Cheapskate’s Paradise

I am positively glad I don’t have Friday classes this semester.

I finally get to experience the four-day work week for the first time in my life–that which GSU people already know well.  I work on every other Friday, but work doesn’t last long.  I can sleep in, and all day feel the freedom of not having classes.  It’s a different feeling thinking “Yup.  Gotta get up and go get paid to teach English.” than thinking “Ugh.  Gotta get up super early to go sit through lectures and junk.”

Today was my first completely free Friday of the semester.  Today began my personal Golden Week, which will last until May 11th if I only skip one day of classes.  I’m geeked of course.  But it’s also quite boring being cooped up in my dorm during holidays.  In other words, if I don’t travel, I’d rather have obligations that get me out of bed–classes, work, whatevz–than unchained free time.

My trip to Tokyo is looking iffy.  I still haven’t reserved my Shinkansen ticket, and I’m relying on someone else to book the hostel for me.  If I don’t go this week I won’t freak out: free Fridays allow for a 3-day trip to Tokyo any time this semester!

In local today’s news, I explored the kick-ass Book Off at nishikita again.  (“Nishikita” is short for “Nishinomiya-Kitaguchi” or 西宮北口, which is a big hub for the Hankyu train line in Nishinomiya city, which is on my way to and from school.  It’s got the biggest mall in Kansai plus tons of other great shops, restaurants, and bars within walking distance.  It’s very common for my friends to plan to “meet at nishikita.”)  Book Off is a 99% used book/music/games store chain that has ass-exploding prices.

• Ｄの食卓(D’s Dinner Table): an old shitty adventure game, is at Book Off–Special 3-disc edition, no less–for 250 yen.  At the mall’s Joshin electronic store, it was 700.
• Final Fantasy XII: any edition–regular, international, Zodiac system–1550 yen.
• Gradius V: 2450 yen (I gotta get this!)
• Suikoden II: insani-rare in US, 950 yen at Book Off (where’s the “For real though?” emoticon…).  I bought it in DenDen Town for around 1750.  Still worth it, but Book Off is just wild.
• Death Note series for 105 yen per volume.
• Bleach for 105 per volume (except for the newer ones).
• Samurai Deeper Kyo, Yuu Yuu Hakusho, Tenchi Muyo, Conan, most Naruto, etc. etc. for 105 yen per volume. These prices are SICK cheap.

Long story short: I’ve decided that I cannot to commit to a classic (in other words, long) manga series right now.  I don’t have the time nor the knowledge about quality of the manga.  So my plan is to buy the first volume of many series just to taste all the colors of the manga rainbow.  Right now I have 1 or more volumes of the following:

• 魔王 (Maou): Juvenile Remix
• D. Gray Man
• Bakuman
• Tenchi Muyo

(Yeah, not much manga.  And zero anime.  So much for my nerdiness…)

I like everything I’ve read in the world of manga.  So I think this strategy will be just fine.

After being awesome in Book Off, I crossed the street and be’d awesome in the arcade there, called “Game Navel: Play Station.”  This name, by the way, has made the origin of the console’s name clearer to me.  It seems by “play station” they mean “place where you play” or “play location.”   Anyhow, I saw that they’re holding a free Tekken 6 tournament soon.  I want to go and film the good players.  Also?  Check this, gamers: On the side of the Tekken 6 cabinets, there’s a huge widescreen TV broadcasting one of the matches being played.  Underneath, there is a shelf with two giant folders.  Filled with page-protected paper.  All meticulously filled with special moves for the characters in Tekken 6.  This is awesome to me for some reason.

Next, me and Lauryn went to kaitenzushi (回転寿司) which is a cheap way to eat sushi.  You sit at a booth, next to which is a conveyor belt rotating different sushi, drinks, and treats for customers to grab as they feel inclined to.  Plates are 90% of the time 105 yen each, and are counted by a waiter when you leave to determine your bill.  It’s cheap because the quality is low (the sushi isn’t handmade and it gets warm really fast rotating along that conveyor belt) but I’m not an elitist like Japanese people can be, so I love it.  Well, I also love it because it’s a totally Japanese experience.  Can’t you picture it?  Loud elevator-music reinditions of Utada blasting, businessmen drinking beer and turning red, families, girlfriends, all grabbing sushi–all types of fish, a billion types of squid, sea urchins, natto, corn-covered-in-mayonaisse, even hamburger sushi–drinking green tea, and only dealing with staff if you press a button on a touch screen menu that calls attention to your booth.  That’s, how do you say, fucking Japanese.

Me and Lauryn had good sushi, good tea, good sweets, and good talks.  I then came home around 11pm, tired as always, but happy that I got the fuck out of my dorm room.  I swear, you never run out of new places in Japan to just wander around.  It’s great.

Just thought I’d give you a more daily-life style update.