I purchased a game from Japan, which is NTSC, so, I decided to order a N64 from the USA to play NTSC games.
I also bought another NTSC game locally.
anyhoo!
the Japanese NTSC game doesn't fit the NTSC console, rather, it fits the PAL console, but doesn't work on that console because its an NTSC game!
who designed these things! haha
ok, a quick search suggests that I can simply modify the tabs in the NTSC N64 to fit the Japanese games
guess I'll wait for my screwdrivers to arrive.