Well, disaster is a bit of an overstatement. “Big annoyance” is more accurate. My iBook seems to have finally croaked. I’ve been having problems with it for a few months, where it would shut down at random times, and was having trouble charging the battery. The past few weeks, though, everything seemed fine. Now, the computer will no longer charge the battery (a new one I bought right before leaving!), and iBooks can’t run only on AC power.

There’s also a mysterious message in my Apple System Profiler:

Power adapter can not charge battery: Yes

So, unless something mysteriously fixes itself in the next couple weeks (and, from what I read online, that something is the “DC-in board”), I’ll be without my own computer. I have internet access at my company, but only for a few minutes each day. This may mean I won’t have much time to update this blog or send e-mails. Apologies in advance.

What’s new otherwise? Today I’m switching host families again, moving to my final host family: the home of the company president (and his father, the very powerful company chairman). I have a feeling it will be totally interesting, though I hear I’ll probably need to wake up at 5-5:30 every morning.

Tomorrow, I go with the other students from Ohio and our organizer in the Prefectural government on an overnight trip to the western part of the prefecture, Chichibu. It should be interesting. Saturday is the annual summer festival in Kawagoe, and I’ll be going with Bushu Gas, one of the festival’s sponsors. I’ll be dressed up in a company happi, and help carry a heavy wooden shrine with all the other workers. It should be a lot of fun!