I’ve been bopping all over the place the last week or so, so you may have to settle for a quick summary of an entry.
The weekend before last, I got on a train and went to Osaka just to take a test that sucked me of my will to live for at least another month (the GRE, in other words.) I did, however, get to figure out the subway system all on my own, and the 8+ Electronics store in Umeda was well worth the cold side-journey. It honestly had everything electronic, though I was a tiny, tiny bit disappointed in the lack of DS/iPod accessories.
Last week, a brand spanking new mall opened near-ish to my town, and I spent a happy four hours exploring the stores, which include a sizeable book store, wonderful grocery store, and yet another electronics store. When did I suddenly like shopping? It’s like I came to Japan, discovered I had a sort-of disposable income, and my brain switched into girlie mood,” Oh this is sooo cute! I just have to try it on. And maybe this too… would this look good with these boots?” If you think it’s exhausting to read that, just imagine what it’s like to be trapped with a brain THINKING it.
A happy side effect of the mall shopping was I built up the courage to tackle the 1st Harry Potter in Japanese, which is 461 pages to the English version’s 200 something. I’m imagining that the 4th book will be split into something like five volumes… Anyway, it’s a struggle just to make it through a paragraph a day (I’m on page 3!) but actually understanding the stray sentence structure is refreshingly motivating.Lastly, the end term test is next week for both of my schools, and the kindergarten were I visited during mid-terms has requested my presence, so I get to go goof around, English style, with them again. That, the 3 day weekend, and my brand new space heater (my bedroom was 11 degrees Celsius last night, or 50 degrees for all you F-readers) really go a long way in improving my spirits.