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I spent the last 6 hours or so (it's now what, 4am?) attempting to get Linux to run on my USB stick. I did have one version running but it was kind of old and I couldn't save changes to it and it didn't have gaim or gimp or other things. It did have Japanese support, though, which seemed good. Sigh. I'll probly just go back to that, maybe.
Before that, I was out shopping. I did go looking at some laptop prices and for hard drives and stuff like that and I came to the conclusion that computers suck and are expensive. Hopefully I can meet up with Jeff and get a hard drive from him and try that out. The shops I went to didn't even have laptop hard drives, though to be fair they were places like Sakuraya, which is really just a techy store, not really a computer store per se. I didn't go into Tokyo today so I didn't check out the apple store or anything like that. But I did see a Macbook at the stores I was at and it actually seemed kind of lame and plasticy/rubbery to me, if that makes any sense.
I went to Urawa Mint and completed my Yukio Tanaka collection, the early part at least. I now have 25 Yukio Tanaka cards from 1991 to 2007. I'm missing a few recent ones but those don't worry me so much. The Urawa Mint is just an amazing, amazing store, full of so many interesting cards and collections, and boxes and packs and omfg. I also went to Koshigaya, which is cheap but not amazing. I thought about going to the Koshigaya Bookoff too but it was just TOO COLD AND WINDY outside. Sigh. I couldn't even do laundry this evening because it was below freezing, so I worried my laundry machine might freeze since it's outside on my balcony.
I didn't actually leave my apartment to go anywhere until around 4pm, being as I woke up around 1:30pm, having not set an alarm. I felt really pretty sluggish today and my back hurt. Also I accidentally tan into my door handle with my hip on Saturday morning and now I have a big bruise on my hip which isn't helping matters any. It only hurts when my phone jabs into it, honestly, but eh.
Saturday was a normal day, aside from staying at work until 9:30 doing stuff for GIEA. Sigh. I went up to Urawa GEOS with Eri, except we got lost and had to call Duane. We were only at the party there for like an hour, hour and a half, but I had a pretty good time once I got some beer into me (wooo, Sparkling Hop). Saw a bunch of the students I had met at the Urawa Christmas party and remembered all of their names, of course, so they were really surprised but happy about that. However, I think I talked too much, and talked too much in Japanese at that. Partially it was because I have no clue what level people are in English, partially it's because most people there were talking to each other in Japanese, and partially it's because I got into this awesome conversation with this couple... the girl studies English at GEOS but her boyfriend completely doesn't understand English at all, but they're both really funny people. Turns out they went to Urawa Gakuin HS a couple of years ago and the guy even played at Koshien with the baseball team there. Holy shit! I was like, "did you know, er, Kizuka?" "Yeah! He's our sempai! WHOA, you know that Kizuka went to Urawa, that's so cool!" and so on... all in Japanese, of course. Although haha, I ran into a funny language issue trying to explain Safeco Field's roof to the guy.
But Eri tells me that my Japanese speaking sounds like I'm a 17-year-old boy or something, it's too rough. I was like "Well, what do you expect, most of what I listen to speech-wise is sports..."
There were actually a pretty big number of foreigners there, I think they're mostly Patrick's friends, a bunch of British/Irish guys who didn't work for GEOS. One of them spoke excellent Japanese but the others didn't so much.
I really wanted to go to the after-party, but it was kind of weird like, all of the foreigners were leaving for last train around 11:30, including Eri and Duane, so I figured I wasn't supposed to stick around :( There weren't that many people remaining by then anyway but two of them were people I had talked to a lot and wanted to keep hanging out with, so, oh well. Maybe the next party, assuming Urawa-manager-san invites me, which he probably will. He was all like "It's so good to see you! ...except that I have to do more work so I can't talk to you now!! And those people from Head Office keep calling me!!" I told him how we'd also been working until 9:30, but at least I don't have to ever deal with calls from Head Office. Anyway, Duane and I walked back to the station with one of the students who lives near there, and then I rode the train with Duane, doing kanji flash cards with him. Wheeee JLPT 2-kyuu studying FTW or something.
