Happy Birthday To Me!
28 February 2007
That's right! Kuroneko Doumei is officially 2 years old today. Hurrah! I've really grown to love this little blog of mine. I doubt many people actually read this outside of my friends (all two of them). However, it'll be a nice reminder for me when I forget all the stuff I've done over the years. And believe me, I forget a lot of things very quickly. I think it must be my old age. I'm going senile, I swear. I'll be thinking about something, reach over for a drink, and then when I try to remember what I was thinking about it'll be gone from my head. It's so frustrating sometimes. I also forget names incredibly quickly too. I find it easier to remember their face or their voice. When I start work I'll have to train myself to make a note of their name. Otherwise I might offend my colleagues very quickly /laugh. And that wouldn't make for a very good team working environment. I should be OK, fingers crossed. Still an interview to go in any case.
Eh.... what was I talking about before...? Hmm. Something about 15? 15. 15. Fifteen. Oh yeah. FIFTEEN POSTS IN ONE MONTH!!!! Yatta! Look, there's Kriss Akabusi. He's handed me a nice Record Breakers trophy. Thank you, thank you /bow. I couldn't have done it without Blogger and my supporters. I'd like to say one thing to my wife at home: Yo Adrianne! I did it!!!
NB. I don't actually have a wife called Adrianne. It was added for dramatic affect. That is all.
Posted byHocchan at 11:22 pm 2 comments
Imujin Kawa
Damn Blogger is trying to foil my attempt at breaking my record for the most posts in one month. I tried to make an entry earlier on this evening but for some reason the whole thing was down. It would redirect me to some error page whenever I tried to log in. No matter, I'll just have to do two updates in quick succession. I have about 56 minutes left of February. Lets go!
Firstly, some good news. I received a letter this morning from the DWP informing me that I'd passed the literacy and numeracy tests. I'm now at the final selection stage which involves an interview by personnel managers. It's been scheduled to take place on the 12th March. I'm really happy to have gotten this far. I really want this job now. And I'm also feeling very confident of myself and my ability to do well at the interview. They say in the letter that I can draw upon experiences I've had in my personal life as well as work life. That's a big relief because I can't say that I've had too much work experience outside of the fast food business. I'm beginning to mentally prepare for the questions they'll ask me. Bring it!
My router problem isn't going quite so well. I've still been unable to get the damn thing to work. I've been contacting technical support in the hope of finding a possible solution. I may have to contact the seller and request a refund for a defective product. That's unless USR can replace my unit for free under warranty. What a nightmare.
Posted byHocchan at 11:04 pm 0 comments
Simple 1-2-3
27 February 2007
Simple? Simple?! Simple my arse. There's nothing simple about an ADSL modem/router that won't connect to the internet. Oh, actually there is. It's "simply" crap! I bought a US Robotics router off eBay which was supposed to be new. From the condition of the contents when I received it yesterday I had no reason to doubt this fact. However, for some reason the modem won't detect my ADSL line even though I know it's working. My current modem is working fine (otherwise I wouldn't be posting this now) so the fault must lie with the US Robotics one. Either there's a hardware fault or it's incompatible with my ISP service. I contacted customer support and they suggested that I reset the router. I tried that but it still has the same problem. The ADSL status LED light won't stop blinking and it won't connect at all. It's really driving me insane. If I can't resolve this issue within the next few days I'm going to ask the seller for a refund. I paid via PayPal so I have some element of buyer protection to fall back on.
The funny thing is that this is actually the second problem I've had with this router. When I first tried to configure it I couldn't get past the login screen. The manual tells me that the default password should have been "Admin". However, it clearly wasn't as I tried that many times. Through a sheer stroke of luck on Google I managed to find out that the default was to leave it blank. Talk about a crappy manual. What the hell are they doing printing incorrect information? This may be a one off occasion but I'm seriously starting to doubt US Robotics credentials. That and the seller who I bought this off. Shame, it'll be my first bad sale on eBay since I started using it.
