Car

New car. ‘95 Toyota Corolla. Needs new brake pads and tires. 195k miles. Guy said it gets 35-37mpg, which is nice.

This also means I now have reliable transportation, which workplaces tend to appriciate in their employees.

I also got an interview for a shipping-receiving clerk position due to my good scores on Excel tests and data entry tests.

And I’d never used Excel before. I’d used OpenOffice Calc for some simple alphabetizing tasks, but the day I took the test was the first day I ever did anything above absurdly simple things with a spreadsheet program.

Last Set of Pictures

That the poster for the second book of DDD, which is Nasu Kinoko’s apparent best seller. He’s come a long way since writing scenarios for doujin soft games.

I looks scruffy.

Blurry picture of the daimonji.

The daimonji afore it got lit up.

Look, it’s Tokyo Big Sight!

So, about that huge saw out front….

I was still about a kilometer from the entrance, and already there was a solid wall of people like this. It did not let up the entire way. Oh, and there were still people coming in a line that stretched over a kilometer behind me. And this was the unbusy day.

People not only do this to their cars, but they get in them and drive them where people can them.

Fate-mobile!

Cirno-mobile!

Narcissu too! If it weren’t that he was putting these decals on his car, I’d say he had taste.

Sakuya and her knives.

Now that’s not very nice!

Saturday. About 10 or so minutes before the doors opened.

My favorite of the itashas. Doesn’t stand out quite that much. And I actually saw this one being walked down the side walk. Oh, itasha (痛車) means ‘painful car’. It refers to the cars of people with so little shame that they paint/decal anime characters onto their cars.

And the front. Higurashi and Akiha, and it doesn’t stand out too much. Not too bad. Still wouldn’t do it unless I was paid an obscene sum to do so.

Walked by this Buddhist temple right in the middle of Harajuku. You run across temple and shrines in weird places. Especially shrines.

I’ve walked past this building so many times and I finally notice this. I got a good laugh.

Motivation for Finding a Job

This and this.  Or, for more English-y versions, this and this.

Horribly expensive.  Japanese DVDs are like that.  These are horribly expensive even by Japanese DVD standards, but they contain signifcantly more than the average Japanese DVD.  Those two DVD have as much as 5-6 regular DVDs.

Sadly, I doubt this show will ever be brought to the US, thus making a significant lack of ‘cheap’ DVDs for it is a very odd show.  And not comedy odd.  Just plain, old-fashioned odd. I think it fancies itself to be ‘artsy.’  The producers decided to air the episodes in complete reverse order for no other reason than they thought it would be cool.  It’s also not particularly popular as is, making it a very, very risky business investment for any company that might think about licensing it anyway.

But anway, I’d really like those DVDs, but definitely need a job before even thinking about buying them.

Hence, I’ve got a little extra motivation.  In fact, I think it might be a good idea to send some résumés out tomorrow morning before heading out to Narita.

Also, I’m really glad I came to Japan.  I had a lot of fun.  But I am glad to be returning.  Especially because this means food I like will be available.

Oh, yeah.  When hunting for an all-you-can-eat yakiniku joint (that turned out to have closed down) I found a cheap-o grocery store.  They had puny little watermelons for a mere 2500 yen.  Which would be about 21 dollars.

It was also the largest grocery I’ve seen over here.  You could only fit about 5-6 of them into Speigelhoffs.

I’m Safe

Despite it being two or so days since I last updated, I am, in fact, safe.

I have some pictures, including a whole bunch of itasha, to upload later.  It’s kind of early in the day so I’m not going to spend the time now.

Also, might it be possible for there to be some cold baked potatoes, some slices of ham, and some eggs in the fridge when I get home.  I’m really dying for a classic, western style breakfast and you just can’t get that over here at a reasonable price.

And even that has generally been Japanized such that it does count anyway.

Oh, Yeah

Due to my internet situation, I’ll not update until Monday.

Sorry.