That title has very little relevance to my post, I'm just using it as I am short of an amusing one and I'm paying by the hour so I don't have time to be creative. It's only there because I am using a flatscreen widescreen monitor for the first time, and I actually really like it. Widescreen is the future.
I'm in a totally new internet cafe right now, and I'm making another post as if there weren't a thousand more things I should be doing, like checking my email or looking for a hotel for tomorrow night. But instead I'm talking to you, so be happy and appreciative, and leave numerous comments.
Last night I was in an earthquake. I have never been in an earthquake before, and it was an incredible experience. At about 1:05AM it struck, about a 3, they said. Emma was terrified, I was slightly scared, and when she reminded me that Tokyo was due for a devastating earthquake very soon, I became slightly more scared. We went downstairs to see what has happening, and it was business as usual. I'm not sure if people even noticed. The man at reception said that they had about 120 earthquakes here a year. Two weeks ago a 4 had hit, and it had lasted a lot longer than the four or five seconds we'd experienced. We stayed downstairs talking about it for half an hour, Emma discussing various topics, including earthquakes, with the receptionist in Japanese. I sat by and struggled to understand.
Since waking at having to check out, we staggered along with all our luggage towards Shinjuku station. I think the luggage is the reason my back is currently in agony. Once we found some lockers which cost us ￥1000 for the day, we were free from the pain of carting around our life possessions. Emma wanted to go shopping for shoes, which to me sounded like a wonderful-time-for-someone-else kind of thing, so I opted to stay in Shinjuku and find an internet cafe and observe the Tokyo vibe. It has an unmistakable vide, I cannot deny that, but I sometimes feel that perhaps some people resent foreigners here, as they make up such a core part of the demographic, in the same way that some people resent foreigners in London. I do not really get this feeling at all in Osaka. In reading Dr Dice's blog entry concerning racism, he noted that China and Japan are xenophobic, which I would have agreed upon earlier, but I have found, especially in the Kansai region, a huge proportion of xenophilic people that counteract this belief. However I cannot account for China.
Due to time limitations, I didn't quite have the chance to read much of his entry, so when I do, which will probably be when I return to England, I will comment and go into more of what I think.
Since I have missed out on several major events that have occured to me recently, I feel like relaying then still, but now that several days have passed, it's almost old hat to be still talking about them. So in this case, I will talk about them in a more general tone, rather than an actual account of events.
Emma had a wonderful plan in dealing with the heat. From the ￥100 shop she bought a little spray, and filled it up with water. On getting back to the hotel, she found it was a pump rather than a spray, so she filled it with the free shampoo. She then bought a proper spray, and has since been giving herself and me cool sprays of water which instantly dissipates the painful glow of the sun on our skin. Not wanting to be outdone, I purchased a bigger one, and have since filled it with ice. But I made the decision to never use it up fully, and always preserve about a third or a quarter of the water in it, so that no matter how many times I replenish it, I retain some of the water in it from the last time it was filled, and consequentially, it will always have at least some water from Tokyo in it, and for when I return, some water from Osaka in it.
I discovered last night that Koji has a Karaoke machine. Now, sadly, he let us down by not coming to Tokyo to meet us all, which is a great shame because it would have been fun for us all, but he must have had a good reason. But the idea of actually owning a Karaoke machine, it's now my next set goal in life. The Karaoke we have enjoyed over the past few weeks has been an experience that I will be sad to leave here, so getting a machine which will allow us to have the Karaoke experience in our newly acquired living room. That's one new goal. Emma and I have our new Karaoke favourites, like Barbie Girl and Bitch. I tried to keep up with here on Just a Girl, but she was born to sing it. Mizuki has a surprisingly amazing voice that really impressed me.
I was very tempted by ￥4000 512MB PC3200 RAM, which works out at around 20 pounds. That's a third of the price I paid for my last stick, and I was so tempted to make my machine a 1.5GB RAM supercomputer, but I feel that the RAM doesn't need upgrading, the HDDs need fixing. So one thing at a time. What's the point in having RAM that equals almost 10% of your total HDD space?
As the story usually goes, my time is nearing an end. I have made all my emails and I have said I think what I needed to say. I'll probably slap my forehead on the way out of this building, but at least I can say I have drunk enough Melon Soda here to make the ￥450 entry worthwhile. I also took their ice for my spray. Great to hear from you. I'll look out for the CD for you Carlos. And Ryan, if you don't link me again I'm going to stab you. Coalesce immediately, as I am off my rocker.
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