Like others here, I've started many a game, and if I do everything the first day, I arrive in Harmondale on the 7th. On several occasions I've stayed on Emerald Island for a long time and I'm nearly certain that the game doesn't "time warp" your party back to the 9th of January, should you happen to have stayed beyond that.As an example, sometimes it is fun to spend weeks jumping and yelling in downtown Emerald Island. Also it is fun to jump and yell if there is a Game of Intellect, but be warned: the fun of jumping and yelling is diminished in the presence of a Game of Accuracy. Why, one could practically spend weeks, or even months, jumping and yelling. I jumped and yelled while I posted this, for instance. My roommates woke up and were not pleased about it, so they wrote my name on the board and I am in big trouble now. Drats. 
