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Shopping, ducks, linux, and other fun
Dear the internet:
Do I get any geek cred for the fact that I just had to install SSH (and SSL as a step) on the Linux OS that I'm running off of my 1GB USB stick (which I finally managed to partition correctly and make bootable and put a Linux image onto)? And all just so I could show you a picture of my USB stick because I think it is really funny that I've had this Tomonori Maeda charm hanging off of it for several months but now it looks like he's got the same feeling I do: wanting to bash in the computer with a baseball bat? (Because honestly: what linux system doesn't come with freaking TELNET and FTP? This one, apparently.)
I feel like I am so ignorant about computers a lot of the time, but I mean, I've been able to do a hell of a lot in the last week with this. No hard drive? So what?
Uh, anyway, today I went shopping for a while. It is apparently impossible to find a laptop IDE hard drive nowadays. The nice people at the computer stores suggested I either go install Windows on a USB external hard drive (in which case I already have some 80GB portable drives I brought over from America that I'd experiment on before spending 15000 yen ($140) on a new one), or, of course, they suggest getting a brand new laptop! Which will only cost me like 140000 yen ($1300) or so! Wheeeeeee ugh.
I will admit there was a really funny moment of me trying to explain what happened to my laptop, in Japanese, and I said "HD wa... wa... anou... shindeshimaimashita." ("It died, unfortunately.") The clerk laughed and corrected me to something like "kowashita" ("It broke down").
So instead of being majorly stressed over it, I decided to go off in the other direction and just have fun shopping in the mall for once. I got a bunch of things, only a few of which were particularly useful. First, I got lunch at Subway. My stamp card is almost full! Yay! After that I went to the videogame arcade and did what I've been meaning to do for a while -- finally got a Konami e-amusement pass and set it up. I used to have one before, actually, but I left it in Seattle somewhere, so oops. Now I can actually keep track of my Pop'n'Music scores and all. I should have done this ages ago but I'm a dumbass, plus I hadn't seen vending machines selling them in the Warabi or Kawaguchi arcades. I also played some UFO catchers and didn't get anything and felt really stupid putting money into them argh.
Then I went to the bookstore and I ended up getting two Player Meikan books -- the pocketsized NPB one I got last year as well, to bring with me to games when I need to know a uniform number or whatever else, and then the big Nikkan Sports one which has big color headshots of players, and lots of information about the stadiums and the teams and a ton of historical data as well, like Japan Series results and whatnot. You'd be surprised by how many choices you get for buying these data books -- in pocket-sized they had the NPB official one for 380 yen, the BBM Mook one for 500 yen, another one done by some newspaper but I forget which for 350 yen, and then the Chunichi one that Jeff had mentioned for 200 yen. Each one had varying amounts of information and photos and all. Then the big-sized ones (all around 950-1000 yen) also had a huge amount of info, and I went with the Nikkan one because of its extensive stadium information and its schedule format, actually.
Then I randomly went into a few stores in the "east mall" area, which are mostly full of crap for kids, although one was just a kitschy gift store filled with lots of bright happy things, sort of like a Spencer's almost. The funniest corner was one where they had tote bags full of American candy products and such:
Anyway, as you can see, to the right half of that there are also animal-related things for the bathroom, like soap dishes and bottles, toothbrush holders, etc, mostly in frogs and ducks though they also had cats and pigs too. And I could NOT resist getting the duck toilet paper holder. I don't know why. This seems to be a distinctly Japanese thing, as I don't really remember seeing them much in America, but we have one at GEOS (it's just blue and flowery), and I see them in restaurants and whatnot -- it sits over the toilet paper holder as a cover but also dangles down with an extra roll in it.
Here's what it looks like in my bathroom. IS THIS NOT THE COOLEST DUCK THING EVER?
It was 1260 yen, which might be a bit much for an impulse buy for my bathroom but it's so goddamn cute. At least I resisted getting all of the other ducky things -- cups, toothbrush holders, etc. I sort of already have that stuff.
Alright, then I went clothes shopping for a bit. I'd been meaning to get another cheap (1000 yen) longsleeve shirt at Uniqlo so I got a tan one, and I also got another dress blouse for work at Jusco (1980 yen, it's light blue and is another one of these ones that you don't need to iron), as well as some more socks. Woooo.
