Wow

I said i'd post after killing those aliens. Still havnt done that 4 days later, so I thought I'd post anyway. Ill try and make this a bit long.

Okay, well, not much happened on golden week, I went to a meuseum in Odaiba, well, I thought I did. Turns out this museum I was at wast the museum, it was a free exibit by Toyota, so I need to head back to Odaiba on the weekend. :)

I mainly got on the train, went to Shibuya/Shinjuku and wandered for a few hours, then made my way back/to the nearest train station. Was a lot of fun, actually. Sadly, there wont be anymore what the hell did I eat things, because the food here is pretty much the same when on a budget of less that $50 a meal.

In my neverending quest to aquire all things Death Note, I decided to save my money and buy the massive and heavy (Has a solid steel Shinigami skull inside) Death Box. Having made this choice, I then visited Akihabara, losing any money I had intended to save. Damnit. School is going well, I find i'm able to read quite fast and carry on simple conversations, though I would like to work on my Kanji more. Teachers and everything is going well, and im keeping amused by drawing and thinking (I love the sound of my own brain).

Speaking of sound, my iPod's poor LithIon battery decided it hates me, and is only lasting for a few hours at a time. With it only lasting one way on the train, life got dull standing there, so I went and got another iPod at my favorite little (massive) electronics shop, Sakuraya. Having bought a 60GB iPod video, a G-Shock, an Electronic Dictionary, and a PS2, I had ammased a large quantity of reward points on my Sakuraya card (around 10000, with 1 point being worth 1 yen) So I had a hundred dollars, and I couldnt really find a game I wanted. So what did I do? Second Wacom! So now I have a shiney white tablet to travel with. Good stuffs.

I'll be starting up a Podcast soon, because lord knows I bitch a lot and occasionally people enjoy listening to it, so i'll link to the RSS once ive made/hosted it. I have presents for pretty much everyone who exists, so if I forgot you, it means you aren't real!

I have a new manga addiction now, Gantz. If you can get over the fact that its a porny-bloodfest (aimed at 16+ year olds...) its a damn fine story. Speaking of artists, it has become apparent that I am Yoshitoshi ABe's bitch. I have spent more on pariphinalia related to his work than anything else. Way to go, ABe.

Well, not much else to say besides;


That is a halftone of my foot. I halftoned it to get rid of detail, as what you cant see in this is much, much, more disturbing. I have a major limp because of this, so I look completely idiotic walking around tokyo in the sun using my umbrella as a cane. Whoop-de-doo.

As for my weekend? I plan on doing somthing so unbelevibly touristy, and yet no tourists no of it. There is a tunnel near hear which the common beliefe is, is patrolled by a Shinigami (God of death). Heh, Ichigo, Ryuuk, or Grimm? :D

I do have somthing for you though, to both make up for my abscence and to inform the uneducated masses. I introduce, Mindspy's guide to visiting Japan! (If you cant see the Kanji, deal with it.)

Part One: Money

Like all countries in the world, Japan is a wonderful and occasionally magical (Only around Disneyland, they’re trying to fix that problem) place. With vast quantities of anything you can think of (including those thoughts you’re trying to put at the back of your mind) and food that can tickle the tastebuds and churn the stomach.

Unlike most places, where trying to blend in makes life easier, here it helps to stand out when you’re a tourist (Because face it, you’re never going to blend in). Here, being a tourist brings with it added hospitality and politeness, as well as a small amount of leeway concerning the hard-to-learn ettiquite (males excluded) of the land. And while most tourist hot-spots in Japan will crank up prices, the rest of the country did that long ago.

Many things will seem odd and alien, so lets cover a few basics, shall we?

The local currency here is the Yen, and well it is often seen represented by a ￥ sign overseas, it usually ends up as 円over here.

Currency comes in various bills and coins. Though bills are usually easy to recognize on sight, I will cover some of the denominations the coins come in.

500: This coin is fairly obvious, it is a fair bit larger then the other coins, and has a bigass 500 on it. It might be able to buy you a French fry.

100: Never run out of these. These are your lifeblood in japan. If you run out of anything else, you are still okay as long as you have a trusty 100 yen coin in your pocket.

50: Simmilar to the 100 coin, but with a hole in it. While not absolutely nessicary, they can make purchaseing train tickets or vended goods much, much easier.

10: Simmilar to the 50 in its uses, this coin is easily identified by a color scheme that sugests it was a stagnent sewer for the last 20 years. This is the smallest coin any automated device will accept. No matter what, you WILL end up with enough of these to weigh down an elephant.

5: This coin is far less frequently used, and you will only ever get them as change from stores and such. Almost no automated machine will accept these, so their use is severly limited.

1: The lonely one yen coin exists for some unknown and unfulfilled purpose. This coin is absolutely worthless. These coins exist to make reaching any useful coin a tedious job. You will end up with millions of these little aluminum buggers, yet no matter how many you amass, it will never actually be worth anything. Give these to charities. Preferably ones you don’t like.