Are you smart enough to spell 'which'?

Well anyway, when I was playing I noticed something odd on one of the questions; a spelling mistake. Ironically a game to test whether you’re smarter than someone only a decade old had it’s only mental problems.

Whioh of these would you find near a lighthouse?

I had another moment of ‘eh?’ last night when I was flicking through one of my Japanese grammar books. Oxford Japanese Grammar and Verbs by Jonathan Bunt was recommended to me by a friend and to be honest it’s a very good little book. It’s explanations are clear and easy to follow. However it seems that even the Oxford University Press has it’s off days.

授業が早く終わったら電話電話します
Jugyō ga hayaku owattara denwa shimasu
If the class finishes early, I will ring

For those who don’t do Japanese you might want to just skip on ahead. For those that do, have a look at ‘電話電話’ which is apparently read as just ‘denwa’. If you have the book and want to have a nose it’s on page 134.

A couple of days ago a friend and I decided to buy PSPs. After spotting a few of the “2000 model” (why they add three zeros instead of making it the “2 model” is beyond me) at a bargain price we also did a little hunting for some cheap games and UMD films to accompany them. From one shop I spotted (and bought) 2 UMDs at 350 yen each (£2.43) which looked to be very crappy films (I didn’t try and read the descriptions, I just saw cheap and crappy).

From Here To Reality starring Risa Goto is a 55 minute tease-fest in which she walks, swims and dawdles around in various outfits (the swimming is topless), but the viewer doesn’t get to “see anything”. Definately one of those “get what you pay for moments”, and was good for a quick giggle, but not really good enough for a laugh. I’d just like to point out that in 2005, when this was made, Risa was 21 years old. Which brings me onto the next one.

Those familiar with dating sims will know that the objective is to follow a string of tasks, quests, questions or whatever, with the eventual aim of getting with a girl (depending on the age rating of the game this aim could just be going steady with her, or something more series). Likewise games have been made with different genders in mind. Well as it turns out that’s just what Sweet Paradise was.

You take one of three young girls out for a date somewhere in beautiful Bali. When I say young, the first couple of goes of it I thought that they were still above that “barely legal” age limit, but it turns out I was wrong. After nosing google it happens to be that the 2006 game/video stars 14 year old Runa (now 17), 12 year old Saaya (now 15) and also 12 year old Jessica (also now 15). From the couple of goes I had it seems the dates end in one of two ways; you either agree what good friends you are or you fall face first into a swimming pool (there way have been more endings but to be honest I really didn’t want to have to sit through it again and again, especially as it’s date scenes are unskippable).

So this brings us up to today. Obviously I didn’t particularly want these two UMDs, and there was absolutely no way in hell I was going to try and bring them through customs, so I had to get rid of them. I didn’t particularly care on getting my money back on them, so I just took them to the first second hand game shop I visited … well, second actually. I go in the first one too often to have them forever know me as “that perverted git-bag”. Going that extra step to avoid future face to face contact with the shop I was selling to, I ended up visiting a shop in 桃山台 (Momoyamadai), a good hour north of Umeda (not just for this, I was also visiting a mate) getting 100 yen (69p) for each of the games. I was going to just think of it as me renting them at that kind of price that I ended up parting with, but then I just remembered it cost 680 yen (£4.71) to get there and back.

What a load of bollocks.

狼と香辛料 (Ookami to Koushinryou, Wolf and Spice (refferred to as Spice and Wolf in the UK)), is an anime I first saw at the Leeds Anime Society. I was mainly entranced by it’s storyline that wasn’t set in Japan, but old Europe, and the fact that it uses early economics and trading as a continual baseline. ¬_¬ Yeah that may sound dull and boring to you, but shush, it was great. So not only did I manage to find a copy of the game (that I didn’t know even existed), but I found a special edition box set. I just checked the Spice & Wolf website to find it has a price of 7,770 yen (£54.33), however I paid a measly 2,940 yen (£20.56). I’ve just opened the box and found a ‘Horo voice in a bag’, an audio CD, and of course the game itself. Not bad.

