Japan - Days 33-35

This week keeps getting better and better
Tuesday, I don't even remember what happened now, to be honest... I think it was just more failed experiments, nothing special. And I found out that we're giving individual presentations in Japanese in the near future - mine's sometime next week. The theme is 'the best day of your life so far', so I'm going to adapt the time Maria visited over the summer to fit in some more grammar points. Oh, and I managed to write a poem in the lab:

The Wishing Star

Why must love always be so far?
A night sky lit by one lone star,
Which sometimes falls to Earth, on fire,
A thousand passions to inspire,
Until it hits the ground and dies,
And tears form once more in my eyes,
For love, both lost and never known,
Now I have none to call my own,
Yet still I wish upon that star,
That soon my love won't be so far.

Wednesday, I had a kanji class for the first time in weeks, which wasn't too bad. We worked on season and temperature kanji. I submitted the homework, and I really need to prepare for the test next Wednesday. In Japanese class, we had another presentation sprung on us - this time a pair presentation talking about a place we recommend everyone to visit. My friend who I'm partnered with wants to recommend our Japanese teacher visits the Moon... and stays there XD In the lab, once again my gel failed, and here's the even worse thing - some people were meeting to go eat/drink at 7.30pm, but I thought I was doing something in the lab at 7. Therefore, I waited... and waited... and waited some more. In the meantime, I wrote a poem:

See The Light

When naught but darkness fills your sight,
In life and love, you'll lose the fight,
A nice thought keeps the dark away,
The challenge is to make it stay,
To stop the darkness coming back,
And staining heart and mind jet-black,
Loved ones and friends bring light to you,
And stop the dark from breaking through,
So, as the Sun feeds life on Earth,
A friendship can, to joy, give birth.

At 7.20-ish, I asked the person in my lab if we were going to the mouse room soon, or tomorrow, and her answer was - tomorrow. I was in such a foul mood, I even turned down going to eat with the people from my lab - I just wanted to go home. I felt a little bit better come bedtime, but my throat was starting to feel a bit rough
By Thursday, this had turned into a full-blown sandpapery throat. In the lab, I started off by being taught a new experiment -Western blotting, where you have antibodies bind proteins in a sample. In Japanese class, I handed in the script for my 'Daily Speech', but made a huge error - I thought the homework was for Friday, but alas, it was for Thursday -_- I had to hand it in half-complete, having missed the final half... I went down to City Hall after this, to pay my health insurance. As it transpires, I could have saved 360 yen by doing this at the combini... On the way back, I finished off yet another poem:

Hate And Love

Feelings misplaced and misdirected,
Thoughts and dreams analysed, dissected,
Hopes of love shot down, rejected,
Happiness, by hate infected.

Then someone, their desire uncovers,
Soon your bleeding heart recovers,
Warms once more, and then discovers,
That you both are soulmates, lovers.

Back at the lab, I discovered that there was a meet-up for Chinese food at 7.30pm. As I was due to go to the mouse room at 6pm, after finishing off today's session of Western blotting, I figured that I'd have plenty of time. I spent about 2 hours in there, missing the meet-up. On top of that, I STILL can't get the hang of grabbing the mice by the scruff of the neck, partly for fear of being bitten/scratched. As it transpires, none of my Manchester friends went either, so I don't feel quite as bad about it now... But yeah, that's essentially my day. My sore throat has nearly cleared up, replaced by a runny nose. Hopefully the weekend will make up for all this shit

Japan - Days 31-32

Last couple of days have been mixed at best -_-
After the late night on Saturday, I woke up fairly early on Sunday morning to go meet Jen for skating practice. I had meant to call her to wake her up, but forgot so we were late getting started. After a bit of a skate around, she decided she didn't want to hang onto the back of my bike after all so we'll go to the store another time, walking. We met a couple of other friends back at the Community Centre, then biked down to my dorm to meet another friend, before heading into Tsukuba Centre. On the way, one of them picked up a puncture, and after driving a little way, he decided to pull out and come another time. After driving along the road for a while, I started to think that I'd sent us down the wrong road, so I kept a close eye out for road signs. I saw one and followed it around and down a hill, only to discovere that I HAD taken us the wrong way, and we came out near Kenkyuugakuen station, about half a mile further along the road we SHOULD have taken
Crestfallen, and pretty sure that the girls who were still with me hated me, we went into WonderGOO and took a look around. They still didn't have the book I wanted, and I had no idea what sort of music to buy, so I left empty-handed. Still, I like looking around in there. We made it back along the correct road, and although I turned in at my dorm and said goodbye to the girls, I didn't feel much like going back to my stuffy room, so I turned up towards the Community Centre, through campus, up to the edge of Ichinoya, out past the labs (where I saw a guy from my lab on the other side of the road and waved to him) and up to Book Off, where I was going to stop, but I felt like exploring so I kept going, then I doubled back at a crossroad and stopped at a book store further up the street, which again, didn't have the book I wanted. I rode down to Book Off, looked around there too, not finding the book I wanted, but picking up Pokémon Special 2 for Y105 (it was on discount). From here, I drove alongside the main road, perpendicular to the way I should have gone to get home, then crossed the street almost at Tsukuba Centre, before finding the street that lead home
However, a little way away from the dorms, I heard a rhythmic hissing noise. Fearing the worst, I pulled over, discovering a gaping hole in my back tyre. I rode my bike a little further, then not wanting it to break completely, I walked it the rest of the way. Utterly pissed off, I sat outside in the sun playing Pokémon for a while, before heading off to meet everyone early for the pizza hang-out. On the way, I met a friend who was going up to meet some more people, so I tagged along at his invitation and we hung out in someone's room until we went to meet everyone else. Despite my tyre being punctured, I was determined not to be left behind so I rode on a flat all the way to the pizza place, with a very unhealthy noise coming from my back wheel
Once we parked up, we walked along to the pizza place. We had to wait about half an hour to get in, as there were a few people waiting ahead of us, but once we got in and grabbed a plate, the fun began. The deal was 'all-you-can-eat', and I think I pretty much lived up to that one, as did most of the others. They really do have weird flavours in Japan - some of these included prawn and mayo, and marshmallow and sweet potato. Yes, they had dessert pizza, and it tasted pretty good too. After we waddled out of the restaurant, we decided to walk our bikes back, mercifully. From there, I stayed up for a little longer waiting for a call from my parents, and then laid down to sleep
This morning, I woke up early for the 9am seminar, and wasn't feeling too hungry because I was still full of pizza, but my mouth was dry so I went and bought some drinks. Anyway, I decided to walk to the seminar (in the rain) to kill time, but as it transpired, there WAS no seminar (typically as I missed last week's one -_-). So I just got on with my experiments, all of which have failed thus far today. I have a PCR waiting for me to put on a gel tomorrow, so I guess I'll see how that goes
Japanese class was alright. As it turns out, the New Word test is tomorrow, but we did have a surprise in store - we were told we have to give short presentations in a few lessons' time. Oh joy -_- After this, I went back to the lab, and did as described above - failed
At about 6, I headed out to the kaiwa club, getting a phone call from my mum just as I got there. After standing talking for a bit, we biked along to the Korean restaurant, which was very good. I had something called 'ishiyaki bibinba', along with a selection of side dishes which were shared among the table. I finally got to try kimchi, which was kinda spicy, but tasty. After the meal, we all headed back to my room, and that's where I am now
It's now 1.30am, so I should probably go soon. Night all :-)

