I have a Doctor

I know there haven't been many posts but I really haven't done that much lately as it has been raining a lot. Earlier in the week I did go to the hospital to set up my doctor situation here and get my medicnes and everything taken care of. It was about two hours away but is one of the best hospitals/doctors around so that's where we went. Once we got there I had a lot of tests to do and it basically took all day. So then the doctor gave me my prescriptions, he said I don't have to worry about getting medicine now. And I said, that's good! One less thing. (bonus points if you get that joke) But I was able to get my medicine and all of them at three month supplies so that was good too.

The only other thing I have to share is that I had a really good BLT the other day! But seriously I did, it was at Seattle's Best of all places. The bagel was a little small but the bacon was super thick, anyway it was good.

Oh and one last story, so the other day I was walking around and I saw a sign that looked kinda cartoon, it said game in it and it turned out it was an advertisement of a store called "soft-pit". In Japan games are referred to as "soft" short for software. Anyway I decided to check the place out and walked in to the building and then had to take an elevator to the 4th floor, which is where the store was. When the elevator stopped, you know how there are two sets of doors on the elevator? The first set that's your door then the door that's the floor. Well right away I had a bad feeling the door for the floor was designed with a giant sticker or poster (it was the whole door) and it was this anime girl in a provocative pose, no nudity but still it didn't feel right. As I walked in the color pink was everywhere and there were rows of anime porn DVDs, boobs here boobs there boobs everywhere. There was no one in the shop I couldn't even see anyone working there but there was a voice over the intercom with the typical shop greeting (I think it was done over the speaker and not in person to help not embarrass the shopper). So I was in there, the store wasn't that big at all maybe the size of a large living room back home and the sign said games so I said might as well walk though real quick to see about these games. Well I walked (ran) up and down the isles and saw no games then I saw an area that had a table and chairs around it with a TV in the corner. I think this was an area that was used to play some game with figures or cards so that must have been what the sign was talking about. With that I left as fast as I could. I felt super shady leaving and was just hoping no one saw me to say "pft typical american geek in Japan who likes to watch cartoon porn, what a loser" I mean I'm a geek and all but there are limits.

Delivery Day

First let me start off by talking about yesterday. Yesterday my wife and I went to a Halloween party with some of her friends. It was kind of like a pot luck party where everyone brought some food. I being a slacker went as a soccer player because I happen to have a soccer jersey and my wife went as a lion. It was fun and interesting there was one guest who was kind of crazy, his costume was weird and he had paperclips pulling back his nose. He also really enjoyed singing, all of this with no alcohol mind you.

Today the packages we sent before we left for Japan arrived. So that means I now have my Xbox (yay), I had some issues with a hard drive that I had set up before I left so that kind of sucked. The worst thing was I could not get my profile downloaded so I couldn't connect to Xbox Live which really sucked. I tried to go online to reset the account but apparently I set it up with a different email address and I couldn't remember the password for that. Then I decided to "Chat" with MS support and this is what I got when I clicked the link..

Really Microsoft really?? Just when I was getting really annoyed and thinking that I might have to create a new account and sign up for live all over (and pay again) I remembered that I packed my USB that had all my account profiles and games saved on it. I was able to find it and when I plugged it in everything was all there, thank god.

 Another nice thing is that I can now watch hockey games on the TV using the game center app but the quality is not as good as the computer  (you can full screen it this is just the dashboard) so..... we will have to see about that, prolly wont use it to watch my pens.

The Park and Stuff

A few days ago we went to the park, this park is basically Boston common for Fukuoka. It was pretty nice there is a big pond in the middle and a walking path/bike path that goes around it, there is also a museum and kids parks as well. The pond is filled with turtles and koi fish which was pretty cool. You can tell the age of the koi by their size and most were of the 15 to 20 year old size (about 2.5~3.5 ft long). They also had duck boats like the kind in Boston (not duck tour boats but the ones at the common) and I thought that was pretty funny. Then I went to a Starbucks that was right there and got a hot chocolate, I got the short which is a size we don't even have in the states. Its a little more than half of a tall and it cost $4 so yea I will not be going to Starbucks again while I'm here.

This character was on the running path it was about 5ft tall and looked awesome.

Radio Allergy

Today I went into the city and got some pictures of another game store nothing much the same ol same ol but they did have some nice sales 50% off ps1 games (but I didn't buy any) and they had a few GBA and SFC games but nothing I wanted. I did see a copy of radio allergy (long story short, its a game that was suppose to come out as the last game cube game, I wanted it, it got canceled, moved to wii, only released in Japan, eventually it came out in the ultimate shooting collection for wii in the USA, I own that) which was neat and I was almost tempted to buy it but instead I just grabbed a pic. They also had a collectors edition of mushihimesama which is a really cool game for the xbox 360 but I already own a copy of it, just not the collectors edition. I was tempted but again I passed the price was just to high at $60.

After I got home I sat down and finished playing Super Metroid not the best finishing time or completion rate but I was just playing for funzies so whatever the bigger problem is now I have to find another game to occupy my time.

Hanging out

The last few days have not really been that eventful. My wife went to visit a friend for a few days and my mother-in-law also left for a few days to go hiking. So I have just been hanging out at the house with my father-in-law. However he spends most of the time at his cafe so other than dinner we didn't really see each other too much.