My other bargain was partially based on something I bought yesterday (but forgot to blog about). There are two Higurashi (yeah I know, lately I haven’t shut up about the series) games on the DS which I’ve been wanting to get since I first noticed them back in September, but they were just too expensive. Well yesterday after dropping a 13.8kg box of books at the post office (which will take about 3 months to reach the UK), I found a copy of the second game at a reasonable price (with a 200 yen coupon I had) of 2,280 yen (£15.94), so scooped it up.

Fast forward to today where I find the special edition (Angel Mort) boxed version of the second game for a meagre 1,890 yen (£13.22). The cheapest I’d seen this edition was in the region of 5,000-6,000 yen (£34.96-£41.95), so let’s open her up and see what she holds inside …

We have the game (of course), a framed Shion & Mion card in an Angel Mort stamp card (might take a while for me to read what it says inside >_<), 2 Angel Mort coasters (one written in English: “Dear Customer, Welcome to my cafe. How lucky you are to have chanced upon this place. A place that will make your dreams come true. Have you found your favourite angel? If not, don’t worry. Keep visiting us, and you’ll find your one and only. Please enjoy yourself to the full. We are here to serve you. From, shop owner”), 2 sticker cards, an Angel Mort flanel/hand towel, a paper Angel Mort apron, and an Angel Mort Drama CD. Quite a haul really. You can see a picture of what’s inside on this forum page, though for some reason they got an extra amulet thingy.

So in buying this I was left with the predicament of having two of the same game. My choices were simple. I could either keep both games, try and sell one on to a friend (or eBay), or try and take the more expensive one back to the shop. Despite not knowing how refunds were conducted in Japan or if any etiquette was needed on my part, I opted for the last option.

After quickly looking up the vocabulary for returning something to a shop 返送 (hensou) and refund 払い戻し (haraimodoshi), I headed to the shop (open 24-7, or as is said in Japanese 4-6 (四六時中, shirokujichuu, open around the clock, 4 x 6 = 24)) with the game, the receipt, and what I hoped was the same carrier bag.

Normally in the UK getting a refund isn’t a very simple process. Well, I guess it is (as long as you’re not a prick to whoever’s serving you), but normally the shop will want you to fill in a form, give your address, wait for a manager and so on and so on. With this in mind I was somewhats apprehensive about the whole thing, especially as I still take a good 10 minutes or so writing out my address. When I approached the counter I explained that “I bought the game yesterday as a birthday present for my friend, but he already had it so I wanted to return it” (my usual blatant returning product lie ಠ_ಠ). The staff member then popped to the back and returned with another member of staff. She then checked the amount with me and returned my money with a smile. No paper to fill in, no signatures to sign, that was it … done.

I think I’ll be leaving these two games for the plane trip back, but in the mean time, here’s what I bought today (these will be added to The List at some point, along with the ones I bought that day we went to the Mother Cafe.

• DS Games
• ひぐらしのなく頃に絆第一巻・想　エンジェルモートお持ち帰りBOX
• 狼と香辛料　ボクとホロの一年　初回限定版

• Music CD
• Moment by Vivian or Kazuma

• Sound Novels (games)
• うみねこのなくの頃に　第一話 (also came with a very funky metal bookmark
• うみねこのなくの頃に　第二話
• うみねこのなくの頃に　第三話 (I already had this, but couldn’t remember which of the three I didn’t have)

• Manga
• Genshiken – book 6 (series complete)
• Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei – books 10 to 16 (series complete … for now)
• The Meloncholy of Haruhi Suzumiya – book 5 and a one off special anthology
• Love Hina – book 0
• Akihabara Ichiman Chanel (1 off)
• Higurashi – the remaining books from the 罪滅し編 (tsumihoroboshi hen)
• Higurashi – the remaining book from the 宵越し編 (yoigoshi hen)
• Higurashi – コンプエース編 (comp ace hen)
• Higurashi – Book 1 of 5 of the 語咄し編 コミックアンソロジー (cohanashi hen comic anthology)

You can make your at Become Street Fighter.com

Edit: Some of the videos aren’t working in Internet Explorer, so I’ve added links so you can still see them.

Me (Ryu) Vs Eliza (Akuma) Vid not working? Click Me

Me (Chun-Li) Vs Jordan (Guile) Vid not working? Click Me

Me (Sagat) Vs Martin (Rufus) Vid not working? Click Me

Me (Ken) Vs Jonathan (Viper) Vid not working? Click Me

Me (Honda) Vs Akira (Abel) Vid not working? Click Me

Me (Blanka) Vs Keiji (Seth) Vid not working? Click Me

However once in a while an anomoly occurs and you get some little smart-arse who’s studied nothing but English Classics in their short little lives and can do such a task. This in turn must mean that there is hope for people wishing to strike up a conversation, even a short one, with a complete stranger and not have it go AOT like someone carrying something very expensive and slipping on a pile of mochi.

To the point then. Today a friend and I were in a park in Umeda practicing kanji on white boards and seemed to draw the attention of a (possibly) homeless man. As he came closer I saw him staring down at my whiteboard (covered in miscellaneous kanji combinations). I explained to him we were doing kanji practice and our conversation began.

The conversation ended as quickly as it started as he went off to join some friends a few meters away and we continued our kanji practice. After a while, partly due to boredom and the kanji for the name 今井 (Imai), we ended up playing a few games of noughts and crosses, followed by me testing whether or not my friend new へのへのもへじ (henohenomoheji).

Quote from Wikipedia

Henohenomoheji (へのへのもへじ) or hehenonomoheji (へへののもへじ) is a face drawn by Japanese schoolchildren using hiragana characters.

The word breaks down into the seven hiragana characters he（へ）, no（の）, he（へ）, no（の）, mo（も）, he（へ）, ji（じ）. The first two “he” are the eyebrows, the two “no” are the eyes, the “mo” is a nose, and the last “he” is the mouth. The outline of the face is made by the character “ji”, with the dakuten forming the ear. Children use henohenomoheji as the faces of kakashi (scarecrows).

This have caught the ears of our visitor who had returned and seemed very eager to show us some other variations of the game. Unfortunately I never had the chance to ask him what they were that he drew, but I did take some photographs of them, and will ask some friends when I next see them.

Speaking of photos, there’re going to be new photo’s on the blogspot page daily for a while! In the mean time, here’s a video of Darth Vader (aka Dave Prowse from Bristol) doing what he does best. Also, did you know R2D2 (aka Kenny Baker) was a Brummie? o_O

Monday morning was the day of my make-up test, obviously my confidence was taking a trip that day. Harsh as it may seem, I was kind of hoping that other people may have been ill on the Friday so that I wouldn’t have to take the test alone. But no, no one else. There’s something incredibly weird about having to take a test alone. The room had no clock and my watch had died some time before, so I had to try to estimate how long I was taking on each section. When the test was over I handed in my paper and headed down to the Ajisai room.

As I’ve previously mentioned, the Ajisai room is one of the few places I can talk to native Japanese speakers in a relaxed atmosphere. I feel kind of guilty asking friends to come all the way to Osaka from Kobe for the mere purpose of hanging out, and on the reverse side of the coin I really don’t always fancy going to another prefecture for the same reason. Once again my random conversations were had and a few games of Mario Kart DS also.

Since my Japanese language classes were over for the year, I only had my linguistics assignment left to worry about. Well, that and my assignment from Leeds that’s due early in January. Thus between this and sleep, not a lot’s actually happened this week.

On Wednesday we had our final Business class, and since the last exam was already done and dusted we had a little bit of a party. Our sensei brought in a range of Japanese munchies and we had a bit of a quiz (on the subject of mergers and acquisitions). Winning myself some a red-bean mochi, by answering that Nestle were the only foreign chocolate maker with a base in kansai, I started to unwrap the squidgy food.

