In which I am still pretty hopeless at video games

(Click on the image to see the bigger version.)

It actually is my little brother's birthday, and that is the actual size of my oven in Japan.
SO TINY.

Moral of the story: Sometimes I draw dorky comics.

In other news, I now have a phone and an ARC, so I am pretty much set!  Just need to order business cards...

Also, I've been spending time in the dorm community room, slowly meeting people and losing a lot at Japanese video games.  There's this one game for Wii (I don't know what it's called), where you are given a series of random tasks that each take 3-5 seconds to complete.  These tasks are things like "flap your arms to fly" or "put the old lady's dentures in" or "jump over the rope" or "pick up the garbage," but sometimes you can't really figure out what the heck you're supposed to do, and your time runs out and you lose.  For example, when I was playing with a couple of the Japanese students yesterday, my first task was...something to do with cans.  The other players were yelling, "THE CANS, THE CANS!" and I yelled back, "DO WHAT WITH THEM?" and we couldn't figure it out and I died.  (Although, the winner of that round wound up being stumped on her third task, where there was a moving hole and she couldn't tell whether she was supposed to avoid it or jump into it.)
...and then we played Mario Kart and I died even more spectacularly.  I think the other players felt really sorry for me, because when I finally finished a round not in last place (I was in second to last), they all congratulated me.  Oh dear.

In other news, I have decided to try to find a cooking class, because I don't think my "oh, hey, my host mom put this in something kind of similar to what I'm making, so it must be edible" strategy for cooking will continue to work much longer.  Plus, I want to learn more Japanese cooking techniques.  I figured I would see if Irinaka Cultural Center had any cooking classes...but they don't have a website, and when I went to visit today, nobody was there.  HMM.

Final note, Japanese potato salad = mayonnaise + boiled potatoes + avocado.  And that's it.  WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT.