September 10. 2004 23:54

Keeping in touch with the rest of the world

Wow, the same time as yesterday O_o I'm totally lost with the days already... I should really get a calendar so I could keep track of time...

Today my plan was just to spent time at the International Office by the Internet. I woke up a bit late to spend enough time there, but I went anyway. Lots of e-mail again, as supposed. But first I tried to find the Japanese language support pack from Windows Update, but as I thought, you can only install it if you have the CD -_- How sucky is that? Of course I didn't take the CD with me. But my boyfriends promised to mail it to me, so I hope that works.

After that failure I spent a while talking to my boyfriend with Messenger ^_^ *happy* He's so lonely without me... I'm actually still so messed up by this whole experience that I'm not missing anyone particular O_o But it was very nice, comfy and homey to talk to him. I just wish I had that Internet in the dorm already so I wouldn't have to carry my laptop to the office and back again every time I want it to be connected... But it seems getting the connection here won't take that long, because Ken gave me the application form today and it should be working from this month. Can't wait!

I tried to find some info about mobile phones with dual support as well. After a while of searching I managed to find the english language version of Vodafone's Japanese website, and after another while I found a list of the phones that worked both in Finland and in Japan. There was one Nokia, as supposed, and four other phones. I couldn't really find the prices or any other deeper info on them, though. Only some figures like 30 000 yen and 2200 yen and 3500 yen, but I have no idea if they are accurate, because 3000 yen for that kind of a phone is REALLY cheap. Dunno, I have to go downtown to do some research and ask Shiori to help me, because she speaks both English and Japanese fluently.

At the office I met Tim and Laura, the students from Glasgow. They're really nice people, especially Tim is very funny. Since the office was closing soon, I decided to go eat with them. We had some trouble with the very hard rain that appeared just when we left, but we managed to get to this local Chinese restaurant with most of our upper bodies dry. The umbrella didn't help me with my shoes, though, so they were soaking wet... The food was very good, anyway, and there was probably more than I had eaten in a whole day ever since I had arrived. When I compare it to the Chinese restaurant meals in Finland, it wasn't any bigger, but it seemed really big. The good thing was that there wasn't just one sort of food in the meal, like in Finland, but this set had three different things to eat. It was very good, but I was so full afterwards.

After we left Tim felt like a beer so we went to the K Circle along the way. K Circles are open 24 hours a day, so they're very convenient. It was only eight, though, but the store was right where we were walking and we didn't feel like wandering around in the rain. I bought a lime cider-like drink I had noticed the other day, and Laura bought something too. She was wondering if there was any alcohol in it but when I searched the can it said 6 % on it. It was only a 0,33l can but after that I was so wasted... It's silly how alcohol can sometimes do that. We were at the boy's dorm Kino-ryo and I was glad I was sitting, because I'm not sure that I wouldn't have staggered if I were standing. I also bought a bag of marshmallows just because they were so funny ^_^ Now I totally understand why they say Mokona is like a marshmallow, because they're just like that. Small, round and squishy ^_^ They were incredibly funny. I'm not sure if the other guys understood that, though.

The night's movie was the sequel for Babe and it might've been nice to spend the night watching that, dubbed in Japanese of course, but I had promised Heidi I would show the pics from the Chrysanthemum festival tonight. So I went home, still a bit tipsy. Heidi had already gone knocking on my door to see if I was there, so I took her up right away. She, too, thought the Noh play looked great. But while I was showing her the pics I noticed the sad fact that I can't take video with my camera when it's in the upright position. The videos I had of the Noh play are all 90 degrees to the left... Sigh. I'll have to see if there's anything I can do about that when I get back to school at home. Luckily I have access to this massive amount of editing software (and other neat stuff) there.

We talked about mobile phones for a bit as well, because the system with them in Japan is really complicated. There are normal phones that you get packed with a contract with a phone company, and then there are pre-paid phones, for which you can buy talking-time cards later on. In the pre-paid ones there is no place for the kind of a sim card we use in Finland, so I guess the dual phones are either meant only for regular customers or then you can also buy pre-paid cards to a normal phone like them. Pre-paid would be much easier than a contract, so I'm a bit worried if I can use it in a dual phone. Tomorrow I thought I would go shopping, so I can try to check that out then as well. If I just manage to explain myself in Japanese well enough... Well, we'll see tomorrow. For tonigh, sleep well.