The Money Pit

this weekend, in a last ditch effort to get stuff i'd like/need before school starts up again, aaron and i decided to take a trip to Fukuoka, the closest mainland city to us. i've lost track now, but this is probably my 4th or so trip to Fukuoka, and just as i feared, history repeated itself yet again.

it is officially, for me at least, the Money Pit.

every time i've made a trip out there, i've consistently gone there with the intention of buying a thing or two, but it ALWAYS comes out to be a $500 trip, blown in one weekend to say the least. for me, going to fukuoka requires at the bare minimum, roundtrip tickets on a ferry, jetfoil, or plane, so that's at least $80 you're locked into. then you have the at least one nights stay in a hostel or hotel, and that's generally $40-70. so right off the bat, you're down, say, $150 (on the conservative end).

so where does the remaining $350 go? i don't know. really -- i dont know. times before, it's been a Costco run (which i did this time too).... a badminton racket, speakers, clothes, used manga... food.... i'd like to think that my frugality would naturally limit my spending, but somehow, fukuoka always magically takes all my money away.

but this time, i know exactly why i got back to the island with as little change as i did. i did it folks -- i turned to the dark side. i bought a DS Lite.

**blush**

as random as it may sound, and i'm not much of a gamer if you know me well, i've actually been eyeing DSes for a while now, with the sole intention of obtaining these kanji games (yes, i know, i'm a nerd). with the test i plan on taking in december, i figured a DS would be a more enjoyable environment to drill those kanji into my head.

as fate would have it, aaron bought a DS since they didn't have dvd-burners that would work with his computer. watching him play made me realize how much i wanted one too (yes, i'm a biter), so i too gave in.

since he got the kanji game i wanted, i instead got this game training you in [japanese] common knowledge. so far, it's proved to be long-winded for me, mainly because i have to stop every few seconds to look up kanji in both questions and multiple choice answers. regardless, i have managed to learn quite a bit from it, and that's enough for me to justify my purchase o(^ ^)o

however, i quickly realized how straining it can be to only have games that are more focused on studying than mindless play. so yesterday, i gave into temptation yet again, and got Mario Kart. it's quite fun and i'd highly recommend it to people who like racing games (like me!).

i can't believe how fast my summer went by.... but at the same time, i feel like it's been pretty eventful. went home home, came back, got my license, got to know some of the newbies, went to fukuoka, got some volumes of my current manga obsession read.... productive indeed =)

oh, and one last thing: if you're into psychotically HOT food, especially indian food, and are passing through Fukuoka anytime, i'd HIGHLY recommend a place called Shakti. it's an indian restaurant that aaron and i stumbled upon on the restaurant floor of Yodobashi Camera, which is right next to Hakata Station.

first of all, this is the first place i've heard of a spicy scale that goes over 10. instead, they go from 0-50. but this being japan and japanese people not really doing the spicy thing, indian restaurants tend to be a crapshoot in that you never know if the spicy scale is the TRUE spicy scale (like what americans are used to), or the pansy scale (ie. what japanese people consider hot).

being daring, i went for a 30 while aaron went for a 40. can i just say, OW.

i drank so much water to mitigate the burning that by the end of dinner, most of the curry dish was still there, and i wasn't full so much as full of water. i barely ate anything because my tongue couldnt touch anything without extreme pain. never have i experienced food burning my tongue when it was in my mouth, burning my esophagus when it went was passing through, and burn the lining of my stomach as it was being digested. i dont know what was in that curry, but it had some atomic power.

so bottom line: if you dare to eat hot food, i dare you to go to Shakti =P