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I was restless last night after 11pm so I went for a walk around Kyowa. There's a store adjacent to my apartment building that sells DVDs and shit but I had never been inside before. It would probably be the only thing opened at that hour, so I checked it out. This place kicks ass. It has used clothing from the US (most T-shirts are 1000yen but the shirts are awesome. I found a shirt with an outline of Vietnam and in bold English letters it says 'Next time, let us win.'), video games and systems for sale, and tons of Japanese toys, manga, and anime. I can buy a Nintendo Famcom for about 20 bucks and they sell most cartridges for between 3 and 10 dollars. The Famcom looks like the Japanese equivalent of a Super Nintendo, and as I didn't see any Super Nintendos, I think it was its counterpart in Japan. Of course all of the games are in Japanese but I think I'm gonna buy one. They had second-hand Playstation 2's for about $120 and tons of games. Buying a Japanese DVD player is something I might do in the near future too because I want to take a look at all of this anime. I wouldn't know where to begin or what titles are considered the 'classics' or whatever, but there's just so much of it that I want to be a part of that subculture. And it all looks filthy, so I'm down with that too.

I bought some Ghana chocolate (nothing says delicious like Ghana) at a Coco's (equivalent of a 7-11) while I was wandering around. I usually take my time in my little peregrinations and scare Japanese people that I meet walking. A woman last night was putting her trash out when I walked by her and she actually ran away when I got close. You gotta be careful with these people. They frighten easily.

This morning on my walk here I wandered through the Osu Kannon mall. It's all outdoors and fun to walk through but it only hit my today how much it sucks. I found a discount electronics store that was selling Famcoms for 67 bucks. Hello!? I can buy it next door to where I live for 20. I'm not buying shit there anymore. I found an Americana store there though with a bad-ass sign out front. It had the name of the store in English with a bomb (painted in the stars and stripes) crashing through it. You know, in case they forget who leveled the place 60 years ago.

My co-workers suck. I think I mentioned earlier that they're boring and a bunch of idiots but now they're offensive as well. So I work with Mark, Paul, Sunshine, Andrea, and Marielle. Some people from the Higashiura branch used to come out and do shifts but that was before we got Andrea. Now its just the six of us. Paul rocks. I love that guy. Sunshine too. I don't know about Andrea yet as she just arrived but I think we'll get along fine. Mark is the idiot that likes to brag about his thriftiness. Up until recently I got along with the New Zealander lesbian Marielle, but I'm done with her now too. Mark and Marielle hate America and Americans for no real reason other than that they're jealous and idiots. They probably think they're being really clever in how they're disguising it too, like how someone who wants to become invisible puts their hands over their face. The American Pat used to do shifts at Handa and he used to fuck with her a lot. They were quasi-friends even if he, on at least one occassion, held her in a corner and farted on her. She also has to deal with Mark, who sucks, so I think she just bottles up all of this rage inside. Her and I got along but since I've been really amiable and innocuous, she's started to take advantage of me. She made fun of my accent the other day in what was uncharacteristically rude. We all fuck with each other so no big deal but it was in the way she did it that pissed me off. The other English-speakers have explained to me that what most distinguishes our accents from theirs is our long vowels and the rolling of our R's. So when I said 'our' (which sounds like 'are' when they say it) she mimicked me in this voice that really pissed me off. She was probably just getting some of her pent-up frustrations out and I've made myself an easy target because I'm so nice and usually self-deprecating in my story-telling. She said she wasn't being insulting she just liked the way I said the word. Then why the mocking voice? She gave me permission to make fun of her accent in retaliation. I'll pass on that but if she hates Americans so much I'm gonna be the biggest patriot you've ever seen. I almost bought an American flag belt-buckle today. I mean, I'm not really doing anything unreasonable since, as everyone knows, America rocks and New Zealand is where we would build our vacation homes if it wasn't so fucking far away. If it wasn't for Australia being so close I think we all might forget there was an English-speaking nation there. She's told me once before that when people visit New Zealand they're always taking a day trip or something while spending a week or two in Australia. I mean, that makes perfect sense and is probably the way I'd do it too. But she got all bent out of shape about it like, why is Australia so great? Come to New Zealand to see New Zealand! So she's obviously got inferiority issues which is exactly how I'm going to get to her. I'll teach her to make fun of how I speak.

In addition to that, English is becoming Americanish. American English is becoming the standard English and her slang and accent are becoming an anachronism. In almost all of Nova's lessons they use the American version of whatever we're talking about ('pants' and not 'slacks', 'candy' and not 'sweets' or 'lollies,' etc;). I know an Australian here who has started to pronounce Zebra the American way and not her own native way. So I guess I can understand other native-speakers' frustrations, but she should have been smarter than to pick a fight with someone with such a mean streak.