So I lied. I'm at work waiting for a simulation to finish and I'm bored. So while two computers silently breed a race of genius killer agents, I go back to the blog. I've moved out of Kyoto, into the little town of Kizu, just across the border from Nara Prefecture. Nara's really proud of their deer; they're like the prefecture mascot. The banks, the buses, they all have little deer on them.

As if karma is paying me back for the hour-and-a-half commutes to the backwaters of Kyoto, I now live a few minutes' walk from an express train stop, in a huge apartment I'm sharing with Nick. Pictures and hopefully a QTVR file are coming along with our Internet connection. Yes, along with free tissues, people are handing out free broadband on (almost) every street corner in Japan, so we're getting three free months of Yahoo! Broadband starting sometime this week. (Coincidentally, we're also leaving before then. How convenient.)

We moved in on Friday the 4th, then I went back to Kyoto to "celebrate [my] country's independence by blowing up a small part of [another country]". The konbinis were well stocked with fireworks; somehow the 4th had become a sort of unofficial holiday even for the locals. The banks of the Kamo River were filled with people, not all of them gaijin, all setting off fireworks.

I'd made a note of what time the last train left, and even what time my last connecting train left from Tambabashi. So I thought I'd be OK, and maybe the power of being able to stay out past 10 went to my head. Because what I didn't notice was that the last train from Tambabashi actually doesn't go all the way to my stop; it ends at Shin-Tanabe. Luckily, a cottage industry has sprung up around people who similarly screw up, so I found a manga cafe where I could spend the night for US$12. It was pretty nice; unlimited Internet access, soft drinks, and of course, manga, till 6 AM. Had I not spent the previous night clubbing and karaokeing all night it might have been appealing, but I found a nice reclining chair to sleep in. They expect this; they even play tranquilizing music to help.