Japan - Days 28-30

The last couple of days have been great :-D
As Thursday was the autumnal equinox (a national holiday in Japan), we had another day off, so a few of us went to Iias (the big mall) after having lunch at Starbucks. I finally got a green tea frappucino, which tasted sooo good ^^ As it was raining, we didn't bike it as we'd originally intended; we took the bus and then the train. Once there, we explored a little more, one of my friends bought a key chain, and then we went and had something else to eat at McDonalds - as I was using their Wi-Fi to get Victini, I bought something despite not being too hungry, but it was only 100 yen so it wasn't too bad ^^ Then we decided to go back as we were a little bored, but we agreed to meet up in the afternoon for gyoza (meat dumplings)
So after calling around and inviting Jen and a friend of my other friends, we met up and walked in the rain to a gyoza restaurant about 5 minutes away, through the back streets of Tsukuba which I haven't gotten around to exploring yet. It's a little place, but luckily the 5 of us got an authentic sit-on-the-tatami-mat table, and had 10 gyoza each. One of the other guys said 15 would make a guy feel very full, but after 10, I was barely full, so I beg to differ. I guess we'll see sometime XD It was tasty though. After this, we headed back to collect our bikes and headed home. I did notice a karaoke place near the gyoza restaurant though, so that's something for me to bear in mind when my birthday comes around ^^
Friday I was back in the lab. Finished off an entire PCR and gel in the morning, which failed for some unknown reason. Previously my problem was streaks in the lanes - this time there was nothing. Japanese class wasn't bad - we just worked on a few more drills, asking about lost items. In the afternoon, I started practicing cutting the tips off of mice's tails for genotyping. The tail-cutting was alright, but when I had to pick one up by the scruff of the neck, I couldn't grip it right. One jumped right out of my hand :-O) and then when I'd set it up, it would have taken until 9 for the gel to be complete, but luckily my supervisor OKed me going home and then coming in on Saturday morning, so I headed back and got some dinner About 7ish, I got a call from one of my friends asking if I wanted to meet up with some of the others for a while. I said sure, and went and sat with them for a bit, before we went down to meet up with some other people in front of the combini. From there, we went to get some cheap drinks from the 100 yen store, before heading back to the dorms and chilling for a bit. When one of our group left, we went and got another drink before heading to a bar a few blocks away. It was open mic night so a couple of people were singing, but it's a small place. Nice though ^^ A bit later we went back to the dorm and met up with a bunch of other slightly drunken people, before returning to the combini, getting another drink, and returning to the bar, where we spent the remainder of the evening Now, I've only been drunk twice before, so this is still pretty new to me, but it was very fun :-) I didn't really do much, but it's so weird how your senses get all furry and such. There's about an hour which I have NO recollection of, but my friends say I didn't do anything dumb in that time, thankfully XD We stayed until about 5am, before cycling back home with the sun rising around us ^^' I promptly fell asleep XD About 2 and a half hours later, I woke up again to go to the lab. I finished up my experiment (which still failed), and bought a can of strong coffee while it was running. Then I came back home, went online for a few minutes, then attempted to sleep, but couldn't on account of the caffeine. Just before I was meant to be getting up, I had a phone call from the delivery person so I had to go let them in. A few minutes after that, I texted my friends to meet up for lunch, and biked my way over to them
As I hadn't eaten since my early dinner the night before, I was ravenous, and ordered a large curry udon bowl. When they said large, they meant it - I struggled a little, but in the end I pushed through and ate it all, and it was delicious :-D The original plan had been to cycle down to WonderGOO, but as everyone was either tired or busy, we decided to postpone until tomorrow, despite the fact that it had become a rather nice day :-) So I came back and have been playing Pokémon ever since ^^'
Speaking of Pokémon, a quick progress report - I beat the Elite Four and Champion with a 10-15 level deficit XD My current team is as follows:
Enbuoo - Level 68
Warbiaru - Level 67
Purungeru - Level 66
Yanakkii - Level 65
Zeburaika - Level 65
Kokoromori - Level 64
Anyways, that's about it from me today. Might go out a bit later for a little while, we shall see. Bye bye for now :-)
[Edit on Sunday morning: After saying that was about it from me, I ended up staying out very late again ^^'. I got a call from a friend asking if I wanted to hang out, so we sat around for a bit talking, then went for a walk around a place off to the side of campus which I'd never been to before. We bumped into some people in front of the combini, then sat talking to them for a couple of hours, before deciding to go to a place called Cybex. It's this huge amusement complex a little way behind the dorms, though as none of our group of 4 was exactly sure where it was, we took a scenic, slightly creepy route there XD For starters, as the karaoke booths were full, we went to play table tennis for a while, which was really funny, and then had a bit of ice cream - they have soda fountains and a soft-serve ice cream machine, which I'd been searching for over summer but never found. Then once a booth freed up, and we were met by one of our other friends, we went and did some singing :-) Only when I sing into a mic do I realise how flat my voice is -_- Still, it was fun ^^. Then we walked home, I stood talking to my friends a bit more, then we all went home as it was about 4am at this point XD Still, it was lots of good fun ^^ Hopefully today will be good too]

Japan - Days 25-27

Last few days have been pretty good :-)
Monday was Respect For The Aged Day, so we didn't have classes and I didn't have to go into the lab, so me and Jen decided to hang out in Tsukuba Centre for a while. I decided to go try the Post Office first, to deliver a package to someone, but it was closed on account of the holiday v.v So to kill time, I checked the bike store, then went along to the used book store, before heading to Jen's place. We walked along to the recycle store and a big mall that I went to with some other friends a few weeks ago. Unfortunately the recycle store only had a couple of bikes and they weren't exactly cheap, but they did have manga and video games, and clothes, so it might be worth a visit another time. Also, at the mall, I decided it would be a good idea to finally check the kanji for natto, and now I know it, I've discovered that the combini near me sells it, so I definitely need to try it sometime. After coming back from there, we took the bus back to campus and went back to our rooms for a couple of hours. I played a bit more Pokémon, naturally :-p After a few hours, I went back to visit Jen and we did a few minutes of skating/running alongside, and I took the bus back
On Tuesday, I went into the lab and had Japanese class as per usual, with a few differences. Firstly, my gel worked, so I was finally able to proceed with my experiments :-D Secondly, after several attempts, I finally managed to get me a cheap bike ^^ I had to go back to the store about 2-3 times, but it was worth it :-) Now I won't get left behind when I hang out with people ^^' Thirdly, I discovered that another guy in my lab bought Pokémon White, so he said we could trade next month, and we spent a lot of time discussing the games ^^' In the evening, Jen was too busy for rollerblading, so I came back for more Pokémon, and to finish off my Japanese homework
Today was another pretty good day. I was given a different experiment to do as my last one had proven successful, so at least that's varied my work a little now :-) Japanese class was as normal, really. Then, one of my friends asked me to show her where city hall was, to pick up the Alien Registration card. We went after Japanese class, so I am now officially an alien XD However, the heat's picking up again so walking to and from was a bit uncomfortable >< Still, that's one more job done :-) Then when I got back to the lab, I finished up my experiment which failed -_- So I'll give it another try on Friday (Thursday's another holiday :-D). Then Jen said she was too tired for rollerskating, so I came home
That's about it for today. Sorry I've been updating less frequently, but I've been really into my new Pokémon game. As it stands, I'm now on my way to the Pokémon League. My team is as follows:
Enbuoo - Level 48
Yanakkii - Level 47
Warubiaru - Level 47
Burungeru - Level 47
Kokoromori - Level 46
Zeburaika (shiny) - Level 46