Posted byHocchan at 4:01 pm 0 comments
Diamonds
26 February 2007
I'm so tired! And do you know why? It's because I bought those two PS2 games on Friday. In particular, Makai Kingdom. I wasn't expecting to like that game as much as I do. It's been a long time since I've played a game where you keep wanting to see the next bit, and then the next, and so on until you realise the sun's almost up. Presentation wise it's not that much to look at; the game is so small it can fit on one of those purple discs they used for really early PS2 game. This can be seen in the simple background visuals and basic character sprites. It could very easily be a PSOne game. But that's its main charm. It doesn't need fancy graphics, it just needs addictive game-play. There are so many custom characterisations you can achieve. From selecting every aspect of their job class, weaponry, armoury and name, you can make loads of them to fit your every whim. This is one trait I really admire in an RPG - the ability to customise it so that it's absolutely unique to you.
So far I've played about 8 hours of it over the last couple of days. Ever since I saw the option to make Samurai units I've been feverishly working towards that goal. The first Ronin I made was called Yui. I had been reserving that name and job specifically for her. I've now upgraded her to a Master Samurai through a process called 'Reincarnation' (basically you have to kill them off so they can be reborn as a stronger class). I just have to train her back up to the level she was before she switched classes. I doubt I'll make any other Samurai units. Yui will be my perfect little fighter /laugh.
The other game I got was R: Racing. I've played a little bit of this in between sessions of Makai Kingdom. I was impressed at how realistic the car physics where considering this is a Ridge Racer game. It's very easy to pick up and play but I think they've made it a bit too easy. I've gained rapid progression through the story mode after only a few hours. Still, for the price I got it for this isn't that much of an issue. I'm glad I bought it.
Posted byHocchan at 3:01 am 0 comments
Pride Before A Fall
24 February 2007
How does the ground taste? Like dirt, obviously. I completed my literacy and numeracy tests yesterday, despite the fact that I grossly underestimated their difficulty. I arrived in Preston at around 12:06pm and decided to have a look around the town centre for a bit. Went into a couple of shops and read some magazines before heading to the test venue. I almost didn't make it in time because I got slightly lost. Eventually found the crowd of people standing outside a building at around 1:00pm. I was quite surprised at the amount of applicants there were. I'd guess around 40 were there at my session, and there were about 4-5 sessions that day. It started off with a spelling and grammar exercise where I had to pick out 15 mistakes from a page of text. This had to be done in 8 minutes so the pressure was really on. I scanned through the passage the first time and got 5 mistakes. A second time got me another 5. A third time however, didn't get me any. I was quickly running out of time and couldn't see any mistakes. I'm guessing that they were grammatical mistakes as I can usually see spelling mistakes pretty easily. I ended up with 12/15 identified, although I wasn't sure about one I'd written down. I was panicking a little, not sure what to expect of the numeracy test.
When it arrived it turned out to be pretty straight forward. I've always liked simple statistical mathematics more than languages. I zoomed through the first 16 questions until I got to one piece of crap problem. It asked me to identify which of the four statement was true. I checked, double checked, and mega-super-duper checked them but found they were all false! I just don't understand. Maybe I'd read the question wrong. But I swear they were all false statements. I sodded that question off and completed the last two before the time ran out. I was so angry. I asked if we would be getting the answers with our results and the woman looked at me like I'd just landed in a spaceship. It looks like we won't so I'll never know the solution to that question. That really pisses me off...
To cheer myself up I popped into GAME on the way back to the train station. I found a new copy of 'Makai Kingdom' for £4.99 and a second-hand copy of 'R: Racing' for £3.99. I decided to get them since they were so cheap. Had a nice surprise when the guy told me that 'Makai Kingdom' was in fact only £3.99. Bargain. I also saw loads of copies of Final Fantasy XII there. I was tempted but decided to hold off until the price comes down. There was an offer of trading in used games to get it for £14.99. I'll have to check that out later and see if I should do that. All in all it was a good day. I have a feeling that I passed the selection tests and will be looking forward to the final stage in March.
