Well, not much has happened this week. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to go out and do much exploring recently, but I should be able to make up for that in the coming weeks. Not next week though, I have two midterms and a speech to do in Japanese. The highlight of this week was yet another trip to Akihabara. I was able to show a great amount of restraint this time, mainly because I went with only a couple specific items in mind. Of course I bought more than those, but significantly less than previous times. Our main purpose of going to Akiba this time though, was to finally check out a Maid Cafe. The one we went to was called @home cafe.
Oh my god, it was SO cute! So moe! I wish they allowed pictures/video, but it is really something that must be seen firsthand. At the end they gave us these point cards (Japan sure loves those point cards) where the more visits you make the higher your "rank" becomes. You start out at Lv. 1 "My Master" and after 4 visits I believe you then go up in rank. I'm not sure what the next one is though. I did read somewhere that the highest rank requires some 2,000 visits. That would require you to go every day for almost 7 years! I don't know if that place has even been around that long! It costs 700 yen per person to get in, and everyone is required to get at least one thing off the menu. Li and I each got the day's drink special, which was a special coctail where your maid prepares it while doing this "shaka shaka" dance. Now, everything they do like this requires your participation as well. Basically, a "repeat after me" type of thing. I believe it went something like this: "shaka shaka" "nyan nyan" "wan wan" "pyon pyon" "(something I can't remember)" and ending with something in Japanese involving the word oishii. Then, once they've poured the drink, they use some special "magic" on it (which of course requires your participation) to make it more delicious. You start by making a heart with your hands, say something when you move the heart to your left, then say something as you move it to the right, then finally there was some cutesy sound you make as you push they heart towards your drink. Oh my god, this place was just so freaking cute. Li and I each got that coctail (his was blue and mine was red) and Allison got some insta-diabetic parfait. They enjoyed it for a while, but near the end I think it was getting annoying to them, but I didn't want to leave XD. All told it cost each of us about 1,700 yen. I want to try and rank up by the time I leave here... >_>
I shall end this post with some random comments that I've been meaning to make:
1. This country is a horrible horrible place for someone like me who needs to "catch 'em all." It is definitely a collector-oriented society. Nearly everything comes out on a limited-edition basis. This is probably why they are able to introduce new models of things so frequently and still charge so much for them.
2. Almost all women wear skirts. Not so much anymore since there has been snow a couple times, but on the warmer days 9/10 women are wearing skirts. Its very interesting. Also, I have seen one low-cut shirt being worn since I've been here. It seems like legs for the Japanese (and possible the East in general?) are like chests for the Western world, and seem to be treated in the same ways when it comes to fashion.
3. I love the trains. The public transportation system here is absolutely wonderful. Its one of the things that makes me not want to leave.
4. Speaking of trains; it isn't as crowded here as I was expecting. Sure, there are a lot of people and you can never be alone except when you're in your room, but I actually like that. Only during rush-hours do the sidewalks get crowded enough to moderately disturb your walking pace. Oh, and during those rush-hours the lesser side streets (especially the ones leading to the train stations) become sidewalks themselves.
5. There are a lot of vending machines, but they are not as prevalent as I was led to believe. Sure, just about anywhere you go you'll be able to see a vending machine somewhere nearby, but still! Also, you will be very lucky to find one that actually sells food. 99.9% of them sell drinks only. Oh, and for that matter, where are the 30-something different types of Dr. Pepper I'd heard about?? I've only seen the one.
6. I swear the chickens in this country are raised on crack. Every chicken product I've had so far has been horribly addicting.
7. I love arcades. I wish the US had arcades like Japan does. I have seen equal amounts of guys and girls in them, as there are things that are designed to appeal to either one or both there. There are even several things that are designed for couples, which is evident from the little bench seats that perfectly fit two people. Also, people of all ages can be seen in these arcades. I have gotten out of a Gundam POD and seen a 40-something guy in a suit on his way back from work getting out of the POD across from mine. This happens regularly.
8. Also, to go deeper into the previous subject, it is completely normal to see people of all ages on the train playing games on their phones or DS. The same goes for reading manga. I have sat next to older men on their way to/from work playing their DS or PSP. I've even seen one of those guys playing against a kid he didn't know sitting across from us. In the US, people would think its childish, but here it is completely normal and accepted. I think its wonderful though, since games can help bring people together across all boundaries, be it age, gender, language, or something else.
I really do love it here. If only it weren't so far from my real life and everything that comes with it. Its difficult to explain, but there are just a lot of little things about the culture that mesh with me perfectly. Maybe that's why I've experienced little to no culture shock?
Monday, February 22, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Day 38 - Feb 13
Wow, I sure do write long posts... >_>
Well, I'll try and make today's short.
So today Li and I went to Akihabara (again), but this time with the goal of not going into any of the main-street shops. This was for two main reasons: first, there are much better deals on the back streets and items that are a lot harder to find as well, and second, those seemingly infinite stores on the main-street can suck you in for hours, even whole days, at a time.
This trip to Akiba was rather fruitful. We went to many shops and I saw so many Fate items that I had never seen before/didn't know existed/thought I would never get a chance to see. I exerted SO MUCH self control today, which makes me very very sad, because in this trip alone I got more in quantity, volume, and price than both other trips combined. Yea... I think there's something wrong with me...
