After a six-day dry spell, the Rain of Life has returned, or whatever new epithet the adoring millions are calling me these days. In the interim days, rest assured that I have done more or less nothing except study kanji, laze around, and discover that my computer can play the Japan-only Online Bomberman game. Yes, online bomberman. It's a great game, but unfortunately frequented only by thirteen-fifteen-year-olds who have nothing better to do with their time than become insanely good at blowing strangers to smithereens. Fortunately, incomprehensible gamer insult words have yet to be introduced to the Japanese online gaming world, so it's pretty easy to pass a whole night without being called a n00B even once, which is very refreshing. It's also great that, though this game is playable only in Japan, Bomberman filters out any statement with English curse words and admonishes you politely to "Speak nicely and correctly," but blocks Japanese curse words about as well as the Maginot Line blocked, well, anything.
Tomorrow I'll be going to Osaka with a Korean friend for an unspecified length of time that will probably somewhere in the few days range. I don't really know how much stuff there is to do there, but it looks like it'll be pretty great; if nothing else, it's right next to Kyoto, so I can always just go there again if I get bored. Osaka, from all accounts, is in many respects just like Los Angeles plopped in the middle of Japan; they even have a Universal Studios, although at $55 it's even more expensive to enter than the American versions. There is a big "American Village" in the center of Osaka (center, I think) where one can go to have a scandalously fake American experience, so I'll definitely be checking that out. Anyway, this is all to say that I won't be posting for a while, so try to bear up. Again, S. Subjugation or maybe even Enlarged Liver may fill in some substitute posts while I'm gone, so be sure to check back every now and then for posts that are guaranteed to be more interesting than this one.
- Gyaa! I'm give up
Naka-ku, Hiroshima
730-0803
JAPAN
