Hehehe. I have acquired a Nintendo DSi.
These spiffy gizmos launched on November 1st, and that’s when mine came in the mail!
I don’t think I’ve ever gotten a gizmo on the day it launched before.  The reason I got one this time was because well…I wanted one, and there were rumors they’d sell out, and so I was worried that if I didn’t get one on launch day, I wouldn’t get a Japanese dictionary for months. That’s right, a dictionary. See, because there’s a stylus on the DS, you can draw Japanese characters, and if you have a dictionary cartridge instead of a game cartridge, it’ll tell you how to say the character, and what it means in English, blah blah blah.
It wasn’t all that easy to pre-order online though – I had to do quite a bit of poking around Japanese websites. I stumbled across some fellow’s blog, where he was tracking which stores were currently posting “reservation tickets” online. Through my limited Japanese and *cough* Google translate, I figured out that he was letting folks set alerts as well. So I set the alert for a white dsi, and waited. About an hour later, a weird cell phone ringing that wasn’t my cellphone suddenly went off,  I hopped back to his webpage, and ordered my shiny new toy.
Of course, in the urgency of ordering the thing, I needed to pay for it. Alas, the particular website I was ordering from didn’t allow for (or I couldn’t figure out) how to pay with a credit card associated with something other than my shipping address. As desperation was setting in, and I’d waded through a mess of sloppily encoded (half/full character issue) forms to get to the checkout point, I did what I had to. I selected the alternative to credit card payment, hit continue, and held my breath.
Nothing happened, but a confirmation screen and a thank you.
After sitting around confused for a second, I checked my mail to find out that I’d ordered the DSi with “Daibiki” also known as Cash on Delivery.  Oops. How does COD even WORK? I haven’t used it in the US, ever. Some more online investigating helped put me somewhat at ease, but I still wasn’t reallly sure that I’d successfully ordered the thing.
But it came! And I promptly set it to work, with the magnificent photo manipulation features.
I’m trying to restrain myself from buying any actual games, lest I never leave my apartment. Perhaps before I fly back, so I can ignore all my friends when I return. Since you all have maybe forgotten me already ;)
Oh yes. Yesterday I was in a Tokyu Hands store, trying to bling it out with dragon decals and the like, but sadly, since the new DS is a matte finish as opposed to glossy, the normal sticky shininess does not adhere. I shall have to leave my device bland and unpersonalized. For now.