After the first store (where I left with the biggest shopping bag I've ever seen in my life), I vowed that since I have yet to get anything other than Fate stuff since I've been in Japan, and I do like other things, that I would not get any other Fate stuff until I had bought something other than Fate. Well, the harder I looked for anything that wasn't Fate, the more Fate stuff I found that I had never seen before. This made that vow exceedingly difficult to hold. Which I didn't. I think I bought at least one thing from every store we went to. Finally, after hours of searching, I found something from anything other than Fate that I actually wanted to get: a Horo wallscroll from Spice & Wolf.
So here's where the "something wrong with me" part makes itself completely evident. Aside from the fact that I pretty much lose consciousness in these places and emerge with a lot less money and a lot more stuff, all of which is from Fate, I reached crack addict status with this wallscroll. You see, it cost about 6,600 yen. I only had 4,000 yen left on me (I had already spent close to 20,000 yen...). Then I noticed that they had a Suica card (train pass) swipe at the register, so I could use some of the money on that card to pay for it. Well, that still wasn't enough. Also, that required me to wonder how far it was from Akihabara to Tamachi, where I could ride the train home for free (hint: extremely far). Also, I was rather hungry at this point. Now, the prospect of paying money for food had long since left my mind, but there was still the 100 yen Shaka-Shaka Chicken at McDonald's. I was starting to wonder whether or not I really wanted to eat, and if not doing so would provide me with enough money... Fortunately, after a while I noticed that they took credit cards (very uncommon), so thankfully that saved me from this most dire situation.
Every time I go to Akihabara it gets worse...
I think I need to be deported from this country immediately... for my own good.
See my facebook for pictures of today's loot.
Well, I'll try and make today's short.
So today Li and I went to Akihabara (again), but this time with the goal of not going into any of the main-street shops. This was for two main reasons: first, there are much better deals on the back streets and items that are a lot harder to find as well, and second, those seemingly infinite stores on the main-street can suck you in for hours, even whole days, at a time.
This trip to Akiba was rather fruitful. We went to many shops and I saw so many Fate items that I had never seen before/didn't know existed/thought I would never get a chance to see. I exerted SO MUCH self control today, which makes me very very sad, because in this trip alone I got more in quantity, volume, and price than both other trips combined. Yea... I think there's something wrong with me...
After the first store (where I left with the biggest shopping bag I've ever seen in my life), I vowed that since I have yet to get anything other than Fate stuff since I've been in Japan, and I do like other things, that I would not get any other Fate stuff until I had bought something other than Fate. Well, the harder I looked for anything that wasn't Fate, the more Fate stuff I found that I had never seen before. This made that vow exceedingly difficult to hold. Which I didn't. I think I bought at least one thing from every store we went to. Finally, after hours of searching, I found something from anything other than Fate that I actually wanted to get: a Horo wallscroll from Spice & Wolf.
So here's where the "something wrong with me" part makes itself completely evident. Aside from the fact that I pretty much lose consciousness in these places and emerge with a lot less money and a lot more stuff, all of which is from Fate, I reached crack addict status with this wallscroll. You see, it cost about 6,600 yen. I only had 4,000 yen left on me (I had already spent close to 20,000 yen...). Then I noticed that they had a Suica card (train pass) swipe at the register, so I could use some of the money on that card to pay for it. Well, that still wasn't enough. Also, that required me to wonder how far it was from Akihabara to Tamachi, where I could ride the train home for free (hint: extremely far). Also, I was rather hungry at this point. Now, the prospect of paying money for food had long since left my mind, but there was still the 100 yen Shaka-Shaka Chicken at McDonald's. I was starting to wonder whether or not I really wanted to eat, and if not doing so would provide me with enough money... Fortunately, after a while I noticed that they took credit cards (very uncommon), so thankfully that saved me from this most dire situation.
Every time I go to Akihabara it gets worse...
I think I need to be deported from this country immediately... for my own good.
See my facebook for pictures of today's loot.
Day 37 - Feb 12
So yesterday was quite the experience! Li and I went to an onsen in Odaiba and stayed overnight. An onsen is a hot-spring and Odaiba is a man-made island off the coast near Tokyo. The place is called Ooedo-onsen Monogatari, and it is a period-themed onsen (english website: http://www.ooedoonsen.jp/higaeri/english/ ).
Since this was a very traditional onsen there was no mixed bathing, though there is much to do outside of the baths which is not gender separated. Also, being a traditional onsen, everyone must be completely nude in the bathing areas. You are allowed to bring in a small hand-towel, but you aren't supposed to let it touch the water. Basically, this towel can be used for covering yourself up as you walk around. I was quite surprised how quickly you get used to being completely naked around other completely naked men. The whole atmosphere was just very comfortable. No one stares, you're all just there to relax, so being nervous/making others nervous is greatly inhibiting to that relaxation. Plus, as soon as you get into the first bath you just don't care about anything anymore. I can really understand how this became such an integrated part of their culture.
When you arrive you choose a yukata to wear, which (aside from underwear) you will wear only that while on the premises (and outside of the baths). Yukata: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukata
I really need to find a yukata before I go home, b/c that thing was so comfortable. I don't think I'll ever wear my robe again if I have one of those. For obvious reasons I don't have pictures of inside the onsen, but if you go to their website (which I linked above) you can see what the inside of the place looks like.