Going shoppping with a friend tomorrow, so I'll finally be able to download Victini :-D See you all later

Japan - Days 22-24

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days - I've been kinda forgetful/busy with other things, as you shall soon see
So, on Friday at 10am my tutor picked me up from outside the combini in his car, from which we drove down to Dayztown, where there is a mobile phone store. Now, here's the thing - I was intending to get the same brand of phone as Jen (whose is white) and Molly (whose is black), but in red, so then I'd know what was going on. Thing is, they were sold out and wouldn't get any in until next week, but I was desperate to get a phone then and there, so after much consideration, I got a nice black phone on contract. I filled in some paperwork and then we had 2 hours to kill before we could collect the phone, so we walked around the mall, played a game of Pokémon Battrio Zero, and then he showed me an amazing store called WonderGoo (about 15-20 minutes from Tsukuba Centre by bike, so I really need one). It reminds me of how I felt when I first went to Book Off in Harajuku - it has everything to do with my hobbies :-D I bought another pack of Magic cards (I got Demon's Horn ^^) and a few Battrio tokens (now I need to play some more ^^'). Then we returned to the phone store, but on the way, my tutor got a phone call from them. Because I'm still not legally an adult in Japan, where the age of majority is 20, the phone had to be bought in his name, making all the forms I'd filled out essentially useless. So, we went back, he signed some stuff (he had to buy a new ink stamp for it, which made me feel more guilty), and then we went back to the lab because there was a meeting and we had to wait a couple more hours for the phone. By this time, I'd well and truly missed Japanese class
Back at the lab, there was a group meeting with me, a couple of the students in my lab, the professor and the assistant professor - because he was sorting things out with my phone I think, my tutor was absent. I had to talk a little about the protein I'm going to be researching, with the others giving some input. Then, back to try and work on my gel
As the gel was running and I was working on kanji homework, my tutor came in with the phone :-D So as it stands, the phone technically belongs to him, and I have to pay him whenever the bill comes through. But still, with a little help, I got the phone set up and ready to go ^^ And to top things off, I started to get bands on my gel now :-D I'll do a few more checks someday soon and then I'll be ready to start dissections
After lab, I walked to Jen's to show her my new toy, and then I watched her rollerskating for a while, which was rather fun as I was running alongside her
That was about all for Friday. Now, Saturday. Got up early and got the bus out to Ichinoya to meet Jen (Molly bailed because she was still on her way home from a night out), and from there we took the next bus to Tsukuba Centre, and caught the Express Train to Tokyo :-D The train was a Rapid train (missing most stations) but it still took forever >< We spent the time reading a sample manga on my phone ^^' Anyway, after 45 minutes we arrived in Akihabara
Outside the station is a massive store, and as we saw Pokémon signs outside, we decided to go in :-) On the 6th floor, I asked an attendant where we had to queue, and he pointed me in the direction of a line of about 25 people. However, the line moved quickly, so I was soon at the desk ^^ After discovering I could buy Mia's game too, I got a copy of both Black AND White, which definitely made me a happy bunny. We then browsed the store for another hour or so, then came out and walked around a little. Next we came to a huge book store, aptly called the book tower. Jen spent a long time browsing the art books, and then we went up and looked at all the manga. It was a pretty cool place
Looking at the maps in the tube station, we decided to take a metro train to Harajuku so I could show Jen the big book store I saw on the homestay. As we reached the platform to get on the train, we saw a huge 6 floor store of the same chain in Akihabara, which we decided to visit afer Harajuku
After a half hour or so journey, we arrived at Harajuku station. It took me a moment to get my bearings, but eventually I worked out where we were. However, it's a lot greener than I remembered. Going down the hill, we found the condom shop I remembered, and took the turning where I thought the book store was. No such luck. After walking for 5-10 minutes and checking a map, I've concluded that it's been replaced by a clothes store -_- However, going back up the hill, we arrived at the Meiji shrine, which was just as beautiful as I remembered ^^ We both wrote an ema (Jen wouldn't show me hers - I wonder what she wrote :-O) and then walked back around the circuit to the train station again.
Back in Akihabara, we made our way to a curry restraurant we walked past earlier, as I was ravenous. I had a salmon cheese fry curry, which tasted amazing :-D From there, we went to Book Off, and spent about half an hour looking for The Count Of Monte Cristo and reminiscing about old computer games ^^' We then returned to the book tower, where Jen bought her art books, and then we were back on the train, sleepy but happy with what we'd bought ^^
Once I got back, I hastily opened Black Version and started it up. It is amazing, but I'll go into more detail at the end of the blog
So, Sunday, most of it was spent playing Pokémon, I'll admit ^^' But at about 9pm, I went to Jen's and watched her rollerblading for an hour or so, before catching the last bus to Oikoshi to avoid having to sleep on her floor ^^'
Anyways, Pokémon - currently, I have 5 badges, and my party consists of Chaobuu, Warubiru, Kokoromori, a shiny Zebraika, Yanakkii, and Desumasu (until I find something more permanent). Right now, I'm in an Electric-type cave, looking for N, I think
And that's about all from me today, I shall report again tonight when hopefully I shall have a bike ^^

Japan - Day 21

Today's been an improvement on the last couple of days, I'm pleased to say :-)
For starters, people who pre-ordered Pokémon Black and White have been receiving their games early, so Serebii and Bulbapedia have been updating all day. Some of the new Pokémon look pretty cool, I must say, and I'm very excited about getting my copy :-D
It's been raining heavily most of the day. This morning when I woke up, the sound of rain was amazing. I
My gels today still failed, even though I tried a few permutations. But I was told this evening that my latest attempt HAD a couple of bands on, if I turned up the brightness. And my blank control was showing some signal, probably because I was using distilled water which hadn't been autoclaved -_- So, fingers crossed for tomorrow!
At 11.45, I went to a Manchester students' mixer (my supervisor couldn't attend, he was the only one who didn't -_-) which I'd forgotten about until my tutor reminded me a few minutes beforehand XD We had tasty tasty pizza, but we also had to do self-introductions which is always embarrassing ^^' Still, it was pretty fun
After this, we went to Japanese class. Nothing special, just some more structure drills. Oh, and a new word test which I didn't even know we had >< Luckily I still managed to do fine on it (I think, we didn't get the results back yet) just by flicking through the words a couple of times just before the test
[Note: My computer crashed here and I didn't want to restart as it was about 1am, so this is being written on Friday morning. Sorry about that ^^']
After Japanese, I headed back to the lab, where I was informed that the meeting on Friday was moved from 10am to 3pm, as my supervisor was busy. Hopefully this means that I can get my phone sorted out and then get back in time for Japanese ^^
And now, as I'm typing, I'm checking out all the new Pokémon :-D Excited for tomorroooow!

