Tomoko says that when her iPhone needed fixing the people down in Shizuoka sent it off to the nearest Apple repair place, which happened to be at Bic Camera in Hamamatsu, which is conveniently located right by the station and much, much easier to find than the other options I was given. So the new plan is to go there first and find out what they say. It has the added advantage of being open on weekends but it is cold and rainy out and I have Halloween baking and a pumpkin curry to make today, so instead I am opting for another early Monday morning trip downtown. Priorities, people.

My visa is all sorted out. No one ever said anything about my ARC, either, so yay for that.

The glasses are as good as they are going to get...the prescription is fine, it's just the way they sit on my face that is causing the issues. It appears my choices are either to wear them constantly and force my eyes to adjusts, or just wear them for a day or so here and there and switch back to my older glasses to give my eyes a rest.

And now it is my phone's turn to act up. The screen has gone, and forgive me for using overly technical terms here, batshit crazy. Tapping on one icon will usually manage to open the one located next to it and attempting to type "Hi, how's it going?" results in something more like "Hoeiklahjgla". I did all the basics...turned it off and back on again, then reset it with backup, then reset it up as a new phone with all my info taken off, and nothing. I went to a Softbank store as the first and easiest step, but as I suspected, they weren't much help. Basically they just sell the phone and don't have anything to do with it after that. I called the English help line and got redirected to Australia where the first piece of advice I got was to make sure I'd cleaned the screen really well. Afterwards Stu told me that the Australian help line is not actually very helpful as their mandate seems to mostly be getting us off the phone. The Softbank store gave me the address of a shop that does authorized Apple repairs and a friend found me a smartphone repair shop that looks a lot easier to find, but according to their websites, both places are closed on weekends.

It's not like I get so very many texts and phone calls that waiting until Monday to see about getting it fixed is going to impact my life but it is highly annoying.

At least my Halloween manicure looks amazing.

I have the worst luck with glasses. I decided to live life on the edge and get a pair while in Korea. Paul and Laura are excellent people to go glasses shopping with as they understand the need for decisive feedback. I take pictures but getting an outside opinion on how the frames look is invaluable as, really, I'm not going to be the one looking at them for the most part. So we went, I tried on all the small frames they had (due to both my ridiculously tiny face and my ridiculously high prescription, small frames work best) and settled on a pair. They promised to rush the job, as it would normally take a week, and on Saturday evening I went back to get them. I put them on and immediately got that weird fishbowl effect that comes from suddenly switching glasses but it wasn't until I had worn them for a few days (and was back in Japan) that I reluctantly concluded that the prescription must be off.

This is the same place I got my sunglasses done a few years ago and it wasn't until I got these new glasses that I twigged that the prescription in my sunnies is also off. My vision does go a bit wonky when I put them on but I've always chalked that up to the fact that I don't wear them for long enough for my eyes to really adjust to them. And, of course, it's usually fairly bright when I'm wearing them so I'm all squinty, which is another factor.

I can wear these glasses as they are, although not for more than a day at a time and by the time I get home I am very much ready to switch back to the old frames. I think this means I need to pay a visit to my store here and see if they can fix the lens and how much it will cost.

Stylish, AND they'll go perfectly with my butterfly costume this year.

In other news, the visa application is going well so far. I need to go back and bring my residential tax records for the past two years (which I am fairly certain I didn't need last time), but I just went to a sort of municipal service centre and got those today and I have until the 24th to bring them to immigration so I'm set. Not one word was said about my expired alien registration card. I'd ask if that's just because of the new system but I really don't want to bring it to their attention. 

Can you spot me?

So I'd somehow never heard of Psy or his hit single, Gangnam Style before last Wednesday. A quick survey of my students suggests that I am not alone in this, although by "not alone" I mean "aside from the entire rest of the world." That was remedied last Thursday when he gave a free concert just down the road from where Paul and Laura live. I personally felt that we probably could have enjoyed it just as much a few meters back where there were maybe less people but I was overruled. At least the organizers seemed to be piping in fresh evergreen scent to help combat all the general people stink.

Word of advice, when attending an outdoor concert with 80 000 other people, don't wear sandals.

As vacations go, it was a pretty good one. Andy and I went to see The Hunger Games (FINALLY!) and yes, we smuggled in wine. No, I didn't really drink mine as I didn't want to have to tiptoe to the loo 284792 times during the course of the movie, but it's the thought that counts. My birthday picnic did end a bit abruptly as the typhoon winds got stronger and pushed more clouds and rain in, but we managed a bit. 

Laura and I did our best imitation of Ladies of Leisure. She isn't working just now (although hopefully will be soon once the paperwork is done) so we shopped for expensive purses and got pedis and went for a massage, although not all at once. Paul introduced me to a new gin he has and it turns out I like gin now. We went out for ridiculously cheap dinners and drinks and shopped for Halloween costumes and I did not go to the gym once.

Now it is back to normal life. The weather is at least cooperating. October in Japan is almost worth putting up with the summer and as each one-shower-only day passes the sweaty mess that was August fades away. Tomorrow I have to go downtown and submit the paperwork for my new visa. I hope I have everything as I am running out of days to get it all done in. 

Speaking of, the immigration official who stamped me back into the country on Sunday didn't say anything about how my visa was up in less than a week. The guy at the airline check-in counter in Seoul mentioned it, but otherwise there was no official raised eyebrow or friendly warning or anything. 

Wish me luck!