I did go over to the cafe for a bit the other day but it gets tiring because everyone who comes in wants to talk with me. Yesterday we ordered some sushi and had it delivered to the house it was pretty good, better than what I had in Boston that's for sure. Oh and a few days ago I went to McDonald's, but it gave me a stomach ache I think not having eaten beef since I got here had something to do with it (the burger from the other place last week was a veggie burger). I did send my resume to a few teaching jobs and I'm just waiting to hear back about those, I'm not really in a rush for that though.

The Beach House

Today we were going to the beach house, the only down side was that its raining. Before we left we stopped to pick up some lunch and we went to Mos Burger (which is my favorite place). 

Once we got to the house (well more like apartment but its a good size) we sat down to eat and they we had to wait for a guy to come to replace the old stove with a new one. I love this place its so awesome its right on the water but unfortunately they had to cut down the palm trees that you could reach out and touch from both sides of the balcony to make room for a pool, but hey now there is a pool. Also about 30 or so feet to the right (where you see more sand) is a park so there are no buildings and its a really nice place to walk around. Check out the pictures.

The balcony

Looking straight (slightly left)

Looking left and right from the balcony

Stump of the palm tree

View from the bath/shower room

New stove

While the stove was being put in my wife, her mom and I went to a store, its like a farmers market but more organized. Everything comes from the surrounding farms and I liked how there were pictures above some of the items to show where, who, or how it was made. Also they had a homemade ice cream shop and really small donuts.

So I was asking how much rent my in-laws would want for me to stay there after alittle bit my father in-law said he didnt want to talk about rent and that I could use it whenever I wanted, I could go there for a week then come back for a few days whatever. The only thing I need to pay for would be the internet there, about $50. Not a bad deal. 

Finally on the way back I saw this glasses shop, the building was wearing huge glasses and I thought it was pretty funny.

Not much going on

Its been a slow couple of days and I really haven't done much hence there hasn't been any posts. The other day I did finally get my visa and insurance taken care of. The picture on the visa was horrible so I have blurred it out (the same with some other info). There is really not much to say, I went for a walk today but I didn't buy anything. Tomorrow I think I'm going to go to a bank to see about opening an account and then Tuesday I think we are going to the beach house.

We did finalize the rent situation only $300 a month but my wife thinks that means I pay $200 and she only pays $100, I don't know who taught her how to do math but she needs to re-do those figures. Over all thats not a bad price though so I'm pretty happy.

More Mail and Wait your paying me?

Today I got a package from back home. It was mostly things I had asked for, SFC games, a razor (my dad sent enough to last me 10 years), tums, my backpack, iPhone charger. But there was something else, something awesome, a drawing from my 2 year old niece. I'm trying to figure out where to hang it but I love it. Later I popped in one of the games I had sent from home and gave it a go on the TV (my wife calls it the FreeV) I moved the other day.

A Masterpiece

Then yesterday at my Japanese class my teacher asked me to go to a teacher lecture today, he made it seem like a class for people that want to be teachers and they needed students to help out. He said all I would have to do is show up and hang out for 2 hours and they would pay me 2500 yen (about $25). It was at a different location but pretty close to where my regular classes are. I thought about it and decided to go, I looked up how to get there and while I did need to take a bus that I had never taken before it didn't seem too bad. When I got there I checked in and was paid then I was asked to wait in another room with the other students. There were about ten of us and most of them were from my regular class we ended up hanging out and talking for about 30 minutes. Then we were asked to go back to the first room where one student was assigned a group of 8 or so teachers. They asked us questions and we talked it was really more like an interview then a class and then after about an hour the time was up. So normally people pay to be taught but here they were paying the students I just thought that was funny (and awesome!). So in the end I got my first "paycheck" but it was actually cash but hey that works.

Cooking and Stuff

So after I got my package the other day I had asked to cook dinner that night. It was nothing special basically the only thing I cook which my wife calls "Chi-Mah", only this time I used pork instead of beef. There were also more vegetables then I usually would have and the sauce was somewhat of an experiment as they did not have what I used to use back home at the store. Overall it came out pretty good, different than usual but still good. After we ate my in-laws said I should cook every Monday and I answered with "only if you want to eat the same thing every Monday".

The next day my wife and I went in to the city to hang out and then meet up with a friend. We walked around for a while and got something to eat and I saw this really cool alien made out of scrap metal. Then we headed to the bank to see about getting myself an account. We went over all the options but as I still don't have my visa I couldn't sign up for anything just yet. I still want to think about it to see if I'm going to go with that bank or a another more popular bank in the area.

 A few days ago I had got my bus card (a charlie card if your reading this in Boston, only here it costs $5 just to get one) but it did not have my name on it. So we went down to one of the stations and got it set up with my information and stuff. Later we hung out with our friend and he got something to eat while we talked. After eating we went to a store to look around and then headed home.

I spent some time swapping out my father-in-laws old wireless router with mine which increased both speed and range. The range was the big thing because now the wireless signal goes across to the guest house/coffee shop which is what he was trying to get done. I was allowed to move a TV from my in-laws room to a upstairs room so that I could use it, which was nice. I was able to hook up the super famicom and try out a few games today but most of the day was spent watching hockey as the season opened today or well yesterday or this morning... I don't know but it was finally on for me to watch.