DVDレンタルDVD rentals

Actually buying DVDs in this country is really, really expensive. I mean, it's not like American DVDs are cheap, but they don't cost a good eighty dollars for one disc with three episodes.

日本で、ＤＶＤは本当に高すぎる。アメリカのＤＶＤは安いなんてないけど、７千円以上ではない。しかも、日本のＤＶＤは三話だけある。

So I'm kinda pleased that I finally managed to get myself into a rental store, like the Tsutaya near Doshisha. I don't remember how much Blockbuster cost back home, but I don't think I could have rented five DVDs for a week (two of which were new releases) for $12.50. Needless to say, I have even more fun things to watch now.  For this first run, though, there were a few things I absolutely had to do.

だから、レンタルの店で借りたのはうれしい。同志社の近いつたやという店がある。アメリカのレンタルの店の値段を覚えてないけど、もっと高いと思う。というのは、アメリカで１０００円でＤＶＤを５枚（２枚は新作）借りることが出来ないからだ。もちろん、たくさん見たいＤＶＤがある。でも、今回は、みなくちゃいけないＤＶＤがあった。

The first of those was to finally get around to watching Inception. (As a side note, my friends were surprised when they pulled four anime DVDs out of the bag, and then Inception.) No, I did not watch it in Japanese; I set the dialog to English. I thought about leaving the Japanese subtitles on, but I didn't in the end. It would have been a distraction, and distracting myself from the pure awesome that was that movie would just have been wrong.

まずは、やっとインセプションという映画を見た。（僕の友達はびっくりした。）声は英語だったね。日本語の字幕を使うかどうか考えたけど、使わなかった。使うとしたら、邪魔になるかもしれない。この映画は、邪魔なしで見た方がいいと思う。すごく良い映画だったから。

Then there's the Mobile Suit Gundam DVDs. And when I say Gundam, I mean the original 1979 series. I can't call myself a fan of the series without actually having seen this, don't you think? So I rented two of those discs the first time around, and as I write this I've watched one, episodes 1 through 3. There's still another 10 discs or so to go, I think. This'll be a long-term thing.

そして、機動戦士ガンダムのＤＶＤを借りた。グンダムというと、最初の１９７９年のシリーズ。そのアニメを見ないことには、グンダムのファンに名乗れないね。だから、２枚借りて、今は１枚（第一話から第三話まで）見た。まだ、１０枚ぐらい見てない。ちょっと、時間がかかるはずだ。

Also added to the pile was the Pokemon Arceus movie, in Japanese "Arceus: To the Conquering of Space-Time". I don't really know why either. Still, it's a kind of achievement, right? To be able to say that I've seen all of the Pokemon movies? I mean, I still need to see the Zoroark one after this...

アルセウス超克の時空へというポケットモンスターの映画も借りた。僕も理由が分からない。でも、すべてのポケットモンスター映画を見たのは、良い事じゃない？まあ、ゾロアークの映画はまだ見てない．．．

Finally, there's Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works. For those of you not familiar with Fate/stay night, it was originally a visual novel, and one of the routes in the game was titled Unlimited Blade Works. This is essentially the movie version of that route.

最後に、Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works（フェイト/ステイナイトアンリミテッドブレイドワークス）と言う映画だ。フェイト/ステイナイトというのは、最初はビジュアルノベルで、一つのルートはUnlimited Blade Worksという。その映画は、そのルートの映画のバージョンだ。

Also, it is awesome. Seriously. If you haven't played the game and actually seen some of these fights, you may be out of luck... I don't think I can properly describe it. I suppose you could start by going here and listening to the awesome battle music.

そして、すごくかっこいい。本当に。ゲームをしなかったなら、何も出来ないかもしれない．．．僕はうまく言えない。まず、こちらを見て、バトルのテーマを聴いて。

Basically, the message here is simple: I have even more things to do here now. The Tsutaya I went to has Space Battleship Yamato, Revolutionary Girl Utena, Tales of Symphonia, Sora no Otoshimono, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Totoro, My-HiME, Ghost in the Shell... and those are just the ones I remember. Why couldn't I have found all this back at the start of last semester?

つまり、メッセージは簡単。僕は、したいことがまた増えた。行ったつたやは、宇宙戦艦ヤマトや少女革命ウテナやそらのおとしものや時をかける少女や舞-ＨｉＭＥ．．．以上は、覚えてるものだけ。なぜこの前にレンタルをしなかった？

巡礼の一種A Type of Pilgrimage

First up: yeah, I'm about to do National Novel Writing Month, and I still have a lot of stuff from the Tokyo trip that I haven't yet fully translated/played with... so from here until probably December at least, I doubt I'll have the time to translate my blog posts. They'll only be in English for a while.

So I'm back in Kyoto. Tokyo was fun, but I couldn't stay there forever. I'd buy too many things.

Anyway, yesterday I went with a friend to... well, I can't really call it a pilgrimage, but it's kind of similar... maybe. You see, on Google Maps there is a map of locations that look similar to scenes from anime or games. So one of the things I've been doing in Japan is going to some of these places. (For example, Moriguchi City station.)

