The End?

This may or may not be the last blog for a while. I am heading off to Niigata in the morning, approximately 8.5 hours from now. I have no idea whether or not I will have internet access while I am there. If nothing else, I will be able to continue my blog by saving various entries in notepad on my computer. They may not make it on the internet for a while. Officially, I will be stuck in Niigata until March 4th. At that time I will be on my own for the rest of the month.

Steve is planning a 14 day trip to China starting on the 3rd of March. I want to go with him, but obviously I need to plan for myself and meet him there somewhere. He said the ticket is around $250 if I book it soon. If I can get more information from him, I may be headed off to China for a week or two in March.

The other plan is to stay in Japan for the rest of March. If the China thing falls through, I plan on traveling around Japan without stopping back in Tokyo. I will already have a suitcase with all my clothes and stuff that should stuff nicely into a locker wherever I may be staying. Whatever the case may be, I probably will not be around until the end of March.

Well I finally have everything packed for my big trip. It is going to be a lot of fun. Until next time!

Of Snow, Gyoza, and Karaoke

So yesterday our program had the going away party at Shakey's for our 4 students who are returning to America. Keaton, Austin, Josh, and Brittany are going home on Tuesday. It is really sad that they are going back so early. I have had a blast with all of them this past half-year. I really hope that we can keep in contact through the internet and whatnot. Finally, to all of them,

I will miss you guys!

After we parted ways, I went with Kyle and Vaso to the local game shop. Kyle wanted to get another Gamecube controller for his Wii. He is going to Shimane with 8 other people and wanted to have 4 controllers for Smash Bros. The shop did not have any regular controllers, but they did have the elusive "keyboard controller". It was only 900 yen, half the price of a regular one. I convinced him to buy it ^_^ We went over to Kyle's humble abode and gamed for a couple of hours. He has unlocked all of the characters, so I got to try my hand at the new Game and Watch, Toon Link, Snake, and Rob the Robot. It was a ton-o-fun. Here is Vaso and Kyle getting ready to play:



I would have stayed longer, but my host family had planned to have dinner together. It is usually not a problem to skip out on dinner, but they were taking Aaron out to Kaitenzushi (rotating sushi). This meant that I could eat all I wanted at my host-families expense. Do I feel bad for taking advantage of them? Of course not! I only eat dinner at home half of the time anyways. Let's just say that they owe me :)

Today was Tokyo's second snow of the year. By the time I got out of bed, there was already a good deal of snow sitting outside. When I finally got around to leaving, it was apparent that I had to trudge through it. The first thing I noticed when stepping outside was that a guy walking by was carrying an umbrella. I thought nothing of it and continued to the station. Along the way I began noticing that everyone was carrying one. "What is this?" I thought. Nobody in their right mind would carry and umbrella for snow. Snow does not get you wet when it touches you! It is not rain! It brushes off like dust! These Japanese people are crazy. Yet another cultural thing that confuses me. I decided to be the foreigner for the day. I was the only one not carrying an umbrella.

The original plan for today was to get a group together and go to Karaoke. That plan fell through because everyone was busy (or didn't want to come). It ended up being just me and Junko (a 4th year student from Waseda). I met her at Shinjuku station. She was almost 30 minutes late. I was a little worried that I came to Shinjuku for nothing, but finally she called me and we were able to meet up. The first thing she asked was why I did not have an umbrella... Go figure.

I took her to the amazing and cheap Gyoza restaurant that Steve introduced me to earlier. It was once again extremely filling and delicious. Afterwards, I followed Junko to Kabukicho to go Karaoke-ing. I have only ever been to Karaoke in Takadanobaba before, so I figured it was best to let her decide where to go. She took me to this place that I had seen many times but never actually went in. We signed up and waited about 20 minutes for a room. This place was a little more expensive than the places in Baba, but the trick is the drinks are free. There is a drink bar much like McDonalds where you can get something and as many refills as you want. I was unaware that there were differences between the Karaoke companies. We sang together for an hour and a half, all Japanese songs of course. I wanted to hang out longer, but Junko said she needed to go home and work on her thesis / presentation. With that, we parted ways and returned home.

Upon arriving, I noticed a bunch of people shoveling the streets in front of their houses. I thought this was really weird because we have snow plows to do that job. When I reached my house, my host father was also outside shoveling. Out of the kindness of my heart I offered to help. Together we cleared off the road.

Tomorrow I need to pack for Niigata!

Karaoke Again

First of all read the post below this. It is HUGE!

Today (well yesterday at this point) we had a meeting about the spring practicum. Michiyo gave us all tickets to get wherever it is that we are going, and money for the return trip. She also gave suggestions on what to bring.

