Kyoto

Tokyo was fun, but it really didn't capture the essence of Japan, or at least what I wanted out of Japan. I love me some cityscapes, but I can get those anywhere.

Thankfully, with my Japan Rail Pass, I had access to the whole country (with the exception of the region near Sendai for obvious reasons). So I decided to head out to Kyoto for a bit more of an organic experience, grabbing a delicious eki-bento (boxed lunch from a rail station) and hitting the Shinkansen (bullet train) with my friend Chris and his girlfriend Asuka. Interestingly enough, I found out the night before that they were having an event called Daimonji that would take place the night I was there. While this event didn't last long, it was awesome to be standing in a crowd of Japanese people as the side of a mountain lit ablaze in the shape of the kanji for dai. There are 4 other symbols, however getting to a place where you can see all of them lit wasn't possible that night; besides, I'm sure it cost some bank to get one of those places.

After this died down, we hopped a train over to the Gion District of Kyoto, which is one of the more cultural centers of the city. It kind of reminded me of Flagstaff, as there weren't so many big buildings. Rather, we got to see a lot of the smaller shops. We ended up eating at an izakaya, or traditional Japanese restaurant. There, I had my first alcohol of the trip in the form of an order of sake (pronounced sah-kay) that was easily the best I've ever had. I actually got a chance to use some of my Japanese , and even got props for my "Ecto-1 chasing Pac-Man ghosts" shirt ("Pac-man da?", or "Is that Pac-Man?"). The food was awesome, though I now will admit that there's no way I can ever have Top Ramen again after having a bowl of the real stuff. The Miso Ramen was unreal, so much so that Chris ended up having to grab a bowl. This was probably the first time I felt like I was really, exceptionally glad I had made the trip. Sure, I had a blast in Tokyo, but this was where I first had the "I'm in Japan" feeling.

We called it a night after that, and I headed back to my hotel in Inari. Earlier in the day, I had noticed that there was a large Shinto gate near the train station, so the next morning I decided to investigate it. Turns out, I stumbled onto one of the greatest Shinto Shrines in all of Japan - the Fushimi Inari shrine. I took some pictures and marveled at the architecture, and truly enjoyed what I saw. I eventually left and headed back to the park to meet up with Chris...only to get rained on. Oh well, it was a nice break from the humidity. We hit up another izakaya, and then it was off to two sites: Kinkakuji, where I saw the golden temple, and Ryoanji, another temple spot. These were both very quick visits, but still awesome and made for some great pictures.

All in all, this was where the trip really gelled for me. Kyoto was a bit more of an authentic Japanese visit, marked with great food and the fortune of stumbling into wonderful events that I hadn't planned for, but was glad I got to see. It was too short a visit, true, but it served as the high point of the trip.

After this, it was an overnight trip to Fukuoka, which was where I boarded my ferry to Busan, South Korea. But that's for another night.

Tokyo

I don't really want to spend too much more time talking about the Tokyo leg of my trip, so I'll sum up here.

Tokyo is fun, but really, if you were planning a trip to Japan, you could probably do with only a couple of days there and be fine. It's a very impersonal city, even for the Japanese. People generally keep to themselves and go about their way. Now, granted, I actually prefer this to places like Tucson, where I couldn't walk down the street without being bothered for money/smokes/a light/the time/directions. But some people prefer this abundance of access to other people, so let me point this out - Tokyo requires:

1) That you know where you are going.

2) That you know all avenues of how to get there.

3) That you are willing to move swiftly and with a purpose through a crowd.

4) That if you do get lost, you have to ability to get directions by yourself. There are some places that can help you but they may not give directions very well simply because the place you're trying to get to doesn't allow for simplicity.

5)Bring your own cigs and your own lighter or enjoy your nicotine withdrawal.

In other words, no nonsense tolerated. I know some people speak of places like this as if they were hell itself, as if the idea of having your act together is somehow bad. However, with a little planning and good communication, you can make it through fine.

That said, there's some good things about Tokyo, especially for the Otaku crowd. Each little city has something to offer, it just depends on what you're into. Here's some of what I loved about Tokyo:

1. Odaiba Bay. I don't know how much of this was just the timing (Komiket being in town) or the place itself, but Odaiba Bay was awesome. There were tons of events going on, and it was the start of my "Stumbling into awesomeness" part of my trip. I'm not big on One Piece, but I was delighted to see a full size replica of a ship from the anime parked there. Even better, the Gundam was being exhibited right next to it!