Yesterday, we headed off to Kobe in search of a number of those different places. We met at Kyoto Station and very rapidly discovered that the JR trains are really expensive. 1050 yen out to Kobe, no thank you. Certainly not when the Hankyu line costs 600 and goes to the exact same place. Even if you have to start from Kyoto Station and pay 210 to go to the Hankyu station at Shijo, it's still cheaper.

On our way to Kobe, though, we stopped at a station called Nishinomiya-kitaguchi (which would translate roughly as Western Shrine, North Entrance), where there were a few Haruhi places. Having not watched Haruhi in a while, I didn't really know what I was looking for, and the map was a little hard to read. We didn't get lost, but we kept having no idea whether we had found a point or not.

This was also when we got lunch. Japan is awesome when it comes to food... where else can you buy an actual decent lunch at a convenience store? (Yay for bento!)

Eventually, we got back on the train and headed for Sannomiya Station. And by that I mean Hankyu Sannomiya Station. There are three of them: JR, Hankyu, and Hanshin. Okay, they're all right next to one another, but still.

The biggest attraction for me here was also the easiest to find: the Kobe Great Bridge. At first it wasn't really recognizable, but once we had crossed it and turned around, it became really obvious. I will get pictures up eventually... I forgot my camera, so I have to wait for my friend to send me the pictures he took.

... I know, I know, I'm a very strange person. Next time I go to Kobe, I'll actually explore the usual tourist places and the like, I swear. Right after I stop in Nishinomiya again... there's still a lot of Haruhi places that I haven't been to yet...

守口市駅Moriguchi City Station

Today, I went with a friend out to Moriguchi City Station, near Osaka. It's on the Keihan Main Line. We had plenty of free time today, and the rest of the week is kind of packed, so today was probably the best day for this.

今日は、友達と一緒に大阪の近い守口市駅に行った。京阪本線の駅だ。たくさんの暇な時間があったし、今週はちょっと忙しいと思うから、今日は一番いいと思う。

The trip started around 2:30, when class ended for the day. Well, my friend's class, anyway. We took the subway and the Kintetsu line to Tanbabashi, and transferred to the Keihan Main Line there. Limited express train to Hirakata City, and a "sub-express" train to Moriguchi.

二時半くらい同志社を出る、授業が終わった後で。まあ、友達の授業。近鉄丹波橋まで地下鉄と近鉄線を乗って、そこで京阪本線に乗り換えた。特急で枚方市駅まで乗って、準急で守口市駅まで。

On that note... there are too many types of trains on the Keihan Line. There are nine different types! Rapid limited express (that one requires a special ticket, I think), limited express, rapid express, commuter rapid express,  normal express, midnight express, sub-express, commuter sub-express, semi-express, and local trains. This is ridiculous.

と言えば、京阪電車はたくさんのタイプがある。九つもある！快速特急、特急、快速急行、通勤快速急行、急行、深夜急行、準急、通勤準急、区間急行、普通の電車がある。バカな。

But, the trains are awesome, so it's okay. I mean, seriously. I paid 360 yen each way, and the higher-level trains (like the limited express that we rode to Moriguchi, or the rapid express that we took back to Tanbabashi) are really nice. They're basically similar to the Amtrak trains back home. Except riding on one of those will run you 80 bucks at least. (From Boston to Baltimore, and that's for the overnight train.)

でも、電車はすごいから、いいよ。360円がかかるけど、その高いレベルの電車（たとえば、特急や快速急行）はすごく快適だ。まるで、アメリカのアムトラックという電車みたいだよ。でも、アムトラックを乗るとき、80ドルがかかるよ。（深夜の電車、ボストンからバルティモルまで。）

Anyway, we mostly just took pictures when we got there. I have spent too much money as it is, and neither of us really knew anything about the area around the station. Besides, we had free time, but most of it was spent taking the trains. This is closer to Osaka than Kyoto after all.

とにかく、着いた後で、写真を撮っただけだ。僕はお金を多すぎる払ったし、僕たちは駅の近いの店を全然知らない。そして、暇な時間があったけど、その時間は電車でかかった。守口市駅は大阪のほうが近いよ。

So... why do I care about some random station on the Keihan Main Line, closer to Osaka than Kyoto? So much so that I spent nearly two hours today going there and back, pretty much entirely for the sake of taking a few pictures?

さあ．．．どうして大阪のほうが京都より近い京阪本線の駅を気に入りますか。どうして今日は二時間かかって、写真を撮るだけために京都から守口市駅まで行ったか。

Can't really put it into words, actually. Perhaps one of those pictures is the best explanation.

．．．うまく言えない。もしかしたら、その写真は一番いい説明かもしれない。

For those people who still don't understand... perhaps that's for the best. For those who do... isn't it awesome?

分からない人は．．．おそらく、分からない方がいいと思う。分かる人は、かっこいいでしょう。

(And for those who want a hint... look at the tags.)

（ヒントを欲しがっている人．．．タグを見て。）