Posted byHocchan at 5:38 pm 0 comments
Makenaide
22 February 2007
Will be a fairly short post for this update. I have to get to bed in a few minutes so I can be up nice and early for my tests tomorrow. I applied for a position at the Department for Work and Pensions last month and I've made it into the next stage of the selection process. I have a Basic Literacy and Numeracy test to complete. The example questions they sent for me to try out were so easy it was a joke. Anyone who's got half a brain cell shouldn't have a problem with them. I fully expect to pass with a 100% score. Not that I'm boasting or anything. But it's a good thing to be confident. When (yes, 'when' not 'if') I make it to the final stage that's when things will get difficult. They'll interview me in front of a couple of senior managers and have some further tests. I'm never confident when it comes to interviews so it'll be tough. I'm keeping positive and practising what I might respond to certain questions. I reckon I've got what it takes to get this job. For Japan!! ROAR!!
Posted byHocchan at 11:59 pm 0 comments
Ai Wa Katsu
21 February 2007
Phew! That was one hell of an update I did yesterday. I didn't intend to make it that long. I guess when it comes to Horie Yui there's no stopping me /laugh. I hope that it all makes sense; I was writing the thing whilst suffering from lack of sleep. It took me ages to go back and reformat it for spelling and grammatical errors, as well as paragraphing it to look aesthetically pleasing. Despite all the effort it took the whole update was enjoyable to write. I probably shouldn't make it so long next time though...
Things are going fairly well in FFXI. I've taken up levelling Corsair pretty much full time. I reached level 28 last night which means that I can finally dual wield Archer's Knives. That +20 to ranged accuracy will help me a great deal when firing my gun. When I get to level 30 I'll have a bit more of it from the Noct set too. The job is a lot of fun and I'm surprised that I've gotten used to it so quickly. The damn dice do have a habit of annoying me though. I've learned that when you land on a six it's wise to stick. Doubling up and rolling again will almost always end up in another six, resulting in a 'Bust' effect. Still, I think I do pretty well overall. Only another 32 levels to go until I get full AF. That's the whole reason I'm levelling this job in the first place /laugh.
I'm pleased that we have a regular Assault party now. We've been having regular runs on Mondays and Fridays which has done our points totals a world of good. I'm now about 8,000 points from another piece of the Amir set. After Periqia I'm hoping we will move onto Ilrusi Atoll so that I can get my hands on the Amir Dirs I want so bad. Other than levelling Corsair and doing Assaults, I occasionally party with Siraji and Ophidian. This has helped me get a few merits points for my Samurai. Normally I wouldn't have spent so long meriting so it's done me quite a favour. Still a lot of upgrades to go though so I hope they keep inviting me to their parties.
I bought myself quite a few things recently. I got a new belt (may not sound remarkable but I've had the old belt for 7 years now and it's falling apart), a new Casio watch (could be considered a little on the feminine side but I like how it looks), and the last box set of 'You're Under Arrest'. I haven't had chance to watch those DVDs yet though as they're region 1 and we only have the one player in the house. I'll do some swapping around and hopefully I'll get more time to watch them. As my sister bought herself a laptop recently and wants to use the internet as well, I've decided to invest in a wireless modem/router. It might be a little difficult to set up at first but it'll be nice to not be restricted by wires any more. After that it should be a break from spending until I get my next payment. I could maybe get some new shoes. My current pair are about 12 years old and leak when it's raining /laugh. I've kind of grown fond of them though, it'll be a shame to see them finally go. You've served me well, Pod shoes, I salute you!
Posted byHocchan at 8:09 pm 0 comments
Horie Yui Wo Meguru Bouken
20 February 2007
OK, it's time for the main event! The much coveted (by me at least) Horie Yui live in Tokyo concert DVD! Even though I was ripped off by Royal Mail regarding the VAT of this item it was all worth it in the end. I don't mind funding their caviar parties if it means that I can have this much Horie Yui goodness. Lets start with the packaging as always. As expected of a limited edition DVD the design of the whole thing is sublime. The main theme of the concert seems to be a parody of 'Alice in Wonderland'. As such the two discs come housed in a red hardback book. This is held within a white outer box which has a window revealing the gold Kuroneko Doumei emblem underneath.