So yea, there were originally other people that were going to come with us, but they ended up dropping out, so it was just Li and I on a completely heterosexual date :P I mentioned before that we stayed the night. This is a 24 hour onsen, the open-air baths close at midnight and re-open at 5am, but the indoor baths are open from 10am-8am (2 hours for cleaning). While they do have a few rooms available, only big parties use those, everyone else just goes to the recliner room. You can see pictures on their website, but it is a room filled with really comfortable recliners, each with their own little TV attached and speakers mounted inside the headrest so you don't disturb other people. Well, Li and I arrived at the onsen at about 8pm. We got ourselves checked in and immediately checked out the outdoor baths. After checking out some of the indoor ones, we then went on to get some food at one of the many food stalls in the main room. The highlight of this food was the beef hot pot, which was awesome, but there was also some yakitori and sake. After eating, it was about 23:15, so we headed out to the open-air baths one more time before they closed. While we were in there, we decided to check out this one really interesting bath they have. It is straight, unfiltered hot-spring water and has a "molten copper" color (or so says the website). Well, it was definitely a solid copper color. I didn't understand the "molten" part until we got in it though. Dear god, that was the hottest thing I have ever been in in my life. The temperature gauge said it was 50 degrees Celsius. Max amount of time I was able to stay in there was 20 minutes. When we got out, not only did we look like partially cooked lobster, but we smelled like it. So anyways, at about 00:30 we plopped ourselves down into some recliners for 3 hours of rest before we wanted to get up and go back out to the baths. The exhaustion made me pass out rather nicely, however due to my body being uncomfortable I got up after 30 minutes. At this point, I remembered that I can't sleep sitting in a recliner, no matter how hard I try. So I laid there for about 3 hours watching random anime that I didn't understand. Some of it looked very interesting though. Also, Hidamari Sketch looks like possibly the cutest thing in the world (I've watched it a few other times late-night here).
At 4am we finally got up and went back out to the baths for one last go. We were in there until about 5am. The biggest mistake I made was going straight into the "molten copper" bath without getting acclimated first. The string of obscenities I let out around waist-deep was rather original. The jacuzzi bath they had was absolutely wonderful (and a nice cool 40 degrees Celsius), and the perfect way to end our stay there. We decided to head back after that bath and stop by the arcade that was on the way to the station. On the way there we picked up some breakfast at a conbini, which was rather nice. A big slab of fried chicken is possibly the greatest thing in the world at 5:30 after less than an hour of sleep. The only bad part about this was that it was rather windy, cold, and slightly raining. So we stopped at the arcade, played a round of the Gundam POD game, were very upset when we found out that since almost all arcades are closed at that hour the game's servers were down so none of our data was saved, then hopped on the train and finally got back to the dorms at about 7:00.
My intent was to sleep for only a few hours so I could get some work done before my 16:50 class. Unfortunately, my body decided to sleep through my cell phone's weak alarm, so I got up at 15:40. Remember now, it takes me an hour to get from my room to school. I was less than pleased. I did manage to get there on time though.
Oh, and I forgot to mention the part leading up to the onsen yesterday. Outside the station was the place called "Palette Town" which had a mall and the Toyota Showcase. The mall was really cool and themed like Venice (which they spelled Venus). Especially cool were the ceilings, which were painted to look perfectly like the sky, and changed color to match the daylight outside. The Toyota Showcase was also really cool, and some of the concept cars were really interesting, as well as the "fashion" cars. Check my facebook for pictures of both these places.
Overall, it was an awesome trip. Li and I have both said that we want to go back, and I know I'm definitely taking Tsuki here when she comes. I highly recommend all of the above, the Toyota Showcase, the Venus Mall, and the Ooedo-onsen Monogatari to anyone who finds themselves in Japan, especially the Tokyo area.
Since this was a very traditional onsen there was no mixed bathing, though there is much to do outside of the baths which is not gender separated. Also, being a traditional onsen, everyone must be completely nude in the bathing areas. You are allowed to bring in a small hand-towel, but you aren't supposed to let it touch the water. Basically, this towel can be used for covering yourself up as you walk around. I was quite surprised how quickly you get used to being completely naked around other completely naked men. The whole atmosphere was just very comfortable. No one stares, you're all just there to relax, so being nervous/making others nervous is greatly inhibiting to that relaxation. Plus, as soon as you get into the first bath you just don't care about anything anymore. I can really understand how this became such an integrated part of their culture.
When you arrive you choose a yukata to wear, which (aside from underwear) you will wear only that while on the premises (and outside of the baths). Yukata: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukata
I really need to find a yukata before I go home, b/c that thing was so comfortable. I don't think I'll ever wear my robe again if I have one of those. For obvious reasons I don't have pictures of inside the onsen, but if you go to their website (which I linked above) you can see what the inside of the place looks like.
So yea, there were originally other people that were going to come with us, but they ended up dropping out, so it was just Li and I on a completely heterosexual date :P I mentioned before that we stayed the night. This is a 24 hour onsen, the open-air baths close at midnight and re-open at 5am, but the indoor baths are open from 10am-8am (2 hours for cleaning). While they do have a few rooms available, only big parties use those, everyone else just goes to the recliner room. You can see pictures on their website, but it is a room filled with really comfortable recliners, each with their own little TV attached and speakers mounted inside the headrest so you don't disturb other people. Well, Li and I arrived at the onsen at about 8pm. We got ourselves checked in and immediately checked out the outdoor baths. After checking out some of the indoor ones, we then went on to get some food at one of the many food stalls in the main room. The highlight of this food was the beef hot pot, which was awesome, but there was also some yakitori and sake. After eating, it was about 23:15, so we headed out to the open-air baths one more time before they closed. While we were in there, we decided to check out this one really interesting bath they have. It is straight, unfiltered hot-spring water and has a "molten copper" color (or so says the website). Well, it was definitely a solid copper color. I didn't understand the "molten" part until we got in it though. Dear god, that was the hottest thing I have ever been in in my life. The temperature gauge said it was 50 degrees Celsius. Max amount of time I was able to stay in there was 20 minutes. When we got out, not only did we look like partially cooked lobster, but we smelled like it. So anyways, at about 00:30 we plopped ourselves down into some recliners for 3 hours of rest before we wanted to get up and go back out to the baths. The exhaustion made me pass out rather nicely, however due to my body being uncomfortable I got up after 30 minutes. At this point, I remembered that I can't sleep sitting in a recliner, no matter how hard I try. So I laid there for about 3 hours watching random anime that I didn't understand. Some of it looked very interesting though. Also, Hidamari Sketch looks like possibly the cutest thing in the world (I've watched it a few other times late-night here).