Japan - Day 20

Today's been another crappy day, on the whole v.v
For starters, I was told about a seminar but I didn't know where and when it was, so I assumed that mine was another time. I should NEVER assume. I was meant to be at it, and I missed it >< Luckily, there is one next month, but still...
I went to the office early to see if I could pay my electric bill, and to ask how to open my letter box. As it transpires, because I hadn't spent over 500 yen in electricity, I don't have to pay this month. And I finally opened my mailbox, though nothing in there was specifically for me. Got a few things addressed to the previous occupant, which I put in a drawer in case he should ever come to collect them
I got to the lab fairly early and proceeded to run the checks and PCR and gel again. Once again, it was a failure, so after this I cooked up some gel to pass some time before going home. I did leave a PCR running overnight though, with less DNA and new ingredients, so fingers crossed
Kanji class was alright, I do need to practice however, as the pace of the classes is VERY fast. Japanese class (when I should have been at the seminar -_-) wasn't bad, but the teacher spent most of the class going over the homework which was marked yesterday. My little story at the end was one of the three which was read out for being good ^^' We had to talk about giving and receiving, and I wrote a little fantasy piece called The Mysterious Forest XD Still, I scored pretty well I think lol
I talked to my tutor about getting a mobile phone, and he said that we could do it on Friday. For a start, that was fine, but then I remembered that we have a group meeting on Friday (I have to present on the protein I'm studying - in English, mercifully - which I started preparing for tonight) at the time he said we'd go, so I e-mailed him tonight and he was trying to rearrange for next Friday, but I don't want to end up being excluded again, so I told him that, as I only need 60% attendance to Japanese classes, if I missed one it wouldn't be the end of the world, so he said we can go Friday after the meeting. Phew!
After leaving the lab, I briefly talked to my supervisor about the seminar problem and the gel problem, and then I left for home. Once I got back, I did a bit of studying, completed some forms for submission tomorrow, and killed a few more beasties on my power-levelling run through Tales Of Phantasia XD I'm about to go and see Yggdrassil after forming a pact with Sylph
Anyways, that's my day, more or less, I'm feeling a bit better now than I was earlier, which is good, so I hope tomorrow will be a better day ^^

Japan - Day 19

Today's been a bit of a slow day v.v
I added some water to my dry DNA when I got to the lab, but upon testing, I think some of the DNA went AWOL, because I was getting negative readings in the spectrophotometer, so I did the procedure again, while PCRing the other samples. I left those two to finish over lunch/Japanese class. Japanese was alright, nothing special. Tomorrow I have Japanese AND kanji class so it should be more eventful. After Japanese I finally managed to creep up on Jen and jab her in the sides, so it's now 2-1 to her
Back at the lab, I was getting positive readings from the DNA, so I PCRed and gelled those samples too, which took until about 8pm. Meanwhile, the other PCR once again failed, as did the second one when it finally finished. In the meantime, I wrote a poem:

Broken

Unsteady, I walk on the tightrope of friendship,
High o'er the valley of fates worse than death,
I walk as it sways, to and fro, so unsettling,
Blown back and forth by the wind's bitter breath,
The fall that I fear lies just microns each side of me,
Loneliness lurks in the deep, with despair,
My friends lie ahead of me, oh-so-ephemeral,
Still I am cautious, and reach out with care,
For feelings too strong are akin to obsession,
And drive friends away, but if left on their own,
These ties, like a flower, will wilt when untended,
Then balance is gone, and I fall, all alone,
Broken bonds, broken bones.

After the experiment was finished, a couple of the guys in the lab invited me to go to dinner at a Chinese place, which was tasty. Then I made my way back to my room, but walked because the bus was a way off, and it was drizzling v.v When I got back, however, it was pouring down! It sounded amazing
Well, that's about all there was today. I've e-mailed my tutor to ask about getting a Japanese mobile phone, because everyone else has one and it turns out I missed a meet-up earlier today on account of not being able to get texts -_- 'Fuck my life' just about sums it up
So yeah, here's hoping tomorrow is a better day

Japan - Day 18

2 months until my birthday! :-D
Today was a pretty good day again ^^ Despite having to get up really early (after a late night) to go to the 9am seminar with my lab group, meaning I was tired all day ^^' I did get some pumpkin Pocky at the 7-Eleven before catching the bus though :-D I was introduced to another guy from my lab who wasn't around last week. He said 'ohayo gozaimasu' to me, but I fumbled and said 'konnichiwa' back, which made some of the girls giggle ><>< I was so embarassed, because it means I've wasted a few days of work. Still, now I know where I was going wrong, so I've set about amending it
After I left my DNA to dry, I went along to a TISA meeting where people are supposed to practice their Japanese. As it turned out, a lot of people were huddled together speaking English ^^' After about half an hour, they took votes for whether to eat at a curry place or an okonomiyaki place - okonomiyaki won :-D However, here comes the interesting part - most people had bikes to go on, whereas I didn't -_- Therefore, I had to walk to the convenience store near the restraurant and someone was going to collect me. The guy in charge asked if I could make it there in 25 minutes. I don't know how long it took, but thanks to a little shortcut I took, I managed to keep up with them, as they were going fairly slow and stopped to pick up a few people at a couple of places. I managed to impress everyone however - one guy said I was 'a gazelle in human form' XD Still, it did make me think about taking up running again
In the okonomiyaki place, unfortunately we were at regular tables rather than the ones with the hot plates on them, but still, it was nice. Our orders took a while to come in, but when they did, my one (a 'beef stamina' okonomiyaki) was damn massive! A couple of people tried a mouthful of it, and I had some trouble eating all the rest. Nevertheless, I persevered and it was delicious :-) Definitely got my money's worth! Almost at the end of the meal, someone mentioned that there was rain on the way, and then we started to hear thunder. When we got outside, it was indeed raining, complete with very frequent flashes of lightning (though the rain wasn't as heavy as the last time, thankfully). I half-jogged, half-walked back to my dorm, stopping at the combini for a drink of grape-flavoured Calpis on the way, and now here I am :-) I finished my Japanese homework, which wasn't too bad once I got down to it, so now I can get a good night's sleep, if no-one gets online in the next 15 minutes or so. So yeah, a good day :-)
Night all ^^