The book has 24 black and white (more blue and white actually but, meh) pages containing various snippets of info about Horie Yui and her career, and 8 full colour pages of photos taken from the concert itself. I've tried reading through some of the stuff but my kanji knowledge is too weak! Until I learn some more I'll have to make do with staring at the pretty pictures like some infant /laugh. A nice extra touch they added was to include a bookmark with a pretty picture of Yui on it. The final piece of the delightful jigsaw comes in the form of a small carrying case. I had a pleasant surprise when I opened the box to find this inside. I remembered that ordered the first pressing version (which came with an extra item) but I was expecting a poster or something. It has a large main compartment and a small section at the front which you can see into. I'm not sure what you'd put in it but I don't plan on using it. It's going to stay safely tucked away inside it's plastic wrapping. Well, that's all of it. Time to write about the concert.
After popping the DVD into the player you're greeted by the usual logos of Starchild and King Records. After this comes a nice little intro inspired by 'Alice in Wonderland' which shows Horie Yui running along in a wooded area. She's evidently late for something and is rushing to make it in time. All of a sudden a hole appears in the ground in front of her and she falls into it. Everything goes pitch black for a few seconds. The stage then gets lit in dim pink light and we see about 7-8 girls with white bunny ears on their heads. Soft intro music plays in the background while they go about their business. As the music comes to a crescendo, pyrotechnics fly up from the central staircase and Horie Yui appears in a blaze of white light which floods the stage. With a energetic shout from Yui to stir the crowd, the first song of the night ('Puzzle', a very upbeat from her latest album) begins to play. This is a very nice song to start the concert and certainly gets the audience going. The next few songs are taken from her 4th and 5th albums and are also upbeat and catchy.
There follows a short MC section where she receives a huge crystal ring from a pink bear of some description. The pace has slowed down a bit now and it's a bit more storytelling. During a rather odd MC where Yui was transformed into a blue bear, the ring gets stolen by a man in a black cloak. I found this part very amusing. The person in the bear suit was obviously not Yui but her voice could be heard on the speakers. She told the audience to do various gestures with their arms in order to change her back. This didn't work so the bear leaves the stage and everything goes black. The large screen at the back of the stage then instructs everyone to chant some magic spells /laugh. After some rapturous roars of "Horie Yui" she finally returns to the stage. We then learn that this kingdom is ruled by a King to whom the ring belongs. Yui decides that she must retrieve it from the mysterious man who stole it.
Following a few more songs she comes across a group of 'bad bunny girls' (/laugh) and with her posse of helpers, challenges them to a battle. There's a problem though. She doesn't have a sword! So she rushes off the stage and we see her running out into the main lobby area to buy a glittery sword from the merchandise seller. On the way she stops off for a short sip of beer which she evidently finds bitter. The face she made was so damn cute I almost died /laugh. Anyway, sword in hand she rushes back to the stage to battle the mysterious man. The next section is a well choreographed fight played along in time with the song and the sound effects of clashing swords in the background. Eventually Yui's group comes out victorious and she gets the ring back. She returns to the castle and presents the king with it. Everyone is happy to have the ring back so they all celebrate with a song.
After this there are some uplifting songs before the finale where 'Puzzle' gets played again. When they come back out for the encore Yui speaks to the audience and thanks them for coming out. As she's talking about how great the tour has been she starts to cry and stops to wipe her eyes. The crowd cheers her on and she manages to give a very heart-warming speech to finish. 'Go! Go! Golden Days' and the classic 'Happy Happy Rice Shower' provide an awesome ending to a fantastic night. After the credits have finished we see Yui back in the woods, sitting asleep by a fallen log. She wakes up and looks at her watch before running off saying that she's late.
I enjoyed this concert very, very much. It was all I was expecting and a whole lot more besides. The playtime runs nicely over 2 hours and the song selection is brilliant. So many classics mixed in with the newer songs from the most recent albums. The dancers were excellent in backing up Horie Yui on stage. It just made the whole thing look so much better. Over the course of the night Yui had about 10 costume changes and each time she would come out looking as beautiful as before. The choreography of the dances was also very well done. They complimented their respective songs and were a pleasure to watch. Oh! The extra features, I'd forgotten about those. There are three backstage clips from the concert venues as well as a little interview with Yui about the concert. Most of the extras plus the concert itself has a commentary by Yui, her manager and some other King Record staff. All these features means that it has lots of replay value. This is definitely one of my most prized Horie Yui purchases. I'd give it a 10/10 easily. Horie Yui saikou!
Posted byHocchan at 9:44 pm 2 comments
Coltemonikha
18 February 2007
Had this a little while but haven't had chance to write about it until now. I should start by saying how stylish the case is. The pure white background, bordered with silver detail and inset with a silver silhouette of a chandelier is joy to look at. The whole thing is made mainly out of card, with the only plastic being the bit that holds the CD. Inside we find a picture of the duo which make up Coltemonikha. On the left we have a lovely picture of Sakai Kate, and on the right (covered up by the CD /laugh) we have a rather gloomy looking Nakata Yasutaka. The lyrics are written on what seems to be very thick grease-proof paper. Obviously it's not of course, but that's what it looks like. This is stored folded up under the picture of Sakai in a little cut-out section.
I've listened through this mini album quite a few times now and I've come to the conclusion that half the songs are genius, and half the songs are mediocre. The most notable songs are 'Soratobu Hikari', 'Communication' (the song I bought the album for) and 'CLM'. All three tracks are incredibly catchy and remind me very much of Daft Punk's music. My favourite has to be 'Communication' - it's still as good as when I first heard it on an internet radio station. The rest of the songs are very sickly-sweet and don't really warrant too many playbacks. I did, however, find myself humming 'Yum Yum Yummy' a lot so that song is borderline. Overall, I would rate this mini album a 7/10. Some very good songs on it, but let down by the rest.
Posted byHocchan at 6:43 am 0 comments
Valentine
14 February 2007
The ever omnipresent Valentine's Day rolls around once again. Maybe it's the subconscious fear of being alone that drives many singles to almost suicidal depression, but there seems to be a big hatred for this day /laugh. Personally I think Valentine's Day is just another money making holiday for big chocolate companies to make money off. What? Yes, I'm single. What does that have to do with anything...? Ahem.
In spite of all the doom and gloom around it has been quite a decent Valentine's this year. First of all my items from CDJapan arrived yesterday. I was quite surprised to see them both arrive together as the DVD had been sent a full week before the CD. I guess the reason is because of the SODDING customs charge I had to pay for the DVD. £8.41 it cost me altogether. £4.41 VAT for the item, and then a further $4.00 for "Royal Mail Clearance Fee". Biggest pile of dinosaur crap I've heard in my life! More like the "Royal Mail Weekly Caviar and Truffles Fund". Sods! Anyway, I'm happy that they arrived. One was the Horie Yui 2006 concert DVD, and the other was the Coltemonikha CD. I'll be reviewing both of them in my next entry. I'll also include pictures of them at that time too, I don't really have room to post them here. I have quite a few pictures that I want to feature in the coming updates so they're all queued up. Look forward to them!P.S. I wish a very Happy Birthday to my friend, Lorna. O-tanjoubi omedetou gozaimasu!
Posted byHocchan at 7:26 pm 0 comments
Manabi Straight
11 February 2007
Just thought that I'd get something off my chest. There's one thing that I absolutely cannot stand when playing FFXI. And that is people who use Windower. You see, in FFXI the game will not run unless it's in full screen mode. Why Square-Enix decided to do it that way I'm not going to go into. No one can say 100% for certain and there are many bullshit answers out there. Due to this small but important feature you can't open up any other programs whilst playing the game (however if you have them running in the background when you start up the game they will still work). This mild inconvenience means that you can't go check your e-mail or open up the internet browser. What the Windower does is it goes against the game's programming and allows it to run without being in full screen. You may ask why is this such a bad thing? Well, the major reason is that any third party program which alters the game in any way is illegal and against the terms of service you agree to when signing up. This alone should be enough reason for no one to use it.
One reason I hate it is because of the TP feature it has. Normally you would not be able to see what TP your party members are on. So what normal people do is write a small macro which reports your TP in the chat screen. The very simple fact that there is a
There is also a tool for Windower which allows you to have infinite macros lines. This means you could swap a bajillion piece of armour in one single macro. People say, "oh, but with my job you have to swap so many pieces of equipment, wah wah wah". That's big piles of steaming bullcrap. You have a maximum of 4x4 piece of equipment on, including weapons. I change six of them at once, and then back again every time I do a weapon skill. That's the maximum amount of lines per macro, six. I have enough intelligence to work out my most important pieces and compromise. If you can't do that you need to work on being a good human being. Because that's all life is about, compromise. You can't have everything your way 100% of the time. Stop whining about what you can't do and use your bloody head.
By far the biggest argument for Windower is the ability to check the internet when you're stuck. Many a time have I wished that I could check the forums for solutions or look up a map when playing. However, never have I thought, "that's what I need, a Windower!!!". I simply log off (a process which takes no more than a minute) and then start my browser. It's not that much of an inconvenience is it?! To spend 1 minute of your measly life to log off and on. But no! Some lazy muppets out there need to have a Windower, so they can surf the freaking internet while they're partying!
There are loads more reason why I hate Windower but if I wrote them all out I'd be here all night. I'd also be so pissed off I'd probably smash my laptop in. So I'll end it with the biggest simple fact about people who rely on Windower: they're all lazy, illiterate sods who need everything now, now, now. Oh, and they're most likely cheaters too.
Posted byHocchan at 3:01 am 3 comments
Moe Moe!
10 February 2007
This picture of Horie Yui is just too kawaiiiiiiii! I only found it a couple of minutes ago but it's already one of my favourite pictures of her. The lighting, the pose, the outfit, they're all perfect! I love it! Q(>o<)O
While I'm on the subject of pictures, I added a new link banner for my friend's blog. I used the picture of a sculpture at Grizedale forest I took for a backdrop. I like the contrast between the sky and the figure, it works well. The only bad thing is I saved over my original photo by accident... /angry I wish GIMP would ask me if I wanted to overwrite stuff, god damn it! I think I sent a copy of the picture to my friend so I may be able to retrieve it. If not it's going to be a heavy price I've paid to make that banner. It was a nice picture.
I finally, finally made it back to FFXI. The whole install plus update took around 9 hours. I logged in at about 4am but unfortunately everyone was already gone. I'm going to be very nervous for the next few days as I load up the game for fear of it crashing again. If I can make it to Monday with no problems then I can probably rest easy. I made a system restore point just in case the worst happens. I'm praying I won't need to use it though...
Posted byHocchan at 7:08 am 0 comments
Samui Kara Fuyu Da Mon
09 February 2007
Yesterday was cold as hell (oxymoron!). So cold in fact it started to snow. I haven't seen it snow in my town for several years now so it was quite a treat to see it falling. Unfortunately living by the sea means that most of it doesn't stick. It just gets melted away by the salt from the sea water. Still, we had a small covering of snow for a couple of hours at least. My friend and I weren't content with this pitiful offering though, oh no. We headed for the hills in an attempt to find a full blown blizzard. We found the snow but it wasn't quite as heavy as I'd hoped. The cold meant that most of the small ponds had frozen over with a layer of ice. We had some great fun breaking holes in them. As we were about to head back when the weather intensified slightly and we did experience a mild blizzard (maybe it wasn't quite that heavy). Most of the clouds which brought the snow have gone now but I'm hoping we'll see some more before the winter ends.
Had no luck for the past couple of nights trying to run FFXI. I think I may have it running now though. It's actually getting past the version check so I can update after yet another full re-install I did today. The file check also works so maybe, just maybe it's going to run this time. I'd better not jinx it though, I'd hate for it to crash again after all this. I've wasted so many hours on fixing this already. I've installed new graphics drivers, changed firewalls and back, defragmented my hard disk several times, re-installed the game twice, used system restore several times, and spent hours searching the internet for solutions. After all that nothing changed. But for some reason today, just after I'd re-installed POL the file check feature started working again. I installed FFXI and tried to update and it did! So I'm praying everything is fixed now. Of course I still have to install the 3 expansion packs and update them but fingers crossed! Pray for me.
Posted byHocchan at 9:18 pm 0 comments
Nan De Ya Nen?!
