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Kissing Money Goodbye
My new toy and money vacume
Not only do I have Chieko and the office shredder to say goodbye to these days, but now I also have to say goodbye to nearly ichi man (10,000 yen) a month. I just found out that my rent is being increased and my parking space is going to start costing double starting April 1st. Apparently this is the result of some kind of prefecture wide property value reassessment being done by the prefectural board of education (so I've been told). I don't imagine this will affect municipal JETs, but it sounds like all high school JETs can expect their rent to either increase or decrease... well, probably not decrease. I also learned today that my insurance premium is going up as well, though I have no idea by how much. I guess the money for all those new shredders and fancy new chairs had to come from somewhere. To add insult to injury I also was asked today to pay 4200 yen for last month's driveway heating charge.
I guess my rapidly growing bank balance is going to slow a bit this year. It doesn't help that I have a new mouth to feed as well, namely my new PSP. I just bought it last night in anticipation of my big trip to Hong Kong next month (which incidentally has already cost me a bundle). I've been thinking of getting one ever since last December when it came out here, but I had some reservations since I feared it wouldn't be able to play any non-Japanese games. With the North American release this week I've been able to do a little more reading and found out that it can play games from any country, as well as browse the web with the right tweaking and a wireless access point. So far I just have 2 games, Ridge Racers and a Train Simulator, and still no memory stick. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up a 1 gig memory stick for watching movies on it and lots of $2 bootlegs in Hong Kong, but I'm not holding my breath.
At any rate, I know I shouldn't complain. I'm still going to be able to save more money each month than most people and my wasteful spending on video games, travel and small plastic toys is my own doing. Still this week has not been a good one for my wallet. Hopefully I still have enough cash for this $35,000 solid gold PSP cover!
Update: If you want to buy some Japanese Import PSP Games, but don't feel like travelling all the way out here then I suggest trying this online store.
12 comments
http://www.cafereo.co.jp/construction.htm
Little Japanese construction workers. I'm so proud today because I finally completed building the little white pick-up truck!
I'd recommend waiting a while until Sony gets all the bugs out of it. Mine suffers from the infamous 'dead pixel' problem that seems to affect about half of all units sold (from what I've read). It isn't really noticable though and doesn't bother me, so I won't try to get my unit replaced.
--Tales of Eternia: If you're willing to expand your Japanese by attempting an rpg, this is an excellent game. It's a port of a PS1 game, but it's nicely optimized with no loading, great visuals, and really good audio.
--Lumines: Lumines is the new tetris. It's going toe to toe with Tetris as being the best, most addicting, puzzle game ever made. It's mixes music and addicting gameplay together in a way that makes hours fly by. Also it retails at 4000yen or less so I highly recommend it.
You might want an extra battery for the flight (so you can play it while sitting at the airport & on the flight) but it depends on how good you are at keeping busy ^^;
Anyhow, have a good trip!
I don't think I'll ever be able to read Japanese well enough to play an RPG, but I've been thinking of picking up Lumines and Puzzle Bobble. I probably won't bother with an extra battery, but hopefully I can find a 500 meg or 1 gig memory stick duo for cheap somewhere.
Now that spring is coming around (...slowly), I'll probably try to start updating again.
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