Woot. Employment.

Well well, what have we here? An actual post? Oooh, golly gumdrops and rainbow razzmatazz. Hm. I should just start saying that, in monotone. I think I'm good at it. Or maybe not.

Anyway. Postpostpostpost... I got the job, the English teacher one. (The bookstore one went well, but when the manager ran it by their head office I got rejected. Oh well.) Paid training starts on the 6th, in Okayama – it's four hours away by regular trains, so they'll be paying for a hotel room. The train fare to Hiroshima might also be cheaper than I originally thought, as a) the trains don't all run to Yoshidaguchi Station (one of those little backyard stations) so it'd be easier to take it from Mukaihara Station (a bit more like what you'd expect a station to look like), and b) I found out during the interview that they would pay out an extra 100 yen per hour to cover commuting costs. 1640 yen round-trip makes more sense, barely. I hope everything works out with it. I still have to get my hair cut for it – that he asked me if I was willing to do so during the interview was a good sign. Also, I have to get a Hiroshima Bank account if I want to get paid, which I need to do soon.

Rachel and I finally went down to Hiroshima together Sunday. I bought 6 booster packs of Metal Hero cards, a set of little 350 yen rubber robots, Kamen Rider Spirits #14, assorted foodstuffs and dinner. Total cost: around 5000 yen. Worth it. Part of my mission was to go and finally have a MOS Burger, something I'd had before on vacation here 10, 15 years ago. It was good. Really good. Worth whatever I paid for it. Then there was the strawberry milkshake at McDonald's – that took me back and erased any homesickness I had (none, actually, so even a bag of miso might do the trick). Dinner, because we stayed later than I expected, was a katsudon with soba noodles (breaded chicken + egg over rice, wheat noodles). It was okay but the taste was missing something – I've never had such a lightly-flavored don before. I got a bottle of Coke with it, which turned out to be an actual bottle with a little cup you might otherwise use to sip an alcoholic beverage from (they wouldn't let me take the bottle home, something about it costing 30 yen extra). It was okay overall.

Of all the things I miss from home, the one thing I can't find no matter where I go is hot dogs, eight in a bag. Sure, the little bakery in the local super sells hot dogs in a wrap with onion sauce/powder, and it's not bad, but it's really not the same. Also, McDonald's. Didn't really think I'd be craving it, but it was the first thing I did when I got to Hiroshima for the interview. They taste exactly the same, by the way. And while I couldn't find what they call a quarter pounder with cheese here, they have Big Macs.

While the free unprotected wi-fi is active, we have to cram around the open balcony door to use it. Our best guess is, it's a neighbor living in the immediate southern building (in this little complex, it's our building and two smaller, 4-room buildings, with our building at the north end). So, we're trying to negotiate with Yahoo BB/SoftBank/AT&T for internets, but they want to come in on the first day of my training. Or wanted to, since they called and we rescheduled, but the letter they sent wasn't updated. Not sure what's going to happen, since they haven't returned my call yet. We have time, I think.

Oh, and I finally found the first and second OSTs to Xabungle. “Walker Gallier” is such a cool song, but there's this weird timpani thing in the right speaker for part of it – nothing wrong with that, since they never actually used it for Walker Gallier itself.