I'm a Legal Alien

First a quick rant: For whatever reason, loads of my YouTube layout edits have disappeared. My recommended channels, background art, channel description, URLs, etc. Why? So I am slowly trying to redo them. I feel especially bad because I can't remember whose channels were on my feed/list thingy. If you disappeared, I didn't do it! Grrr.

Right. So I got my permanent resident visa the other day. That's a big deal. Unless you marry a Japanese national, you basically have to live in the country for ten years consecutively before you can even APPLY. That process can take nearly a year, and then you might still be rejected. They took their sweet time reviewing my application, but 10 months later, I got the postcard in the mail saying I should show up at the Immigration Bureau.

That postcard also said, however, that if I had changed employers without notifying them that I might have my permanent visa revoked. Scary. I had changed employers, legally of course, and my work visa sponsor was my former employer. Said former employer was aware of the situation, but needless to say I was less than excited to give the Immigration Bureau any reason to reconsider.

But I told the lady at the counter anyway.

"Oh, I see. Please wait a moment." She had been all ready to hand over my new visa. Not anymore.

She came back and asked me more questions, and said the same thing again. Repeat. Repeat.

Finally, she said she had talked to "The Boss", and he had reviewed my application personally and given the go ahead. PHEW!

Too many emotions to process that day, and the drama at the end only amplified them. So naturally I went to the convenience store across the street, sat down, and had a beer. I needed to regroup.

Finally the long wait/journey was over. No more requesting special permission to do other jobs, no more paying for that permission, no more dependence on an employer for the right to live in the country. YES!

I'm off the cloud now, but it's great to have completed a goal that took 10 years to accomplish. Now I am thinking about what is next! Ironically, perhaps, my new visa allows me to leave the country for up to five years at a time without losing my permanent resident status. Grad school is looking a bit more likely, now. Much to ponder. Meanwhile, I'll keep playing video games and eating weird food and making videos about it. Thanks for your support.

Shooting Love Triangle!

So I was incredibly fortunate to not only preview the new game, Shooting Love 10th Anniversary for the XBOX 360, but also to interview and go out to dinner with the creator, Toshiaki Fujino, head of Triangle Service. It was a great day, to say the least.

I should have gone to a closer train station, but I shopped my way to the event locale and ended up buying a fair few items. They got heavier as the evening went on, but it was all worth it!

The promotional event started at 1 pm, and apparently a number of people were actually gathered waiting at that time. I finally got there just before 4 pm, and it was just me. Perfect timing! Mr. Fujino was quite  gracious and I enjoyed meeting him very much. And I am definitely looking forward to receiving my copies of the game! (I bought a second, standard edition copy as well just because I wanted to show my support.)

After we said our goodbyes, I met another foreigner and encouraged him to go try out the event. His name is David and he is from Quebec. Later I went back to apologize once again to Mr. Fujino, in typical Japanese style, just in case I had in any way made a bad impression. He said all was well, so I invited him to join David and myself for a few beers. He agreed! Yay! We ended up going to a restaurant to eat "Kushikatsu", which is essentially "Deep-fried stuff on a stick with dipping sauce", because it is well-known in the area, and because the draft beer is good, cold, and cheap. On the way to the restaurant we met the crazy cosplay people from the previous video, and then had drinks on the street (because that's cool in Japan) while waiting for a table.

Once inside, we talked a lot about games, and a lot about life and relationships, but none of that made it into the video. Suffice to say that Mr. Fujino is every bit as easy-going and nice as he seems in the video, and I have made it my new personal mission as a gamer, and more specifically as a shooting fan, to support his efforts, as he was so kind to me. It doesn't hurt that I really like his games, either!

Having said that, I am honest to a fault, if you didn't already know that, so while I will do what I can to support him, I will tell him, and you, what I really think, should I be afforded more opportunities to try out his stuff. In the meantime I hope he will do well and I hope lots of people will buy his games!

PS Making subtitles for 30-minute videos is painful. That is all.
PPS I am going to re-commit to practicing POLITE Japanese. That is all again.

Here's a link to the video, in case you haven't seen it yet:
Shooting Love Triangle

Didn't mean to make your daughter cry.

I just realized that I haven't posted anything on my SoftOtaku blog for about 5 months. A trillion apologies. I feel like I have actually kept up on posting YouTube videos, but I have clearly neglected the other bits. I will try to do better. Thank you so much for hanging out with me! It has made my life so much more interesting!

What do you do when your pickup video is too long and you don't want to deal with the added upload hassle? Speed it up, of course! Then you sound like a chipmunk. Or any number of cartoon characters. And that makes for an all new type of pickup video. Unintended fun is often the best kind.

PS If it doesn't say "Micro Machines" it's not the real thing!

Here's a video about a PS Vita Grip Case that I saw for the first time the other day, and promptly purchased.

Today I uploaded a couple videos showing my trip to a second-hand store (Hard-Off). This includes walking, taking the bus, taking the train, and stopping at the convenience store. It's a first-hand look at my life here in Japan. I also uploaded a video about a new PS Vita case I found. Take a look if you're in the mood:

Soft Otaku Videos

Just uploaded a video about a new collection I am starting/going to try to complete. This despite the fact that I just said I probably wouldn't a few days ago. I am pretty sure I was using reverse psychology on myself. And it worked!