I have had two major accidents befall me in Japan recently. One is self-imposed and the other, more damningly was thrust upon me.

Firstly is the rather sad news that my Ipod was stolen in the gym two weeks ago. If I could choose a place to inadvertently place down my Ipod I would have choose the gym for many reasons but namely because it is in my university, it is in the gym and the people there are less likely to steal something. My emotions ranged from shock, horror and then a sense of outright pity.

To be honest, I know in many ways this type of thing would never happen in the UK and the fact that Seijo has only 4000 or so students and even less who go to the gym, and even less who were there that hour it had got knicked I feel nothing but pity. I feel safe that any Japanese person who uses the student gym at Sheffield will be much more safer than the other way around. Of that I am sure. It certainly offers me new light to these claims of a 'crimeless' Japan from moronic chinless gap-year pseudo-wunderkinds. The feeling of being relatively safe everywhere you go is a bit of a myth to be fair, you still have to keep an eye out for sneaky bastards. Japan may be a good country but it is not perfect. Put your guide-book down for once and smell the natto. True as some claims about Japan may be, once you live here and experience the reality of the place - your trite claims are nothing. I take your three week vacation to Shinjuku and piss all over it.

I am glad that I have since calmed down and mellowed out since last week, but there is no denying I feel a little bit ashamed that Seijo have taken me in and had this happen. I think they must be feeling very very embarrassed at the manner of one of their students. Like I say, my university reputation is being enhanced here whilst the process is being inverting the other way. Very sad indeed.

What makes me even more sad is the hours and hours of music that I had placed on the Ipod which were now lost to the ages. Thankfully, I recovered most of the good stuff later on.

The second such cock-up of the week involved an accident between a small amount of Chuu-hai, a screw-driver and twenty thousands milligrams of rage. With that, I destroyed my laptop. Me not being the technical person I was unsure if it was the BIOS that failed, the disk-drive itself or possibly the large whack I gave it once it decided to crash upon for the umpteenth time.

After being constantly fed up with Vista I decided to take the plunge into the unknown and purchase a rather spiffy looking Macbook Pro. I am considering an early Christmas present slash scholarship stipend splurge.

Admittedly not the most cost effective product you are gonna see on the market, after scouring the internet I used a popular online purchasing and selling site and managed to bag a brand new Macbook Pro, 2GB, 250gb HD for just over 700 quid, well to precise it was 1,110 dollars US. The sweetener came in the fact the shipper offered free worldwide delivery and in only 5 working days too!

So after a week of waiting and watching Japanese TV to kill the boredom of a week without a computer (which incidentally after the last time I went with internet in mt flat hasn't relented on the abhorrent quality it produces) I came home last Thursday to discover DHL had been, gone and left a giant sticker hanging outside my door telling me in California Governer stylee that they'll return. Although this being Japan you have to ring the company up and tell them when to deliver it. Because I live in a mansion (no not that type of place, but a sort of post-apoocalytic ferile concrete block to house single people in Japan) they have to come when you are around and can smell the noodles from your kitchen.

After lots of keigo (polite Japanese) and apologies for being a foreigner, I waited patiently last Friday for it to arrive. In order to kill the boredom, I relented my soul, released my sphincter and sat through the most nauseating shite Japan has to offer on its crappy analogue TV services, waiting patiently until it arrived like a misbehaving six year old who sits in the corner trying not to do something bad as he wants Santa to give him that Scaletrix replica of Le Mans.

6pm arrived... some shite about food and a cute girl getting excited over a boiled sandwich dipped with egg.

Still no Macbook....

Unsettling.

7pm... some equally disturbing shite on the news about a dead woman, a kid being hit by a train and the world's love affair with Barack Obama.

Still no Macbook....

Urge to kill being to surface.

But just after the news from Copenhagen that the world will end under a cloud of sulfuric acid and before I managed to destory yet another electrical appliance the doorbell rang and in the pissing rain and freezing cold stood an equally looking disheveled looking woman who was carrying my Macbook with a towel to stop the rain from melting through. She looked really flustered after probably trying to find my room in the cold and rain and so me being the English gentleman I had no other instainct but to kindly offer her a hot beverage from my bacteria infested kitchen.

However this being Japan and me not having internet porn for 10 days I simply signed the form, slammed the door in her face and unwrapped the box like a kid on Christmas day. And just like that kid waiting for those toy cars, you can fuck being a good boy now and let your emotion of excitement pour forward

Even though I knew the contents of the box, I still had the awe inspired gasp of being totally gobsmacked by some silver brushed metal, a few clumps of wires, and a CD.

The thing itself is completely free of painstaking installation and although it had trouble recognising my internet connection I was able to start using it in a matter of minutes. First impressions are that I was impressed. The next few hours, sorry the following 9 hours - I would spend re-downloading my entire music collection that was on my stole Ipod and which would go on my new one bought from Shinjuku. I use a nifty little programme called Transmission, which basically acts as a torrent downloader compatible with most of the torrent sites online at the minute.

Although I don't wish to be one of those beaming self-styled "Macbook" aficionados who whine incessantly about how great their little toy is and how Vista sucks, I must admit I really am happy with the purchase I made and it seems to suit my needs perfectly. Although I'm not close to marrying the damn thing, I think we are on about second base right about now.

Still its not all love and romance though, the only annoying thing that I have really discovered on the system is the annoying process of finding compatible software and having to learn the "mac" way of things such as taking screenshots, using the little touch-pad at the bottom and having to run various things. Overall though, my Mac experience is about 98% positive!

Want to see it in action? Well how's about this post-modernist photo of me writing out this blog post ON my new Macbook Pro. Take that dada-surrealism!



So with a new Macbook and a new Ipod the bank account is not looking great. This is basically my scholarship for this month, although sadly as Crimbo now approaches I have several other big things that need paying such as the gas bill (which has been burning 24-7 since the weather got cold here) my commuter ticket renewal (which gets reimbursed but still has to come out of my wallet) and also my ticket to Osaka!

Yes that's right! I'm going to Osaka/Kobe for Christmas and I'm gonna visit Himeji castle as well! All thanks to the wonderful Seishun 18 kippu, which I'll hopefully blog about later.

PS: Hisashiburi ne? Guess I have must have been studying hard... Or not at all. Most likely the latter. Those kanji are not going to learn themselves sadly.