Japan - Day 17

Today was another good day ^^
Got up kinda early, and started by sorting out my rubbish and doing my laundry, which wasn't too bad. I had 2 bags of plastic bottles and a big bag of what I assume was combustible ^^' Then I went and took the bus around to Ichinoya, bumping into Jen coming out of the convenience store, ironically, before going to wait for my other friend
When we met up, we were going to the bus stop when we bumped into a guy who I'd met at the international students' party on Friday, who we invited along. We then took the bus into Tsukuba Centre. As we hadn't eaten lunch yet, we decided to find a place to eat, so we walked along a street I hadn't been down to see which restaurants there were, and we came across a ramen place which apparently, the guy's friend works at part-time in the week, so we decided to go there. As it turns out, it was really nice ^^ I had some sort of soy sauce ramen, and it was really filling ^^
After this, we walked furhter along the road to see if there was anything worth looking at, and we came to another big shopping mall, which we looked around. They have a Uniqlo there which sells clothes for a reasonable price, so I'll probably go there once I finally decide to buy another week's worth of clothes ^^' After this, we walked back to Tsukuba Centre and went down to the supermarket on the first floor of one of the big shopping malls, before going back to the bus station
Two of us got off a few stops before the other guy, as he wanted to dump his groceries back at his place and then get on with homework, so next we went to the 100 yen store to pick up a few things, before moving onto a store called Bulldog, which sells a bunch of weird and wonderful gifts and things. They had some nice plushies and novelty bins and stuff like that, so I may have to get something from there sometime. After finishing in there, we walked all the way back to her dorm, as she doesn't have a bus pass yet and I feel a little guilty getting her to pay all the time for her bus ticket ^^' So I carried her heavy grocery bag and we walked back to her place to drop off her groceries
Once we'd lightened the load a bit, we went to the bus stop to catch a bus nearer to Book Off, but we got half-eaten by mosquitos while we waited ><><), though I managed to keep her standing when she slipped most of the time, although in fairness, she was very good at staying upright by herself, there were just a couple of times when she said 'Okay, stop me, stop me!' when going down a hill ^^' Once we got to Ichinoya, about 40 minutes later, I got on the bus and got back home, where I ate dinner, and now here I am :-) I'm going to take a look at my Japanese homework, which is due Tuesday. I also discovered that another form is due in Tuesday, so I need to go to the staff room tomorrow to get a signature quick >< Aside from that, it's been another good day ^^ Back to the lab tomorrow

Japan - Day 16

I can't believe I've kept this blog up for so long ^^' I wonder if I can keep it going for the next 300 or so days too
Today I woke up with my arm feeling very heavy, so I guess I must've laid on it or something. I only got about 5 hours sleep so I was still pretty tired, but nevertheless I got up and got ready to go to the lab. I got there at about 8.50am, and the new card key they gave me yesterday works like a charm ^^ However, I hadn't counted on the lab door being locked ><><>< Still, it was nice to browse. After walking around the malls trying to find a place to eat, we decided to check out the other shopping mall one stop down the line from Tsukuba
After the train journey, we went into the huge mall. We made our way to the food court and got McDonalds. I had a teriyaki burger which was pretty tasty. Also, I found out that they have a DS-compatible Wi-Fi hotspot there, so I can get Victini! *victory dance*
After lunch, we slowly made our way down the mall, checking out some sports stores to check for Jen whether or not they had rollerskates (they didn't), and when we checked in Toys-R-Us, I FINALLY found some Japanese Magic: The Gathering cards :-D I got some pretty good ones, though no mythic rares or planeswalkers v.v After walking around a bit, we stopped for a drink at Bad Ass Coffee. I had one called Passion Yellow, which I assume means it had passion fruit in it. Very tasty, whatever it was ^^ After looking around a little more (including finding an arcade which has Pokémon Battrio :-D), we decided to head back. So a short train ride and a bus journey later, and we were back to campus :-)
When I got back, I walked down to the 100-yen store as per usual, and now here I am again :-) I need to do laundry in the morning before going out because I'm out of shirts ^^' But yeah, today's been a really good day ^^ Hopefully tomorrow will be just as good

Japan - Day 15

Before I begin today's post, I have a couple of things to say - firstly, I completely forgot to mention a few days ago that I spent an hour or so helping to clean the room where the mice are kept. This mainly involved moving the mice into clean cages, reattaching the cage labels and providing them with fresh water and extra food, so nothing too taxing. Secondly, I know it's past midnight now, but this is still technically Friday's blog :-p
Anyways, today started with me attempting to PCR some samples of DNA (23 to be precise) and then genotype them by running a gel. First off, because my pipette seems to be a bit dodgy, I pipetted the wrong amounts so ended up with negative readings in the spectrophotometer (in layman's terms, this means that the DNA samples had less DNA than pure water XD). After realising my error, and the fact that I'd wasted a good 30-45 minutes, I retried it and got more positive results (literally). Then I made up the PCR mix, but again, I miscalculated, so I PCRed and ran a gel of a total failure of mixtures ><
While the PCR was running, I went to grab some lunch before Japanese, and I randomly bumped into Jen outside the bakery :-) So we sat and had lunch together, then went together to the book store where I bought my kanji book. Then onward to Japanese class :-) We did a few more drills (the giving and receiving verbs, I've already studied them at Manchester but they're still horrible -_-) and had a quick test on yesterday's drills
Back to the lab - after running the fail gel, I started a new batch of samples to the correct specifications, and set them in the PCR machine at around 5pm. I'd arranged to meet Jen to go to the International Students' Party at 7.30pm, and as the PCR takes around 2 hours, and the gel 20 minutes, I wouldn't have time to wait for it. So, after asking about getting a new keycard into the building, and checking things over with some people in the lab, I'm going to try finishing the gel on Saturday morning. Or if not, apparently Monday is fine too
So, after bailing out of the lab, I got the bus home (it arrived as I left the building, luckily) and got changed and scrubbed up a little. I went down to the bus stop at about 7pm, about half-way between the times the buses are supposed to arrive, so I had to wait about 15 minutes for one to arrive. When it DID arrive, it stopped at almost every stop on the route, so I was very nearly late. But I got to Jen's on time, and they cut the hedge outside her room so I can knock on her window now. The bus didn't show up on time at her bus stop, so we walked along to the party, and arrived right on time ^^
The party was very fun :-D We got a drink when we got to the desk where we wrote some nametags - I got a violet flavour drink, though I was disappointed that it didn't taste much like violet v.v We met up with a few more familiar faces and then got some more people talking to us, playing the A-Z game at one point which was kinda funny. Then we ended up sitting around talking until about 1am, about all sorts of things ^^ Though because everyone else lives in Ichinoya, I had to walk home alone, which wasn't helped by the fact that some guy I talked to showed me a mark on his arm where a guy tried to mug him a few days ago, which made me paranoid. Still, I'm back in one piece, so all's well that ends well ^^
Anyway, as it's almost 2am now, I better sleep so I'm fit and ready for the lab tomorrow ^^' Ciao for now

