Sorry I don`t remember to update a lot. I mean to, it just never seems to happen. 😛 Which is why I titled this post `life`. As in `life has gotten in the way of me remembering to update my blog` also known as, I`m a bit lazy. XD Actually though, what seems to be the problem is that, in my head, I write a post, or think of something I want to write for a post, and then, since in my head it`s all written, it never gets physically written down. Ah well.
Back on topic, do you remember I said I was trying Nanowrimo? November is national novel writing month in America, though people in other countries participate as well. The month is almost over, and I`m 20,000 words behind. >.> (Goal for the month is 50,000) So yesterday the few of us in the area decided to have a quick social meet up to talk about random things and how far behind we are. We were going to meet in the train station in Sendai. On the way to the train station, I found flowers even though it’s November.
My train got in a little early, so I ran to Volks (the doll store) because I figured chances were good that whoever I met up with wouldn`t want to go in. I got a couple of good photos of Shan in the Sendai Store`s nice photo space:
So after that, I`m at the train station, looking around, (there was some promotion for something going on)
and I see a blonde girl in the crowd that looks vaguely familiar. Our eyes meet, and she comes over. “Do I know you?” she asked. “I feel that we`ve met before.” I had been thinking that she seemed familiar as well, but couldn`t place her. She said that she definitely thought that we`d met before, since she remembered Shan, who I had with me. (Shan`s the 60cm tall doll). Trying to remember when I`d last carried Shan around (he`s too heavy to do it often), I asked if she was also on the JET Programme. She was! We couldn`t pick any particular meeting time, and in the end decided that we must have met at Tokyo Orientation when we first got here a year and a half ago. I had Shan with me then, because he didn`t fit into my suitcase.
After exchanging names again, I asked her if she was there for the meet-up. She said no, she was there to work on Nanowrimo. And I said, “Well, that`s the meet-up is.” She hadn`t known about the meet-up, and it was pure coincidence that she`d ended up in the train station at that time!
There was only one person that I was waiting for, and luckily Taryn (the blonde girl) knew her and was able to spot her in the crowd. So the three of us spent the afternoon walking around, then stopped to have coffee. It was kinda nice. Mostly we talked about books and movies, and the stories we`re working on, and how stuck we are on them, and that sort of thing.
While walking around, we`d gone into a park, and the ginko leaves on the ground made the perfect background for a photo opportunity. The leaves were spongy, so it was a little hard to make Shan stand properly, but I eventually got it. ^_^
Around Sendai, they had put up some lights for decoration, though I only got one photo:
When carrying Shan on the train, I do get a lot of funny looks. But it’s okay because sometimes people will talk to me and it’s a good chance to practice my Japanese. Like on the way home on the train, there was a lady visiting a friend in somis city and she thought it was really cool and we talked for a bit which was kind of fun. And she asked if she could take a picture of Shan, so I put him on the seat next to me for a better picture.
My most expensive purchase of the day was a used xbox 360 with kinect. I`ve been debating for a long time which game console to get here in Japan. The main requirement was that it have the capability to play the Just Dance game. In the end, it seemed to make the most sense to get one that I was at least sort of familiar with. Which pretty much meant either a wii or an xbox. I had a wii back in America, and my siblings had an xbox. Advantage of an xbox over a wii was that in addition to the Just Dance game I wanted it for, xbox also has Persona 4 and Final Fantasy XIII and XIII2, though I haven`t bought the latter two yet. Persona 4 I did, since it was only about $5. I might wait a bit to play it though. I think I might need to know more kanji first.
What I`d neglected to remember was that xbox is not exactly light, and from the store it was a ten minute walk to the train station, then when getting off the train, a 15 minute walk from the train station to home. That part wasn`t fun. But I plugged it in and everything seemed to work, which is nice. (And yes, the entire system is only in Japanese, so a bit of the setting up was guesswork based on what gaming consoles usually ask you to do).
I have to say though. Connecting the xbox to the wifi was like a million times easier than actually setting up the wifi last year. I was so glad it was easy! I had to try one game right away, and I picked the random $1 game I`d found because it had seemed simple. Well…there was so much writing flying across the screen! I`d barely finished reading the first part of the sentence when it disappeared and a new sentence came up. I guess that means my speed at reading Japanese is basically a joke, and I need to work much harder at it.
So today I went to the small used bookstore in my town to see if they had the Just Dance game even though they didn’t have an Xbox console. I didn’t find it, but, I did find assassin’s creed and Street Fighter which is kind of a win because I know both of those games and therefore can play them even if I don’t understand all of the words they’re saying.
Lastly my current game library until I order Just Dance off of Amazon:
