Kirby's Epic (Yawn?) Review

Every once in a while, a Nintendo franchise will attempt to reinvent itself and try to do something different. Sometimes (like in the case of Super Mario Galaxy), the change is for the better. Other times (like Yoshi's Story), the change is most definitely for the worse. Unfortunately, Kirby's Epic Yarn is closer to the latter.

Kirby's first outing on the Wii tosses away all gameplay mechanics that would be familiar to players of other Kirby games, and instead opts for something entirely new. This is because - like Star Fox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet on the GameCube - Kirby's Epic Yarn was originally designed as new IP, but had Nintendo franchise characters "tacked on" later in the development process. According to Iwata Asks, the game's original title was Fluff's Yarn, and starred the character Prince Fluff as opposed to Kirby. Fluff still has a large role in this game - both in the story and as the second player character in co-op mode.

It is difficult to discuss Kirby's Epic Yarn without discussing Yoshi's Story on the N64. Both games use similar patchwork graphics, a picture-book story motif, and contain similar surgical alterations to gameplay in order to promote simplicity (at the cost of possibly alienating long-time fans). In the case of Yoshi's Story, the power-ups, vehicles, most levels and bosses, and egg ricochet shenanigans from Yoshi's Island were removed. Kirby's Epic Yarn removes all of Kirby's flight, suction, and skill-stealing powers and replaces them with a yarn whip, 2-player co-op, and vehicle transformations. In other words, the game removes every gameplay convention associated with any game starring Kirby. The story sequences are done in picture-book style, and they are narrated by a guy who sounds like he's reading to a bunch of seven-year-olds. The game just feels "different", and not in the good way.

Oh, and you can't die. Ever.

Getting hit causes Kirby to lose a bunch of the "beads" he's collected throughout the level. In practice it's similar to getting hit in a Sonic The Hedgehog game and losing a bunch of rings - though Kirby STILL won't die if he is hit without any beads in his possession at all. In order to please the casual audience, Nintendo has managed to make the entire game feel like a "cheat mode". The bosses are very cool, but once I realized I couldn't die, it sapped all the fun out of fighting them. Sure, there are rewards for not getting hit and losing your "beads", but you most likely won't feel the need to seek them out. I can't help but feel like this game was designed exclusively for children. As a hardcore Nintendo fan, I just couldn't get into it - even with the "winks and nods" placed into the game for long-time fans of Kirby.

There are some good points, though. First and foremost, the game is gorgeous. The "world of yarn" springs to life, with different kinds of thread, patchwork, and cotton combining to frame Kirby's world in a way it has never been seen before. This is a technical marvel and one of the few games on Wii where jaggies are a complete non-issue (even on high definition TVs). The game relies heavily on use of 2D and only appears to use polygons when forming the yarn itself.

Also, although the gameplay is not going to be familiar to Kirby fans, that does not mean there isn't a variety of things to do. Quite often, Kirby will morph into different vehicles - a tank, a race car, a fire engine (controllable with Wii remote), even a UFO. These bits of gameplay were some of my favorites, as they show a lot of unrealized potential. One of the few things that kept me progressing through the game was to discover what kind of goofy vehicle transformation would happen in the next level. There are also some minigames and an "apartment customization" feature that allows placement of objects found in the levels into an empty space, but nothing too substantial. The game controls well-enough and does not require the use of the Nunchuck or Classic Controller. Waggle is very limited - which is a good thing. The co-op mode is also fun and does inject entertainment into some of the less exciting sections of the game.

Overall, Kirby's Epic Yarn isn't bad - it's just not that good, either. It's a kids' platformer with great graphics and a story set in the Kirby universe.

But a Kirby game, it is not.

Interview With A Casual: Facebook Games And Who Plays Them

Before Kombo took a nosedive, I was working on a set of articles for the site regarding an unusually bad PS3 fighting game, a review of a different game being released this week, and a set of interviews I did with a few active "social gamers" outside of what we would consider the hardcore gaming community. I will be posting these articles over the next few days after finding out via Google Analytics that despite a dearth of comments, people actually read the stuff I post here.

Without further ado, here is Interview with a Casual.



According to Gigaom, the average age of a "social gamer" is now a 43-year-old woman. And they outnumber us. Substantially.

The study was sponsored by PopCap, makers of casual crossover hits like Bejeweled, Peggle, and Plants Versus Zombies. The study polled the habits of players of "social online games" - games contained in social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace. These games are generally far from self-contained and use the features of social networking sites to acquire a larger player base. And in many cases, it works.

I interviewed two habitual social gamers, both friends of mine through mutual participation in community theatre. Both are wonderful people, dedicated moms, and come from different backgrounds outside of the usual hardcore gaming population. Both gave some very interesting answers about their social gaming habits. Let's call them "Pat" and "Sally".

Gaijin: What got you involved with Facebook games (was it viewing a friend's profile, hearing about it from someone in real life, etc.)? How do you choose which games to spend time on?

Pat: After many requests by friends to jump on games and help them, I visited a friend who showed me Farmtown. To help them, I started playing the game.

Sally: Friends sent me gifts and requests.

Gaijin: How many hours per week do you play Facebook games?

Pat: 10 to 14 hours a week. I play more often when starting a new game to get the game established. Now as timed tasks are involved I check in every eight to ten hours.

Sally: 15 minutes to 10 hours a week, depending on my level of boredom. I usually play early in the morning or late at night when I can't sleep but dont want to be doing things that would keep others awake.

Gaijin: What is your favorite Facebook game?

Pat: FrontierVille is my current favorite. I like to start a game and go in to first place, then it loses interest. FarmTown is another favorite as I have made friends all over the world and we communicate, usually about our favorite football team on the weekends (much bragging and teasing).

Sally: FarmTown, because you can interact with others.

Gaijin: Have you ever spent real money on items in a Facebook game? If so, did you regret the purchase? (note: "hardcore" gamers often have to purchase DLC, or downloadable content, after a game's release in order to unlock all the features on a disc that was purchased for Xbox or PlayStation consoles) If this question is too personal, you can simply say "no comment".

Pat: I have not spent a dime. I was tempted once to quicken the game, but never did and never will.

Sally: Never spent money and never will.

Gaijin: Have your experiences with social games on Facebook lead to other experiences gaming on PC or consoles? If so, what games have you played?

Pat: I recently dusted off Dr. Mario on the original Nintendo system and had an evening of laughter with an old girlfriend having Mario wars.

Sally: No.

Gaijin: Do you or your family own a Wii? Do you play it often?

Pat: Yes, my son has a Wii. He recently lost the laser and it doesn't work anymore. I used to play WiiSports with him, but because I have vertigo, most games make me ill.

Sally: I don't have any game consoles. My older son has had all of them, but never bought any of them, except his Wii. The rest were handed down.

Gaijin: Do any of your friends in real life play the same Facebook games?

Pat: I have actually connected with old friends over these games and have friends who have made second and third Facebook accounts to further themselves in the games.

Sally: I only play games my friends do. I don't accept/friend/play with people I don't know or that my friends don't know personally. For instance I have my cousin's sister-in-law and my cousin's close friends as friends in social games.

Gaijin: Have you met new friends or acquaintances through Facebook games?

Pat: Yes, we are communicating with a couple in London who garden and own an allotment. They have even invited us over. We sit on Skype and chat two times a month or so. They have sent chocolate from Europe to us and we have sent them beef jerky, something they like from the United States. I also speak to a gentlemen from England and have a great friendship.

Sally: I talk to and meet people from all over the world in Farmtown. I enjoy interacting with these people. I do not accept them as friends, as I worry about hackers and identity theft.

Gaijin: What is your favorite part about playing these games (can be general, or game-specific, i.e. "I enjoy adding items to my farm and interacting with my friends")

Pat: I am very competitive, so, it's nice to get to first place. When you get into the upper levels you find much conversation, laughter and "dirty dog" comments. Some of the games remind me of gambling. How to "Win" and be first, without spending money. A great diversion to life, and it's FREE.

Sally: Playing competitively. I enjoy making lots and lots of money. Even if it's fake...

Thanks to "Pat" and "Sally" for taking time to interview with me. I think their responses are very telling as to the kinds of efforts publishers are going to use to recruit the new generation of social gamers. I also think the responses on the DLC question were very telling. Hardcore gamers are rarely seen as a patient group - with exploits, farming cheats, etc. being discovered daily to pad trophy counts, gamerscores, and online rankings. Social gamers do spend a good deal of money on DLC - but there are also social gamers that publishers are going to have to work a little harder at courting in order to get them to part with their dollars for digital content.

Incidentally, after doing the interview, "Pat" and "Sally" connected on Facebook and began gaming together. It truly is a new world we live in.

The Return...

So I'm back, after a brief flirtation with bigger things in game journalism. The last few weeks have been full of highs and lows. I have every weekend of October booked with awesome Halloween events. I got to play Marvel Vs. Capcom 3. I was able to publish a piece calling attention to the lack of Tales series localizations in the West. Work is going better than usual.

But as I type this, I sit here with a sprained hand from a gym workout. I drove to Chicago and took time off of work to get an exclusive for the gaming site which shut down the very day I was traveling. One of my arcade cabinets died this week (though I did manage to sell another one for proceeds to put towards a new board), and I'm going to get started with rehearsals soon for both murder mystery and a christmas show for the local community theatre, so I will have no shortage of things to do.

I'm still not quite sure where to go from here. I may open a site that has the potential to gain a few more followers - but I'm really unsure which direction I want to take it. I have so many side projects and barely have any time to put towards them. In the meantime, there will be some fairly interesting stuff here - including day-one reviews of a few upcoming games on certain Japanese consoles, so watch this space.

Epic 5: 関西

This weekend was a tour to the Kansai region. I originally had plans to travel to Osaka with some friends, but one of those friends had financial issues with the bank back in the States (issues I understand completely, as I will document below >.<), so I decided to sign up for the tour instead. Yamasa tours are a lot of fun, and you get to see a lot of stuff, but they're very draining and very hectic. Sacrificing freedom and your own schedule does get you a steep discount on travel costs and meals, and they will take you places that would be very difficult (and expensive) to reach on your own via taxi or obscure train route. This particular one started off on the wrong foot, as I had to commute from my host family's house to the pickup point in the pouring rain. I also had not received my confirmation voucher at this time, so I was actually rather freaked out wondering whether or not they'll even come by to pick me up. Colin did eventually show up with the van courtesy of Declan, and we were off.

Fortunately, unlike the last tour, everyone coming along this time was a native English speaker which made communication both easy and relaxing as for once I didn't have to worry about the "JP Onry" rule that pretty much runs my life at this point between school rules and the fact that Japanese really is the only shared language among many of the students here. I don't know Chinese (more than 60% of the students here seem to speak it as a native language), so there's no other way to communicate. I certainly write more English than I speak on a daily basis - which is conductive to the learning environment I suppose, but can be extremely demoralizing at times. It tends to make one feel more isolated than one would normally feel in a country where you are already a minority (and in some cases a freak show). It's something you get used to but can shellshock you on occasion if you're not ready for it. I know enough Japanese to be able to communicate what I need to in a wide variety of situations, so it's not really a problem, but it still can be intimidating at times.

Our first stop was the rain-soaked Sekigahara region, marking the location of the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600. The battlefield itself wasn't much to see, but a lot happened here. This battle was a huge turning point in what would be one of the longest running and most famous shogunates of Japan - the Tokugawa Shogunate. As I learned from one of the guides, Tokugawa Ieyasu, winner of Sekigahara and first shogun of the Tokugawa line, really does not have a good reputation amongst many Japanese. He was viewed as a "schemer", someone who hung back until the opportunity arose for him to take power. In reality, he actually kept promises to those who served him, and there were many men willing to fight to the death for him because of it.