The bay itself was a wonderful sight, and one thing I wish I would've done was taking a lighted ferry over the bay at night. The shopping is good, and Joypolis delivered some fun, including a version of Initial D 4th Stage where you actually drive a full-size replica of the cars from Initial D. You get rocked back and forth on actuators, and it's a truly fun experience - one that I almost missed out on as I barely was able to get in the car heightwise. ^_^;

2. Food. There were tons of options for food in the Tokyo area. I can't really claim to have a favorite, though there are a few recommendations I can make.

First off, I highly recommend the Japanese bakeries. The one I went to, St. Germain, made a heavenly lot of bread, including a Croquette Pan (bread with croquette + sauce) that was awesome. It wasn't very pricey either.

We had sushi in Shibuya, and it was great. Sushi's a little different in Japan; we ate at a standing sushi bar, which is exactly what it sounds like: you stand at the bar and order sushi. I ate with my hands, and it was some good quality stuff. You pay by the piece, and ours was about $1 a piece.

Shabu Shabu was awesome, as we got tabe-houdai (all-you-can-eat) for $20.00. Basically, you have a cooking pan with water and a hot plate, and you throw in veggies and meat (pork and beef). It comes with sauces for dipping and rice, and it's a very yummy meal. I was glad to be able to have it, and I might even try to do it at home if I get the chance.

Convenience stores in Japan (and truth be told, South Korea) also beat the hell out of ours. Think about it: most of us would never willingly eat convenience store food unless it was our only option. In Japan, however, they have bento lunches, onigiri (rice balls filled, usually, with some sort of meat or fish), really good pastries and more. It also has my new favorite sports drink, Pocari Sweat.

Speaking of which, my favorite soft drinks are now Japanese ones. Suntory Melon soda, in particular, is incredible, and I drank tons of it at...

3. Karaoke. Japanese Karaoke comes in many flavors, but ours was the "private room" style, generally costing $10 a person for a couple of hours and unlimited soft drinks. You can even order food if you want, though I didn't think that was the best idea while one is trying to sing. I had a blast, and am already going through withdrawal from not having access to it. I even surprised a couple of the people I met in Japan by going straight to the Japanese songs, starting with Tobe! Gundam! from Mobile Suit Gundam. Probably the most fun thing to do in Japan.

4. Retro Game Stores. I'll have more of this on my gaming blog, but I was able to pick up some classic systems in some of these awesome stores. The biggest surprise was that there was a game based on Serial Experiments Lain, which is a bizarre anime. I didn't have enough money to get everything I wanted, but I still came out fairly well.

5. Vending Machines. One problem with Japan: They're not really big on credit/debit cards (though they do have Suica cards that you can load cash onto to make things easier). So you'll be paying with cash, meaning you'll end up with lots of coins, since anything up to 500 yen (roughly 5 bucks) comes in coin form. However, Japan has vending machines roughly every 10 yards, so if you need to grab a quick drink, you're all set. This was especially handy with the extreme humidity.

6. Gundam games! I got to play Senjou No Kizuna, a Gundam game where you actually use Gundam-style controls to pilot a Mobile Suit against several Zaku. I got to take down a few of them in training, and the cabinet is a fully panoramic display. I also finally got a chance to play Gundam Extreme Vs., and almost got all the way through (lost in the last battle when I had the last boss dead-to-rights with the Twin Satellite Cannon; he killed my partner, which means game over).

There were some letdowns as well. With the exception of the Palette Town arcade in Odaiba, all the Game Centers I went to were incredibly smoke-filled, and my allergies went nuts. Muteki Mario was quaint, but the drink I had was incredibly bitter; 8-bit Cafe's Metroid drink was much tastier. And the Gundam Cafe...meh. I'm glad I went, but it's only a must see for the bathroom, which has a Gundam model around the mirror that lights up when you hit a button on the wall.
And Shibuya was a bunch of trendy, high price stores like Salvatorre Ferragamo. Yawn.

I will give the benefit of the doubt to many of the towns, though...There was a bit of a different mood to the cities than normal due to power saving. Many cities that were normally beaming with light were considerably darker, with Shinjuku being especially dark. Despite this, I still had a blast in the Tokyo area.

Kyoto, though...well, you'll have to wait for my next recap.

Arrival + First Day

First, let me just start by saying that the 11 1/2 hour flight I had was one of the longest, hardest experiences I've ever had. I could've sworn I was in the air for days, but then, I'd only had 1 hour of sleep in 2 days up till that point. On the bright side, no jet lag upon arrival.