At 4am we finally got up and went back out to the baths for one last go. We were in there until about 5am. The biggest mistake I made was going straight into the "molten copper" bath without getting acclimated first. The string of obscenities I let out around waist-deep was rather original. The jacuzzi bath they had was absolutely wonderful (and a nice cool 40 degrees Celsius), and the perfect way to end our stay there. We decided to head back after that bath and stop by the arcade that was on the way to the station. On the way there we picked up some breakfast at a conbini, which was rather nice. A big slab of fried chicken is possibly the greatest thing in the world at 5:30 after less than an hour of sleep. The only bad part about this was that it was rather windy, cold, and slightly raining. So we stopped at the arcade, played a round of the Gundam POD game, were very upset when we found out that since almost all arcades are closed at that hour the game's servers were down so none of our data was saved, then hopped on the train and finally got back to the dorms at about 7:00.
My intent was to sleep for only a few hours so I could get some work done before my 16:50 class. Unfortunately, my body decided to sleep through my cell phone's weak alarm, so I got up at 15:40. Remember now, it takes me an hour to get from my room to school. I was less than pleased. I did manage to get there on time though.
Oh, and I forgot to mention the part leading up to the onsen yesterday. Outside the station was the place called "Palette Town" which had a mall and the Toyota Showcase. The mall was really cool and themed like Venice (which they spelled Venus). Especially cool were the ceilings, which were painted to look perfectly like the sky, and changed color to match the daylight outside. The Toyota Showcase was also really cool, and some of the concept cars were really interesting, as well as the "fashion" cars. Check my facebook for pictures of both these places.
Overall, it was an awesome trip. Li and I have both said that we want to go back, and I know I'm definitely taking Tsuki here when she comes. I highly recommend all of the above, the Toyota Showcase, the Venus Mall, and the Ooedo-onsen Monogatari to anyone who finds themselves in Japan, especially the Tokyo area.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Day 19-29 - Jan 24 - Feb 3
This is part 2.
For the week of the 24th I didn't do much aside from schoolwork. I got my health insurance on Wednesday, and watched "Vexille" at the movie night on Thursday. Vexille was very interesting, and not really what I was expecting it to turn out to be. I liked it.
Saturday the 30th was quite the eventful day to end a quite uneventful week. We had plans to go to Akihabara for some shopping (Archer bag? oh, and Ar Tonelico 3 came out on Thurs the 28th, maybe there's stuff for that too?). We casually went into this store that looked pretty good and was almost directly across from the station exit we went out from. Little did we know that this place had around 6 floors, and not a single one of them the same. I think I made it to the 2nd floor before the spending began (the first floor was SO tempting, but I didn't know what lied ahead). We left that store 5 hours later and about $200 poorer. I wanted to pick up some stuff from Spice & Wolf or maybe something else, but I ended up buying entirely Fate related items. Not disappointed about that in the least though; it just means I need to go again! Tom wasn't as interested as us rabid fanboys, so he left us to head home after about 2 hours. We finished our shopping around 17:30, and then went on to find our second reason for coming to Akiba that day: the Gundam PODs. These are for a game called Gundam Kizuna, where you pilot a gundam and fight other players in the arcade and over the internet. The draw to this game is the PODs. It is a complete Gundam cockpit that you climb into with a massive panoramic display surrounding your complete peripheral vision. You first need to go to this terminal outside the POD and create your pilot and choose your faction, which is then printed onto a card that you enter into the POD. All your player data is kept on this card, so the more you play the more mechas you unlock as well as other various upgrades and enhancements. Its very cool. Here is the wikipedia article on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kid%C5%8D_Senshi_Gundam:_Senj%C5%8D_no_Kizuna
By the time we left the arcade it was about 21:00... We had heard that the arcade in the Big Box building (which is right next to the station we live near) had some of these PODs, so we went there to find out. Well, as luck would have it, they do. After about an hour of thoroughly testing the facilities, we decided that we'd spent enough money that day and should head home. Though, we did say we would try to stop by this arcade and play at least one round a day, which, so far we have... (btw I have pics of these pods that I will be uploading to my facebook soon)
Sunday the 30th and Monday the 1st were pretty uneventful, I spent most of both of them doing work. I was up until 4:00 Tuesday morning preparing my 10 minute speech for Public Speaking that I was gave later that day. Tuesday was very long and I was very tired throughout most of it. Oh, but it snowed on Monday night! It was snowing lightly Sunday night but it was melted by the time it hit the ground. Apparently it stuck Monday night though, since when I opened my balcony door to see how cold it was outside I noticed the roof across from my balcony was covered in snow, and so were all the other roofs I could see! I know, I live in Western NY, I shouldn't be excited over snow, but still, it was cool.
