Overcompensating for other technical difficulties that may result in financial hardship.

First, the bad news. My ATM/DEBIT card didn't get along well with the nice...and very loud...atm machines of Tokyo. It's a very interesting contradiction that in the public sphere, the Japanese are rather loud and chipper. Every machine screams, store employees call into the streets looking for purchasers of their wares, and every time you enter a store, you're given a traditional greetings. Yet, in the private sphere, namely my neighborhood, they prize quiet to an insane degree. Apparently, before I came here, there had been some complaints about the house I'm living in. I can't believe these quiet people got a complaint! Anyways, back on topic. ATM isn't working for me. I don't quite know what I'm going to do yet. Option 1) Do something involving citibank. 2) Go to the post office, and use my credit card for cash advances (I pay the credit card online anyways). The reason I'm so fucked is that I'm going to buy my books tomorrow, so I won't have that much cash.
FLASH UPDATE: Shelly the Great (new official title), another student who will be going to Temple with me says she uses PNC and gets her money from the post office. So I'll have to wait until Tuesday then.
So, let's go into my activities today. Today, the plan was to go to Temple University and pick up my books. Clever, smart, ninja eep called first though, and they didn't pick up. Further, on the orientation guide, it doesn't list today as a pick up date. So instead I jointed Fabian going to Akihabara. Akihabara, as the convenient Wikipedia entry notes, is essentially the Mekka of Geekdom. Would that make that the Mecha? The main goal today was the "Electric Town." Like, I said, this is geek capital. Right out of the station I was greeted by a curiously dressed girl advertising her restaurant. See picture above. The place was a filled with humanoids moving about looking to get good deals on electronics...or...otaku looking to fulfill their obsessions. Our first quest was in the more electronic area, as we searched for a cheap used windows xp disc so Fabian could fix his computer. Not as easy as it seems to get a cheap one. He got something for 500Yen, but it turns out that wasn't the right disc. On the way, we stopped into a giant 6 floor arcade. Did you know Half Life 2 was an arcade game? did you know there is a multiplayer arcade Japanese history Counterstrike? I'm talking to you Perna. There were several buildings like this, but this one had the best variety. No, I didn't go into the others, but as they were all owned by one video game company (i.e. Sega Club) I can assume. I didn't get a chance to take any pics, but there were a few cute girls. Not many though. It was mostly guys, walking around the electronic area as you can imagine. Having worked up an appetite walking around, we did a quick lunch at Curry Kitchen. Yummo. A generic unidentified curry with steak and rice. Tasty though! I dig the efficient method of ordering, as it is very busy. You use a vending machine to buy a meal ticket ahead of time. Then after you sit down, you hand it to the waitress. And that's that. After that, we headed over to Radio Center, walked through it, and like some Legend of Zelda Dungeon, scaled it. Fabian described it perfectly as the World's Capital for Shit you Will Never Need. It's mostly collectible CRAP. There were a few CD stores, and whatnot, but overall it was garbage. I did manage to get a gift to send back to Lauren though. I'm not telling what it is. Following the tour de junk, we headed back to the station.
Fabian was kind enough to show me the way to the Ward Office, so I can go for my Alien Registration on Tuesday. As I've mentioned, and I will continue to, it's so interesting how one second, you're in ultra-modern Japan, and the next second, you turn a corner and you're in Meiji Japan. Behind the station was...some sorta walk which was done very traditionally. I dug it.
After that, we went to the super to find out if my credit card would work there. It did! Yay! POCKY TIME! POCKY POCKY POCKY! I got some white chocolate mousse pocky (my favorite) and some unidentifiable Pretz product. I love pocky. So many good memories. I also managed to find a place to get BOTTLED Guinness. I know it's not as good as a tap, but it's better than cans! Cans are the blasphemy of beer! I've only actively drank can beer a couple times, and that was the "crap lager" I filled my mini-fridge with Junior year for my party. Ahh! No! Creme de minte flashback!
Anyways, I'm at my place now, waiting for the laundry to dry. That's it. More later. Tommorrow I'll venture out to pick up my books and to Ikebukuro. For the "they're legal now"...I mean coming of age ceremony