July 21st, 2004 (Wednesday)

The day of the move. I had a few things left hanging. Last of the laundry and my backpack for school. All of my futons were rolled up and bound. All my books were packed. Even my precious multimedial source of life, my computer, was back in it:s box and taped up.

Last shot of Tails in the old apartment. Sitting on top of one of the pre-mentioned futons. Behind him is a anime cel of a robot pirate. Gonna miss that place a little, I think.

Tails got to travel in style. And by "style" I mean in a small, cramped, hot van that took 1 hour longer to get to the new place than I did. I walked by for for 20 minutes, did some Dollar Store shopping, got to Shibuya, changed lines, waited for another train, then finally walking another 10 minutes from he station to the place and I was there. Waiting. For an hour on the hottest day that week. It got up to about 39.5 Celsius. Which is 120 Fahrenheit if I:m not mistaken.

BUT! While waiting I managed to FINALLY beat all the Time Attack Challenges in Mr. Driller 2. The normal ones and reverse. So I didn:t really notice my sneakers melting. By the time I had gotten my cell phone out to take a picture, the screen closed itself.  So I couldn:t take a blurry, out of focus shot off the hardest thing to take a picture of. Darn.

Right next to the station is the supermarket. It:s a Maruetsu. Around Musashi-kosugi station are three supermarkets. One open 24 hours. This Maruetsu made a good first impression on me. This gyoza is roughly half the size of a standard 350ml can of soda. It weighed a good 2.5 pounds. It was the kind of gyoza that costs twice as much as your standard gyoza. And it was free. (the soda was 40 yen)

Well now that the move was 95% over, I staked a claim of the living room with my futons. Unpacked a few things for tomorrow, school books and the like. And got an early start on sleeping. After school tomorrow, I would return to the house, do the last of the last of the cleaning and be ready to turn in the keys Friday.

July 22nd, 2004 (Thursday)

A nice "after" shot. This is the now-empty corner where I had my computer once. Thursday I had nothing planned but dusting then sleeping in a emptied room. It wasn:t economic to return to the new place so in a way, you could say that I was trapped there. Besides staring at any of the four equally-barren corners of my cell... Maybe play a little Mr. Driller 2, but HEY! I left my AA batteries in my backpack back at the new place. I did still have the TV, but there:s usually not much on TV in general. My next 8 hours before bed were looking mighty bleak. When my roommate got back that night, he handed me a box. I had gotten mail yesterday afternoon.

By some crazy stroke of luck, I got a package from my Dad, who is stationed in Belgium. The call he made three days ago on Monday mentioned something about a box. So suddenly, I had stuff to entertain myself (and you lucky readers) with. Much to the effect of giving a man wandering in a desert a fully-loaded Super Soaker water cannon... I was giddy and perhaps unable to fully appreciate the deeper meanings of it all. You know, being a wanderer and all.

!! Doom 3 is on the cover! Yea... Wait a sec. This is from December 2002!! Which is a ways back, but still a good read. Old gaming magazines, in general are always a good read. Or maybe that:s just me.

Cool because I:m Sega fan. Great because it gives me a shirt to wear tomorrow.

The back. #10 - Bergkamp. Plays for the Gunners. Other than that, I know nothing about this shirt or even what sport it is. My guess is Rugby. CORRECT ME MORE!!

These be good cookies. The kind you would buy only if you had people coming over. Cookies are a good source of sugar, magnesium and they raise your luck by two whole points! Wow!

I got two decks of cards in the box. One tiny one. And one normal-sized one. My Dad sends these... mostly because they are cool to show off. That and he likes to remind me how he is infinitely better than me at cards. mY DAY WILL COME, oLD mAN!!1

Also included were about 12 packages of individually-wrapped cereal. Also a little package of raisins. All of which I haven:t eaten since coming to Japan last September.

Worried that perhaps the cereal had expired, I looked for an expiration date on the boxes. This was the closest thing I could find. So... I should be fine, right? RIGHT?

Kinda like Shredded Wheat. Kinda like something I can:t remember. Combine the two and you get my impression of what Weetabix is.

On the Weetabix package I got a date. October 4th, 3275CU. And if the CU were UC then it might have been able to make an obscure anime reference. Which I kinda did already, but instead I will finish this paragraph with "BEST BEFORE END™" which is really close to being Engrish.

A two-pack of Prince Start cookies. Between them were a package of Prince Mini Stars. Above the Mini Stars was this freaky little frog-beanie-plushy-toy-kinda thing. Which is bizarre and cool at the same time. Back to the life-altering cookies!! Because they are delicious and I:m eating some while I write this very sentence OMGF!!1

July 23rd, 2004 (Friday)

Your standard Japanese bathroom. Complete with shower, bathtub, and no toilet. That goes in a different room most of the time. The thing used a gas heater for hot water. When I first moved in, it was a big joke that my house didn:t have running hot water. To wash dishes you had to turn on the little hot water heater over the sink. To draw a bath or take a hot shower you had to turn on the larger water heater next to the tub. To shave with hot water... well you did it over the kitchen sink. Which sucked.

WHY DIDN:T YOU HAVE HOT WATER!!

It was small and made a weird wheezing sound after you closed the door to the freezer, but it was my friend. It also held the microwave and my highly valued "Gator Xing" magnet. If I was to stand next to it, it would have come up just over my hip. I shared it with two roommates. That is all.

Goodbye, dorm. Wish you had internet and were 15 minutes closer to the station. And with that, I closed the gate, moved the box under my arms around a bit, and headed for the station.

Locking up the door and leaving my old house forever, I came to the understanding that my suitcase was way too heavy. So 10 minutes into the trip to Musashi-kosugi station, I stopped off at this Chinese restaurant with a drink bar. "Drink Bar" just means all-you-can-drink. Like at my Manboo internet cafe. I drank some Sprite, called Nick, and drank some more Sprite. Then, against all logic, I ordered a meal and ate it. Normally breakfast is not a meal I eat. Maybe twice a month I have that rare third meal in the morning. But I guess that makes this meal extra special. Chinese food for breakfast. Leaving my neighborhood of 10 months. It was an emotional morning.

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Milk is another thing I haven:t had since leaving the states. For some reason I just can:t handle the milk they sell here. Sure I can drink it fine and digest it as well as the next guy, but somehow... I don:t know. The smell or taste or something is just off a bit. So I have honestly had maybe two cups of milk since last September. Most of the calcium I get is from dairy products like cheese and ... Back on subject, I will probably be eating all the cereal "dry". In fact, I just helped my prediction by eating a box of the Frosted Mini-Wheats. It:s amazing how much I didn:t forget about taste and texture... I:ll be happy leaving. I need a change of pace, location and diet.

It:s a week later, and about 80 % of my stuff is untouched and still as I packed and brought it. The last week I:ve been sore, hurting and I feel like I lost three pounds. But in a good way. We should be getting internet at the new place soon, just not now. So if suddenly I show up and never sign off, it means we either got the internet up and working here, or I am back in Florida. I don:t mean this to sound like it:s the last indie adventure I will do before leaving, although I kinda did.

PEACE!!