Will

帰国 is a noun, right? The verb would be 帰国する. I'd agree with the advice above and say above all else get as much speaking/listening practice with native speakers as you can. The grammar rules are very simple but they're also broken all the time. You can drop things, mash things together and it can be incredibly hard to tell where one word ends and the next one starts. In the kaeru example above you'd obviously have the context but they're also spoken differently. To change has an emphasis on the E whereas to return kind of mixes the A and E sounds into one. The important point is don't believe them when they tell you all of the sounds in Japanese stick strictly to the rules - they change all the time. For me the biggest thing to get my head around is that although the grammar rules are simple they are completely different to what you're used to. The easiest way to get ahead is don't question these things that seem weird, just learn them, practice and soon enough they will just be in your head and you won't need to think about them.

First full week of working in Singapore for a few months is done. On the plus side it's a far nice working environment than Tokyo and there are a lot of super exciting projects coming from the teams here. I pretty much have an offer to move over here, with stock option should I want it. However, the bad side... Singapore must be the most boring, bland and uncultured place I have ever been to. If it wasn't for a few trips in the middle of this business trip I'm not sure I could handle being here. I guess it means I'm productive in the office though as there is nothing to leave it for. I guess the ease of SEA travel is the one upside in that regard. Still we'll see how the rest of the trip goes...

Looks like I'll be spending October/November in Singapore working with our South East Asia office on getting some things up and running over there. From a work point of view this is great as I get a chance to do some new things and long business trips are good news for finances in general. It will all be with a view to making a move over there permanently (or on extended transfer), which is nice to be considered for of course. Would just be nice if it was somewhere other than Singapore.

Yeah I'd say just go along with it and see where things end up. The one great thing is you can always play the culture-clash card when/if things go wrong. How do you guys all know each other?

I wouldn't say it's too weird for things like this to happen here. The culture of group dating here is pretty ingrained as the way things work. Rather than getting rid of the 3rd person I'd imagine you'd have better luck adding someone else and push it in the direction of two pairs rather than one group of three. Also, sounds like a right pain if the two people aren't bilingual (though I may be mis-reading the above). For someone with a supposed lack of confidence you seem to be quite the fast mover...

Definitely interested in taking part, need to confirm my schedule around that week first though.

To be fair that doesn't say it's not coming out, just that they're not confirming anything just yet. Given that they've just signed new publishing deals in Europe I imagine its still under discussion.

I'm looking forward to it, TGS should be the exciting software to build from last week's hardware reveals. I agree Persona 5 should have a good push, it's being pushed massively over here alongside the slim, pack-ins as well as featuring alongside it in the advertising.

It's a bad title from reporting on a report. The chart they've used is definitely all apps rather than just gaming. The original apps flyer report has totals and then breaks it down by category, although annoyingly not for that particular stat.

Isn't that related to all apps, rather than just gaming? There's no way 50% of revenue in games comes from paid apps, I'd be surprised if it's even 5%. To be honest I question that it's 50% across all apps - just take a look at any of the top grossing charts. I think Nintendo have been pretty smart with their approach to mobile, given the platform and the IP it seems like they're doing exactly the right thing to please the audience, present their IP in the best light, and leave the door open for players to graduate to a full Nintendo experience. While you're clearly not getting the full console experience I fully expect that this will be a best in class for the genre on mobile and really what more can Nintendo do? You have to create games that suit the hardware and meet the expectations of the user base of the platform, to me this is exactly what Nintendo seem to be doing.

I really hope they go with Slim at $200 and Neo at $400, I reckon they'll be a little more than that though.

To go with the PS4 and PSVR I plan to buy in the very near future...

I'd buy property. Probably half of it on a nice place in Tokyo and then the rest on rental properties in the UK. The idea being that the rental places would cover general expenditure and I could focus more on trying to do some independent stuff rather than being a slave to the big office. Would be nice to have the fallback to be able to concentrate on something a bit more creative for a while and see what managed to take off.

@Debug Mode You'll have a great time, and don't worry too much about where the year takes you, it will be a great adventure whatever happens. A year is a long time and more than enough to get yourself a job that will transfer the visa to a permanent one for you. I did the same thing as you almost two years ago, so if you have any questions feel free to give me a shout anytime. I'm sure you have lots planned while you're in Tokyo, but if you fancy dinner/drinks after work one night I'd be more than happy to take you out.

The leader of the party (as well as other key figures) generally stands for a very safe seat for their party, which there is not much chance of them losing. If they do lose then someone of lower importance in a safe seat would give up their seat after the election and call a by-election with the leader of their party as the new candidate. I think very technically the Prime Minister doesn't actually have to be elected, so long as they can command the majority of MP's within the house. In general though something is done to make sure they have a seat. Interesting read on Alec Douglas-Home, he was PM in the 60's and technically for a short period of that had not been elected at all to the position.

The leader of the party (as well as other key figures) generally stands for a very safe seat for their party, which there is not much chance of them losing. If they do lose then someone of lower importance in a safe seat would give up their seat after the election and call a by-election with the leader of their party as the new candidate. I think very technically the Prime Minister doesn't actually have to be elected, so long as they can command the majority of MP's within the house. In general though something is done to make sure they have a seat. Interesting read on Alec Douglas-Home, he was PM in the 60's and technically for a short period of that had not been elected at all to the position.

Flights to San Francisco. Christmas NiGHTS, which for some reason has been nonexistent in stores for the past year or so. Panzer Dragoon Saga, which is much cheaper here, cost me just £10.

Flights to San Francisco. Christmas NiGHTS, which for some reason has been nonexistent in stores for the past year or so. Panzer Dragoon Saga, which is much cheaper here, cost me just £10.

Great read! A genuine insight into the ongoings of at least one of the companies involved. Let me know what you think.

Great read! A genuine insight into the ongoings of at least one of the companies involved. Let me know what you think.

The bar in here is great for a view of the city. If you need any tips on things to do etc. let me know!

A new wallet: And a water server:

Looks like at least a few people are willing to help out, if you could PM me your address I'll start getting some stuff sent over.

This is great and a really fitting tribute to MadDog - great work guys. If there is a way I can arrange my schedule to be in the UK at that time then I will definitely come along. I would really like to help out, so I'll speak to a few people and see if I can arrange some prizes/swag for this.

I had the FC30 PRO and it was really nice, I've sampled the others too and they're all really nice good quality devices. The one thing to note is that they're not MFI compliant, so if you plan to use it with an iPhone/iPad beware it has a VERY limited list of compatible games. I returned mine for that reason alone.