Usually people in Japan tend to have smaller pets, for obvious reasons. However,
last night I saw a large dog tied up in front of a 7-11. It looked pretty cool,
so I took a picture.
The owner was laughing at the crazy gaijin taking pictures of a dog.
Tangent: the 7-11 chain of convenience stores exist in Japan, but the store name
is written in “Japanized” English: Seben-Ereben. However, I think the name
would translate well directly into Japanese: Shichi-Juichi. Of course, the
store would lose a bit of the chain image if that happened. Globalization!
Yes! Hey! I’m not bitter about it!
Usually once a month I make a sojourn down to one of Utsunomiya’s hospitals to
“teach” a doctor there. Basically we blab for a while, then he reads me a
newspaper article or composition he wrote. I then help him correct his paper or
understand some difficult bits of the article. In return, I get paid a
ridiculous amount of money.
So, I’m off to spend some of that money on videogames.
(Quick note: Sorry, these images are still pretty large. The photo program I use
[iPhoto] doesn’t compress images very well. Even at 500x375, they are still over
100k in size. I need to get a better program.)
EDIT: I grabbed Metal Gear Solid 3 and Final Fantasy X International. MGS3 will
be my test. If I can enjoy the game even though it’s entirely in Japanese, then
I’ll buy the Japanese version of Final Fantasy 12. Right now I’m translating
bits of the manual; learning lots of interesting words, but it gets kinda
tedious after a while. FFX International is just one of those games it’s cool to
have. Same old story, but lots of added junk, plus the dialogue is all in
English. It even warns you of that fact on the back of the box.
Finally after getting an internet connection, I was able to download a demo of
that indie game, Gish. Figured I’d post
a bit o’ my reactions here.
Our story so far: Gish and his lady friend Brea are out walking around one day,
when all of a sudden a mysterious hand reaches out of the sewers and grabs the
girl. Gish must (of course) rescue the girlfriend while trying not to die. The
problem? Gish is a ball of tar. Actually, the real problem is trying to explain
how a sentient ball of tar managed to get a girlfriend, but I guess that’s
beyond the scope of this game.
Being tarrish and ball-shaped, Gish moves a bit more sluggishly than most video
game heros. With no legs, momentum plays a big factor in play control.
Navigating his two-dimensional world sometimes takes a bit of patience. To help
you along, Gish has four different abilities: Sticky, Slick, Heavy, and Expand.
Sticky does like it says, allowing Gish to roll up walls and along ceilings.
Slick lets him slide through narrow spaces, while Heavy increases Gish’s weight
in order to crush walls and baddies. Expand will propel Gish a short distance
into the air; get the timing right and you can bounce him like a rubber ball.
Some of Chronic Logic’s earlier projects are intensely physics-based, and this
shows when playing Gish. In fact, many other reviews I’ve read wax on and on
about the physics of the game. Indeed, Gish is very realistic (perhaps too
realistic) dealing with interaction in the game world. Tilting bridges and rope
platforms move exactly how you might expect. Put too much weight on a rope and
it will snap, possibly plunging Gish into lava or making it difficult to proceed
in the level. When first playing the game, control is a bit frustrating, but as
the game progresses, the entire system feels quite intuitive.
Besides the standard levels, Gish also includes other gameplay modes, such as
Collection (wherein you collect coins…uhh I mean pieces of amber) and Versus
(wherein you push another Gish-like creature off a ledge). The basic premise of
the game is interesting enough, and these added modes are like icing on the
cake. For only $20, it’s hard to go wrong.
No pictures today, but I thought I’d regale you all with (what I consider) kind
of a humorous story.
When I first got to Japan, I started teaching the next day. Of course, I’m a bit
nervous, but trying to act cool about it. When I go into the office, I get
introduced as the new teacher, of course. In Japanese, “kore wa atarashi sensei
desu.” Then the (all female) staff members start saying “kawaisou desune?” I
recognize “kawaii,” which means “cute,” and am thinking I’ve already made a big
hit in the ol’ office. Now, here comes the grammar: usually the “~sou desu”
ending means “looks like/seems like~” (e.g. “muzukashisou” is “seems difficult,”
“oishisou” is “looks delicious”). Bearing this in mind, you would THINK
“kawaisou” means “cute looking,” and if you thought that, you would be wrong.
It actually means “pitiful” or “pathetic.”
In reality, everyone was trying to sympathize with the fact that I had to teach
with no training. Ha ha ha, I felt pretty dumb.
Today I had my first Jieitai (Japanese Self-Defense Force) class. Basically
babbled on and did self-introduction stuff for about 2 hours. Hooah! In any
case, I was out of the house for the usual 12 hours. Whine whine.
Tochigi Station. I use this station way
too much. They just recently finished repairing the entire front entrance, so it
looks pretty nice now. I’m also rather bitter about my camera’s inability to
take photographs without strong lighting (i.e. the flash).
So here was my snack last night:
Green Tanuki Soba. You remember the
“Tanooki Suit” in SMB3? Well, the tanuki is like a mythical racoon-dog creature
that can change shape, although I don’t really know that much more. Check out
Everything2’s tanuki node.
Noodles in styrofoam bowls are the ultimate in laziness. Boil the water, then
throw away the bowl when you’re done. Not exactly environmentally friendly, but
then again we do live in an advanced capitalist culture. Gotta do your part to
make the world’s economy turn.