The rain kept us from enjoying the misty mountain views atop the battlefield site for long, but we did get to hear the entire story of the battle in English in the museum down the road. One thing about Japanese museums - even if there are no signs anywhere that say it, don't pull out your camera. Apparently there is an unspoken rule that picture taking in museums is forbidden. I found this out the hard way when a little Japanese lady working for the museum came running up to me with her arms crossed in the "batsu" symbol, glaring at my camera and apologizing but still insisting that the camera gets put away. I put it away but was still irked enough to not buy any souvenirs at the place. Everyone else was smart and used their phones, which were a little less obvious than my digital camera.

We then stopped at a few more temples and had lunch along the banks of a river in Kyoto. One of the guides mentioned that Nintendo headquarters was right down the street and I suddenly realized what Shigeru Miyamoto (the man who created Mario) meant when he said in an interview that he could bike to work every day. The place is just gorgeous. Mountain scenery, non-crowded roads lined with shops and restaurants, and lots of riverboats - some restaurants themselves. It didn't really seem like a rich area, but a peaceful one. An area reeking of tradition and begging to be explored fully. Seeing the scenery around here made it really obvious to me how someone growing up in an area like this could get inspired creatively.

But we weren't here for Miyamoto. We were here for Murasaki (Shikibu), author of The Tale of Genji. Apparently ten chapters of the novel, the English translation of which I read back in college, took place at one of the temples around the gorgeous river-street. I don't remember much about The Tale of Genji but I do remember it was really messed up. Actually, most of the historical and contemporary stories I read for my Japanese Literature class were really messed up, but I could write a whole blog entry just on that topic. The temple was certainly interesting to see, but a lot of the temples are starting to blend together at this point and it's getting hard to remember exactly what happened where.

Our last stop before heading into town was Ishiyama temple, where The Tale of Genji was (allegedly) written. They even have a little animatronic Murasaki Shikibu writing away in a little corner of the temple where the book was supposedly written. Personally, while I recognize the literal significance of that novel, I found it a little odd and off-putting to have a robot at a Buddhist temple. It just seemed too "touristy" for me.

One other thing I learned here, which is something relatively fascinating, is that the koi in a lot of the temple ponds have an average lifespan of 180 years. The biggest problem for them is skin cancer, which is why they try to keep the ponds shaded in a lot of areas. I had no idea a fish could live that long - particularly if it's fed as well as the temple koi are. You learn something new every day.

In Kyoto we had delicious yakitori at a small place down an alley in the Gion district (a.k.a. World Geisha Headquarters) and explored the surroundings. I had a very interesting conversation with one of the guys who does a lot of the staffing for Yamasa about organizational problems that can occur when developing software, and realized I'm more knowledgeable than I feel most days at my job, and yes, that is a good thing. We had drinks at a couple more places and saw a shrine to Susano-oh (my favorite character of Japanese mythology) lit up at night before returning to the hotel - which was fully Japanese style, a separate futon on the floor for each person, and VERY comfortable. The guys were all in one room and all the girls in another, so unfortunately I had to deal with snores coming from both sides, but at that point I was so exhausted that I really stopped caring.

The next day was Ninna-ji garden, a used kimono shop, and a nice (if unusual) Western-style breakfast where they managed to ruin the bacon by smothering it in ketchup, along with the breakfast sausage. Okay, fine, if you're going to ruin something, ruin the sausage, but leave the bacon well enough alone. It doesn't need your help, thank you.

