Well, still no laptop. Buying something that complicated when nobody speaks your language beyond "this... very fast... good... you buy!" is just a touch difficult. I've got some friends that can help me now though.
Been partying plenty, met heaps of new cool teachers at my proper branch. My branch is on the tenth floor of a massive depato called Fukuya opposite Hiroshima train station. The 10th floor is filled entirely with books and it is the most neat and well stocked bookstore Ive ever seen. MASSIVE. Decent English section too which is really handy.
I GOT A CAMERA! Yes, I sank 30,000￥ on a Canon IXY70 and a 256MB card. I got a mobile phone too, some sexy slim Samsung 3G number with a 2Mpixel cam in it. So photos should start appearing on my flickr account regularly now. You can check it out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/75765509@N00/ I think. Email me if this doesn:t work.
Ive been on a few huge benders now, met a bunch of awesome Japanese people. Last night I had guys shouting me rounds of beers and strange shots of crazy weird concoctions. I also met a few cute girls so that front has been going quite well. Its funny but when everyone is kinda drunk, the weird blend of bastardised japanese/english hybrid that we can speak... it seems to work. My Japanese is continuing to improve, Ive started free lessons at the Hiroshima International Centre where very patient (and cute of course) 20-somethings teach me basic Japanese.
The netcafe I:m in at the moment is enormous, 3 floors, with a huge manga library, free drinks (at least 60 types), cheap food, and pretty decent machines. However, still expensive!!!
The food here is incredible, I dont think Ive eaten at the same place twice yet. Ive started hanging out a fair bit with a cool teacher from the states and his buddies from scotland and other places. They:ve taken me to a whole bunch of awesome places including this really bizarre Japanese version of an Italian restaurant. I can safely say that Japanese garlic bread is some of the tastiest and most unhealthy stuff on earth. Imagine 10cm lengths of baguette covered in huge chunks of roasted garlic and litres of this strange-tasting butter.
So, its taken me maybe 10 days, but I finally feel truly happy here and can safely say Im having a ball. When I have a proper weekend (I worked overtime to start off on a good footing last weekend) Ill spend a good amount of time learning how to use this camera properly and take some photos of Miyajima (an island) or Hiyajima (a massive park in Hiroshima).
I was annoyed I missed the Aus v Greece and Aus v Netherlands matches, but hoooo boy this city is getting primed for the Aus v Japan match. I met some really awesome Japanese guys (who appeared to be around my age, and they assumed the same, turns out they:re around 27-30) who lllllllove to play Winning Eleven 10 on PS2 and will take me to a great bar to watch the game. The Japanese fans sound confident but they:re definitely not underestimating what is possible with Gus on the scene.
