Benford Does Stuff

Well, after 5 connections, using a combination of plane train and bus, I have finally returned home, just in time to start class again on Tuesday.

It’s really nice to be home again but I’m still running on Japanese time, making normal sleep quite difficult for the moment.

Ive made it most of the way back at this point. I have finished all of my plane flights and now i’m in Washington, waiting for my train to Portland tomorrow. Passenger rail for the win?

Huzzah for frequent flier miles.

Ill be flying on a convoluted route back to the United States. I should arrive by mid afternoon on Saturday. Ill post more when I have more stable internet access.

So I’ve spend the past few days hanging around Nagoya, finding out my friend Micheal’s favorite hangouts. One of the main attractions in Nagoya is this huge semicovered mall called Osu. It caters to a variety of interests, so it has pretty much everything. Fashion-ish stores, restaurants, game stores are all present in abundance.

Unsurprisingly I was interested in the game stores, particularly so for the used ones since they had in stock things that dated back to the pong era. I found some cool stuff there, particularly a breakout game starring Kirby; Micheal had a great time because he managed to find an old game boy, the game boy camera, and game boy printer, complete with tape.

For the uninitiated, Nintendo released the game boy camera somewhere around 1999. It resembled a wierd, oversized cartridge with a weak black and white webcam fixed on top. It had advanced features such as being able to swivel around so that you could take pictures of yourself or possibly even other things, up to 48 of them. You could also hook the game boy up to the printer accessory in order to print out tiny stamp-sized stickers of your pictures.

Among other subjects, Micheal dedicated a sticker to Kevin while he was rocking out playing guitar hero. That sticker is now on his guitar.

Oh, and Denny’s is in Japan. I went to one with Micheal one day and the results were quite odd. Recall for a second how Chinese food in America is not quite Chinese since it has been significantly Americanized. Denny’s in Japan is an American food restaurant. Allegedly most Japanese do not even realized that Denny’s was originally an American franchise.

I plan to head back to Osaka for the last leg of my journey soon so that I may meet up with Quill and Willy again, and also be hanging out relatively close to the airport for my return journey.

I forgot to mention it the other day but at this one retro game store, at the top floor there was a full fledged arcade. There was also a life sized statue of Solid Snake there.

My reaction was something like this: Snake!

After visiting Harajuku (crepetown) again my group of friends boarded the Shinkansen to head back. Willy, Abby, and Peter went all the way back to Osaka where there school is, but I got off early and went to Nagoya. I was able to meet up with my friend Micheal who is studying abroad there.

We went shopping at the supermarket on the way back and I found to my surprise that Japanese grocery stores do not have that bad of prices. I could get a meal’s worth of meat for less than 100 yen. We bought enough matereal to make a good meal for the both of us.

Micheal’s friend Quan came over and hung out for a while too. He’s a fellow nerd so we all got along quite fine.

Thats about it for now, so stay tuned; same bat-time same bat-chanel.

I was with Quill and Peter and we went to Shinjuku yesterday. Most formally it is known as the fasion district, but we came to think of it as Crepetown. There were many crepe stands and Quill knew of the best ones, probably because he had been to them all.

Blueberry crepes with blueberry cheesecake is quite delish.

We also saw the Meji shrine on the way through the park. I think its a great idea to have a forest right in the middle of one of the worlds densest urban areas.

Ｉ　ｇｏｔ　together　ｗｉｔｈｍｙｆｒｉｅｎｄｓ　Ｗｉｌｌy　Peter　ａｂｉｇａｉｌ　ａｎｄ　ｔｏｏｋｔｈｅ　　shinkansen　bullet　ｔｒａｉｎ　ｔｏ　Tokyo　TODAY　and　ｗｅ　ａｒｒｉｖｅｄ　ｉｎ　ａ　ｃｏｕｐｌｅ　ｏｆ　ｈｏｕｒｓ　ａｎｄ　ｍａｎｙ　ｇａｍｅｓ　ｏｆ］ｍａｒｉｏ　ｋａｒｔ　ｗｅｒｅ　ｐｌａｙｅｄ．　Ｇｏ　ＤＳ！