Finally, we're up to today! Today is Wednesday, February 3rd, and it is day 29 of my time here in Japan. I can't believe its already 1/4 over... x_x. I've been wanting to get a long coat for a while now, and Li said the best place to go is Harajuku. Well, I had time today but I was going to have to rush since I have class at 16:50 on M/W/F. Luck was on my side though, since a couple minutes before I was leaving (at about 14:00) I got an email saying that class was canceled today! Li and I went to Harajuku searching for a coat for me, and even though I've heard the prices here were crazy expensive, I found a lot of coats for really cheap. Most were around 15,000 yen, but there were some that were even as low as 4,000! Since I've heard from too many sources that Harajuku is expensive to not believe them, I have to imagine that the rest of their clothing is ridiculous, especially the women's stuff. After a little searching I was able to narrow it down to three coats of varying lengths and designs in one shop, and then after trying on each one several times I finally decided on one. I'm very pleased with it, and it was only about 17,000. Since I had money left over (I was expecting to pay a little over 20,000), I decided to look at some other stuff. Li and I saw some nice hats in the men's floor of this one store, so we looked at them for a bit. After being faced with so many man-bags in this country, and seeing them displayed everywhere throughout all the men's sections, I finally decided to actually look at some. I tried hard to find the least gay-looking man-bag (trust me, not easy) and actually found one that I kind of liked, and it was only 4,000 yen. This bag has so many pockets. My mom will laugh when she reads this, since she knows how much I love excessive pockets and compartments. Well, the more I looked at it the more I started to actually kind of like it. I mean, the coat I just got didn't have any inside pockets, just the two usual outside ones. Sure I can hold more in those than I can in my leather jacket, but still... what about all the extra little stuff I want to carry around with me? I mean, I don't want to bring my backpack everywhere because its annoying and gets in the way. So... why not get this man-purs--I mean man-bag? It is only 4,000... and look at all the pockets...
So said my internal voice. Yea, its the same voice that's usually telling me I gotta' catch 'em all, so you can guess where this situation ended up. Well, the more I've used my man-bag so far the more I've started to really like it. I mean, its just so convenient!
Maybe I should staple some bacon to the outside just to assure people of my manliness...
For the week of the 24th I didn't do much aside from schoolwork. I got my health insurance on Wednesday, and watched "Vexille" at the movie night on Thursday. Vexille was very interesting, and not really what I was expecting it to turn out to be. I liked it.
Saturday the 30th was quite the eventful day to end a quite uneventful week. We had plans to go to Akihabara for some shopping (Archer bag? oh, and Ar Tonelico 3 came out on Thurs the 28th, maybe there's stuff for that too?). We casually went into this store that looked pretty good and was almost directly across from the station exit we went out from. Little did we know that this place had around 6 floors, and not a single one of them the same. I think I made it to the 2nd floor before the spending began (the first floor was SO tempting, but I didn't know what lied ahead). We left that store 5 hours later and about $200 poorer. I wanted to pick up some stuff from Spice & Wolf or maybe something else, but I ended up buying entirely Fate related items. Not disappointed about that in the least though; it just means I need to go again! Tom wasn't as interested as us rabid fanboys, so he left us to head home after about 2 hours. We finished our shopping around 17:30, and then went on to find our second reason for coming to Akiba that day: the Gundam PODs. These are for a game called Gundam Kizuna, where you pilot a gundam and fight other players in the arcade and over the internet. The draw to this game is the PODs. It is a complete Gundam cockpit that you climb into with a massive panoramic display surrounding your complete peripheral vision. You first need to go to this terminal outside the POD and create your pilot and choose your faction, which is then printed onto a card that you enter into the POD. All your player data is kept on this card, so the more you play the more mechas you unlock as well as other various upgrades and enhancements. Its very cool. Here is the wikipedia article on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kid%C5%8D_Senshi_Gundam:_Senj%C5%8D_no_Kizuna
By the time we left the arcade it was about 21:00... We had heard that the arcade in the Big Box building (which is right next to the station we live near) had some of these PODs, so we went there to find out. Well, as luck would have it, they do. After about an hour of thoroughly testing the facilities, we decided that we'd spent enough money that day and should head home. Though, we did say we would try to stop by this arcade and play at least one round a day, which, so far we have... (btw I have pics of these pods that I will be uploading to my facebook soon)
Sunday the 30th and Monday the 1st were pretty uneventful, I spent most of both of them doing work. I was up until 4:00 Tuesday morning preparing my 10 minute speech for Public Speaking that I was gave later that day. Tuesday was very long and I was very tired throughout most of it. Oh, but it snowed on Monday night! It was snowing lightly Sunday night but it was melted by the time it hit the ground. Apparently it stuck Monday night though, since when I opened my balcony door to see how cold it was outside I noticed the roof across from my balcony was covered in snow, and so were all the other roofs I could see! I know, I live in Western NY, I shouldn't be excited over snow, but still, it was cool.
