Real Life

I should've posted something to say that this will be one of those sporadic weeks. I figured I'd be busy sorting stuff out for my new flat (yeah! new flat!) and there'd probably be a couple of days internet crossover time when I wouldn't have any web access at all (the thought makes my heart shiver). Oh, but that was until I realised that in all probability I'll be having a sporadic month as torrential rain this weekend revealed that my otherwise perfect appartment has the slight flaw of LETTING THE FUCKING RAIN IN. So they have to fix it before I can live there and the snap verdict was that it would take "some weeks". I am far from amused, and eagerly awaiting more details of what they are going to do to cheer me up a little tomorrow. I'm just lucky I found this out the day after I started renting the place and not after I'd made it into a home.

The three-day-downpour also rained off the Toyohira River Rafting Festival which some of my friends were taking part in, and which I was heartily looking forward to watching and blogging about. They had to build a fucking raft, then take the damn thing apart again, in the rain, without sailing it at all. So it's not like I was the only one who had a sucky weekend.

And I did have a productive old weekend picking up a lot of the furniture and appliances I need for not too much money... It's just that I probably can't even use them for weeks so...

Balls.

The Slow Torture of Being a Western Movie Lover in Japan

So I guess what, Watchmen is out in America and the UK now? Or soon? And Coraline? And all sorts of other great movies are on their way? And here in Japan... I have no idea when Watchmen will even be released. (Oh, ok, I just checked - end of March. Still, it seems to be the last place in the world it's being released, so...)

Actually, I'm having mixed feelings about that one, but I really want to see Coraline.

I've complained about this shit before, but I thought I'd hammer it home by pointing out that a lot of Japanese movies get released that look fun, that I'd like to check out, but that I have little to no hope of understanding. Okuribito (Departures) just won an Oscar for Christ's sake, but I can't see it here because it comes without subtitles, and probably the DVD won't have English subtitles either even though there are English subtitled versions available in the west. Ass.

I mean, Okuribito would be nice, but mostly I just want to see the dumb movies:

I went to see the Sushi Oji movie, and I'm glad I did, but I wish some of these would turn up with subtitles somewhere y'know? Or that I'd pull my thumb out of my backside and work on my Japanese. That would be nice too.