A Lensatic Adventure? Guess not.

I went to the store today to buy for myself a compass. This seems kind of silly when you first hear it, but I’ve a pretty good reason.

So I woke up this morning at around six, like I usually do. So I take a shower, get dressed, and sit around, trying to find something to do. Well, I think to myself, I’ve got to go find food at some point. I could have rice again but maybe I should try someplace new. Hey, I’ve got $50 worth of guidebooks on that shelf over there… and proceeded to try and find my apartment in the books. The books don’t cover my area at all, and describe the area around it basically as “Uh, there’s not much to do here, but at least it’s linked to the other areas of Kyoto, so it’s easy to leave.” Ouch.

Unfortunately, the streets here always shoot off at odd angles to each other, so I’m constantly getting turned around. My thinking was that if I have a compass, I can at least know which general direction to go. You’d be surprised how hard that is to keep track of here. (Hint: that was my good reason)

So, what does it take to leave? It looks like it’s about five minutes by bike to the nearest train station, and a $1.50 fare should get me to Eastern Kyoto. From the station, it’s about half a kilometer to a store the かんりんりん (apartment caretaker) recommended I check out if I want to buy a decent compass instead of the one I picked up a little earlier, which even I recognize is pretty lame.

I had asked him where I could buy a decent compass as I was walking in the door, by the way.

In this same area, according to my books, is… a lot of stuff. I’m hoping to visit a shrine and find a compass today. Probably also need to eat lunch, ‘cause it’s almost 11AM and I have yet to eat breakfast.

Actually, there’s a sushi place near here…

カラーボックス: The Construction

I imagine in my mind this post's title being read in a deep, masculine voice something like Killstick: The Reckoning, Shopping Mall: Zombie Fragfest IV, or Oh God It's the Flood: You're Screwed. That in mind, here's a picture of a cardboard box:

So I went down to Jusco (Wal-Mart, but spelled with a J because it's Japanese. Or something) and got a scrubby, some suction hooks, and a カラーボックス ("karaa bokksu"). I'm not entirely certain what it is. It cost $9.50 and is, I think, a shelf. Like, an Ikea shelf. JDIC says it means "color box", but it doesn't even return anything on Sanseido or ALC. Go figure.
Anyway, I'm going to try and put it together. I fully expect at least one explosion, and possibly a lemur.

Taking it out of the box, I'm a little impressed with it. For ten bucks, I get chipboard? I'm used to Wal-Mart's polyboard crap. The thing's theoretically rated to hold 5kg (11lbs) per shelf, but I bet I could stand on the thing when it's completed.
The downside to this is that the screws squeak really loudly on the last couple of turns, in addition to being arm-wrenchingly difficult to put in. I'm putting some cooking oil on them in the hopes that it will make this a bit easier.
It didn't.
All was going to smoothly until I realized that I put the top board in one of the middle spots. Fortunately, I realized this right as I finished putting in the second screw holding it in place instead of later, when I would've had to take out 12 screws.
Okay, eight screws down, and I've got the little crappy paper things in the back. I was going to leave them out in the spirit of my カラーボックス not taking itself too seriously, but then I realized that they are probably an integral part of its stability. Oh, and that I need to buy a real screwdriver. Multi-tools are great as a backup, and they get the job done, but... There are 16 more screws now that I wish I didn't have to use a multi-tool on.
Aaaand it's 2:30. Wanna guess what I've done with my day?

Forgot to get soap.