Beppu shi

So, I wrote that I was going down to Beppu today and go down to Beppu today I did. When I set out to do something, I get it done, and doing it til it's done is how I do it.

So I slept in until 2:30 today. Got up, looked at my clock, and went "FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF-". Showered, came back, walked around in my pantsless glory for a good 10 minutes, brushed me teeth.... realized the ATM was closed, the cafeteria was closed til 5.... I really didn't wanna go to Beppu on an empty stomach. I can't fight off punk kids or a kappa on an empty stomach. So I grabbed my mail, ran into my RA, and in a weird string of events that I can't rightly recall, I was on the bus headed to Beppu without having eaten anything.

Dammit.

Oh well. There was a Chinese kid on the bus named Kyle (wait...what?) that helped me determine how to get around. Told me the bus stop to get back and how to read the maps and where the Yamada Electric store was. Really helpful, asked if I'd be alright on my own, and told me we should go drinking sometime. So overall, pretty good bus ride.

I immediately got lost arriving in Beppu, not realizing that Yamada was a good, I dunno...looking left when I got off the bus. So I wandered around until the neon sign caught my eye and then facepalmed. D'oh. This is where my real test began.

As I walked in I was ushered into a line of people with a string of silly Japanese words I didn't understand and encouraged to spin this bingo ball looking device. After a little white bead came out the girl kept pointing at this pile of goods and I grabbed one and ran off before they forced me into any of their other alien customs (turned out to be some Doraemon snack that tasted like a giant spicy cheeto. Was pretty good actually).

I came there looking for a digital camera (There will be pictures!) and I saw the cheapest one I could get and found a dude. Then I'm all "Eigo wo hanashimasuka?" And he's all "Hanashimasen, gomennasai." And I'm "Crap. Umm....dareka?" And he's all "Iie". So then my terrible Japanese skills got me to buy a camera and a memory card and not get ripped off in the process, and I even got a points card once the guy mustered up the ability to say free in English. Awesome.

I went to some mall and bought a panda bank (I'll get a pic of it some other time. I'm done taking pics right now) and some candy, then wandered around the mall, got lost, bought a t shirt from a cute sales girl and found my way to the food court mcdonald's where I pulled an American and pointed at the menu until they gave me my food.

I got confused again at the bus stop without anybody to help me. Buses kept passing by and I got nervous and devised a crazy plan to ask the bus driver on every bus if he goes to APU until someone said yes. Then the next bus that came up said APU right along the side so.... well, that was a better plan.

Culture notes: Lots of bikers everywhere, both motorized and non. Also, there is no flow of pedestrian traffic. People walk wherever the crap they'd like to and will most likely get in your way, especially if you're an American that takes up more room than them and they go out of their way to gawk at you. Also, there are non-chan stores that are essentially holes in the wall. Like... a small divet with a counter and two walls that swing out that swing back in when it's closed. It's absurd how tightly packed everything is.

Anyways, now that I'm back and I have a camera and a new shirt (which has nothing to do with anything!) I figured I'd give a quick tour of my room. I promise that the pictures will make my room like 3 times bigger than it actually is.




The first shot is from my door, the second from my bed. Yes that is a cartoon of milk outside the fridge, don't worry it's empty and rinsed out. Not that the room DOESN'T smell bad. There is a mix of the terrible food that sometimes gets cooked in the kitchen, the soggy clothes left next to the dryer unit, and the people across the small who disabled their smoke alarm so they can smoke while they party all night and I can't sleep in time for classes.

No, I don't know why there is a bar across the window. I've already determined how useless it is against zombies so I can't think of a good reason for it. I've been using it to work out.




This is the sink. It is immediately to the left of the first picture, cramped, has a defogger that stinks if you forget to turn it off, and the hot water lasts for a good 40 seconds and makes shaving a pain in the ass.




This is my toilet. It's both awesome and dumb. Just like America (you heard it hear folks, revolutionary comments.) The good: It has a two way flushing handle and both ways do something different. The one you should be using the most is a soft flush, that wastes less water and is good for those light days on the toilet. The second one is for after you eat three blocks of cheese and a loaf of bread, and actually shoots high pressured water to force everything down the drain, and a lot of it. Sadly I have had to use this once or twice.



This is the view from the toilet. I'm supposed to believe that it's just a handle and a lock. First of all, why does my single dorm need a lock (or a door for that matter) when my room door is perfectly capable of locking and you can't see into the bathroom from the window? Also, that thing scares me. Maybe nobody else sees it, but it looks like a creature, with eyes and mouth sewn shut, tearing its way through the door. While I'm sitting there defenseless on the toilet.

TERRIFYING.

I'm gonna try to get some cooking ingredients for tomorrow. If I can't then I'll go for a walk with my camera. Either way, there will be pictures.

Rejoice.