We went to downtown Beppu after class. It was raining like crazy all day, with intense fog in the morning and night. The rain wasn't hard, but there was a lot of it. Hopefully I don't get sick.
Our first stop was McDonald's. Countries' McDonald's have local-style food. Japanese McD's have teriyaki burgers, shrimp burgers and Mega Macs (Big Macs with 4 patties). I would have gotten a Mega Mac, but I didn't see it on the menu. Evidently, the ice cream tastes better, but I didn't have that either.
Next we went to a SEGA arcade (majority of my pictures are from it). There were a ridiculous number of crane games, photo booths, and digital Mahjong. The prizes in the crane games are great. Snacks, anime/manga figurines and plushies. Really nice stuff. I have yet to see if they're as rigged as they are in the US. There were a few fighting games, like SSFIV and Melty Blood, but not many. Nor were there many top-down shooters. There was 1 House of the Dead (light gun) machine, and only two rhythm games, Rhythm Tengoku and Taiko no Tatsujin. I was really hoping for a beatmania IIDX and/or DDR. Hopefully the arcade in the You Me town department store will have one of them.
There were 3 very interesting machines. The first was a virtual horse race. Except you didn't ride the horses, you betted on who would win, like when you normally attend a race. The second was "giant Tetris." It was 1/2 player Tetris, but the arcade stick was huge, probably more than half my height. You have to play with both hands on the joystick and buttons are on the top. The last was the best machine I've ever seen. It's super expensive (for an arcade), about ￥６００ to play your first game, and ￥３００ each subsequent play. It's a Mobile Suit Gundam simulator. There were 4 of them in the arcade. You buy a "pilot card" for ￥３００, which holds your player data. The game has a persistent award system, like leveling up in CoD, Battlefield or an MMO. You get points for each game you play, level up, and can unlock and buy new mobile suits and weapons. I was only able to do the tutorial level, but a lot of us got/planned to get cards, so hopefully we can try playing against each other next time we go. The game is a simulation game, with you in the cockpit of a mobile suit Gundam. It's really neat, and pretty hard!
We also went to Book-Off again. I found the 3 light novels (novels designed for teen-aged kids) I was looking for, which have been adapted into my 3 favorite anime (Durarara!!, Baccano!, and Toradora!. Yes, the exclamation points are part of the names.). They were about ￥３００ each. I also got some manga for souvenir gifts. Each was ￥１０５, which is 20% of the price of used manga in the states. New, manga is about ￥６００ or so, which is about half the price of new manga in the states. Weekly manga collections are about ￥５００, and other magazines are the same price as in the states, but some come with lots of little extras, like toys, pencil cases, other books, and collectibles.
We went to another bookstore called Tsutaya (つたや）which is like a Barnes and Noble. They have music, movies, games, magazines, and some electronics, and they also rent movies and music (which I hear is popular here). They sell a lot of used and new movies and music. The movies and music are super expensive, ￥３０００ for a movie and full album, and ￥１２００ for a single. I can imagine why renting is so popular.
I still haven't gotten things to cook with, but I'm just going to get them from the co-op store on campus tomorrow, instead of wasting tickets going to town and not even getting what I went down for. It seems like most people are into the idea of many of the "Gateway" program students eating/cooking dinner together, which is good, and will save lots of money.
Soon I plan to try a few Japanese foods. There's a takoyaki (fried octopus balls) stand by the stop we get off the bus at downtown, and every Friday some people come to the university to sell, one of whom sells yakitori (chicken kebabs). Some of us also want to get together to go to the Korean BBQ place in downtown, and try karaoke.
For the record: I've spent about $400 so far, a rough estimate based on how much money I've changed. Everyone I've talked to has spent about the same amount of money, so I'm not worried that I have a problem. If anything, I'm worried that we'll do so much in the first few weeks, we'll run out of things to do, and I'll start spending less than ￥５００ a day, and spending my time in my room. Most of it has been food, gifts, and bus tickets. Unfortunately, there's no cheaper way to get bus tickets than buying "the triple" which is 3 tickets for ￥１０００ (about $12). I'm sure that as I get settled in and stop exploring, my cost will drop to about ￥１０００ or less a day, ￥５００ for lunch (should I decide to get it at the cafeteria), and about ￥５００ for other misc costs. Buying things is tempting, since there's so much cool stuff, most of which is relatively cheap compared to the states, but I have to remember that I need to pack on the way back.
I plan to join the "Nihongo-net" club, which is a Japanese language/culture club, and the Supernatural club, which investigates the paranormal. They seem fun, and will serve mostly to help me have things to do, as well as meet speaking partners/friends. We're also planning a small weekend trip to Fukuoka, and a LAN party.
Long post!
~M
Arcade <3. I'll get better pictures next time.
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