldn't do that. So, once again defeated, we wandered off to find some food.
We ended up going to this kaitenzushi (the sushi place with everything on the moving track) place that is right next to the dorms. The prices weren't too bad, but it wasn't the 100 en a plate that we had hoped for. Will was able to get a full salad (that actually looked pretty good) and some vegan friendly sushi (which included a few plates of natto sushi, and if you don't know what natto is the short of it all is fermented soy beans). We, as usual, sat around and talked for a while before we left, said goodbye to Will and headed up to the dorm. At 3 am the next morning was the live streaming of the BSU-UO game, and Bryce subscribes to Bronco vision on line, so we were going to watch the game with Luke. Bryce laid down to grab a few hours of sleep before then, and I just killed time on my computer.
At about 3 Luke came down and knocked on my door. We went in to Bryce's room where he was still sleeping. We woke him up to see if he still wanted to watch the game and told him that it didn't make much of a difference to us if he just wanted to get more sleep. Well, he sat up, put on his glasses, and in that half asleep way fumbled through a couple words. At that point Luke and I told him it was ok, that he should probably go back to sleep, and we headed off to our rooms to go to bed. The next morning (and this is the fun part), Bryce come in to my room to hang out for a bit and he apologized for missing the game the previous night. After I told him that it was fine and that he had looked pretty tired when we woke him up, he looked quite confused. Apparently he has absolutely no recollection of us coming in and waking him up, or anything close. The best part of all of this, was that while talking he started scratching his chin a bit, got a really confused look on his face (again), and asked me when he had shaved. Of course I told him I had no idea, and that I had just assumed he had done it before going to bed the previous night. Turns out he had done this all in his sleep, and he actually did a pretty damn good job for not being conscious.
~ . ~
Sunday afternoon Bryce, Luke and I grabbed some food from the store and sat down to watch the first half of the game, which was still up to stream on the website. While sitting around I picked up the SoftBank booklet and flipped it open to the English section. The fun part about this, is that when I looked up the White Plan the first thing it say about it is, and I quote, “Regardless of the usage term, everyone receives: Basic Charge 980 en (incl. tax)/month.” So basically, someone was either misinformed or just lying to us about the availability of the cheap plan for one year. Fun times with companies! After that we got Joe and we all went down to Kameari to the SoftBank store that Bryce had gone to and met up with Akiko, Zach, and Will. After a little talking to the same lady that had helped him it turned out that the exact deal on the phone and everything that Bryce had gotten had ended the week before. However, the lady looked into it and was able to get us a very similar deal (our phones were a bit more expensive, but that was really it). Since Joe and Luke are both still 19, Will and I had to take one each under us on our plan as a second phone. This is no problem, as Luke turns 20 next month (and then he can switch the phone to his name) and Joe is in December. Until then they will simply pay us each month when we go to pay the phone bill. Our phone deal was that for the very first month we have to pay roughly $40 for the plan, but after that we can switch to the White Plan and then only pay around $10 a month. So finally, after our efforts we were all able to get cell phones and now it will be a LOT easier to get in contact and plan things.
From the SoftBank we wandered to a store to pick up a bottle of Shochu (alcohol) to give to Akiko's parents as a thank you present. It was mostly from Bryce and I who have been wanting to get them something for letting us stay at their place, but we said it was from all of us as her mom had invited us all to their place for dinner. Akiko's father thanked us and said that it was a good choice, so that was good to hear. From that point on we all (numbering 7, not including Akiko's parents) sat around and ate a full meal of tempura, curry rice, ramen, fries, these tasty fried cheese wanton things (her mom had even made a few vegan items for Will), and talked, as per usual. After a while of the delicious meal where no one left hungry, she gave us each a bunch of some of the most delicious and gigantic grapes I have ever had (I wish I had taken a picture of them before devouring them), and we all headed off home.
~ . ~