The Last Few Days

As a follow up to the Cheetos I spoke about last post, the verdict is in and....... (drum rolllllllllll)..... they are not good :-( or well I shouldn't say not good just they are not the same. Basically the best comparison I can give is to say they taste the way white cheddar cheez-its taste when you were expecting regular, theres something just off with them. I really didn't like them and only ate half the bag, I won't be getting those again anytime soon.

A few days ago I got a package from home with some very important things that I had requested. First and foremost was some Franks RedHot sauce which is not available here in Japan. I love hot sauce but the only thing I could find here was Tabasco but I'm not really a fan of Tabasco. I also had ordered some Nintendo gamebits so that I could open and work on some of the consoles and games I have bought here.

There were a few other things nothing too exciting some gum, candy and a few game cases. There was also a surprise from my niece, first off there was a card from my sister that was beautifully decorated and designed by her. Secondly there was a picture of handprints that had been turned into turkeys for a thanksgiving day card of sorts. It looks great but someone misspelled thanksgiving at the top, and I know it wasn't my niece. Sis I'm looking at you!

The next day I opened up the Super Famicom using the bits and tools that were sent in the package and it was pretty gross inside. I have seen dirty/dusty hardware before but this thing had what seemed like hay inside and in some places the remnants of a long ago spill of something very sugary aka sticky. Unfortunately I was so grossed out and busy cleaning that I forgot to take more pictures of the whole process but it ended up taking me about an hour and a half to clean it up. There is still more work to be done to get it really clean but for now I'm happy with it.

Last night I was going to my Japanese class and stopped by the Book Off that is close by and I found a game I didn't even know existed. IQ Remix + for the PS2, I have the original game on the PS1 and have seen the sequel IQ Final but I was unaware that there was a game on the PS2. In the states the first game was released under the name of Intelligent Qube, it was a game that my sister got when we first had got our first Playstation turns out a lot of people liked it and it was pretty rare it now goes for about $100 on ebay. The Japanese versions are not as valuable but I just like the game and am excited to try this PS2 version. While I do have a Japanese PS2 unfortunately it is still in the states so ill have to wait till I make a visit home before I get the chance to try it out. The best part was that I had a coupon for 100 yen and the game was 105 so I ended up getting the game for just 5 yen (5 cents)

Today my wife and I went out to eat, it was one of those all you can eat places. We had 90 minutes to eat as much as we wanted. I love these places because its a lot of meat, I used to go to places like this back in Boston. When we walked in I told my wife we would need a "Mark like performance", anyone that has gone out to eat with my friend Mark will understand what this means. This was basically my Thanksgiving as I stuffed myself with as much as I could eat, we added it up and ended up getting about 15 plates of just meat then others to get some vegetables and salad (not that I ate that stuff).  We defiantly got our moneys worth but felt like throwing up afterwards.

When we were walking back to the bus station I took some pictures of the illumination that had been put up near one of the shopping districts.

A Meeting and Wouldn't you know it, Games

A few weeks ago I posted a ad online looking for some English speaking people in town to see if anyone wanted to get together and hang out. I meet one guy that responded to the ad yesterday, he is from Canada and is looking to find work as a teacher like me. What I thought was going to be going somewhere to talk and eat like a cafe turned out to be McDonald's because he is on a budget what with not having a job and all. However he was not into hockey so that was a down side, all in all though he was a pretty good guy and I might meet up with him again. While I was in the city I went to the underground city, because they have free wifi there, and they have put up there lights for the holidays. It looked better in person.

After hanging out with the guy from Canada I went to Super Book Off to check on the games, I was close anyway might as well. I didn't think there would be anything worth getting but I found a boxed and totally complete copy of Donkey Kong Country 2 ( I had 1 and 3 so this was perfect) and it was only $5, I also picked up Tiny Toon Adventures 3 ($2.50) for the GameBoy and Soul Hackers ($1) for the Sega Saturn.