Oddly, I am beginning to realize that I have a whole lot of clothes here that I'm never going to wear -- mostly either stuff I bought for work that I won't or can't wear, or things that are just too big for me to wear now. And I don't really have room for them in this apartment. I guess if I go back to America in April, I'll just bring them with me and take them to Goodwill or something like that. You know, I joke about my baseball card habit being bad, but if you think about it, at least cards don't take up that much space. (Though I still need to figure out how to get rid of the doubles I have. Hmm.)
Ok, after all that I did something really stupid. Well, it wasn't stupid on purpose. What really happened is that I got lost in the east half of the mall, so I figured I'd just go down to the first floor and find my way out from there. Except when I went down the stairs, I was next to.. Krispy Kreme. Which was advertising "Special seasonal donuts for White Day", namely strawberry heart and mint heart donuts. And I realized the line was super-short. So I figured, what the hell, I'd go in and try the new donuts. And hey, I even got to see the big donut machine with all the people scurrying around packing donuts and whatever. Exciting! It was literally 5 minutes for me to go in, get a free donut, go to the counter, order, pay, leave. I wonder if the KK in Shinjuku still has 3-hour waits every day? Anyway, I got 4 donuts -- two of the strawberry hearts, one mint heart, and one chocolate-custard. As it is, they're ok. Not fantastic, not terrible.
And then I WENT HOME because it was like 7pm and I was kind of tired from walking around all afternoon, although I was happy, somehow. Until I got outside and saw that my bike was in a tangle with like four other bikes that had fallen over on the ground. GRR.
I came home and did laundry, and went to Kura for dinner, and came home to finish laundry and watch SMAPxSMAP and Ainori. EXCEPT THAT AINORI WASN'T ON, AND SMAPXSMAP WAS MOSTLY FLASHBACKS. It was a "Sweets" episode so they just showed tons of Bistro SMAP desserts. At the end they had a performance with Dralion though -- the Cirque du Soleil show -- doing Hoop Diving or whatever, and then SMAP sang "Triangle" with the Cirque performers doing stuff in the background. I wonder which is a bigger act -- Dralion or SMAP? Whee. Either way, there was some dorama on instead of Ainori so now I have to wait another week to see Remi shoot down Ryo! Grrr!
And, well, I've been messing with Linux since. Yay. Even if you didn't bother clicking on the cut I still recommend looking at my COOL NEW DUCK TOILET PAPER HOLDER because this is really what Japan is all about. Or something.
Do I get any geek cred for the fact that I just had to install SSH (and SSL as a step) on the Linux OS that I'm running off of my 1GB USB stick (which I finally managed to partition correctly and make bootable and put a Linux image onto)? And all just so I could show you a picture of my USB stick because I think it is really funny that I've had this Tomonori Maeda charm hanging off of it for several months but now it looks like he's got the same feeling I do: wanting to bash in the computer with a baseball bat? (Because honestly: what linux system doesn't come with freaking TELNET and FTP? This one, apparently.)
I feel like I am so ignorant about computers a lot of the time, but I mean, I've been able to do a hell of a lot in the last week with this. No hard drive? So what?
Uh, anyway, today I went shopping for a while. It is apparently impossible to find a laptop IDE hard drive nowadays. The nice people at the computer stores suggested I either go install Windows on a USB external hard drive (in which case I already have some 80GB portable drives I brought over from America that I'd experiment on before spending 15000 yen ($140) on a new one), or, of course, they suggest getting a brand new laptop! Which will only cost me like 140000 yen ($1300) or so! Wheeeeeee ugh.
I will admit there was a really funny moment of me trying to explain what happened to my laptop, in Japanese, and I said "HD wa... wa... anou... shindeshimaimashita." ("It died, unfortunately.") The clerk laughed and corrected me to something like "kowashita" ("It broke down").
So instead of being majorly stressed over it, I decided to go off in the other direction and just have fun shopping in the mall for once. I got a bunch of things, only a few of which were particularly useful. First, I got lunch at Subway. My stamp card is almost full! Yay! After that I went to the videogame arcade and did what I've been meaning to do for a while -- finally got a Konami e-amusement pass and set it up. I used to have one before, actually, but I left it in Seattle somewhere, so oops. Now I can actually keep track of my Pop'n'Music scores and all. I should have done this ages ago but I'm a dumbass, plus I hadn't seen vending machines selling them in the Warabi or Kawaguchi arcades. I also played some UFO catchers and didn't get anything and felt really stupid putting money into them argh.