After the meeting I went with Vaso to have lunch at building 29. After we went to the computer lab. At 3pm I met up with Keaton and Sheung Sheung at Ginza to see the Tsukiji fish market. Know I know that the fish market is done in the morning, but we figured that there would be a lot of cool fish-themed shops opened. Well we figured wrong. Almost everything was closed. Instead, we ended up getting a few plates of katen-zushi and wandering Ginza. Two highlights were the Sony and Apple building. We got to play with all the gadgets. Back in Baba Keaton and I met up with people at the Hub to get dinner. We had indian food at Malibar. It was delicious! Then finally we ended up at Karaoke. Keaton planned it all out a week in advance and let everyone know. There were around 15 people separated into 2 rooms by the time everything was finished. It was a lot of fun. We sang a lot of group English songs (or at least ones that everyone knew). After a 2 hour karaoke session we all headed home.

Days of Glory

Yesterday was one of the most fun days I have had in Japan thus far. Vaso had organized a group trip to the Fuji-Q amusement park. The park was having a winter deal through the Keio bus line. For the low low price of 5700 yen, one gets a bus ticket from Shinjuku to the park and back, as well as an all day pass for all the rides. It is much cheaper than the normal price of over 8000 yen. We also decided to go because since it was winter and cold, For some reason I was once again the first one in Shinjuku. There were a total of 8 of us going to have some good 'ol roller coaster fun. Seven of us met up at the usual meeting place outside the Bic Camera escalator. The eight person, Sonja, is a foreigner to Shinjuku and had no idea what we were talking about. She called me and gave me a vague idea where she was. I remember her saying something about seeing a giant round blue building somewhere near the Keio line. Luckily we were able to find her before the bus left.

The next problem was that we all bought tickets at a different time. Vaso bought 4 to begin with, then another 2, then 1, then I bought the last one. We got them all for the same bus times, 8:10 departure and 4:34 return. When we got to the bus the conductor would not let some of us on. The tickets were for 2 different buses departing at the exact same time for the exact same destination! I got stuck riding with Josh in the "Thomas the Train" bus, while the others were behind us in a different one. I don't know about the others, but I enjoyed my ride. Most of the seats were empty so as a result I got to lie down and half sleep my way there.

Josh and I arrived about 5 minutes before the other bus so we took the chance to take some pics in front of mount Fuji. I got this sweet photo in front of it:



When the others arrived we headed into the park!

We all quickly found out that Keaton (whom we went on the trip for) could not stand roller coasters. He is not afraid of heights, or planes, or any of the other rides. He just said that mentally he could not take getting on them. In any case, Keaton still chose the first ride, Mad Mouse. The ride is one of those really tiny coasters (comparable to say, the Wild Cat at Cedar Point). It had its share of really tight corners and no real drop so to speak. I went with Mike and we glided down the course, screaming in pain every time we went around a corner and got slammed into each other. The seat was also really small for us. The lap bar did not clear my knees when I sat down, so I had to stretch my legs out to get the bar close to me, before putting my knees back up. After the ride, Vaso gave Keaton the nickname, Mad Mouse. Here's a pic of them enjoying the tiny cars:



The next ride, chosen by popular opinion, was the ええじゃないか (EeJyaNaiKa literally meaning "It's good isn't it?"). Keaton and Sonja said they couldn't ride it, so Vaso escorted them to some of the more tame rides. ええじゃないか is considered to be the 2nd "4 dimensional" roller coaster, meaning that the seats can be rotated while riding along the track. There are set points along the track where the seats are automatically rotated to a certain direction (they are not on a free spinning chassis). For example, you start the ride facing backwards, along the way to the lift hill the seats are inverted. For the first drop, the seats turn so that you are facing straight down. It is a really cool concept for a coaster. They claim that the coaster has the most inversions in the world at 14, but technically this is only because the seats can spin. The track only inverts 3 times through the ride, so it is not considered to break a record in that respect. Still, while riding it, I could not feel being flipped around that much. It is really surreal having all these G-forces pulling your body every which way. There are points on the track where you are moving forward, backward, and upside down. It was really cool. My biggest gripe is that the ride is really short at only 2:10 long. Luckily, we only had to wait about 20 minutes to get on the ride. I think because it was winter, there was only one car running. This meant that they could not load and unload riders while while the car was on the track. If it were run a little more efficietly, there would have been no wait at all. If the wait were longer I don't think I could stand it. The ride had a theme song that played over and over again while in line. It consisted of a taiko drum beat, with girls and guys saying ええじゃないか over and over again. Ugh! Here is the first drop of the coaster (90 degrees!!!):



Next we all got together again and wandered around riding some of the smaller rides. We hit the swings and the carnival games. The carnival games they had were all really cool simply because they were Japanese themed. There was "Ring the Sushi" and "Thow the Ball in the Ramen Bowl" among others.

