Through the Eyes of a Wombat

Before this week is out I will get a haircut. Its driving me crazy - but at least I can afford it now. I've been very good, and haven't gone over budget since the first week I was here (well, I did once, but it was 90 yen) - its much much easier to live under budget when Im not buying things for starting out... the ANU rice cooker and coffee maker from Eugene helped a lot! (By the way: Is anyone else getting the ads at the top of this page trying to sell me rice cookers?? I guess I talk about rice cookers a fair bit, but now that I have a rice cooker I dont want to buy another rice cooker! Maybe it just counts how many times I say rice cooker...)
What I am trying to figure out now is whether or not I can afford a computer to run Flight Simulator on. Of course, going to a computer shop and buying one straight out is well and truly out of the question - they only ever sell package deals and all far too expensive. If I were going to do it I would have to go and get a second hand machine and upgrade it so it works properly...
Of course, building this will probably take the best part of the next two months, and its really only a little bit over two months until I escape Sendai for the summer... and when I get back in Semester Two I wont be playing on the simulator ... plus, the money I would spend to get it up and running, well enough to actually be flyable, would cut into the money I'll have for spending over summer...
I think Ive convinced myself I wont actually do this... but it would be a good way to spend the next 79 days...
Went travel-agent hunting today, but that was rather frustrating. Kinki Nippon Tourist (after making me wait fifteen minutes in the office to be told that I was in the room for domestic travel only - international was upstairs... and empty) told me flat out that you cannot buy return tickets for longer than 30 days to America from Japan.... then they tried to sign me up on a five day package tour to New York.
I said no, and left.
Another travel agent down the road was a lot more helpful - they helped me determine that the best way to get to Narita airport is by train - the bus is only about twenty dollars cheaper and takes ten hours, the train will take about two or three. Flying is considerably more expensive when you factor in actually getting to Sendai Airport too...
Now if only I can find those websites I had earlier this month with really really cheap tickets... sometimes under $400... though it just struck me that they might have been one way.....
I'll keep on a-looking.
It does seem that the earlier I fly, the cheaper. This is fine by me - most of June is the same price and it stays that way until about the 2nd of July, then creeps up to being ridiculously expensive at about the same time as the school summer holidays start here. Oh well, looks like I'm going to have to re-adjust the countdown... its still getting closer, and that is exciting!

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