After I left Book Off I went to the bank to get some more money as the exchange rate was really good. While at the bank I decided to go to Mandrake because the two are really close. I decided to pick up the copy of X-Men vs Street Fighter ($2.50)for the Saturn that I had passed on before and found another SFC game King of Monsters 2 ($2.00) and a Metroid comic that was $2.

Last night I went to one of those class events that my school does where they pay the students. It was a little harder this time but still fine. There were a lot more students this time around 30 or so 3x as many as last time. Again I was able to walk a way with $25 for the 2 hrs I was there, not bad.

Then today I decide to go for a walk to Yamada to see if they had a few things I was looking for in the electronics department. They had one thing I wanted, a hdmi splitter, but it was too expensive and the other item, a 3 prong to 2 prong plug adapter, they didn't have. Right across the street is one of the recycle shops and I decided to pick up the Sega Saturn I saw there the other day. I really want a white one but this box was nice and it wouldn't hurt to have a model one anyway. I couldn't find it at first and started to think it had sold but then I found the controllers that had been in the box. I was still thinking that it may have been sold just not with the controllers. I was starting to really get worried (oh the horrible problems I have to deal with, right?) I found the box near the front of the store with the system inside. I picked it up and asked why it was separated. The shop owner told me that there were no a/v cables and no power cord so she didn't want to sell it. I told her that it was okay and I would still like to buy it, to which she didn't object. I grabbed a few games for the Saturn while I was there GunGriffon, Lunar and Shining Wisdom. I also found a boxed copy of Dragons Quest 6 for the SFC, I already had the cart but at that price I figured what the heck. As usual the games were only $1 each and last time I was there I had been told the Saturn was $10 but when she rang it up she asked for only $5, for everything. I asked for her to confirm it because I was ready to pay $14, she told me since the Saturn was missing things that she would only charge $1. Are you kidding me? I would have given her $1 just for the box, I told her it was okay but she insisted so I walked away with everything for only the $5. Pretty sweet.

At night I went to a store/mall and found the plug converter I was looking for and noticed that a grocery store was attached to this mall. Or rather inside it, its hard to explain but basically half of the basement level was a grocery store. I took a look around and found a few things that the store I usually go to didn't have and on top of that it was cheaper. I picked up a bag of cheetos and will let you know how they taste as I'm not sure if its the same flavor as home, it does say cheese though so I have my fingers crossed.

Good Food and a Good Haul

Yesterday me, my wife and my father in law went out to eat. We went to this place that is known for pork and deep frying, sounds like a winner to me. The food was really good but the best thing on my plate, which was kind of a variety, was the pork with cheese in the middle only problem is I only got two and I only got to eat one of them. Next time I would get a whole plate of them instead of the variety set.

Then today my wife wanted to go to Ikea so that meant that I could go back to Hard Off. I was thinking about picking up a Saturn but at first I couldn't find them then after more looking it seemed they had been knocked back. I reached in and grabbed them they only had 3 white ones, which is the one I wanted. However calling them white was a stretch (Ooo random trying to spell a word thought: remember Stretch Armstrong dolls from the 90s? My cousin and I broke one once and the inside was like super syrupy, it had kind of a yellowish color and looked like it would taste sweet or sugary but we didn't try it .....anyway) these things were really yellow. On top of the sub par color they were marked as possible issues, I would be fine with issues if it was a flawless white because I could just transplant the shell but this added up to a no go for me.

Next I moved over to the games and I grabbed a bunch of GameBoy games that I didn't have. I won't list all the games but take a look at the picture, Goemon is probably the best one of the bunch. One of them had a name written on it but I have been able to get other names off other games with a magic eraser so I got it anyway. However this name just won't come off.

