Walkin Around the Christmas Tree

Beware, he comes for you in the night.

Nah, that's just Totoro. He was used to advertise for that musical festival I went to the other day, along with some giant chicken. This is my way of telling you I PUT SOME IMAGES IN PHOTOBUCKET OMG WHAT. Not many though, sorry to say. My camera was filled with videos of the concert that you'll never see.

Also look at these cookies.



Yes, they go on forever. And they're soft and chewy. And they cost me 40 yen.

So awesome....

But I did walk around Beppu today. All around. Almost quite literally.

Alright, it was more of a semicircle.

I went out to get the DS TV Tuner and was prepared to spend a lot of money in the process. Came out to about 70 dollars in addition to the other toys I had to buy, which brought another 20 into the matter.


TOTALLY worth it.

Turns out I'm completely retarded as well. Know how I got lost last time? In Beppu, there are two landmarks. There are the mountains, and there is the bay. You can usually see both wherever you are (you can see the mountains wherever, cause the ones across the bay are visible too). However, where I was I could only see the mountains. Turns out two blocks over was the bay and I'm just mentally handicapped.

So I followed that and wound up in three different Book Off stores. Turns out that there is a porn aisle that I was completely oblivious to last time I went. I actually BOUGHT something from that aisle without realizing I was in a porn aisle (I checked what I bought and it's not porn though, surprisingly. It's just a video game comic like I thought it was. So....good). But they also had used clothes and games and stuff. Not so surprisingly, none of the clothes were in my size. I managed to find one pair of pants that would fit, but they were essentially steel gray polyester gangsta jogging pants.

Yes, they ARE as ugly as they sound.

After not buying anything at any of the stores (to be honest, I have a stack of 8 mangas I haven't read yet. I really suck at this) I wound up in a McDonald's because it was the first place along the strip I recognized as having food.

I have to keep in mind to smile more often. Not smiling really inhibits my ability to not have children stare at me in open mouthed terror.

On the way to the other side of town I came across a big Christmas tree.


Included so the title of this blog makes sense.

Can someone tell me if I just suck at taking pictures of trees or something? Why do they always look like they're on FIRE? Does anyone else have this problem? The camera was actually sitting on a ledge at the time, so shaky hands isn't the issue.

I decided I should go shopping for more than myself, but while I was out I realized I don't know what half the people I'm shopping for would want. So, made some mental tabs and just bought some essentials for myself (totally needed moisturizer, my skin is so damn dry. What? Men can use moisturizer. It takes strength to admit when you need moisturizing!) Also, one of the things I was going to buy was 40 dollars. And shipping is about 40 dollars from here.

I'm sorry, but very few of my friends are worth 80 dollars to me.

On a college budget. With no income.

Otherwise sure totally.

I tested out the DS Tv Tuner in Lotteria Burger later after passing some real life gangsters! (They were wearing identical suits and shades and smoking. How edgy!) Works pretty well. Has closed captioning, clear picture, and four antennae to make sure you never lose it. It's also got some mini games built into it in case your show is too boring or the commercials can't hold your attention (that's a lie, Japanese commercials are better than the tv). When I got back I proceeded to show it off to anyone who would listen (Jason and JM were in the hallway and dammit they'd like it if I had to stab them with it) and then hoarded it in my room.

Japanese TV really is awful. Although I did come across this show where a woman was living with a monkey. And everytime she started talking the monkey just slapped her.

I'm not going to lie, that was pretty awesome.

But I did go out of my way, like the gigantic loser nerd I am, to go to the broadcasting station websites and look up anime showings.

If I'm using TV to practice Japanese, it's going to be something worth watching, alright? And I just happen to think that Power Rangers and Pokemon are worth watching.

Apparently.

God, Japanese tv sucks.....