Christmas and Work

So Christmas just passed, it was nothing to special here in Japan. My sister-in-laws birthday is on Christmas so that is a big part of the day around here. We had a good dinner that was more for me than anyone else, pizza, chicken, coke. After dinner we had cake for the birthday girl, overall it was a good time.

My wife got me some chopsticks with my name on them and I had got some gifts from my family a few weeks ago in a package that was sent to me. I got a really awesome Penguins track jacket and another amazing painting from my niece.

 The day after Christmas I had a job interview for a teaching job, it went well and they want me to start working for them but the job doesn't start till April. I guess they really wanted me because they told me about another position that starts next month that they asked me to apply for and that job pays more too. So that was good after I was walking around and took some pictures of the lights that were still up.

 Later that night my wife wanted to go to book of to get some books and I went to see if there were any games I would want to pick up. When I got there they didn't really have anything but I did find a few copies of Ni No Kuni for the DS, it comes in a huge box with an awesome book that is actually used in the game. They were only $5 each so I got 3 of them you may say why 3 well this game goes for anywhere from $50-$115 on eBay I'm not joking look it up if you don't believe me. It was never released in the USA at least not on the DS.

Then today I went to the city and got a lot of games just to put on eBay. At super book off I got Mother 3 (also never released in the USA) for the GBA ($50), Xenogears for PS1 ($5), Shenmue II (again no US release) for the DC ($20) and Pokemon Crystal for the GBC ($5). I also got Zelda Oracle of Ages for the GBC ($9) and Eve Burst Error for the Saturn ($1) for myself.

After that I went to Mendrake and got Castlevania Legends for the GB ($30) and Sin and Punishment (you guessed it no US release) for the N64 ($21) and have put them on eBay as well. While I was there I got Earth Light for the SFC ($2) for myself.

It was a lot of money (at least when compared to what I want to spend for the games I keep) but I did a lot of research on current prices etc and after all is said and done I will easily be able to get double the money I put in and if it goes good I could get triple. We will see how it goes with this round and if it works out I may do another round of eBay pick ups.

Christmas Party

A few days ago I went shopping to pick up a few things when I came across these TMNT socks (don't worry I didn't buy them)

While at the store I went to the arcade just to walk though and see what they had. I spotted a pretty cool Mario Kart set up that I wouldn't mind giving a try.

After that I went by the crane games (actually I had to go by them there was no way to avoid them). One of the cabinets had some toy air soft guns and I just thought it was out of place, I know it seems like I'm harping on the gun thing so let me be clear. I have no issues with guns, I just think toys without the orange tip is weird.

The other day I actually saw two kids about 10yrs old playing in the woods with these types of guns and for the first second or two I got scared seeing the guns, I thought they were real. I guess its not as big of an issue as handguns are not something that people have here so its less likely that a cop would make a mistake but still. Okay rant over, I will try not to mention the lack of orange tips on toy guns again.

After that I walked by another game and it had Mario figures of a pretty good size there was one next to the edge and so I decided what the heck. Well it got me and my $1 and while it was now even closer I thought the better of it and walked away, feeling had. If only I had my trusty crane game sidekick to help me (actually I don't think it would have helped this thing was rigged but still, moral support!)

The next day my wife and I went to a friends house for a christmas party. It was kind of a pot luck thing and a gift exchange that was done more like musical chairs where you pass all the gifts around a circle to music and when it stops whatever gift you have is yours. I ended up getting a knife shaped like a whale. There was a lot of food and one person made some really good buffalo wings, I mean I was impressed they were good. Also I ate horse for the first time... no comment (not bad, not good... so I guess thats a comment but whatever).

One of the gifts was a cup of noodle puzzle thing that somehow took over the party. It was on a timer and had to be done within 3 minutes otherwise it would pop up, people were trying to complete the thing all night. Remember Perfection (wow blast from the past) it reminded me of that. Actually it was completed on the first try but then after that no one was able to do it in the 3 minutes.

There was only one casualty to sleep and he was out for the last 45 minutes to an hour of the party. I just thought it was funny that he was hugging the pillow the whole time.

Here is a good picture of how things went:

Puzzle, Sleep, Hanging out

The night ended with a tickle me Elmo that was seriously impressive. It would fall down slapping its knee and get back up it then it would fall down and kick its feet, roll over, pound the floor and get back up to a standing position. There were about three different routines it would randomly select from after you "tickled" it (aka. pressed its foot). Seriously, though, this thing was entertaining and everyone was laughing. The box actually warns you that you may experience uncontrollable laughter, I remember reading that and thinking "Pft stupid box propaganda, its never true." not three seconds later I was cracking up.

