Wednesday 19 December 2007

Christmas Shopping

I already know what I'm getting the Gf for Christmas. 


 Usually I am totally confused about what presents to get people but for some reason I have a real clear idea, a mission if you will. And a mission it was! 

 My first idea is to make framed photos of her recently departed dog, "Cookie" for her and her mother. 

 On tuesday I photoshop'd all the pictures of her dog (they were really low resolution so I thought to make it a photo with a lot of little photos rather than trying to make them bigger and losing quality). 

 I put them on my phone and I planned to bluetooth or infra-red them to a photo machine. 

 You'd think this would be simple but the lack of Japanese made this incredibly difficult. I went to the only photo shop I had noticed but they said I could only do them from a media card. 

 I asked the other teachers for suggestions and they said Yodobashi Camera nearby. 

 I went there with one of the other teachers who spoke a bit of Japanese. Even with his help the staff were next to useless and didn't think I could do it even though Japanese were using their cellphones RIGHT BEHIND ME. 

 One machine wouldn't read my infra-red signal. Another time I had to start again because there wasn't any "back" button to fix my mistake. Another thing is that infra-red is incredibly slow for file transfer so that took ages as well. 

 I was exhausted after finally getting my pictures printed but I still had lots to do. 

  Still firmly addicted to the UFO catchers I did my catcher run and saw they had the DOA hentai mugs with the protruding boobs. 

 I thought that I liked the purple haired, blue bikini'd manga babe on this one better than the one I have, so I asked them to move it into position for me. He gave me a fail safe win, only 100 yen! That's my present taken care of.. 

 I went to get some photo frames. Me being me, this took ages as well. How hard can it be to choose a few frames? Of course the wood had to go well with the pictures. I got two, one for Yuko and one for her mother. 

 NOW.. for the pièce de résistance

 I had in mind to get the Gf an mp3 player. Of course the iPod shuffle was always an option, but doing some research I found that the Zen Stone was a good alternative. 

 From reviews I read on the internet, it looked to be a pretty good basic player with really good sound quality and a CD changing option (which the shuffle doesn't have). 

 I plugged in my own headphones and was quite impressed. It was as good as my iPod in sound. I had to make a quick decision as they were playing "Auld Lang Syne", the GET OUT, WE'RE CLOSING song. 

 I chose red as everyone knows "red goes faster", and it was the last red one they had. The store has free gift wrapping so it looks real pretty with red paper and gold ribbon. So.. that's presents taken care of! 

 I thought it would be good to have when she goes to see her mother. Besides everyone should be wired for sound. Am I right? Of course I am. 

 I think I'll give it to her early as I won't be here for Christmas anyway. Besides I'm anxious to know what she thinks about them.

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