What's the deal?

Not much been going on recently. Holidays are over and school has started up again, at least for a few weeks until the semester ends. I haven't really figured out what I'm gonna do over the holiday yet. I'd like to go to Shikoku for a week or so maybe and walk a bit of the famous 1200 kilometer, 88 temple route. I'm gonna try and work a bit if I can as well. There's a job board in the university shop and some of the jobs there are pretty good. Construction is by far the best paying and I think it would be a good fit. Most of the ones I've seen are only a day or two of work. Granted they're full days (about 14 hours), but you get about 3 hours worth of breaks and 2 meals, plus the pay is close to 2000 yen an hour. Definitely a good way to make some quick cash.

Yesterday, we went down to Osaka to meet with Asumi's older sister, Yumi and one of her co-workers. Asumi is the really ridiculously nice girl whose house in Kobe we spent New Year's at a couple weeks ago. Her sister is also incredibly nice and we all had a good time last night. Pretty standard night out in Japan; karaoke followed by an izakaya.

On a completely unrelated note can anyone explain the reasoning behind these two things to me:

1. I bought the new Strokes cd at the HMV here last week. It was the American imported limited edition and cost 1480 yen. They also carried the domestically produced Japanese version which was no different, but cost 2580 yen. What's the deal?

2. Yesterday my buddy, Andy, was sending a package pack home. He ended up sending it using the express mail service since it would cost him 1000 yen less than if he sent it using the standard service. Better service = lower price? What's the deal?