cooler than the calendar

So, remember that super-limited Famicom 20th Anniversary Game Boy Advance SP I mentioned a few months back? The one that they were only making a few thousand of, for contest giveaways and such?

...Look what just showed up at my door a few minutes ago:

And a scan of the package (from top to bottom: front, back, side):

It must've been fate that one of the biggest Famicom dorks in the world got to win one of these. That, or someone upstairs is pullin' some strings for me. :)

cool calendar

Nintendo ran a Famicom 20th anniversary campaign in Japan over the summer where people who bought select games could send in these special proof of purchase seals to get a chance to win some prizes (including that killer Famicom version GBA SP). If you attached two seals to one entry, they sent you a Famicom calendar as a special gift. I figured this was gonna be some dinky little desk calendar, but it's actually a huge wall calendar with some great images! I took quick pics of all the months (they're too big to scan), so if you want to see, click on the links below the image.

2004 Famicom Calendar Front Cover
2004 Famicom Calendar January
2004 Famicom Calendar February
2004 Famicom Calendar March
2004 Famicom Calendar April
2004 Famicom Calendar May
2004 Famicom Calendar June
2004 Famicom Calendar July
2004 Famicom Calendar August
2004 Famicom Calendar September
2004 Famicom Calendar October
2004 Famicom Calendar November
2004 Famicom Calendar December
2004 Famicom Calendar Back Cover

This is probably the sort of thing you can come to expect from the new Club Nintendo service. Pretty cool if you ask me...

new york city

Time sure flies, doesn't it? It's been almost a month since I last updated. No excuses, folks... I just haven't had the time. I've been busy with work, busy with friends, just generally busy with life -- and to top it off, I've been visiting my family in NY for the past two weeks.

I picked a perfect time to come home, seeing as how I'm a lifelong die-hard Yankees fan. The ALCS came to an amazing close tonight with one of the most dramatic finishes of any sporting event ever. I might go as far as to say that it the most exciting game I've ever watched in my life. The only other contender in my mind is game 6 of the 1996 World Series when the Yanks won the championship for the first time in 18 years, and that's because I was in the stands when it happened.

I'm happy to say I've had an extremely fulfilling trip so far. I spent my first week catching up with old friends and hanging out in NYC (my favorite place on Earth), and then I spent most of the last week chilling at home with my family and shopping. I've been watching baseball the entire time, and I caught a couple of movies, too -- Lost in Translation and Kill Bill. When I wasn't doing any of that, I was probably playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, a game I tried really hard not to get sucked into. Whoooops...

Anyway, while you're here, check out the view from the roof of my friend's apartment near Union Square in Manhattan:

That tall one in the middle of the fog is the Empire State Building. Ahh, good old NYC... As much as I love living in Tokyo (and have no plans of leaving any time soon), I really, REALLY miss New York. Such an amazing city.

Anyway, I'll be back in Tokyo soon; no idea when I'll be updating again, but I'll try not to be too much of a stranger. In the meantime, keep those comments coming!