Japan - Day 14

Today's been a pretty good day, I think
Woke up about an hour before my alarm went off - freezing cold - so I dragged my covers back onto my bed and went back to sleep for an hour. After the usual morning routine, I arrived at the lab and asked one of the girls on the bench behind me to remind me of the gel-making procedure, which she did :-) Before I could begin though, I had to dilute some buffer for the mixture as one of the bottles had been finished. While making the gel, one of the steps is to microwave it so that the agarose powder dissolves in the mixture, but you have to be very careful to find the balance between getting it to dissolve, and not letting the mixture boil over. Unfortunately, I haven't found the balance just yet, so I ended up flooding the microwave with hot liquid agarose. After mopping up, I restarted the mixture from scratch (I was at an early stage, thankfully) and, still after a long time and a few tries in the microwave, the mixture dissolved okay. After filling almost 3 cases full of the gel, I was ready to run the gel from the DNA I PCRed last night
While the gel was running, I left for Japanese class. To my great surprise (and relief) I wasn't dropped out of the J300 class ^^ Although, the people who were dropped weren't forcibly pushed out, by the look of it. The new words test wasn't bad at all, it was sort of multiple choice so even if I hadn't studied, I may have been able to pass it. Still, I'm glad I did study anyway ^^' The listening exercises afterwards were spoke VERY fast, but I managed to do pretty well, and the speaking exercises weren't too bad either :-) Though it seems like my Manchester classmate in J300 may not be in the same class for much longer v.v I guess we'll see
Back at the lab, after analysing my gel (which was better than last time, but still not perfect) I was shown my own box in the freezer, which is a step up XD I also had to get someone from the lab, and my supervisor, to help me fill in forms to get a key to the mouse building. I was then shown the procedure for extracting DNA from the tails of mice, which had me waiting for about 3 hours for them to dissolve -_-
I couldn't be bothered to walk home as it was about 7.30pm, so I waited a few minutes for the bus, stopping at the 100 yen store on the way home to buy some dinner (noodles :-D). So now here I am, in my room once again. I think I'm going to need a blanket tonight because it's still pretty cold. I would close the window but then it would get stuffy in the morning again. Also, the 300th chapter of Negima! was finally translated, so I know more precisely what's going on now ^^' Tomorrow night I'm planning to go to the TISA welcome party down by the lake, so that should be lots of fun ^^ Jen and I should be meeting beforehand and going together, which will save me the awkwardness and embarassment of wandering around until she arrived ^^' So yeah, good times :-D Nighty night

Japan - Day 13

Today's had its ups and downs, but on the whole it's been pretty good ^^
For starters, it rained today :-O Apparently we're getting a bit of a monsoon or something. When I woke up it wasn't too bad - I still wore my shorts -_- I went across and got my breakfast from the 100-yen store as usual, then took the bus to the International Students Centre where I met Jen (who was about 15 minutes late) so we could check about switching Japanese classes. The Japanese teacher wouldn't let me explain in English that I wanted to switch, so I had to explain in Japanese, which actually wasn't too bad. Though when she wouldn't let me help Jen explain her problem, it was a little awkward ><>< Afterwards, Katherine told me about a get-together in the evening at 7, and that she'd contact me via Facebook in the evening, which cheered me up some after the test disaster ^^'
Anyways, I then went back to the lab where I commenced on diluting down my DNA from yesterday and doing a PCR. Well, it took me a while to get my head around the numbers and the procedure, but eventually I got it after a lot of awkward pauses and trying to remember Japanese words for 'dilution' and 'measurement'. However, I was very aware of the time. By the time the PCR was finally up and running, it was 5.30 already, so I was allowed to leave for the night and do the gel tomorrow morning, so I hurried out into the rain and made my way to the ISC as fast as I could to get on the computer. Once I finally made contact with my friends, I discovered where I had to be and when. By this time it was about 6.05, so I had 55 minutes to get to my room, dry off, change and get the bus up to Ichinoya.
After making it back to my dorm in what must have been record time, stripping down and drying off, I realised that my bag was wet - the stuff inside had become damp around the edges. Cursing, I laid it all out on my bed to dry a little before getting changed. Not wanting to be worrying all evening about my paperwork, I decided that what's done is done and I couldn't do anything about it, so I'd just go out and enjoy :-) I went across to the bus stop (wearing my Heroes hoodie which I soon decided was surplus to requirements) and then headed up to Ichinoya. Unfortunately the bus took a turn that it doesn't normally take, so I got off at the TARA Centre bus stop and had to walk a little way up the road before I reached the Ichinoya community centre, where I met the other people going out for the evening
Now, here's where the fun started. For starters, we couldn't decide where to eat. In the end we decided to check out the eateries in Tsukuba Centre (though I felt a bit guilty for the two who hadn't bought bus passes yet). When we got there, we started scouring the malls for a place to eat. However, on the way around, I did find two very nice shops - a fairly big book shop, and a store that sells video games :-D I was about to ask the attendant if they were going to be selling Pokémon Black and White on September 18th, but then I saw a poster behind her and said 'It's okay, thank you very much' before walking away feeling a little embarrassed ^^'
We spent the next half an hour or so walking around, finding that most of the places were closing at 8 (it was about 8 at the time) and the rest were really expensive. After much deliberation, we decided to stop at a burger place, where we got some tiny burgers along with fries and a drink. Still, it tasted good ^^
After eating, we got back on the bus and then headed back to the dorms, so now here I am with my (reasonably) dry book about to start preparing for tomorrow's lesson :-) Then I'll chill a little and get some sleep. Night all :-)

Japan - Day 12

Today's been a pretty good, if costly day ^^'
First off I got my shower, during which time there were 2 announcements over the sound system, neither of which I really understood. Then I stood waiting for the bus to come, and proceeded onward to the lab. I was intending to talk to my supervisor about my project, but he wasn't in his office when I passed by, so I'm going to try again tomorrow
In the morning, I was shown the protocols for the spectrophotometre (to check the concentration of DNA), and for precipitating DNA, which I remember having done at Manchester, and Hockerill I think. These were pretty straightforward, but my pellets of DNA are drying out overnight so I can use them tomorrow afternoon
At around midday I went to the International Students Centre to get my Japanese results. Turns out I'm in class J300, and for kanji I'm in K400, which surprised me. Jen's not in my class (yet, I'll explain further down), which is a little sucky right now. Turns out I have to take 5 classes, one a day, plus optional kanji which I want to take. My supervisor said I should only take 2-3 classes a week, so I need to talk to him urgently now ><><><><
Well, that's about it from me. Early start tomorrow so I better go now. Night all :-)

Japan - Day 11

Today started with a new record for my earliest time waking up in Japan - about 6am. This time, however, I decided to go back to sleep until my alarm went off an hour later, which, considering how tired I've been today anyway, was probably a good idea. After talking with some people online for an hour, I showered and went over to the 100-yen store to get some breakfast and a much-needed drink. I stood by the bus stop waiting for a little, getting gradually more worried that I was going to be late for getting to the lab, but as it happens I was a little early after all. I sat down at the back of the room and took a look at the handout for the presentation one of the people in the lab was going to make (every week, I think, one person from the lab makes a presentation about a scientific paper they've read). The abstract and the figure legends were in English, but the explanations were all in Japanese, as was the entirety of the presentation, so I wasn't really sure what was going on v.v Also, I had to introduce myself to the group before we began, which was also a little embarrassing ^^' After the presentation, I asked my supervisor what I should do today, and he said that for starters I could help out with cleaning the lab. The people in the lab are divided into two groups, who take it in turns to clean the lab, wash up equipment, etc. I was added to the list of people doing it today, and so I was helping Manato put away some equipment which had been left to dry, such as conical flasks, gel plates, etc. Then I was shown the procedure for PCR (I've only ever done it with instructions in a guidebook before, so I don't know the procedure by heart yet), and where everything was to do it with. I think that, once I've done it a few times, I should start to remember it off by heart After the samples had been set to run in the PCR machine, we all went to lunch at a Chinese restaurant a little bit out of town. Everyone was trying to decide which kanji would fit my name, as I only had the 'ma' part already (真, meaning 'truth'). Eventually they came up with a 'shuu' kanji which I can't find online right now, but which apparently means twilight. Then I think they came up with a pair of kanji for my surname meaning 'spirit'. For lunch I decided to have some pork ramen with baby bamboo and something called 'zasai', which I just looked up and is 'a type of pickled mustard plant stem'. Didn't taste too pickley or mustardy though, so it was very tasty :-)
I did start to worry that I wasn't going to be back in time for library orientation, but as it turns out I didn't have to worry, we were back right on time. At the library we gave in our student cards, then went on a library tour while the librarians attached a barcode onto our student cards to let us access the library. The natural science textbooks are on the ground floor (which, given where the main entrance is, is more like a basement), and the natural science journals are in the 5th floor annex (the main 5th floor is currently being earthquake-proofed, so won't be open again until spring next year). I was very impressed by the sliding bookcases though, allowing them to fit twice as many books/journals into the space. We then got our cards returned to us and went into the conference room to watch a short (slightly cliché but very funny) video, followed by a talk by a guy who didn't seem to be very good at English, about the internet's online facilities. After this, Jen showed me a very good bakery on campus and then I returned to the lab
Once I got back to the lab, the girl who ran me through the PCR in the morning was a little busy, so I was left to sit waiting for a while, during which time the guy sitting opposite me on the bench asked if I wanted to play shiritori. For anyone who doesn't know how to play this, the first person says a word, then the next person says a word beginning with the last letter (or in Japanese, syllable) of the previous word, and so on. If someone ends their word with the Japanese letter ん (n), the game ends because that letter doesn't start any words in Japanese. He said we'll play again tomorrow, so this'll be good for building up my vocabulary :-)
After playing shiritori for quite a while, another one of the girls came up and asked me if I wanted to try making some gels, as I needed to run the DNA from the PCR. Again, this is a process I've been through at Manchester, but only with a step-by-step guide. Still, it wasn't too bad, except the mixture bubbled over in the microwave a bit so there wasn't quite enough to fill all four little gel plates. After the gels set, I was shown how to run the gel electrophoresis. After running for 20 minutes, I put it into the UV illuminator. Unfortunately, it didn't really work (I had been warned that it had a low success rate for some reason), even though it looked like there was a veeery faint line in one of the lanes
After getting a photo, just because I could, I was told that, because of the nature of the work, not all of the data I produced would be able to go into my final report, so I need to check with my supervisor what I can and can't write up in my report for Manchester. I'm going into the lab at 10am tomorrow, but I'll be in and out a few times on account of getting Japanese test results, followed by Japanese class orientation, so after checking that with the people I was working with, I left for my room, picking up some tasty noodles for dinner on the way back :-D
Well, that's about all from me today. I've been knackered today but now I've got back here, I have a bit of a second wind, so I'll stay up a little longer, maybe read some more, then get some sleep :-) Night all

Japan - Day 10

Today started out slow, but now it's over it feels like it went too quickly
For starters, I woke up at about 6.50am, and me being me, didn't think to go back to sleep, just got up and turned on the computer to talk to my friends who were still in Saturday-land. During this time, I read another big chunk of To Kill A Mockingbird. At the time of writing, I'm in the middle of the courthouse scene, and Bob Ewell's about to testify. After waiting for 10 o'clock, I talked to Jen and we decided to meet a bit later, when she'd finished what she was doing. Once she said it was okay for me to come, I went to grab a quick breakfast from the 100 yen store (they're going to start recognising me if I keep going in there ^^') then, as the bus outside Oikoshi was going to be a long time coming AGAIN, I walked across to Hirasuna and caught the bus from there, AGAIN. This time, however, I got off a stop later so I was right next to Jen's dorm. After calling to her for a few minutes, she finally heard me and let me in
I sat reading her book of Japanese fairytales (with Russian translation, which was of no use to me, obviously lol) while she worked on a drawing, then we went for a short walk along to the stable again, but still didn't see any horses v.v We then checked out the small combini a little further up the road, before going back and chatting in her room for another half hour
At around 3pm, I got up to leave and walked over to the bus stop. Unfortunately the bus was going to be a while, so I walked along to where I had to be, partly so I wasn't sitting idle, and partly to kill time until 3.30, when I was meeting my tutor to go to the barbecue. I reached the building at about 3.30, but the card my supervisor gave me didn't work to let me into the building, but as luck would have it, about 5 minutes later, another guy from my lab walked by and told me my tutor was on his way, and sure enough, a couple of minutes later, he did. We then walked along to a patch very near to my dorm, and waited until the rest of the people from the lab showed up with the barbecue stuff
After setting everything up, it turns out we had quite a lot of food. First off we had clams, then cow's tongue, then crab, then a fish called shishamo, then something which they said was like a mussel but which had the shell of a snail, and then some fried cabbage and beansprouts. A lot of them were drinking beer, and when my supervisor arrived he said that, although I was underage, I would still be allowed to drink. I still decided to stick with juice though, although he insisted I tried a bit of sake and a drink made out of fermented potatoes. We also talked a little about why I was studying biology, and what sort of poetry I write. Then at about 9ish, people started to leave so I decided that once I'd helped tidy up a little, I'd be on my way
I'm absolutely knackered now from a long day, so I'll probably sleep soon as I have an early start tomorrow - meeting at 9am >< Ciao for now ^^

