Well, today was a semi-productive day! After a late start, and an early lunch, I took the train into Kyoto station to get a cell phone. I found my way through the labyrinth of the station into Yodobashi Camera, one of the electronic department stores nearby. I picked Softbank...pretty much because it was right in front of me. Maybe because the attendants were kind of cute? Anyway, I asked about prepaid phones, and we started going over the details. The sales clerk was really eager to help me out, but I didn't understand a lot of technical lingo. What I do know is this: every 2 months, I need to recharge the phone. Okay, got it. Oh, and the whole purchase was only about 6500 yen. But a recharge is 3000 yen...oh well. I have a phone now, yay!
So I spent the rest of the day checking out the shops around Kyoto station. There are practically no stores for guy's clothing! What's a trendy guy supposed to do around these parts? I did find a couple of good things, though. The first being a Hugo Boss store, which had some fantastic clothing for prices that made my head spin. Want, but don't want to spend the money. Someday...
The second place is the top of the Isetan department store: it's a rooftop garden. To get there, you have to take this HUGE staircase that pretty much goes up 12 stories. Or use the escalators. You completely forget that you're in a city - it's got an amazing view, and is really serene. Also, every Japanese couple in Kyoto could be seen up there today. That is to say, it's a popular date spot.
After somehow making it back to Okubo station on my own, I asked for directions to the Kaiten Zushi (that's Sushi on the Conveyor Belt for those not in the know) restaurant I was meeting my host parents at. After getting a little lost, I made it there 15 minutes early...only to find out we had to wait another 50 minutes. My neglecting to eat led to an unpleasantly low blood sugar level, but when we finally were seated, I filled up on the creatures of the sea. I'm feeling good and ready to go, which is good considering classes start tomorrow. I'll be giving it my best over here!
Interesting closing point: everyone knows Chicken of the Sea, right? The canned tuna. Well, in Japan, there's a completely unrelated brand of canned tuna called Sea Chicken. Somehow, we both see tuna as chicken. I have no idea why, but it's kind of cool that we share the same misnomer.
Ok, lemme explain the recharge thing--it's when you run out of money on the phone. So talking a lot on the phone will cause you to use up the money faster and need to buy more minutes (money). So text a lot! Actually did the explain the mail-tsukaihoudai to you? If not, one of your classmates has probably figured it out, but somewhere in the manual it has steps you can follow to sign up for a 300-yen all-you-can-text thing. But that's only for a month so remember to keep doing that (I forgot occasionally).
ReplyDelete^wise words from A Frustrated Keitai User