The cheap guitar that I use at school wasn't balanced well against the wall, fell and was irreparably broken today. It's not a great loss, but it puts me in the position of having to bring my nice guitar to school for two days. I think I'll go looking for another guitar to play at school tomorrow. I should be able to find something for a couple hundred dollars. Something small and light would be good, and this time I'll try to get one with a hard case. That might protect it some if it falls. It'll be one more guitar to add to the five that already live in my apartment. Of course the number will stay at five if I can get rid of the broken one.

Yesterday I went to the bank and sent funds to the US for my trip. I also sent enough for my guests, so they won't have to get traveller's cheques. Sugar Land isn't really a touristy town, so I'm not sure where they'd be able to use them. Credit cards also work for most anything. Over the years, I've found out that a lot of my Japanese friends are hesitant or even scared to regularly use their credit cards. They reserve the cards for their ETC (Electronic Toll Collection) on the highway (It's like the EZ-tag in Houston, but you have to have the device installed in your car and insert your card when you want to use it). Being from a credit card lifestyle myself, I couldn't understand why the hesitation. Now I think it's because they can't actually see the money being exchanged for the goods or services. I'm pretty used to using cash now though; I only use my card for online purchases or if I run out of cash and there's no ATM in sight. At the moment I still have to use my American card since I'm still waiting on the verdict of my Japanese credit card application.