deal or steal?

'rumble' - link wray

so, things have been good lately. heading into the crispy season, as i like to call it.
The air's crispy, the ground's kind of crispy & even some of the food is crispy.
great!

couple of weeks ago, discovered the deal of the century...well, i think it is anyway.
i have yet to get my bill so i am no 100% sure - but don't think i screwed up the japanese THAT much.
so what was the deal?
well, i got an ipod nano & a brand new mobile phone for FREE!!!!
had read about the deal, and thought it must be too good to be true. how can a company benefit from giving away an ipod?
so, i toddled along to the softbank store to find out more.
and yes, there was a catch...i had to sign up for a new price plan.
but the new price plan was cheaper than my old plan!
AND i get to send mail & call other softbank people (formerly known as vodafone, which was known as j-phone) for *FREE*!
and considering most my friends use softbank, i was onto a win-win thing.
have found one little sneaky thing so far, the information about this is only in japanese.
but i really don't know where the catch is.
guess softbank is worried about keeping customers or soemthing...but they have kept me.
Oh yeah!

On other exciting news, am off to fukuoka on saturday for a work + fun combo.
going to see Mooney & his band Mad Words in Shin-Iizuka. that should be a fun night & am looking forward to getting away from everything for a little while.
then i spend the whole of next week working in Hakata - the gateway to kyushu. nice city & friendly people.

so, yeah, life is good right now.