Belated

The internet at my new job is not fond of Semagic. Sometimes it posts, and sometimes it just times out. So I just realized that the post I wrote up after coming back from Mexico never actually posted. Time to party like it's March 14th!

( New Stamp in My Passport! )

Clearly too Conservative

A Japanese guy in my department, (though not technically my boss this time) is going back to Japan tomorrow and I asked him to pick up something for me. I decided to get a Japanese learning game for the DS. I decided on this one, which seems to get pretty good reviews among both native and non-native speakers.

But then I started wandering around Amazon Japan and....man, I remember how the game selections were broader over there. But I forgot just HOW MUCH so. There are so many language learning games for the DS, I even found official tie ins for the textbooks I used to teach from. And I found that one of my faaaorite PS2 games, 'Takio no Tatsujin' has a DS version.

But maybe the best concept I found wasn't really a game at all, but a kind of cookbook. It has a selection of recipes that a voice & video guide you through, step by step. Since the system has a microphone, all you have to do to move on to the next step is say "OK." You can see it in action here.

In the end I chickened out of getting the other games. I was afraid that the cooking game's vocab would be too hard for me, and that I wouldn't play the drum game since I don't play with music on all that much if I'm out in public. I'm totally kicking myself now. Aaaaah, I need to go back to Japaaan!