Driving back from Sendai last weekend we passed by one of the many construction sites in the city.  Usually they’re for apartment buildings or pachinko parlours, but the big sign I saw immediately caught my eye.  This was going to be a Round 1. It’s gonna be right next to Nigatake Station, which is only 8 minutes from Sendai Station.

So, what is Round 1? Basically it’s a giant multi-floor game center. One of these behemoths was built shortly after I moved to Akita City. I hope the one in Sendai is at least as good as Akita’s.

What can you do at Round 1? Let’s see… one floor is devoted to slot machines and gambling, another floor has like 30 or 40 bowling lanes, a different floor has a race track to ride mini motorbikes on. There’s a floor full of video games, pool tables, karaoke rooms, massage chairs, a mechanical bull, catch and release fishing (wtf?!). There’s another floor with basketball, soccer, and badminton courts, batting cages, archery, mini golf, and a curling rink (double wtf?!?!).

(L-R) Basketball, Soccer, Archery, Frisbee, Mini Golf

(L-R) Curling, Batting Cages (background), Badminton

There’s food, you can drink alcohol, and from what I remember it’s open 24/7. I’ve been there for various parties in the evening, and at 4am after the bars. It’s pretty cheap as well; I don’t ever remember paying more than 3000 yen for a long night of fun.

Here’s a link to a PDF file from the Round 1 website; it’s in English and shows all of what they have to offer. Here’s also a couple low quality YouTube videos I uploaded a couple years ago. One of the mechanical bull, and one of the mini motorbikes.

The next morning we took the 9am train north to Aomori Prefecture (Province), specifically Hirosaki Park, which is one of the most popular places to celebrate Hanami. We caught the tail end of the Sakura, which I actually liked more, as the cherry blossom petals fluttered around in the wind as they fell off the branches. An evening traverse across Aomori landed us in Hachinohe, where the Tohoku Shinkansen Line begins. A couple hours later we were back home in Miyagi. Total travel: 800km!

Only 9 more days until I get paid! That means it’s been seventy-four fucking days since my last paycheque… sheesh.

I am really, REALLY looking forward to Christmas this year. This is going to be the best Christmas Day of my life, even better than the year I got the Millennium Falcon on a snowy day back at 38116 Hemlock Street. Some numbers will always stick with you; that’s one of them. It could be raining fire, the ground could open up beneath me and Kevin Federline could pop up and start rapping to me, and all my hair could fall out instantaneously, but nothing (but nothing!) will ruin the best day I’ll have for as long as I can remember.

• Days since my last paycheque: 70 (approx., my brain has since eaten my long-term memory).
• Days until my next paycheque: 13

Surprisingly, living off of 100 yen curry and 100 yen pasta sauce hasn’t really brought about any dramatic weight loss. Considering my recent daily routine, it’s not that surprising after all.

• 9:00am – Wake up.
• 9:30am – Get up.
• 9:35am – Take shower.
• 10:00am – Make coffee.
• 11:30am – Go to work.
• 12:00pm – Start work.
• 9:00pm – Finish work.
• 10:00pm – Eat.
• 11:00pm – Talk to K.
• 1:00am – Go to sleep.

I’m sure you can see what’s wrong with this schedule.

In other news, I started running again yesterday for the first time since the marathon. There’s a nice place to run along the river, out of the way of the stinky cars.

I also got most of my internet stuff this morning. They had one company send me the paperwork and the cables, and about 30 minutes later another company sent me the modem. The IP phone is MIA though, perhaps a third company will bring it tomorrow. Japanese efficiency my ass!

December is looking to be a busy month. Payday is on the 10th, Christmas party for students is on the 15th, Morioka on the 23rd, my Christmas present on the 25th, New Year’s Eve on the 31st, and maybe a bonenkai thrown in there for good measure. Above are some photos from last year’s year-end party. At this point I don’t know what I miss more, the drinking or the eating…

In local news, it looks like my winter schedule is set. Going to Morioka for 2-3 days on December 23-25th to visit Lester, Kyoko is moving down here around December 26-27th, then we’re off to Zao Ski Resort for 3 days with Joe and Sayaka on January 1-3rd. It’ll be the second year in a row I’ve missed Christmas Eve at The Cliffside; now that I think about it I should really try to make it home for the next one.

I still don’t have Internet, but I’m trying to send at least one message or wall post to everyone on Facebook, or maybe even a phone call to those who are on Santa’s nice list!

If any of y’all feel like making an expensive phone call (or a cheap one from Skype), I think this is the number that you need to dial from North America: 011-81-90-6623-9931

If you want to get out of the sun, there’s a bunch of open air huts with tables and tatami mats you can chill out at. Oh yeah, they serve food and cold draft beer as well :P Gotta drink it quickly though before they get warm haha!

Needless to say I’ve been spending all my free time here since I got back from Tokyo. It’s a great place to relax, read a book, or study Japanese.

Oh yeah, and look at girls in tiny bikinis too :P

Getting in the habit of posting on my work break from my phone, maybe i’ll try to find something or someone interesting to shoot…

Not much to report today other than the fact that the blizzard appears to have ended.

Here are some fun facts about Akita:
1st in Japan in suicides
1st in Japan in alcoholism

We’re number one!!!

My VDSL modem finally showed up today, but I still have to wait for some documents from NTT before I can actually use it. Should be about a week.

Life here in Akita is great. Meeting lots of nice Japanese people, who I primarily socialize with on a regular basis. I’m not consciously avoiding hanging out with foreigners, and there are a couple that I do stuff with outside work, it’s just that teaching English is pretty much a short-term, transient job. Since I arrived in October, 4 teachers have moved on, and 6 have joined us here. I think it’s better to develop relationships with people that actually want to live here for a while, since that’s what I plan on doing. Also, it’s pretty difficult to practice one’s Japanese with gaijin.

Speaking of relationships, this city is famous in Japan for the amount of beautiful women (Akita Bijin), and boy, they ain’t lying. And of course, being true to my character, I’ve chosen to make my life as difficult as possible in this area. While it is nice to have these problems, they are still difficult to solve. If it sounds like I’m being really vague then you’re absolutely correct. I ain’t committing that shit to the Internet. If I call you (and I do plan to call), maybe I’ll fill in the blanks. Probably not.

Anyways, that’s it for now. Hope everyone is doing whatever they want to do. I’m living my dream and loving every minute of it!