Osaka was far away, and by the time we got there we didn't have a lot of time to eat. One of the guides picked out a tempura place and then proceeded to order tons and tons of raw seafood, which was very hit or miss. Some of it was delicious, some was edible but barely, and some of it was just bizarre - like slimy, whole mini squid or some kind of drink made of kombu. The other guide and I were both relatively irked that we went to a tempura bar and almost no tempura was ordered by the time we left. I was mad enough that I decided to buy some takoyaki at the nearest takoyaki stand on our way back to the car. Osaka is famous for takoyaki which is - for the uninformed - little balls of savory dough seared golden brown with generous pieces of cooked octopus on the inside. I know how weird it sounds to other Americans, but octopus is actually not that bad and is one of the few seafoods that doesn't taste fishy at all.

Ordering street food creates a problem, and it's one that we take for granted in the States. Despite how clean Japan is, they really don't have many garbage cans around that aren't for businesses only. And so, when you order a messy food like takoyaki and then have a piece of takeout garbage oozing with onions and sauce, there's no place to throw it out. With drinks it's not really a problem as you can just put the bottle away until you find a place to put it, but drippy, messy food containers are a huge pain in the neck. I couldn't throw out the takoyaki wrapper until arriving at a rest stop about 40 minutes after getting on the road back to Okazaki, stinking up the car in the process.

Interlude 5: Byouki

So yes, I'm aware I haven't written for quite some time again. But I have a very, VERY good reason. For the last few days, I've been fighting off the most egregious case of food poisoning I've ever had. For those people ever planning on traveling abroad, let me explain that food poisoning in an unfamiliar country is one of the most torturous experiences one can encounter during a trip. Multiply that torture a few dozen times if you have a daily commute that you have to make during your trip (as I do - 40 minutes of walking and up to an hour total depending on train times).

For me, the whole thing started with a seemingly innocent lunch bento. Homestay only includes breakfast and dinner, so you are still responsible for any food you want over lunch break at YAMASA. So, Tuesday I decide to go to my usual lunchtime spot - a nearby supermarket named DOMY. DOMY is, without equal, one of the cleanest looking supermarkets I have ever seen, in Japan or otherwise. Everything smells fresh and is well-organized. Unlike with most Japanese supermarkets, not a hint of fish scent oozes out of the seafood section. Therefore, I had no concerns whatsoever about eating lunch regularly there. For two weeks I had no problems eating lunch there daily, choosing a small pork cutlet and vegetarian sushi for lunch. Tuesday, however, I tried something different. I was feeling particularly stupid after class that day and noticed a gigantic chicken katsu (fried cutlet) on sale for 198 yen, served with cabbage. Being in a bad mood I decided to choose that unhealthy option (actually cheaper than my usual sushi choice) and then head back to school where I promptly consumed both the chicken and the cabbage.

Little did I know that there was something lurking within...

That very night it came back to haunt me with a vengeance. I'll remember this forever, because it was that very chicken katsu that managed to wake me up just in time for the Nintendo E3 conference stream at 1AM JST with the worst case of indigestion ever. Not being able to sleep, I decided to go ahead and watch the conference in hopes that something about the Wii Vitality Sensor would dull my senses and put me into a boredom-induced coma. Instead, I got to see the 3DS unveiled in its delicious 3D glory as my stomach turned cartwheels and bounced up and down inside my abdomen.

My next mistake was the next morning when, despite the fact I felt more or less like I had the flu, decided it would be a good idea to try and go to class. I managed to make the hellish commute - which hurt pretty much every step of the way as I struggled NOT to be the crazy huge sickly gaijin that puked all over traincar 4 on the Aichi Loop Line - and ended up in class clutching my stomach. I was able to endure about two periods worth of class (I had to stay as long as possible because there was a test the next day) and then couldn't hold on any longer. So it was back to the homestay via another long and painful commute. My host family was gravely worried, in particular when I woke up a few hours after returning home, briefly forgetting where I was, and began mumbling in English.. "I really needed to sleep..." My host mother panicked and asks me in Japanese if I needed to go to the hospital. I snapped out of it and replied that I was probably OK, as I had food poisoning in the US before too and it had a similar feeling to this. She was really confused when she asked what I ate that could have caused this, and I replied that it was DOMY's chicken katsu. I find out later that someone else from YAMASA had recently gotten food poisoning from a DOMY bento. Wish I would have known about that before.