Finally, we're up to today! Today is Wednesday, February 3rd, and it is day 29 of my time here in Japan. I can't believe its already 1/4 over... x_x. I've been wanting to get a long coat for a while now, and Li said the best place to go is Harajuku. Well, I had time today but I was going to have to rush since I have class at 16:50 on M/W/F. Luck was on my side though, since a couple minutes before I was leaving (at about 14:00) I got an email saying that class was canceled today! Li and I went to Harajuku searching for a coat for me, and even though I've heard the prices here were crazy expensive, I found a lot of coats for really cheap. Most were around 15,000 yen, but there were some that were even as low as 4,000! Since I've heard from too many sources that Harajuku is expensive to not believe them, I have to imagine that the rest of their clothing is ridiculous, especially the women's stuff. After a little searching I was able to narrow it down to three coats of varying lengths and designs in one shop, and then after trying on each one several times I finally decided on one. I'm very pleased with it, and it was only about 17,000. Since I had money left over (I was expecting to pay a little over 20,000), I decided to look at some other stuff. Li and I saw some nice hats in the men's floor of this one store, so we looked at them for a bit. After being faced with so many man-bags in this country, and seeing them displayed everywhere throughout all the men's sections, I finally decided to actually look at some. I tried hard to find the least gay-looking man-bag (trust me, not easy) and actually found one that I kind of liked, and it was only 4,000 yen. This bag has so many pockets. My mom will laugh when she reads this, since she knows how much I love excessive pockets and compartments. Well, the more I looked at it the more I started to actually kind of like it. I mean, the coat I just got didn't have any inside pockets, just the two usual outside ones. Sure I can hold more in those than I can in my leather jacket, but still... what about all the extra little stuff I want to carry around with me? I mean, I don't want to bring my backpack everywhere because its annoying and gets in the way. So... why not get this man-purs--I mean man-bag? It is only 4,000... and look at all the pockets...
So said my internal voice. Yea, its the same voice that's usually telling me I gotta' catch 'em all, so you can guess where this situation ended up. Well, the more I've used my man-bag so far the more I've started to really like it. I mean, its just so convenient!
Maybe I should staple some bacon to the outside just to assure people of my manliness...
Day 15-18 - Jan 20-23
NOTE: I broke this post up into two parts because it started getting really long. This is part 1.
Well I haven't updated this in a while. Sorry about that, things got pretty crazy for a while with the workload (see my previous post). Fortunately that has all passed and things are evened out nicely. Except for my applications, I still need to do those and a lot of them are due next week >_<. My 5-7 page paper for Business Ethics turned into a 9 page paper since I started talking about topic that were directly related to my research and the internship I did last summer. Also, while searching for references for this paper I made a startling discovery: I am genuinely interested in gender studies in the topic of video games o_o. I know, scary.
My Japanese stuff all went well, no real issues there. My 10 minute informational speech in Public Speaking went pretty well, considering I had only 4 hours of sleep the night before because I was writing it up. I think I have midterms coming up in the next couple weeks? I'm going to devote the entirety of this weekend to filling out applications.
Ok, now that the boring stuff is out of the way, on to what I've been doing outside of schoolwork for the past two weeks.
On Wed or Thurs (the 20th and 21st) I finally decided that I was going to see the premier of the Unlimited Blade Works movie. I was just way too hyped up about it and I was the only person on the Mirror Moon forums who was able to go, so I decided to fulfill my duty. Preordering the tickets online wasn't very difficult, and fortunately the nearest theater showing it was only two stop away on the train. When I mentioned it Li said he wanted to go to, so I directed him towards where to get the tickets, and so we were set to go on Saturday the 23rd for our 12:00 showing (theaters in Japan have showings all day). I will finish this story later...
On Friday the 22nd (Day 17) Tom, Li, and I decided to go out for some drinks. Li said he knew of a place where everything on the menu was 270 yen (~$3). There was about an hour wait to get in and then a two hour time limit if it was busy, that is unless you were being an especially good customer. This place was really nice. You had to take off your shoes at the door, and the tables were all in tatami-mat rooms where you sit on a cushion on the floor and there is a hole under the table where your legs can go. There were also touch-screen menus at every table, so you just poke whichever item you want, select how many, and click order and a few minutes later your stuff will show up. It was really cool, the workers were really nice, the atmosphere was great, the drinks were great, and the food was pretty darn good for only 270 yen. We got seated a little bit after 21:00, and by the time we got out of there it was 2:30... I think we closed the place too... So yea, we were being rather good customers. I don't think there was ever a point where one of us did not have a drink. Occasionally we would even order an extra in advance. That night marks the first time I've ever drank so much I couldn't remember what happened. I can recall everything up until we were about half-way back to the dorms. I do remember bits and pieces, like Li leaning against the wall throwing up and Tom and I each posing next to him taking pictures. Apparently I got a picture of Li and Tom smoking as well, and shortly before we got to the part where Li was throwing up he and I were running down the (rather steep) hill that's on the way back, though I don't remember either of these. The only other thing I remember after that was my ability to walk straight was so poor that I was swaying from one side of the lane to the other. There were quite a few pictures taken during this whole trip back, but unfortunately only one survives since Tom deleted them all (the pictures from this night can be seen on my facebook). Once I got back to my room my memory clears up somewhat. I remember seeing the clock as I walked in saying 3:30, so somehow it took us an hour to make the 10 minute trip back. After about 10 minutes in my room, the horror started. It must have been the two peach highballs I had at the end (though they were over an hour prior to this?) which were quite sweet, but suddenly I decided that I needed to get to the bathroom immediately. Unfortunately, I could only make it to the sink in my kitchenette. I spent the next three hours alternating between occupying the sink and passing out next to it. At one point early on I saw that I should turn the sink on to clean it out, however I had forgotten about the strainer-thing in the drain, which rather quickly became clogged. Next time I wake up there is water pouring over the edge of the sink and all over the floor. I quickly turned off the sink and thank god I had the sense to throw down a towel, though I lacked the energy to do anything beyond that and passed out over the sink one last time. At 6:30 I finally deemed myself fit to actually go to bed, which I was very glad for. I next wake up staring at the clock. It says 12:46. A whole range of thoughts go screaming through my head, generally consisting of: "PM right? No its bright and we got back after that" "NO" "Oh god" and various explicatives that I would rather not mention here. Remember what I was talking about earlier? How I was going to see a movie with Li on Saturday the 23rd at 12:00? Well it was Saturday the 23rd, and well past 12:00. The first thing I did after I threw myself out of bed was notice how much water there still was on the floor by the sink, so I squeezed the water out of the towel into the shower and threw it down again to soak up the rest. I then got on facebook to find that Li had just gotten up at 12:30 as well. At this point we were both very hungover, and even though we missed our showing and even though it was a premier so there probably wouldn't be any seats left, we still decided to leave immediately and try our best. I squeezed out the towel one more time (the floor now being dry), got dressed and left without eating, since it was already 13:15 by then and the next showing was at 14:30.
