Weekend Like Time.

So I ended up riding my bike to the post office, in a kilt. It was definitely an odd experience, having to hold my kilt down with one hand and steer with the other, all the while getting the hardest stares I have ever gotten in my life. I mean, I stand out in a crowd here normally, but when I put on a manskirt that looks like the local schoolgirl skirt..... I am surprised I didn't cause any accidents. After getting a bit of cash for Saturday's foray into the world of used books, we went to the Yuu Store for barbeque ingredients. We ended up outdoing ourselves once again. Allan and I had teriyaki pork chops, Rob somehow made a mix of sauce which ended up tasting exactly like Kalbi, the Korean Barbeque, and Elmer made up some pork with veggies. I grilled it up, all kilted and everything, and we had delicious food. After the grilling was done, we tossed some sweet potatoes and corn into the coals to roast. They were sweet, hot, and wonderful. After the que, not much happened. We made a Lawson's run, and that was the night. Oh yeah, I watched the Zatoichi movie by Beat Takeshi on Friday night. If you have seen and appreciated any of the Zatoichi movies (blind samurai goes around as a masseur and kicking ass; taking names), then you want to avoid this movie like the plague. The original Zatoichi movies were great: amazing swordplay, a plot, and good dialogue. This one was cheesy and ended with a dance sequence. A DANCE SEQUENCE!! On to Saturday. Elmer, Rob, Allan, and I had a plan to go to Bandai, which is a used book, game, cd, album shop about 12-13km away by bike if the weather held. Thankfully it did and it was a beautiful day. We headed out at about 1110am, and rode to the Hikone train station, crossed the tracks, and ventured into, what was for me, foreign territory. We got to Route 8 and rode like hell. Whether there was sidewalk or not, we kept going. Up and down hills, we rode. One time, Allan fell behind and then off his bike partially into a drainage ditch, and we wouldn't have known if an old lady didn't let us know. It was about an hour and fifteen minute ride to get there, and about 10 minutes before we did, I got hit by a car. Yup, I sure did. Elmer led the way, since he knew where we were going, and apparently the person pulling out of the convenience store didn't see that he wasn't alone and had three more Gaijin behind him. He pulled out and scratched the heck out of my bike, but I stayed up. Scared the living daylights out of me though. Bandai made it all better. It is practically a warehouse of cool old toys and stuff. They had all sorts of games for every video game system that was in Japan. They had the Sega Master System, Mega Drive (Genesis), Famicom (NES), Super Famicon (SNES), Nintendo 64, Virtual Boy, Famicom Disk Drive (WOW!!), PC Engine (Turbo Grafx 16), and many more, as well as games to go with it. They had thousands of manga, and many bundles of manga. CDs, LPs, DVDs, and toys lined the walls. Oh, they also had new stuff, like the New Geo Pocket, Wonderswan Color, Gameboy Advance, PS2, XBox, Gamecube, et al. Inexplicably, there was a fishing section too. I am not too sure about that, but if they have Airsoft (pellet guns) then I guess I'll allow it. We all wandered entranced, and I was thinking I went crazy. I got a lot of manga, and here is the pretty list: GTO (Great Teacher Onizuka) volumes 1-13 Rurouni Kenshin volumes 1-9, 11-20 Clover volumes 1-4 Mahou Senshi Negima volume 1 In America, three of those would be over $25US. Since I got them bundled from a used manga store, it all cost me 2300Y, or $22USD. Amazing!!! I have been reading some of the Negima, because it is drawn/written by the same guy who did Love Hina, and has a cool feel to it. It is about a 10 year old who has graduated from the Magician Academy in England, and was sent to be a teacher in Japan. It just so happens that he's teaching a class of 31 girls all who are 15-17, and wackiness ensues. It's pretty funny so far. We got back to Hikone proper in one piece, and Elmer and I stopped for food there. We were the only people in this restaurant, and they had wonderful food. Mainly their attention ws the best, since we were their only customers. Later that night, Allan, Rob and I went for a small bowl of ramen. I deserved it, I rode about 26km that day. We couldn't go to sleep because people were planning on having a bonfire (myself and a few others were watching some Pride Fighting, which is like America's UFC, but with a few more rules), but it rained. So, of course, the party was moved to the apartment next to mine. Infuriating. I never have been a party guy, and this just bugged me a bit. While sitting around, Elmer started asking Allan about some Capoiera moves, since they both go to class every Wednesday. Allan has been taking it for 5 years, and Elmer is learning now. If you don't know what Capoiera is, think Eddy Gordo from Tekken 3. In fact, Allan's teacher is who they flew to Japan to do the motion capture for Eddy Gordo. They kicked, spun, and rolled for an hour, and it was a lot of fun to watch. Then the worst thing that has happened at JCMU in my knowledge happened also. One of the girls lost her 40GB iPod. That's a tiny little mp3 player worth $500US. It disappeared from the party room, and we suspect foul play. Nothing she can do about it, though, it seems. I'd allow them to search our rooms. Heck, I would applaud it. But I eventually got to sleep. Sunday was spent in the office. Allan and I pretty much have the last table claimed as our own, and we printed out a sign proclaiming it such. It reads: David and Allan's Private Offices. Office Hours: Mon-Sun 13:00-23:00. Appropriate, since we both do many hours of studying here. We had the front doors locked this weekend due to the lack of the Resident Director, which meant the heat and humidity would have long since reduced me to a puddle of ooze, if it were not for the boon of lovely, lovely fans. We had 3 of them on us. It was much better. I made up some Tonkatsu Curry (pork cutlet curry) because I had nothing else for dinner. And that was my night, other than what w thought was going to be the last Nightly Ice Cream Lawson's Run since Rob was scheduled to go on his homestay today, but that didn't happen thanks to the typhoon. Typhoon, you ask? Typhoon, indeed. I woke up to the sound of my sliding doors rattling behind my head. The wind was super strong, and I got dressed, showered, and went to class. The rain and wind just picked up from there. At lunch, we walked to Lawson's, in Gor-tex, and were still pretty wet. Well, I was safe under the Gor-tex, but others weren't so lucky. I also noted that I forgot to close my window, so my kilt, cds, luggage, and laptop got soaked. Thankfully, the laptop is working. After class, I wrote this, and I am very good at avoiding homework. Not for much longer. I've uploaded two more sets of photos, 63 or so for the week, and they should be posted in the next two days. Enjoy soon!