Get-o!

One of the main roads here, and the one I walk to the Town Hall, is lined with cherry trees. They are in the midst of blossoming so I will get a picture of the pink lined-street when it is in full swing.

Saturday Ed and I met with a woman I work with and her sister who studied in England for lunch at Denny’s. The feel of Denny’s was pretty standard (sans grease) but the food was distinctly Japanese family style. I was a little nervous about the meeting, but it ended up being really nice and I hope I can hang out with them again. Japanese people are always surprised you like Japanese things like food, music, culture, etc… I told them I like Japanese rock group Guitar Wolf and they were shocked. Apparently they did not view me as a rocker kinda gal. Oh, ps- I saw Guitar Wolf this past Tuesday.

Sunday was nice so we walked down to the shopping center. I bought a cheap game for my Nintendo DS (more on this in my next post) and saw an old Xbox for sale. The debate still rages in my mind about getting it.

We also stopped in a little arcade there that I had never been in. I thought it was mainly little kid things, but it ended up being a decent place! I do not play crane games because I might as well throw that money out of the window (although I have seen some Japanese use amazing skill and technique to fish things out of there). What I play is not at all arcades (although this one had three!). I don’t know what it is called, but because I have won 3 times now, I feel you have a lot better chance at winning.

I can’t find a picture of this. The internet has failed me.

What it’s about:

There are usually tubs with the prize sitting in them. You put your money in and choose the prize you want to try and win (usually out of 8-10). There is a Wheel Of Fortune type wheel, with positive and negative numbers. You land on a 3, your tub moves up 3 spots. You get a -1, it moves down one spot, etc. On most of them, when you get to 5, the tub flips over and your prize falls out for you to get. Hurray! When you have to get 5, most of the time you get 3 tries for 100 yen. There are bigger ones, with bigger prizes too. Huge stuffed animals, big detailed figurines, a giant box of snacks, rare neat things, etc. These ones usually go up to 7, and you have only one try per 100 yen.

So I’m walking along, looking at the various prizes, seeing if any of them are worth trying for. I see that in the giant prize version, there is a big bag of various Gloomy Bears.
It is lit up to 3, meaning, I only have to get a 4 or higher to win it! Seems like a deal. I decided I will spend no more than 300yen trying for it. I put in my 100 yen, and select the Gloomy Bear prize. I watch the number wheel spin and smack the button when it feels right to stop it!
-2.
I hang my head and sigh. I am not even going to bother trying to win since the light is now at 1. I start to walk away and turn around JUST IN CASE I do get an extra spin. I see the 4 light up. I see the 5 light up. I see the 6 light up. I see the GET! light up and my prize falls into the bottom. I am in a state of confusion and look down at the number wheel.
7!
I guess it had stopped at -2 and clicked over one more for suspense. I hit the jackpot number in one go! I was more than excited to say the least.

So now I am the proud owner of 2 Limited edition fuzzy Gloomys, 2 little Gloomys with hats, a solar powered head-rocking Gloomy, and 10 bean bag Gloomys. Rock.

Today is the first day of all the office and teacher position changes. We have 2 new people in my dept and a new director (yay!! I could not understand the last one). A good part of my morning was spent bored in a room full of the new teachers, rather than my normal, bored in front of my computer. At least I didn’t have to feign looking busy, just give a quick intro.
Right now there is some mass panic (not really). People are changing desks, so there are drawers moving about, pulling out of desks and cleaning, and trying to plug all the wires back in to the correct place (and hoping they work).

Chaos!

Ms. Bandou obviously sees the humor in 6 people trying to figure out cords behind a desk.

The desks have been change and now the lady that was diagonal to me is now right beside me. This would be no problem if she didn’t have the worst job ever. Besides stamping things and other official work, she some how also has the job of cutting the windows out of old envelopes for recycling. She also has to remove staples from packets and putting them in a jar. This creates a metal-on-metal-on-glass sound that hurts my teeth. The staple-remover also makes an awful slicing sound when the staple is on it. And then there is that damn binder with metal spokes holding it together. Sliding it on and off, on and off. Metal-on-metal is like nails-on-chalkboard to me. One more week, one more week, one more week…

Less and less am I able to "roll with the punches" when I don't understand things. As my ability to understand increases, my frustration also increases when I don't. Four more months, four more months, four more months...