Fortunately I was well prepared and had done the street view on Google Maps, so once we got off the train at Ikebukuro I knew just how to get to the Sunshine Theater. There was a bit of a line, but we finally got up to get our tickets. Remember, we are both extremely hungover and our Japanese skills are already pretty poor, but we were able enough to stumble through and get our tickets. The guy looked quite confused when I handed him soaking wet money haha. Now, you should know that Japanese theaters assign seats, so they can keep track of exactly how many spots are open and where. We were extremely lucky that both the 14:30 and 17:00 showings could not be booked online since the voice actors were going to be speaking afterward. Understandably, all the seats were already booked, but Japanese theaters allow a certain number of "standing" tickets to be sold, which means you get to see the movie, you just need to stand along the sides or back. Even though we had to pay a little over $30 to see this movie (couldn't get a refund for our missed showing and Japanese movies are very expensive) we were still very happy to get the chance to see the premier. I was thanking the gods when the movie started and there were still two seats right next to where we were standing still unoccupied. Lets just say they didn't stay that way for long.
The movie was AWESOME by the way. Even though there were no subtitles I still knew most everything that was going on/being said since UBW is my favorite part of Fate/Stay Night. I also had no idea what the voice actors were saying when they stood up on stage after the movie, but it was really cool seeing them too. The three VAs were for Shirou, Rin, and Archer. Outside the theater they had some new upcoming FSN figures on display in a case, which I took several pictures of (to be uploaded to my facebook soon since they're on my phone). Elsewhere on the floor, there was a table where they were selling brand new UBW products, and a line to get to that table that went up a stairwell about three stories. Being the rabid fanboys that we are, Li and I waited through this line and bought everything they had that wasn't sold out. Lucky for our wallets, but not for us, the two most expensive items - the $300 FSN iPod with assorted covers and the $50 Archer messenger bag - were sold out. I have since seen the iPod for sale elsewhere, but I can live without that. That Archer bag on the other hand... if I ever come across someone who has it before I find one for sale I swear I will drag them down a dark alley and emerge with the bag. Of course, Li says not if he gets to the guy first.
We left the theater with our bags in tow and very little money in our pockets at about 17:30. By now we were both EXTREMELY hungry, seeing as how neither of us had anything to eat all day except me who had a bottle of water before the movie. As we raised our gaze to look back up at the theater, we noticed that directly across the street was the wonderful glowing sign of a Denny's. That french toast was possibly the greatest thing I have ever consumed in my life. With food now in our stomachs, Li and I were rapidly progressing towards a food coma. Luckily we were able to drag ourselves back to our rooms before finally passing out and ending this awesome yet horribly hungover day.
Well I haven't updated this in a while. Sorry about that, things got pretty crazy for a while with the workload (see my previous post). Fortunately that has all passed and things are evened out nicely. Except for my applications, I still need to do those and a lot of them are due next week >_<. My 5-7 page paper for Business Ethics turned into a 9 page paper since I started talking about topic that were directly related to my research and the internship I did last summer. Also, while searching for references for this paper I made a startling discovery: I am genuinely interested in gender studies in the topic of video games o_o. I know, scary.
My Japanese stuff all went well, no real issues there. My 10 minute informational speech in Public Speaking went pretty well, considering I had only 4 hours of sleep the night before because I was writing it up. I think I have midterms coming up in the next couple weeks? I'm going to devote the entirety of this weekend to filling out applications.
Ok, now that the boring stuff is out of the way, on to what I've been doing outside of schoolwork for the past two weeks.
On Wed or Thurs (the 20th and 21st) I finally decided that I was going to see the premier of the Unlimited Blade Works movie. I was just way too hyped up about it and I was the only person on the Mirror Moon forums who was able to go, so I decided to fulfill my duty. Preordering the tickets online wasn't very difficult, and fortunately the nearest theater showing it was only two stop away on the train. When I mentioned it Li said he wanted to go to, so I directed him towards where to get the tickets, and so we were set to go on Saturday the 23rd for our 12:00 showing (theaters in Japan have showings all day). I will finish this story later...