Japan - Day 9

At last the length of time I've been in the land of the rising sun has reached double figures
Had an early start this morning, went down to the 100-yen store to get a few things, then was going to catch the bus from outside my dorm to get to Jen's place, but went to a different stop as otherwise I would have been waiting for about half an hour -_- Finally made it to Jen's, but then because of bushes I can't knock on her window ><><). Then we started to make dinner, which consisted of a pork stew and a salad, which was very nice ^^ In the kitchen, we saw a mahoosive praying mantis :-D But unfortunately I didn't have my camera, and even if I'd had it, it was out of battery >< After dinner, we sat and played a game of Magic cards (she won v.v) before taking a walk to see if we could find the University's stables. We found them but it was dark, so there were no horses around, and we may take another look tomorrow
By this time it was late, so I decided I'd better go home, and luckily I didn't have to wait too long before the bus got to the stop. Although, there are definitely more stops between the dorms than I remember. I guess it's because I was travelling alone ^^'
Anyway, that's about all for today, and as it's pretty late, I'm going to get some shut-eye. Night all ^^

Japan - Day 8

I'm feeling really tired all of a sudden, so I NEARLY forgot to post tonight, but luckily I remembered before going to sleep
Once again I woke up before my alarm this morning. Took a shower, then about 5 minutes in I thought 'Hm, maybe I should turn the heat up a little', which resulted in the shower's 'Hot water warning' light coming on and the water stopping, meaning I had to wash the shampoo out of my hair over the sink. THEN the shower decides to work again -_-
So after that, I went down to the biology building to collect my student ID. The lady at the desk in the office started speaking to me straight away in English, which surprised me, but whatever the language, I got my shiny new Tsukuba Student ID! *insert Link/Ash stance here* I then proceeded to go to the ISC to wait for Jen to show up, this time making sure to keep a lookout for her so she didn't come and jab me in the sides again ^^' We took a walk across to the bookshop (very nice in there, I might add), and glanced around before buying our bus passes, so we now have to make full use of the buses to get our money's worth. Then she showed me some Copic markers in the art shop below before we headed to the bus stop to take us to the Seven & I Holdings (Japanese version of 7-Eleven) to check if my recon was correct. Turns out, it was, so I now have a place to use my card at last, and I don't have to keep running to the central Post Office ^^
After getting back on the bus, we went to Tsukuba Centre and got on the train, taking us to the Kenkyu-gakuen Station one stop down, where I showed Jen to City Hall to apply for Alien Registration and Health Insurance, as I'd done a few days ago. This time I noticed a world map on the wall with numbers indicating how many foreigners from different countries are registered at Tsukuba; turns out there are about 64 Brits here. I feel a little sorry for the people who are the only nationals from their country, like the one Dane somewhere around Tsukuba
After unsuccessfully looking for a video game store I know is somewhere near the station, we hopped back on the train (I changed up a 10000 yen (approx. £75) note in the ticket machine, I got a looot of change XD) and headed back to Tsukuba Centre. Jen showed me a little mall where we found a video game arcade and a food market, and I bought a bottle of mango-flavoured cow piss-er, Calpis. It actually tastes pretty nice
We then went back to the combini outside my dorm, bought a couple of things (I bought a delicious pizza with a Danish dough base :-D), and then went our separate ways for the day. When I got back to my room, I had a quick shower, then went online for a few hours before my computer inevitably froze up, then I headed down to the 7-Eleven and bought a copy of Weekly Shonen Magazine. Mainly it has sporty manga and a few photos of swimsuit models (as indicated by the cover image which made me a little reluctant to buy it at all), but I wanted it for the 6 page full-colour Love Hina one-shot, and the 300th chapter of Negima! :-D
When I got back, after flicking through my new purchase, I restarted my computer, and then nearly shat myself when I got the Blue Screen Of Death! I eventually got my computer working again, but it panicked me, so I went into the C drive and found where the biggest files were and I got a little shock - I had about 13GB of video I'd downloaded from Veoh which I totally forgot about: the whole Negima! live-action series. Luckily, I brought some DVD+RWs with me, so I quickly (well, as quickly as this computer goes in this weather) burned the videos onto disks, so I'm now out of the red on my C drive memory space :-) When the weather cools down I'll attempt another defrag
Anyway, that's about it for today, so I shall report again tomorrow ^^

Japan - Day 7

I can't believe that this time last week I was settling down for my first night in Japan...
Anyway, today's been an alright day really. When I finally got to sleep, I proceeded to wake up at about 6ish, for some reason. I got online to talk to people for a few hours, then showered and headed out to my meeting with my supervisor. I was really early leaving though, so I stopped in the International Students' Centre again to abuse their aircon and read through a little more of the research paper I was given. Also of note, the ISC is now covered in scaffolding, so it may be a while before I can get a nice photo of it.
A little while later I went along to the lab, and waited for my supervisor for a few minutes. I went into his room along with him, the assistant professor, and a girl from the lab whose name I still don't remember ><><
On the way home, I took a detour to the 100-yen store and bought some croquets for dinner/breakfast and a litre bottle of lemon soda to wash it down, then came back here, bumping into one of the Eastern European guys we met at the airport on the way here. For a start he started speaking to me in Russian XD (he spoke to Jen at the airport so I guess he assumed that I could speak Russian too ^^') Turns out he doesn't speak Japanese, and his English isn't great ^^' I got his e-mail so I can tell him when TISA (Tsukuba International Students' Association) meets up once I find out myself
And so, I end up once again back here in my cell- er, room. Apparently September's the month when it starts cooling down but so far I'm not feeling it, two days in ^^' The assistant professor in my lab asked me if I was interested in playing tennis sometime soon with the people in the lab, which I said maybe to. Hopefully it'll happen when it's not quite so oppressively hot
That's about it for today. Tomorrow I'll go wandering around Tsukuba Centre. Apparently there aren't any video game stores there but I need to find an electricals store and the main Post Office, to withdraw some moneys. Ciao for now :-)

Japan - Day 6

Well, not much has happened today, but it's still managed to be a long day ><><><><><) I took a couple of snapshots of my room (which I'll upload soon), then decided to abandon my stuffy room for the nice cool dusk outside and sat on a bench reading the scientific paper I was given last week, which I sort of get the jist of now
Once I got online I decided to get Jen to help me check if the phones were working, and they do now :-D Then a while later, my computer decided to die again and not restart, so I decided I'd try to get some sleep. An hour or so later, still no joy, and then that alarm started again and continued for about 5-10 minutes. None of the Japanese on my floor seemed bothered by it, so I just went back to my room until it stopped. As I couldn't sleep, I decided to get back online, though the people I'd been talking to had all left so I had to leave them an e-mail to apologise for disappearing so abruptly
Well, that's about it for today. Something else I realised though - before I forget again, I noticed over the past week that all the crows I see around stand with their mouths open. I guess even they have trouble with the heat
Gonna try and sleep again now. Night all ^^