Nintendo, a birthday and uni

I'm thinking of buying a Nintendo DS (the handheld console). There's some spiffy software/games on it, but I'd be getting it for the kanji software they have. Since the DS has a stylus to write with, there're 'games' etc to help practise/learn kanji characters as well as it being able to be used as a dictionary that can be written in to look words up.
I doubt I'd find one that also translates to English, but would be a bonus if I did manage to.

I'll check out the local prices and might end up heading into Yodobashi in Umeda (a huge electronic store in Osaka unlike anything you'll ever see outside of Japan). Should set me back about $AU200 at the most, inc the software.


It was Toshi's birthday shindig last night in Umeda too.

I chose the most natural shot I have (pun intended). L>R: Yusuke, Toshi, Shin



I sent a few emails off the other week asking for information about uni next year. Quite oddly, I've heard nothing back yet. It's been about 2 weeks, so thinking I'll have to send another. It shouldn't take this long for a reply (my questions weren't that difficult, I think).
I've already applied anyway, but I just want to make sure I know all the extra things I'll need to do for it. As well as what to do since I'm applying from over here and wont be able to sit any test. I think I've said that before...

Sleeping now.

Anniversary

Today is my one year anniversary of arriving. Quite the day.

The Home Stretch

My visa's updated. I'm definitely here til February.

I've very mixed feeling now that I'm on the home stretch. I applied for next year's uni last week so am looking forward to seeing that in motion and getting back to some serious study. Another three years of uni is such a daunting thing to stand at the front of, though. I applied for Bachelor of Arts (Language) at Monash Clayton as first preference.
I also sent off a few question-loaded emails to see what extra info I can get since I couldn't interrogate anyone at their open days.
If I do make it in, they have a few sister universities over here in Japan that I'd be doing my best to get exchange with and finish my course over here. I'd be going for one of the two in Osaka, which is the Melbourne of Japan (being the '2nd' city and better, although has over five times the population of Melb).
Doing exchange back here is the ideal. Fingers crossed.


Work's got it's steady teacher turnover at the moment and we had another two leave in this week gone. We've basically lost on average one a month and, considering we had about 10-11 at the start of the year, it's quite noticeable to be getting constant new replacing faces. There'll be two new teachers beginning at the end of the month.

The cicada are still singing but they're starting to pile up on the streets as the slowly die off. They still catch my attention (but I guess that's cause I can't escape them, even at home).


I've not done much for the last week during my free time. I got a 'bit' sunburned all over my back last weekend and so haven't been back to the beach since. You could see the places quite clearly where I'd missed with the sunscreen. At least it didn't peel too bad.

Most of the guys are off in Russia at the moment for a mate's wedding (his now-wife is Russian, he's Japanese) so I'm left with much less to do until they get back. Would have been great to go, but work is how work is and didn't have enough leave to last me.

This Thursday the 23rd is the 6-months-left mark.
I'm thinking that I should keep my eye out for some spiffy souveniers to bring back to Aus, but that really makes it too obvious to myself that I'm headed home soon...

I'm currently still planning on quitting work at the end of January and then heading off to travel for the last month. I'll be heading back to Hokkaido without doubt to see my old homestay family who're beckoning me with every email reply I get. It'll be bloody cold in Feb, but the Sapporo Snow Festival is on then, so will be definitely worth it. Wonder if I can con anyone to travel with me...

Suma Beach

This is a local beach, which is about 15-20 mins by train from my place. It was quite busy yesterday.

The weather's hovered mostly around 30-31 degrees since the rainy season ended a while back, although, even now when we get rain it doesn't really fall below 27-ish. So there's cool rain hitting you and a nice breeze, but you're still sweating like crazy from the humidity. We've had the occasional typhoon warning, but that's a pretty typical thing. We've had none actually hit yet as Kyushu (one of Japan's main islands that really shelters Kobe/Osaka from the open sea) usually takes the brunt of it. We do get the rain from them though.

Fireworks

This is 1/100th of the amount of people watching the the final part of an hour and a half long night of the Fireworks Festival down at Habourland. I went with a few friends on Saturday and filmed this with my digital camera. This was just the end of it, and didn't get any of the earlier big ones.
You can hear one of the staff from work that was there gibbering on (as is her thing).

I consider these last few to be rather typical, but the earlier ones were unlike any I've seen before. Quite the show. I'll try and take some better shots next time I'm here for the festival, ok?