Then I went to the bookstore and I ended up getting two Player Meikan books -- the pocketsized NPB one I got last year as well, to bring with me to games when I need to know a uniform number or whatever else, and then the big Nikkan Sports one which has big color headshots of players, and lots of information about the stadiums and the teams and a ton of historical data as well, like Japan Series results and whatnot. You'd be surprised by how many choices you get for buying these data books -- in pocket-sized they had the NPB official one for 380 yen, the BBM Mook one for 500 yen, another one done by some newspaper but I forget which for 350 yen, and then the Chunichi one that Jeff had mentioned for 200 yen. Each one had varying amounts of information and photos and all. Then the big-sized ones (all around 950-1000 yen) also had a huge amount of info, and I went with the Nikkan one because of its extensive stadium information and its schedule format, actually.
Then I randomly went into a few stores in the "east mall" area, which are mostly full of crap for kids, although one was just a kitschy gift store filled with lots of bright happy things, sort of like a Spencer's almost. The funniest corner was one where they had tote bags full of American candy products and such:
Anyway, as you can see, to the right half of that there are also animal-related things for the bathroom, like soap dishes and bottles, toothbrush holders, etc, mostly in frogs and ducks though they also had cats and pigs too. And I could NOT resist getting the duck toilet paper holder. I don't know why. This seems to be a distinctly Japanese thing, as I don't really remember seeing them much in America, but we have one at GEOS (it's just blue and flowery), and I see them in restaurants and whatnot -- it sits over the toilet paper holder as a cover but also dangles down with an extra roll in it.
Here's what it looks like in my bathroom. IS THIS NOT THE COOLEST DUCK THING EVER?
It was 1260 yen, which might be a bit much for an impulse buy for my bathroom but it's so goddamn cute. At least I resisted getting all of the other ducky things -- cups, toothbrush holders, etc. I sort of already have that stuff.
Alright, then I went clothes shopping for a bit. I'd been meaning to get another cheap (1000 yen) longsleeve shirt at Uniqlo so I got a tan one, and I also got another dress blouse for work at Jusco (1980 yen, it's light blue and is another one of these ones that you don't need to iron), as well as some more socks. Woooo.
Oddly, I am beginning to realize that I have a whole lot of clothes here that I'm never going to wear -- mostly either stuff I bought for work that I won't or can't wear, or things that are just too big for me to wear now. And I don't really have room for them in this apartment. I guess if I go back to America in April, I'll just bring them with me and take them to Goodwill or something like that. You know, I joke about my baseball card habit being bad, but if you think about it, at least cards don't take up that much space. (Though I still need to figure out how to get rid of the doubles I have. Hmm.)
Ok, after all that I did something really stupid. Well, it wasn't stupid on purpose. What really happened is that I got lost in the east half of the mall, so I figured I'd just go down to the first floor and find my way out from there. Except when I went down the stairs, I was next to.. Krispy Kreme. Which was advertising "Special seasonal donuts for White Day", namely strawberry heart and mint heart donuts. And I realized the line was super-short. So I figured, what the hell, I'd go in and try the new donuts. And hey, I even got to see the big donut machine with all the people scurrying around packing donuts and whatever. Exciting! It was literally 5 minutes for me to go in, get a free donut, go to the counter, order, pay, leave. I wonder if the KK in Shinjuku still has 3-hour waits every day? Anyway, I got 4 donuts -- two of the strawberry hearts, one mint heart, and one chocolate-custard. As it is, they're ok. Not fantastic, not terrible.
And then I WENT HOME because it was like 7pm and I was kind of tired from walking around all afternoon, although I was happy, somehow. Until I got outside and saw that my bike was in a tangle with like four other bikes that had fallen over on the ground. GRR.
I came home and did laundry, and went to Kura for dinner, and came home to finish laundry and watch SMAPxSMAP and Ainori. EXCEPT THAT AINORI WASN'T ON, AND SMAPXSMAP WAS MOSTLY FLASHBACKS. It was a "Sweets" episode so they just showed tons of Bistro SMAP desserts. At the end they had a performance with Dralion though -- the Cirque du Soleil show -- doing Hoop Diving or whatever, and then SMAP sang "Triangle" with the Cirque performers doing stuff in the background. I wonder which is a bigger act -- Dralion or SMAP? Whee. Either way, there was some dorama on instead of Ainori so now I have to wait another week to see Remi shoot down Ryo! Grrr!
And, well, I've been messing with Linux since. Yay. Even if you didn't bother clicking on the cut I still recommend looking at my COOL NEW DUCK TOILET PAPER HOLDER because this is really what Japan is all about. Or something.
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