But, I had kind of really hoped to go to karaoke after the party and I didn't get to, so I am sad. I want to go to karaoke. But unlike movies and food and everything else, that seems like it'd just be too freaking weird to go by myself.
Before that, I was out shopping. I did go looking at some laptop prices and for hard drives and stuff like that and I came to the conclusion that computers suck and are expensive. Hopefully I can meet up with Jeff and get a hard drive from him and try that out. The shops I went to didn't even have laptop hard drives, though to be fair they were places like Sakuraya, which is really just a techy store, not really a computer store per se. I didn't go into Tokyo today so I didn't check out the apple store or anything like that. But I did see a Macbook at the stores I was at and it actually seemed kind of lame and plasticy/rubbery to me, if that makes any sense.
I went to Urawa Mint and completed my Yukio Tanaka collection, the early part at least. I now have 25 Yukio Tanaka cards from 1991 to 2007. I'm missing a few recent ones but those don't worry me so much. The Urawa Mint is just an amazing, amazing store, full of so many interesting cards and collections, and boxes and packs and omfg. I also went to Koshigaya, which is cheap but not amazing. I thought about going to the Koshigaya Bookoff too but it was just TOO COLD AND WINDY outside. Sigh. I couldn't even do laundry this evening because it was below freezing, so I worried my laundry machine might freeze since it's outside on my balcony.
I didn't actually leave my apartment to go anywhere until around 4pm, being as I woke up around 1:30pm, having not set an alarm. I felt really pretty sluggish today and my back hurt. Also I accidentally tan into my door handle with my hip on Saturday morning and now I have a big bruise on my hip which isn't helping matters any. It only hurts when my phone jabs into it, honestly, but eh.
Saturday was a normal day, aside from staying at work until 9:30 doing stuff for GIEA. Sigh. I went up to Urawa GEOS with Eri, except we got lost and had to call Duane. We were only at the party there for like an hour, hour and a half, but I had a pretty good time once I got some beer into me (wooo, Sparkling Hop). Saw a bunch of the students I had met at the Urawa Christmas party and remembered all of their names, of course, so they were really surprised but happy about that. However, I think I talked too much, and talked too much in Japanese at that. Partially it was because I have no clue what level people are in English, partially it's because most people there were talking to each other in Japanese, and partially it's because I got into this awesome conversation with this couple... the girl studies English at GEOS but her boyfriend completely doesn't understand English at all, but they're both really funny people. Turns out they went to Urawa Gakuin HS a couple of years ago and the guy even played at Koshien with the baseball team there. Holy shit! I was like, "did you know, er, Kizuka?" "Yeah! He's our sempai! WHOA, you know that Kizuka went to Urawa, that's so cool!" and so on... all in Japanese, of course. Although haha, I ran into a funny language issue trying to explain Safeco Field's roof to the guy.
But Eri tells me that my Japanese speaking sounds like I'm a 17-year-old boy or something, it's too rough. I was like "Well, what do you expect, most of what I listen to speech-wise is sports..."
There were actually a pretty big number of foreigners there, I think they're mostly Patrick's friends, a bunch of British/Irish guys who didn't work for GEOS. One of them spoke excellent Japanese but the others didn't so much.
I really wanted to go to the after-party, but it was kind of weird like, all of the foreigners were leaving for last train around 11:30, including Eri and Duane, so I figured I wasn't supposed to stick around :( There weren't that many people remaining by then anyway but two of them were people I had talked to a lot and wanted to keep hanging out with, so, oh well. Maybe the next party, assuming Urawa-manager-san invites me, which he probably will. He was all like "It's so good to see you! ...except that I have to do more work so I can't talk to you now!! And those people from Head Office keep calling me!!" I told him how we'd also been working until 9:30, but at least I don't have to ever deal with calls from Head Office. Anyway, Duane and I walked back to the station with one of the students who lives near there, and then I rode the train with Duane, doing kanji flash cards with him. Wheeee JLPT 2-kyuu studying FTW or something.
But, I had kind of really hoped to go to karaoke after the party and I didn't get to, so I am sad. I want to go to karaoke. But unlike movies and food and everything else, that seems like it'd just be too freaking weird to go by myself.