Ｔｈｅｒｅ　ｗａｓ　ｓｏｍｅ　ｃｏｎｆｕｓｉｏｎ　ｗｉｔｈ　ｓｃｈｅｄｕｌｅｉｎｇ　ｂｕｔ　Ｉ　ｅｖｅｎｔｕａｌｌｙ　ｗａｓ　ａｂｌｅ　ｔｏ　ｇｅｔ　ａ　ｙｏｕｔｈ　ｈｏｓｔｅｌ　ｗｉｔｈ　ｍｙ　ｆｒｉｅｎｄｓ．Ｗｅ　ｔｏｕｒｅｄ　ｓｏｍｅ　ｐａｒｋｓ　ｎｅａｒ　ｔｈｅ　Ｆｕｊｉ　ＴＶ Ｓｔａｔｉｏｎ　ｔｏｗｅｒ．　Ａｒｃａｄｅｓ　ｗｅｒｅ　ｆｏｕｎｄ　ａｎｄ　ｍａｎｙ　ｇａｍｅｓ　ｗｅｒｅ　ｐｌａｙｅｄ．　ｗｅ　ａｌｓｏ　ｍｅｔ　ｕｐ　ｗｉｔｈ　Ｑｕｉｌｌ　ａｎｄＭｉｃｈｅａｌ，　Ｉ　ｈａｖｅ　ｎｏｔ　ｓｅｅｎ　ｅｉｔｈｅｒ　ｏｆ　ｔｈｅＭ　ｆｏｒ　ｑｕｉｔｅ　ｓｏｍｅ　ｔｉｍｅ．　Ｑｕｉｌｌ　ｊｕｓｔ　ｇｏｔ　ｄｏｎｅ　ｗｉｔｈ　ｈｉｓ　ｅｐｉｃ　ｗａｌｋ　ｆｒｏｍ　Ｏｓａｋａ　ｔｏ　Ｔｏｋｙｏ．　Ｈｅ　ｓｕｒｖｉｖｅｄ．

Ｔｈｅ　ｋｅｙｂｏａｒｄ　ｉｓ　ｑｕｉｔｅ　ｏｄｄ　　ａｎｄ　Ｉ　ｍｕｓｔ　ｐｒｅｓｓ　ｅｎｔｅｒ　ｂｅｆｏｒｅ　ｅａｃｈ　ｓｐａｃｅ　ａｎｄ　ｉｍ　ａｆｒａｉｄ　ｔｏ　ｕｓｅ　ｐｕｎｃｔｕａｔｉｏｎ　ｆｏｒ　ｆｅａｒ　ｏｆ　ｂｒｅａｋｉｎｇ．　ｉｔ　ｆｏｒｅｖｅｒ．

Ｗｅｌｌ，　ｗｉｌｌ　ｂｌｏｇ　ａｇａｉｎ　ｌａｔｅｒ　ｗｈｅｎ　ｏｐｐｏｒｔｕｎｉｔｙ　ａｒｉｓｅｓ．

So I went to Denden town yesterday and that was great. never before have I seen so many electronic things for sale in the same place. In particular I was able to check out several video game stores and I coould check out many games that were not even published in the USA yet. I was also able to track down some really rare games in the US that were common as anything over on this side of the pond.

My friend Willy and I had Okinamiyai, which is a Japanese pancake which is sweet, full of meat, eggs, and veggies, and probably made of pure magic. About 2/3ds of our table was actually a hot plate, so we could eat the pancake derivative while it was still hot.

Hello everyone. Just wanted to post that I made it to Japan safely, though my luggage did not. But that is a later story.

I arrived at PDX and had Panda express。There were subsequent transfers to LAX then Guagnzauh China then finally Osaka. The flight from LAX to Guangzao tookover 15 hours of flying time. My luggage was unfortunately not included on that leg of the trip. I hope to pick up that luggage tomorrow at KIX which is when they say it will tomorrow at KIX which is when they say it will arrive at Tokyo.

Ive made several new friends since arriving at the hostel. There was a group of students from Austrailia, and several visiting Japanese as well. Tom Alix and Dori were from the Austrailia group and they will be in the Japan area for about as long as I will。They will be sending me their travel plans so that we can maybe meet up again at Tokyo.

Last night I was able to meet with my friend willy, his girlfriend Abigail and Peter. they all go to the Kansai School. We went to a cool restaorant where we had some chicken based dish with other good stuff. I:ll have to get the name later. Today we plan to go to Den Den town the electronics district. Yesterday I saw a little but not very much.

Well that is all for now. it is qute difficult to get used to a Japanese keyboard so Ill type some more later

As promised, I have some signs soon.