IDP and NDS

I have my International Driving Permit! Yay! Now I can legally drive in all these countries! Sweet.

I still have to send in the paperwork for my Visa, but that's very quick, I hear. And tomorrow, I'll send in the forms to get the Yakkan Shomei, so I can bring my contact lenses to Japan. Maybe I should just get laser eye surgery and not worry about this stuff again...contacts, glasses, blurry vision. Hmm.

I finally worked things out with my predecessor, who has been extremely helpful with the transition, regarding the purchasing of her things (car, appliances, household stuff). I'll have to show the same kindness to my successor when the time comes.

So I've been contemplating purchasing a Nintendo DS. I couldn't decide which version (original, Lite, DSi, DSi XL) to get, so I asked my best friend, who recommended a DSi or DSi XL. After some thought, I decided that the DSi XL would be nice for the larger, easier-to-read screen. After all, I've been playing the PSP for so long, that I've gotten quite used to its large size and weight. (I looked at my friend's DS Lite and it seemed so dinky!) Anyway, my aunt was asking me about my PSP, and she had mentioned wanting to get one to play while on the airplane. She then mentioned Tetris. "Ahhh, okay, you want a Nintendo DS then, not a PSP." So off to the mall we went! And we came back with a DSi XL, a couple puzzle games, and Tetris. Nice.

I played it a bit, and I must say; the pen stylus is REALLY nice. But I'm starting to think that the DSi XL's screen, because it's so big, and because the resolution is still the same as a regular DS...doesn't really make the games look very nice. All you techheads would know that a greater pixel resolution over a small area looks much nicer (like the new iPhone 4, for example). So now I'm leaning towards a DSi. But then there's news about the Nintendo 3DS! E3 is coming up, and more info about it will be revealed then. I will definitely wait to hear more about the up and coming system before I make any purchases. It's supposed to be backwards compatible anyway, so that's good news for me. :-)

So why do I want a DS so badly all of a sudden? Well, quite a few reasons actually. But mainly because of the great number of kanji trainers and kanji dictionaries that exist on it. I need a denshi jisho (electronic dictionary) anyway, and I'm a gamer; I might as well get a DS! Plus, I can finally play the definitive version of one of the greatest games of all time, Chrono Trigger, and the plethora of other fantastic titles on it.

Word of the day: 旅行　「りょこう」　"ryokou." It means "travel" or "trip."　It's often used when describing a family vacation somewhere.