07 February 2007
There isn't going to be much to this post. It's merely a repository for all the pent up anger I have from today. It all started when I thought to myself, "oh, wouldn't it be nice to update my firewall, ho-hum?". Little did I know I was about to screw up my day and give myself a coronary. All seemed well after the reboot, the new firewall was working well and my new bit torrent client was performing as expected. "Hmm", I thought to myself, "I'll go play some FFXI". "But what's this? It won't go to full screen mode. That's odd". I could log in OK, and everything else worked fine. I tried again several times but on each occasion it wouldn't get to full screen mode. I suspected the new firewall being the problem so I messed around with its settings so it'd allow full access for FFXI. That didn't have any effect. I then decided to try the file check on POL to see if the problem was with the game itself. What do you know? The file check won't work either. The whole situation was a right pain in the arse. I spent several hours after that trying to figure out what was wrong but gave up in the end out of frustration.
So here I am, I uninstalled the new firewall and went back to my old one. It's not helped at all though. My only resort now is to do a complete re-install of FFXI and see if that fixes it. If that doesn't work I'm severely screwed. I won't bother doing it until tomorrow, I can't be arsed right now. It's so god damn annoying.
PS. I'll be featuring artwork from Tony Taka over the next few posts. I love his style of drawing. The images he produces have such clean lines, just look at the girl in a kimono from the last post and the Lacrosse player in this one. They're simply beautiful to look at. The way the kimono girl has her leg up like that is purely captivating. Hey, I'm not a pervert! I just appreciate the female form...
Posted byHocchan at 9:32 pm 2 comments
Communication
Maybe I've been getting ahead of myself a little bit but I've begun to plan out the trip to Japan that's scheduled for this year. I have the tentative dates of 10th May until the 31st, or 1st August until the 22nd. I think those would be the most ideal times to go in respect to the weather, the price of hotels and the price of airline tickets. In any case I would ideally like to stay there for 3 weeks, or failing that a minimum of 2 weeks. I feel that you need that amount of time to really start to get a feeling for the country. I've done a little bit of research on the internet and I've found a decent place to stay in Yokohama. The great thing is that Yokohama is not far from Tokyo so travelling to and from the hotel won't be too much of a hassle. Also the prices are very reasonable - about £80 a week for a single person. Much better than the £30 a night places you'll find located in the middle of Tokyo. My plan is to spend the first week travelling down to the south of the country - Hiroshima, Kyoto and Mount Fuji are planned destinations - where I'll stay in a traditional ryokan. They will cost a bit more per night but since it's only for a few days at a time it won't be too bad. Then for the remainder of the trip head back to the Kanto region and explore the places in and around Tokyo while staying in cheaper accommodation.
That's basically a rough itinerary that I've planned out. I will be fine tuning it over the next few weeks as I work out what I want to be doing from day to day. I will of course allow for unexpected detours should I need to. One thing is for certain, I will spend a single day just sitting in the hotel watching TV and reviewing my purchases. To many people this may sound like an odd thing to do while on holiday but to me it's a dream. I love Japan TV so having it on for the whole day is going to be awesome. Plus it will give me chance to look over what I've bought and see what else I can afford to get. /laugh And trust me, there'll be a lot of buying! I might even have to send the home via airmail to avoid the luggage restrictions.
Of course all this is going to need money. I've estimated I can get away with a bare minimum of £1,500 for 3 weeks:
£600 airline ticket;
£150 for cheap hotel;
£250 for ryokan;
£200 for food;
£100 travelling expenses;
£200 spending money.
That's a very strict budget that won't really allow me to do much. If I were to increase it to a £2,000 budget I would have a lot more flexibility so that's what I'm going to do. Another option would be to compromise by only staying the 2 weeks instead of the 3. I could manage a fairly comfortable trip with only £1,500 then. While that sounds simple enough on paper in reality it's going to take a little bit of saving. That means getting myself a full time job pretty soon. I'd also need to clear some of my credit card debt so that's maybe £1,000 on top of everything. Despite all this I'm feeling very confident though. The dream of visiting Japan is almost within my grasp. I will make it happen!
Posted byHocchan at 4:32 am 2 comments