I also found two Sega Saturn 1mb ram carts the general Saturn one and the King of Fighters 95 cart. I got both because they were only a $1 each, I already have the 4mb cart back home but there are a few games that need the 1mb cart to work properly plus I could always just sell it. I also saw a Saturn Mouse in the box but resisted the urge to pick that up because it was $4 and I would honestly never use it (see I have will power....umm kinda.. so yea). They also had the KoF 95 game and I would have got it just to go with the cart but they only had the instruction book and disc not the case so I was out (Pft no case!?! Its not worth the whole $1 your asking for it)

Finally I picked up two SFC games Mario Kart complete for $10, there was another shop I have talked about before that wanted $25 for a boxed copy. The other game I got was Cotton 100% that was also $10, I had played others in the series on the Saturn and know that its rare-ish so I picked that up. When I got home I checked the prices on ebay and found that it goes for about $25-$35 so a nice profit... not that I will sell it but still.

Camping

This weekend my wife and I went camping with a few of our friends. It was a car camping situation to be clear but thats okay I wasn't really feeling like a hike anyway. So we drove to the mountain we were planing to camp and when we got there the campsites were closed because they were going to be having a running event the next day. We drove to the top of the mountain to see the view anyway and we ate lunch which was pancakes. In Japan people put mayonnaise on pancakes, now I like mayonnaise but thats just crazy talk.

After we ate we drove back down the mountain and a little farther down from where the office campsites were we were able to find a location where we could set up camp, I'm not sure if it was actually a campsite but we made it one. It was pretty cold, I mean its November. We set up our tent and it was really big, about a four person tent. Other friends were showing up at this point some were going to stay the night and others were just going to hang out for a bit and eat some food. One of our friends showed up with his new girlfriend the topic of discussion later was that she was only 24 not that big a deal except that he is 42. I say good for him but the other women there were not as pleased. It was a fun night but when we went to sleep it was really cold the ground was really really cold. Oh and I forgot to mention that we left our sleeping mats home so that didn't help anything. In the morning it started to rain, if you know me then you know it wouldn't be camping if there was no rain. So it started to rain and wouldn't you know it the tent was leaking, another staple of my adventures in the wild. So we got up and started getting everything outside organized and packed. It was raining pretty good by this point and the worse part was the mud. It took awhile but we finally got everything all set and left to go home. It was nice but I wish we were one of the people who went home the night before.

Today the rain continued but my wife wanted to bring so old books and CDs to Book Off to sell them. I was able to find two GBA games there, Klonoa 2 and the Sword of Mana in the box.

Garden walk

Its been cold lately, Japan had it coldest temperatures of the year this week and oddly enough I think its been colder in the house than it has been outside. To remedy that I just turn the xbox on and the heat from that thing heats the room, no joke it really puts out that much heat its crazy. Today my wife and I went to a local garden and walked around. A lot of the areas were closed which was disappointing but over all it was a nice time. It was real peaceful, its the kind of place I wish I could live.

On the way home we stopped at a store and again I saw another toy gun that looked very real. I'm just surprised when I see a toy that doesn't have the orange tip I think.

Sumo!!

Last week I got 2 tickets for the opening day of the sumo tournament here in Fukuoka from my Japanese class. So today my wife and I went to go see the event, it starts at 8:30 am and goes to 6pm but the morning and mid day matches are basically the minor leagues the real event starts at 3:30. I would have gone early but we ended up going around 3:45 or so. This was my second time going to watch sumo live the last time was about 2 years ago. I love going to watch sumo its really relaxing, its kind of slow paced then really intense for about 15 seconds then it repeats. Its just a real fun time I like picking who I think is going to win and keeping track of how my picks are doing.

The view from our seats

Closing Ceremony

The only other thing to mention is that before some of the bigger matches with higher ranked wrestlers there are sponsor flags that are paraded around the ring (just once then they go back down the tunnel) but each flag is worth about $1000 to the winner of the match. So you get paid your regular amount and then depending on the match and how many sponsors the winner could win an extra $16,000, 16 was the most flags for one match today.


When we left there were some guys at the top of the tower (see the first picture) playing some drums it was kinda cool and set the mood.