Next door to the Sakae McDonald's

This is going to be my first of many posts from this internet cafe. Its a free Yahoo Broadband cafe located right next to the McDonald's I ate it last weekend. I don't know why it's free or whatever, but they're playing DJ Clue in the background, its warm (it got chilly here and I'm in my Birkenstocks - rookie mistake), and I get two hours for free. Its much faster than the cafe in Kyowa too. Plus, since there aren't any private booths I know someone didn't jerk off in my seat 20 minutes ago. So I would call this a flawless victory.

I didn't take any pictures of anything, but I did manage to sign up with Vodafone earlier today. I'm going back later to get my activated phone, so I'll be able to give you all my phone number here shortly. I don't pay for incoming calls, so feel free to give me a ring from the US. I signed up for the two-year plan, which knocks 15% off of my bill each month, and got me a free phone. I'll take advantage of that and then stiff them for the cancellation fee. I know it's dishonest but the whole sales situation pissed me off a little bit. I mean, I was going to do it anyway, but now I'm not going to feel so bad.

First of all, they couldn't give me a single document in English to take with me. I don't have a copy of my contract I can read and other than some customer service number they gave me, I have no way of finding out what's going on. While the salesman was nice and tried to speak English as best he could, I think he purposely didn't tell me about certain things until after I signed the fucking contract I couldn't read. So its like 3,350 Yen a month. That includes 2,000 Yen worth of charges, and there's a mad complicated diagram to explain how and when I get charged for things. Oh, and its in Japanese, so that makes it that much clearer. But in addition to that 3,350 which he assured me was how much I was going to pay, there are some extra charges every month. This only came up after I signed the contract. I'm going to pay an additional 600 or 800 Yen a month for unlimited emailing, an additional 300 Yen a month for insurance, and an additional 300 Yen for some other fucking thing. So, why did he tell me it was 3,350 if he knew full fucking well that wasn't the final amount by a long shot? Again, he seemed like a really nice guy so I'm more inclined to blame fucking Vodafone. Assholes. But its ok, since I'm gonna stick them at the end and they won't be able to collect a nickel. Or a sen, or whatever the hell they use here.

Ugh. Hot in Herre by Nelly. EVERYTHING IS GOING TO SHIT!

I signed up at the International Center and took out three books (the max at one time). When I asked about late fees, the woman at the desk led me to believe that they don't charge late fees. I never know if I understand what's being said because the English spoken here is broken at best and always unclear.

Before I go and check my email I'll let you know another way to rip off the Japanese. Monthly train passes are only good for certain destinations. For example, my pass is good for all of the stations between Kyowa and Handa. I still pay the regular 320 Yen to go to Nagoya station. When you ride the trains here, you buy a ticket from a vending machine and you pay for how many stops you plan on going. So, insert 200 Yen and then go through the turnstiles with your ticket. If you travel further than 200 Yen will let you, when you try to leave the station it rejects your pass and you need to pay the difference. It works just like the San Francisco metro for anyone who's used it. So, with my train pass, if I hopped on a train in say, Tokyo, I could pay the smallest amount possible, 140 Yen or whatever, and then when I hit my hometown of Kyowa, I could just slip my train pass in instead and it would look like I came from any of the other stops between Kyowa and Handa. I would need to pay for a one-way ticket to Tokyo (maybe 60 bucks) but it would only cost a dollar for the trip home. So, today I'm going to test this out by only paying for one stop on the way home. The other Nova teachers are the ones who put this idea in my head, so I know it'll work. If I get arrested, I'll have my lawyer update this blog and let you know it didn't work.