This is the first time I’d tried mochi and to be honest it was probably the last. I’ve not been a big fan of red-bean paste since first trying it in a donut some time ago; I find they remind me too much of kidney beans, which I do like (with rice) but not in a sweet sense. The mochi itself consists of a gelatinous rice which I’m told has been pounded repeatadly to give it its form. It is a very chewy and powdery kind of cake, but for me it didn’t really have enough flavour.

Next year my classes and class times will be changing, so Thursday was the final time I would be going to my Practical Athletics Training class; where I am the only foreigner. To mark the occaision I decided to really push myself and improved on all my levels on each piece of equipment. I won’t say what they all are (because frankly I don’t remember them but have them written down at the gym), but do remember that I ‘abcrunched’ 56kg. Bare in mind I’m only 66kg myself.

This was also the day of the last Linguistics class, which in turn meant that my linguistics assignment was due the following day. After working through the night, napping on the floor at times, I had my essay finished at about 7 o’clock on Friday morning. Throughout the essay I discovered an extra thing about Chiri Kitsu, a character in Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, and an extra about the Itoshiki family, that I didn’t research online.

Firstly, thanks to a friends linguistic project on mimetics, I realised that ‘Chiri’ can also mean curly or frizzy. This is a reference to Chiri Kitsu’s true hairstyle, rather than the straight, perfectly split down the centre look she usually goes for. As for the Itoshiki family, well when you combine the kanji used for the family name (a running joke in relation to all the family members), and add the kanji for home (read as ie), then you are given zekke, meaning extinct family. I would have put those up here in their kanji versions, but not everyone who reads this can view kanji properly on their computers, so the links will have to do.

I got my marks back from Japanese and although they seem to be quite low compared to the status quo, they do seem to be a vast improvement to my marks at Leeds. Personally I could argue that this is because at Leeds everything was new and here for the first part of the year we covered old material, but would like to think that being in a country where I can put my degree topic to use on an almost daily basis had something to do with it too. Once again my speaking saving the day over all, which is ironic when you think about it.

On the subject of speaking, a few times yesterday I have had encounters of speaking with people I didn’t know, and with me still being alive and well, I can only assume that I did well. I first had to go to the local ward office to change my address details for my National Health Insurance, then on the way back home I had a good conversation with woman selling takoyaki. I know this chat went well because she threw in some extra pieces for free, calling them a welcome gift. Finally last night I went to a bar a few doors down the road where I was enticed by the fact that they advertised selling Red Stripe, a Jamaican beer. The conversation was great as I was the only other person in there (this has become something of a habit, being the only other person in a bar) and the Red Stripe was good, though very expensive.

Recently I’ve got back to playing a bit of old school gaming with Rockstar Games giving away it’s original Grand Theft Auto and GTA 2 via download. It has been a nice stress buster aswell, giving that you can easilly go on a murderous rampage for little to no reason whatsoever and then turn off and go on your merry way. Of course, that is if you’re over 18. Let’s face it, when people moan that the youth of today are being warped because of games like this, we really have to look at how they’re getting them, and in many cases it seems to be the parent’s buying them for them. I’ve included the the links for them above, so do enjoy going back in time before realism was all that people wanted in games like this.

Finally, Christmas is coming. Though I’ve never been a fan of Christmas back home, everyone getting into a “gimme gimme gimme” attitude, the cold weather, the fact that starting in October everywhere shoves Christmas lights so far down your throat that you fart out sparkles, here it’s been quite different. The main thing I’ve noticed is the disctinct lack of a Christmas atmosphere. Yes there are lights, but you don’t feel blinded everywhere you look. Yes there are people dressed in santa outfits, but they’re minimal (I don’t mean their height). And yes there are signs advertising things that would make for good christmas gifts, but this is over shadowed by the fact that in Japan it is New Year which is the key focus of the winter break. Christmas here is not a national holiday, so we will be getting food at the dorm.

I’m still going to KFC for lunch though, as it appears to be something of a Japanese tradition.