Finally next year is the year of the horse and for the new years card (which is a big deal here in Japan) I did a design of how I thought my in-laws would look if they were cartoon horses. They are going to put this one on the card that they send out.

Game Update

The other day I got some more games (imagine that) so this is just a quick update to list those games.

First up was Pokemon Yellow or Pokemon Pickachu, I picked it up for $5. Then I got a few SFC games first was Mortal Kombat II for $5 then Real Bout Special and Edono Kiba (which I know nothing about) each of those were $2.50

Then I picked up a limited edition Hello Kitty GameBoy Advance for $15. But when I got home it wouldn't turn on, I opened it up and saw one component that is likely the culprit. I could fix it but likely won't take the time to repair it and just sell it. Its also missing the battery cover. A fully working one goes for about $90-$150, I think I should be able to get about $50 or so for it as it is now.

Finally I saw a really interesting item for sale in the RC toy section that I thought about picking up for my brother in law as he loves RC planes but in the end it was too big to ship at a reasonable price. He's probably glad I didn't get it anyway. It was a RC Toilet which was about the size of a normal RC car. I really have no idea why anyone would want this it moves around and the seat goes up and down. Its just really odd and I thought it was funny. Could you imagine some kid getting this as a gift?

Stuff

So I have been lazy on the blogging so I have to catch up a little here. Lets see... last week my wife and I went out for lunch down by the beach. It was pretty nice, the food was really good. The price wasn't too bad either, soup, salad, meal and desert for $15. The view was really nice and we could even see surfers in the water. Despite the way it may look its actually kind of cold here, not like back home but you need a jacket.

On the weekend I had the year end party with my classmates. There was a little issue with it though. So I got to the place that we had said we were meeting and no one was there. I waited for about 30 minutes and still no one showed up, I started to think this was the old 9th green at 9 trick (not really but it sounds good). I had to ask where a pay phone was so that I could try to call the guy that organized it. Luckily there was a pay phone in the store across the street (pay phones are rare now a days). So I called the guy and mind you he doesn't speak English so that was interesting, but I said "Where are you? Are we doing this today?" He said yes "where are you?". I told him I was at the meeting place and he asked why. At this point the pay phone time expired so I had to call back but it was $1 every time I called so I really didn't want to have to keep calling. He asked why I was there now and I said because that was the time we said anyway can you come get me. He said yea and that I should wait at the first place again.

So I went back and was waiting and waiting and about 25 minutes went by. I was thinking just to leave, maybe there was a miscommunication and he wasn't coming he had said it was only 10 minutes away. I walked outside and likely going to leave to look for some place to eat when they pulled into the parking lot.

What happened? I think I was right in all this but I'll explain, again this was all communicated in Japanese. So when we decided to meet I was told the place and the time, the time was 10:20 a real strange time if you ask me. The problem was that to say 10:20 in Japanese its juu ji ni juu pun, ji shows the hour and pun or fun shows the minute but when he told me he said juu ni juu which is just 10 20 makes sense right. Well the problem is I heard juu ni ji which is 12, I asked him again 12? this time he heard juu instead of ji so he though I said 10 20 juu ni juu so he said yes. I asked him a few more times and he said yes again confusing what I was saying ( I was saying it right but he was hearing it wrong). To further re enforce the 12 meeting time he wrote down the restaurant name and the time to be there for the people going directly there which was 1pm. If we are eating at 1pm then meeting at 12 makes sense right.

Anyway after all that we got to the place and everyone else was there one of the teachers came, 2 Chinese girls, 1 girl from papua new guinea (who speaks English), 1 french guy (who knows some English) and the Korean guy who organized it. It was a good time and after about 3 hours we left and went to a karaoke.

 I don't really like karaoke but everyone wanted to go, once we got there I hung out but didn't sing despite heavy peer pressure but luckily one of the girls also didn't want to sing so we were like a team. At one point the teacher told one of the girls to get up and then started dancing with her it was really funny there were spins and dips the whole thing it was just really funny.

After I left I went to the city and bought some games cuz thats what I do. I got Pokemon Red for the Gameboy and a few SFC games. Gunforce which I knew nothing about and kind of wish I didn't get ( cuz it was $5) but took a chance on it, Darius Twin ($2.50) and Contra 3 ($9.50). Contra 3 was kind of expensive but its a good game.

I also picked up Donkey Kong Country 3 which I already had but this one was in really good shape and I figured I would just sell the other one. Finally I picked up Super Ghost and Ghouls another game I had but again this was to sell and it was only $1.