hey all,
On Christmas I finally cornered my boss and got the schedule for the 26th straightened out. Both Christmas and the 26th went pretty smoothly.
I've spent the last couple of days relaxing and helping Michi clean the apartment. Since I cooked a lot of daigaku imo over the last year (a kind of fried sweet potato dish that is smothered in a sugary syrup), this caused the kitchen counter, stove top, kitchen walls, and especially the kitchen exhaust fan and hood to become coated in grease. Guess who got to clean it up?
When I first tried, I used hot water and dish soap, but that just made my hands greasy, and didn't take any grease off the fan. So I figured: "Maybe some alcohol might cut the grease?" Turns out either alcohol is no good or the alcohol I used was just too weak. Finally, I went online and found a post about using boiling water and baking soda. I gave that a try, and was actually able to get the grease off really quickly and easily.
So by now, we've vacuumed, scrubbed, and dusted the apartment pretty thoroughly.
Last weekend, I also had a chance to go to Akihabara with one of my friends and I picked up a bunch of older games: Mass Effect 2 and 3, The Last of Us, Portal 2, and Diablo 3. I know that seems extravagant, but I bought them with my "Game Fund" money: my saved up 500 Yen coins.
I've beaten The Last of Us already, but I'll be going back sometime in the future to get some items I missed on my first play through. I also started Portal 2 and Diablo 3. Portal 2 is an amazing puzzler, and as with most puzzlers, you feel like a genius when you finally solve one of them. Diablo 3 is also pretty good. So far, I've created 3 characters: a wizard, a barbarian, and a monk. The wizard and the barbarian are both "hardcore" characters, which means if your character dies while playing, they are dead for good. I started the monk first, so I'm furthest along with her, but the barbarian is pretty close behind.
Tomorrow, Michi and I head out for a two-day trip south of Tokyo, so my next post will be in 2014.
Cheers,