A note if you get sick in Japan: you can't buy medicine at a grocery store. You have to go to a kusuri-ya (drugstore, like Walgreens) in order to get anything that will fix what ails you. Now here's the problem. I'm not feeling well. And I'm already feeling beaten to death over finding out just how little Japanese I actually DO know, even after studying it for so long... how the heck am I supposed to deal with this? Of course I can ask someone where something is at the store. The concern I was trying to ignore at the time was avoiding giving the kusuri-ya clerk a story to tell when this sickly looking gigantic gaijin comes plowing into his store meekly asking for geri-dome (anti-diarrheal agent). Yeah. Great. Eventually I sucked it up and got the medicine, thanks to my host mother pointing out exactly where the kusuri-ya closest to the house was located.

Today I am fully recovered and about 5 pounds lighter than before the food poisoning. Actually, none of my pants fit anymore. They've been gradually getting larger, but now they are all far too big. My next problem... where to find a gaijin-sized belt in Okazaki...........

Epic 4: 変な日本

So it has been a while since my last entry, and for that I apologize, but things have been moving fairly quickly ever since I moved in with the Hyoudou family. To me, it's just been one thing after another, slowly finding my way around the customs and expectations of the people in the household. In general, things are pretty laid back - everyone is very nice (except the kitty, which runs whenever she hears me moving around...makes me sad) and the food and conversation thus far has been quite wonderful. The biggest problem I encountered so far is figuring out how the shower works. I had a bit of a shellshock when I went into the bathroom to take a shower at 6AM only to find a traditional Japanese washbowl and faucet waiting for me. There was a showerhead too, but no matter what I tried, the damn thing wouldn't go on. I wasn't about to ask my host mother or anyone else how to use it （シャワーを使い方教えて下さい。。。）, so I improvised and washed up with the bowl and stool, 日本人 style. It was...weird.

Fortunately I discovered on the second day how the thing actually works. Next to the lever that controls the faucet there's a diagram that shows a picture of the shower head on the left, the kanji for "stop" in the middle, and a picture for the faucet on the right. Now even though I turned the faucet all the way to the left before, I failed to account for the fact that the "off" position is actually with the lever facing to the right. Once I figured this out, turning the faucet into the "up" position actually sent water to the showerhead.

It's very interesting talking with my host family because they are most certainly cultured even though rooted in Japanese tradition. They have multiple DS systems and are trying to practice English using them. Helping the daughter with spelling while she was using the English Trainer DS made me realize just how painful our language must be to people who are coming from a phonetic language (such as Japanese). Phonics, sounds like "th", "ck", "si", etc., don't make sense to them because every syllable in the Japanese language (with one exception) is a vowel-consonant pair. There are no "short" and "long" vowels in Japanese. An "a" will always sound like "ah", for example, not "ah" or "ey". Extended vowels (like our double "ee" or "ie", etc.) are always written the same way and sound the same way. Double consonants also give them trouble because it simply doesn't make sense phonetically.

It was interesting that the spelling mistakes they were making are pretty similar to the ones young kids make back in the states... "plees" for "please", for example.

Then again, I'm having trouble wrapping my head around some of the more complicated parts of the Japanese language, especially since this course is turning out to be a turbocharged version of my college course on Japanese linguistics. Japanese classes for 25 hours a week, most of which deals with exceptions that I never knew existed or only slightly understood the rules. This course is certainly building my vocabulary and giving me a stronger grammar base, but it's making me more hesitant to speak (at least in class, for fear of being completely wrong). It's something I need to get over, because as I've learned from the time with my host family, I can most certainly be understood. It's the teachers' job at Yamasa to tell us if our answer was not 100% grammatically correct.

I found an arcade fairly close to my host family's home, and I gather it may even be walking distance. So yes, finally, I have located a BlazBlue Continuum Shift machine if I ever need a fix. Fortunately the console version is due not too long from now, so I won't need it for much longer.