On Friday the 22nd (Day 17) Tom, Li, and I decided to go out for some drinks. Li said he knew of a place where everything on the menu was 270 yen (~$3). There was about an hour wait to get in and then a two hour time limit if it was busy, that is unless you were being an especially good customer. This place was really nice. You had to take off your shoes at the door, and the tables were all in tatami-mat rooms where you sit on a cushion on the floor and there is a hole under the table where your legs can go. There were also touch-screen menus at every table, so you just poke whichever item you want, select how many, and click order and a few minutes later your stuff will show up. It was really cool, the workers were really nice, the atmosphere was great, the drinks were great, and the food was pretty darn good for only 270 yen. We got seated a little bit after 21:00, and by the time we got out of there it was 2:30... I think we closed the place too... So yea, we were being rather good customers. I don't think there was ever a point where one of us did not have a drink. Occasionally we would even order an extra in advance. That night marks the first time I've ever drank so much I couldn't remember what happened. I can recall everything up until we were about half-way back to the dorms. I do remember bits and pieces, like Li leaning against the wall throwing up and Tom and I each posing next to him taking pictures. Apparently I got a picture of Li and Tom smoking as well, and shortly before we got to the part where Li was throwing up he and I were running down the (rather steep) hill that's on the way back, though I don't remember either of these. The only other thing I remember after that was my ability to walk straight was so poor that I was swaying from one side of the lane to the other. There were quite a few pictures taken during this whole trip back, but unfortunately only one survives since Tom deleted them all (the pictures from this night can be seen on my facebook). Once I got back to my room my memory clears up somewhat. I remember seeing the clock as I walked in saying 3:30, so somehow it took us an hour to make the 10 minute trip back. After about 10 minutes in my room, the horror started. It must have been the two peach highballs I had at the end (though they were over an hour prior to this?) which were quite sweet, but suddenly I decided that I needed to get to the bathroom immediately. Unfortunately, I could only make it to the sink in my kitchenette. I spent the next three hours alternating between occupying the sink and passing out next to it. At one point early on I saw that I should turn the sink on to clean it out, however I had forgotten about the strainer-thing in the drain, which rather quickly became clogged. Next time I wake up there is water pouring over the edge of the sink and all over the floor. I quickly turned off the sink and thank god I had the sense to throw down a towel, though I lacked the energy to do anything beyond that and passed out over the sink one last time. At 6:30 I finally deemed myself fit to actually go to bed, which I was very glad for. I next wake up staring at the clock. It says 12:46. A whole range of thoughts go screaming through my head, generally consisting of: "PM right? No its bright and we got back after that" "NO" "Oh god" and various explicatives that I would rather not mention here. Remember what I was talking about earlier? How I was going to see a movie with Li on Saturday the 23rd at 12:00? Well it was Saturday the 23rd, and well past 12:00. The first thing I did after I threw myself out of bed was notice how much water there still was on the floor by the sink, so I squeezed the water out of the towel into the shower and threw it down again to soak up the rest. I then got on facebook to find that Li had just gotten up at 12:30 as well. At this point we were both very hungover, and even though we missed our showing and even though it was a premier so there probably wouldn't be any seats left, we still decided to leave immediately and try our best. I squeezed out the towel one more time (the floor now being dry), got dressed and left without eating, since it was already 13:15 by then and the next showing was at 14:30.
Fortunately I was well prepared and had done the street view on Google Maps, so once we got off the train at Ikebukuro I knew just how to get to the Sunshine Theater. There was a bit of a line, but we finally got up to get our tickets. Remember, we are both extremely hungover and our Japanese skills are already pretty poor, but we were able enough to stumble through and get our tickets. The guy looked quite confused when I handed him soaking wet money haha. Now, you should know that Japanese theaters assign seats, so they can keep track of exactly how many spots are open and where. We were extremely lucky that both the 14:30 and 17:00 showings could not be booked online since the voice actors were going to be speaking afterward. Understandably, all the seats were already booked, but Japanese theaters allow a certain number of "standing" tickets to be sold, which means you get to see the movie, you just need to stand along the sides or back. Even though we had to pay a little over $30 to see this movie (couldn't get a refund for our missed showing and Japanese movies are very expensive) we were still very happy to get the chance to see the premier. I was thanking the gods when the movie started and there were still two seats right next to where we were standing still unoccupied. Lets just say they didn't stay that way for long.
The movie was AWESOME by the way. Even though there were no subtitles I still knew most everything that was going on/being said since UBW is my favorite part of Fate/Stay Night. I also had no idea what the voice actors were saying when they stood up on stage after the movie, but it was really cool seeing them too. The three VAs were for Shirou, Rin, and Archer. Outside the theater they had some new upcoming FSN figures on display in a case, which I took several pictures of (to be uploaded to my facebook soon since they're on my phone). Elsewhere on the floor, there was a table where they were selling brand new UBW products, and a line to get to that table that went up a stairwell about three stories. Being the rabid fanboys that we are, Li and I waited through this line and bought everything they had that wasn't sold out. Lucky for our wallets, but not for us, the two most expensive items - the $300 FSN iPod with assorted covers and the $50 Archer messenger bag - were sold out. I have since seen the iPod for sale elsewhere, but I can live without that. That Archer bag on the other hand... if I ever come across someone who has it before I find one for sale I swear I will drag them down a dark alley and emerge with the bag. Of course, Li says not if he gets to the guy first.
We left the theater with our bags in tow and very little money in our pockets at about 17:30. By now we were both EXTREMELY hungry, seeing as how neither of us had anything to eat all day except me who had a bottle of water before the movie. As we raised our gaze to look back up at the theater, we noticed that directly across the street was the wonderful glowing sign of a Denny's. That french toast was possibly the greatest thing I have ever consumed in my life. With food now in our stomachs, Li and I were rapidly progressing towards a food coma. Luckily we were able to drag ourselves back to our rooms before finally passing out and ending this awesome yet horribly hungover day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