Upon entering Narita, the first thing I noticed was that it felt like a Sauna. Honestly, I thought people were exaggerating when they were talking about Japan being a steambath in August...turns out, it's pretty much true. So on the bright side, I'll have lost any water weight I had by the time the trip is over. After picking up my JR Pass, we hit the train for a 2 hour ride to Kokubunji, where we grabbed a conbini bento (Boxed lunch from a convenience store) and called it a night.

First Day: Shinbashi, Ikebukuro, Odaiba

The night before, my friend Chris informed me that Comiket was going to be in Odaiba, so we headed out to see it. First things first, we stopped down the street to get money changed over. I soon discovered one weird thing about being in Japan: A small amount of coins can be a lot of money. Right now, I've got about 10 coins in my pocket and it's close to $30 worth. I hit a 7/11 for breakfast...quite good, actually! They have a lot of good pastries and Cafe Au Lait. After picking up a cellphone, I was ready to head out to Odaiba.

The trip to Odaiba was actually pretty nice, mainly because the AC was a godsend, but Odaiba Bay is also very nice. My facebook page has videos of the trip, but we'll also be going back tomorrow to check out the Gundam 1/1 model (They've got parts of it at an expo there) and a few of the other attractions. Reason being, it was packed yesterday due to Comiket, an anime/manga convention. The con was pretty fun, especially considering it was free.

After we had enough of that, we decided to head to Ikebukuro for some fun. After a brief dinner, we headed to karaoke. This was a blast, and I dove right in with a few anime songs under my belt. 2 hours of singing for 10 dollars, and it comes with a drink bar for free! We also stopped at a Super Potato, which is a retro video game store. They have some of the things I want to pick up, but I'll be going to Akihabara when I get back form Korea to do my shopping instead since they generally have more. Finally, we went to the Kamen Rider: The Diner restaurant. It was a lot of fun, complete with Kamen Rider toys and a throne you could sit in to take pictures. I've already got pics posted on my facebook, as well as some video.

More to come!

Prelude: Cue Final Fantasy IV's "Leaving the Castle Theme"

So here I am, a mere 4h29m from the start of a trip I've been waiting for since I was 8 years old. It's now 23 years later, and I'm still excited. A little backstory: I could've been on this trip at 8 years old, however I would've ended up living in a US military part of Japan with very little to do. I'm actually kind of glad that this didn't happen, because it very well could've soured me on the idea of Japan as a country. And honestly, I don't think I would've been all that happy with it either way. At the time, Japan, for me, was just the country that made these wonderful video games that I played. Nowadays, well, Japan ain't all that hot on making games, and even anime's been falling off a bit. But still, there's the pop culture, the historical culture, the food, and just the experience of being in a foreign country. That alone is more than worth it.

I'll be updating this blog nightly (I hope), possibly more frequently as events warrant. First leg of the trip is to LAX, then I've got about 5 hours until the real flight - the 11 and 1/2 hour one to Narita. It's kind of a bittersweet slice of birthday cake. Optimally, I wouldn't want to spend it in the air, but considering where I'll end up it's worth it. I'll be flying out of LAX on All Nippon Airways, which hopefully will save me the trouble of most American-Headquartered Airlines' headaches, particularly that one where they drop your luggage in the Pacific on the way over.

;

A few things I'm planning on seeing:

• The Studio Ghibli museum. For those not in the know, Studio Ghibli is kind of like the Disney of Japan. They have wonderful, family friendly movies with great artwork, animation, music scores and stories, and the museum is a great idea, as opposed to a theme park.
• The Bandai Omocha museum. This is more of a toy museum, though it also has exhibits about Ultraman and Godzilla. But forget that nonsense: I'm here for the Gundam.
• Joypolis. Big time Sega theme park/arcade. There's lots of arcades in Japan, and I plan to drop a decent chunk of change on them, including getting to play the Gundam Game (Senjo no Kizuna, I think it's called) where you actually get to pilot it, complete with licensing and what not.
• Akihabara. Arcades and Retro gaming. I'm so there.
• Kamakura. A day at the beach, as well as some awesome temples and historical sites.
• Osaka. Will be staying the night here on my return trip from South Korea. I will be checking out one of Japan's castles while I'm here, and I'm very much looking forward to it.

The South Korean leg of the trip is going to be very interesting, as I know very little about the country. But hey, I'm in the neighborhood, and my first night is going to be spent on a boardwalk near the beach, so it's already off to a great start.

For now, I need to take a small nap - I'm due to be up by 4:00 am.