This weekend I went to Nagoya with some friends and may have extended travel plans. Next weekend we're planning to visit Osaka and the week after that, Tokyo (Disneyland) and a ryokan. One of my friends wants to try to get into the Ginza Vampire Cafe...we'll see how that goes...

A few weird things:

1.) Natto (a.k.a. fermented soybeans) which are apparently "good for your health" taste like nuts at first but the rancid aftertaste of something which has been partially fermented is a bit too strong for me.

2.) I tried Natsu Dango (summer) proving once again that mochi is evil, no matter how tasty the filling may be.

3.) Breakfast today, courtesy of my host mother: hot dogs. But not what you're expecting, oh no. One "hot dog" was made of breakfast sausage, ketchup, and lettuce on a bun. The other was a hard boiled egg and cucumber on a bun. Served with a side of soup and fresh kiwi. Weirdest breakfast I have ever had.

4.) Nagoya is home to one of Japan's finest creations: The Bacon Wrapped Onigiri. Yes it exists, and yes, it's as good as it sounds. A salted rice ball wrapped in a large layer of bacon seared over a charcoal grill, then basted in a sweet soy-glaze and topped with sesame seeds. Mmmmmm...heaven. Proof once again that bacon wins against all. We need to find a way to integrate bacon and sushi. Not raw bacon though.

Interlude 4: Kazoku

Well, I am happy to report that today's speaking test definitely seemed (note I'm saying SEEMED) to go better than the last ones. I blame my lack of familiarity with the testing procedure for my problems on the first speaking exam. Taking my time, thinking through each answer carefully, and then answering with the appropriate response worked a lot better this time around than blurting out the first thing that came to mind and hoping somehow the Shinto gods would turn it into competent Japanese. The one thing I dislike about this testing procedure is that it discourages creativity, and this is true for one very important reason:

They are evaluating your speaking ability, and the more you speak, the more mistakes you're gonna make.

Japanese people are raised on "cram and spitback" procedural exams, not on creative answers. So creatively answering a question and trying to speak more Japanese than required will only screw you over in the end. That's what class is for, not the tests. This makes sense when looking at things from a Japanese mindset and I probably should have anticipated something like that would occur.

I played hookie this afternoon (yeah, I know) in order to pack and prepare to move to my host family's house. Admittedly I was worried sick because I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into, how far away they would be from the school, what kind of commute I'd have to take to get there, etc... plus I wanted to make sure I didn't accidentally leave anything in the room. After packing up and getting picked up, I was moved into the host family's home, a few miles away from the school and a 10-minute ride by train.

The family is wonderful. The grandmother is very nice and seemed relieved that I could speak Japanese. According to her, the last student that was hosted by them could not speak a word of Japanese and didn't really want to use the stuff she was taught in class in order to communicate, instead relying on English and hand signs. I must look like a superstar to them.

The parents are both very nice. The mother is a housewife and the father works at Mitsubishi Motors. Pretty typical Japanese arrangement. They are in their early 40's and own what I think is a VERY nice house by Japanese standards. It's very tall, and each floor is relatively small in size (similar to the big game centers in Tokyo). Each floor has one or two rooms only and a small, narrow staircase leading to yet another floor. There are at least four floors in this place but I'm only going where I've been shown out of courtesy.

The 6-year-old daughter, though she appeared nervous when first meeting me, is not shy. Gaijin that are the size of Godzilla apparently don't scare her, as it only took me an hour of being here before she popped into my room with her fashion game on her DS and started talking to me. She is Japanese cuteness personified and I think I'm going to learn quite a bit of Japanese from just talking with her and the others in the house. I am told that the others that stayed here were mostly otaku, so I'm going to do my best to make sure that I leave a good impression of both Yamasa and Ameritaku (yes I just made that up and I'm keeping it) by the time I leave. I'm very much looking forward to what is going to be a life-changing experience for me.

はじめまして！　　＾＿＾