To: Crecente From: Ashcraft

Last night we were watching the World Championship in Athletics, which is being held here in Osaka. Actually! I wasn’t really watching (I was blogging!), but Mrs. Bashcraft and Mini-Bash were. Sometime during the pole vaulting, Mini-Bash goes: I wanna touch that lady’s butt. (あの女のお尻触りたいな…)

“Bwah?” His face got red. Mrs. Bashcraft asked him to repeat it so I could hear it (and could make fun of him). Face redder, bright radish red, but he repeated. For the next ten or fifteen minutes, Mrs. Bashcraft told the kid why he can never say anything like that outside of the house and that he can never touch some random female’s bottom. It’s inappropriate. And! If he did, he would be locked up in jail. For a long time. Alone.

What you missed last night Some awesome rumours Most exciting thing at X07? Elite craps out Home beans spilled! Jessica Alba uses the Wii?

To: Crecente From: Ashcraft

For all those preconceptions that Japan is xenophobic, Japanese immigration is surprisingly easy to deal with. (Well, if you are American! I imagine Korean and Chinese people have different experiences.) I’m in the midst of renewing my visa and going to start the process of applying for a permanent resident visa. Why a permanent resident visa? It makes things like getting a home loan possible. Not being able to get a home loan is a real bummer, and banks here are leery of lending to people without permanent residence. But a permanent resident visa opens all those doors for you — and opens them wide. In short, it’s the closest you can come to becoming a citizen without becoming a citizen. Best part? You don’t have to renew this visa. Once you got it, you got it. (And no, I’m not interested in being a Japanese citizen at this point as I like being American thankyouverymuch.)

To: Crecente From: Ashcraft

It was wrong. It hurt. This is going to be short. Today, I went to the dentist to finish up getting a cavity drilled out of my head. I got something like three shots in the muscle that connects my jaw to my skull. Plus, four in my gum. So even now, I can’t really open my mouth. Sensation has come back to my tongue and lips though. The cavity was very close to the tooth’s nerve, so the dentist wanted to get Novocain to the nerve connected to the pulp. Here’s the kicker: There’s another nerve, and that one didn’t go numb. Meaning those shots were kinda useless and this afternoon wasn’t very pleasant. Dinner was pudding. Yum yum!

What you missed last night: Mark Wilson’s Haze seconds Falcon is coming MGS4 may have limited online Hey PC users, take a chill pill I can’t wait for Kane & Lynch

To: Crecente From: Bashcraft

Glad to see you made it to Germany, Bird Shirt and all.

Had to run a few errands and needed to swing by Yodobashi Camera in Umeda to pick up some crap for my computer. As I was making a beeline through the store, I saw a woman descending down the elevator. An ex-girlfriend. Not just someone I dated once or twice, but someone I lived with for a few months light years ago.

Nice enough girl. We got on decent enough. She was, however, a hostess. Not really a concept I understood when I moved in with her. At that time, I was still rather green Japan-wise and young and really didn’t give a toss. So when she said her job was to pour drinks for old men, I just kinda wrote it off as a Japanese custom! The short of it: I was young, she was young, it didn’t work out. She didn’t want to quit — the money was too good. And the entire situation started to weird me out, her being in her early twenties and pulling in ten grand a month.

I decided to move out. Met Mrs. Bashcraft. At a bookstore. We became inseparable. Started writing professionally around that time. Things started happening.

To: Crecente From: Bashcraft

So I ate birthday cake for breakfast. Lunch? Cake. Dinner? Udon and then cake. There are still a few pieces left, and since the cake was made from fresh cream, we have to eat all up before it goes bad. Frosting, this ain’t! Oddly, birthday cake in Japan seems to mean cake with strawberries. Not a big strawberry fan. Wife doesn’t really like them either. In fact, this year, I requested no strawberries. You know, like a regular birthday cake and of course was given a cake with strawberries.

Gonna go finish up a few mag articles, try to unwind a bit. There’s a bad ass lighting storm here. Will turn all the lights out for full effect. Good thing my MacBook Pro’s keyboard lights up. Heh.

What you missed Ken Levine says “sorry” for widescreen mess BioShock murdered some dude’s computer Sidewinder from various angles Microsoft’s gaming mouse Boy fries himself with his 360 I love Johnny Cash

To: Crecente From: Bashcraft

Hope you’ve arrived safe and sound. Prolly sleepy as all hell!

This weekend, the fam and I went fishing, swimming and BBQ-ing. It was pretty much how people here view summer. We even went beetle hunting! The weather was perfect. Kyoto Prefecture is truly beautiful. We were joined by some family friends, whose kids are friends with Mini-Bash. In the evening, we all ate at a restaurant and then swung by a game centre where we played Mushi King style card games. This morning, we asked Mini-Bash his favourite thing we did during the weekend. His answer? The game centre. :(

What you missed during the night IGN Brings Hammer Down On BioShock Queue Jumpers Kojima To Reveal “Undisclosed” MGS4 Themes Warhawk Testers Honoured On Rad Warhawk Poster

To: Crecente From: Ashcraft RE: Best Birthday Ever

August brings not only Flynn’s birthday, but mine. Tomorrow, I turn 29. In one year, I’ll be thirty. Turning 29 seems slightly bittersweet. No. It’s really friggin’ bittersweet. For my b-day, I’m not doing anything special per se: Just eating cake. FYI: I’ll be working tomorrow, business as usual. Yes, I love Kotaku that much. :)

What you missed Microsoft’s birthday present to me. Hint: Red is involved. Three times over. PC BioShock demo Metroid Prime 3 achievements?Euro price cut and new 360 colour?

To: Crecente From: Bash

I spent exactly one hour and thirty minutes at McDonalds today. Since Mrs. Bashcraft was out watching some TV show being filmed with her friend, I took the kid out for lunch. On the show she saw, Takashi Fuji was the guest. She really thinks he’s annoying. He is, but he amuses me. Here’s a clip of one of his songs. He was in Lost in Translation as “Matthew,” a Paul Smith suit wearing, blonde-haired character he created. Quite like Matthew! And watch him a lot on TV when I first came to Japan. Think he’s in a scene with Bill Murray in Lost in Translation. I’ve never seen Lost in Translation. Have you? Is it any good?

What you missed last night Bandai “Not Aware” of PS3 Eternal Sonata More Tomb Raider DQ Swords all naughty Lots of Sigmas

Gonna go fishing this weekend. Friggin hot and looking forward to sunstroke.

To: Crecente From: Bash RE: Flirting With Girls

Cute story about Tristan! Kids are funny. I’m always amazed when my kid tells me some girls are cute and some girls are not. Like, how does he know? Bizarre.

Bizzy night. Luke was out at a Halo 3 event, so only I was holding down the fort. Feeling pretty rough. Really rough actually. Think I ate something that didn’t quite agree with me. Tomorrow, Mrs. Bashcraft is going with her friend to watch a TV show being filmed. I will be watching the kid. It’s way too hot in Japan to actually go outside tomorrow. So, we’ll probably play with Ultraman toys and watch some vids. Any recommendations?

What you missed last night: