Have a Stroll

Lunch plans didn't end up happening because Sophie didn't feel well.  Instead, I stayed at home for a bit until my host family's son (the one whom I had not yet met) came over with his wife and son.  They stayed for a bit, then my host parents took the son somewhere.  Instead of lunch plans, I decided to take a walk.  I didn't have anywhere special in mind, so I just sort of wandered in the direction of the book store where I found Donkey Kong 64.

                                         

This was my lunch.  I got it at a bakery we'd been to before.  The drink is some kind of melon-based juice that  starts out incredible but slowly starts to disappoint you.  It's still good, but not until the last drop, I guess.

At the book store, I found this absurdly pristine copy of Clock Tower: The First Fear.  I'd been looking for it in several places, but have only checked the Super Nintendo sections for it because that's what the original was on.  I completely forgot about the Playstation remake, which is actually better for a number of reasons, paramount among them being the fact that all the games I've bought so far (except Donkey Kong) are for Playstation.  I never actually had a Super Nintendo.

And then nostalgia happened.  Not only did I find Star Fox, but I found Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie as well.  All in all, a very successful trip to the store, even if I did leave empty-handed.

This was also there.  It's an old NES game called "Takeshi's Challenge", made to capitalize on the popularity of actor Takeshi Kitano.  It's known as "the game that hates you," because Kitano actually hated video games and made sure his own game reflected that.  Your character is expected to do absurd, dumb things like getting into unwinnable bar fights in order to progress.  When you beat the entire game, if you wait five minutes on the "Congratulations" screen, Kitano's face appears and tells you not to take the game so seriously.

So then I walked some more.

These cans are not open.  They are for the statue.  Seeing as how this was a street corner, I don't know who put them there.

I liked this house.

And this butterfly.

And this whole thing.

And I also liked this tunnel

At the park, there's a hill I had never been on top of, so I sat up there for a bit.

Look at this bird.  He doesn't even know I'm watching him.

I just thought this was an interesting and very Japanese building.  Not only is it raised completely off the ground, but it's a business in the middle of a heavily residential area.  That never happens in America.

And then there was a cat.

Anyway, I still don't have much money (those After School tickets set me back a bit), so I'm going to be short on lunch again tomorrow.  That's okay, though, because I can see E-Young again.

I'm pretty disappointed that my list of concerts I'm going to attend doesn't include any visual kei bands anymore.  I was going to see exist+trace, but one of my school friends has a band that's having a concert that same night, so I'll probably go see them.  Exist+trace gets to America more frequently than other such bands, so there's still plenty of time.  As for other visual kei bands, well... there just aren't a lot of concerts going on while I'm here, for whatever reason.  Oh well, I'll be back some day.  Until then, I'll be able to see Mika Agematsu, Kalafina, After School, and most excitingly YOUSEI TEIKOKU, MY FAVORITE ANYTHING EVER.

Details forthcoming.