We ended up over at the Fujiyama, the oldest and tallest coaster in the park. It was built in 1996 and at the time was the tallest coaster in the world. It is still a feat to fear at a staggering 259 feet and 80mph. We convinced Sonja to go on this one with us, leaving Keaton all alone as the one not riding. When we got in line, there was absolutely no one there except for the workers. Sheung Sheung speculated that the ride was broken down, but if that were the case, the car should have been in the loading platform. A couple of minutes later, the car showed up full of people. This ride was suffering from the same thing as the ええじゃないか, with only one track on the ride at a time. At 3:36 minutes long, it seems like a waste. Being the first ones there, I got to sit in the very front seat with Josh. The rest of our group filled in behind us. By the time we were off, the car was full. I really liked this ride. It was a lot like the Millenium Force at Cedar Point. At the top of the first hill, there was a large flat part before the first drop. It probably puts less stress on the chain. There were some 90 degree turns which were really weird. One of them was really slow, so I was forced to lean on Josh because of gravity. Stupid gravity. Here is a shot of that coaster. You can see the flat part in the pic:



Next we rode more of the smaller rides. There was this really interesting one called Zola7. It was a car with 4 seats and a gun mounted in front of each. It is a game where the car moves around the track and you have to shoot aliens and stuff. I went with Mike twice. The guns were really bad at reading where you were aiming. Getting a lot of points was nearly impossible. The greatest thing about this ride is there is a tiny roller coaster at the end in pitch dark. Around the last corner of the shooting range, you see a lift hill. The car immediately takes a dive in front of the the lift hill that you could not see! We were surprised when that happened. Here is Vaso and Sheung Sheung in the car:



We then did a couple of the other rides. There was one just like Max Air that was sponsored by a Japanese pizza place. It was conveniently located right behind the pizza restaurant. Then Keaton had us go on the absolute worst ride in the park. It is called Moonraker. It is the carnival ride that spins in a circle really really fast so you get stuck to the sides. However, this ride also went vertical, creating a really bad situation. Going up is not bad, but the G-forces when hitting the bottom of the loop were almost unbearable. Vaso commented that he could feel blood in his mouth. He was joking of course, but you could definitely feel your stomach trying to get out. Not a good feeling! We cursed Keaton afterwards.

Finally, we hit the third and final roller coaster at the park. This one is called DonDonPa. The name is more of a sound effect than anything else. This coaster was the first one to top 100mph with an electromagnetic acceleration system (Much like Top Thrill Dragster). It is only 170 feet high, and the hill as at the end of the coaster. It was really cool because there are a couple of really long straight-aways, and a few overbanked turns before the hill. The hill was painful. It is 90 degrees both up and down, but the transition time was way too short. When hitting the top, I was slammed into my lap-bar and cried in pain. I complained about to Sheung Sheung about it for the rest of the ride (she was sitting next to me). I did not get any pics of the ride, but this is the hill of death:



Finally, we hit the weird attractions. The biggest thing was a Resident Evil themed haunted house. Because it was a limited time attraction, it was extra money to get in. However, it was worth it. We got to wear the sweet bullet-proof vests from the game! Vaso got some good pictures of it which I need to get from him. The haunted house was really well done, but could have used more actor zombies. It started off with a debriefing, a photo shoot, and then they sent us in. I went with Vaso, Keaton, and Josh. Vaso was leading the group while I headed up the rear. We snuck our way through the hospital. I technically died because of Vaso... Grrr... We ran across this long hallway with some zombies chasing us. Problem was, there was a gate with a door. Vaso reached the gate and could not get it opened! You turn the knob and push man! It's not that hard. Everyone slammed into him allowing the zombies to catch up. Me being last got infected / eaten or whatever. At the end of the hospital, we got the zombie vaccine. There was a really lame shooting range with air-guns right at the end as well. Two guys were dressed up as zombies while we "shot" them. The whole experience was too short. The ad promised that it was 50 minutes! It took us maybe 20 to get through, maybe another 10 for the briefing. Here is the outside of the mansion (pictures inside were prohibited):



We also hit up this other haunted house which was called "Contagious Song". We stood up in some coffins that rocked forward and back. They also rumbled and had a thing that pushes on your back a little. It told a story, but since it was in Japanese I did not catch a lot of it. It goes a little like this. There is a song, that if you sing it, you end up wanting to die. There were some images of committing suicide and whatnot. Overall, it was pretty lame.

Another interesting attraction was called "Gundam Crisis". Everyone was given a communication device and was supposed to gather parts for upgrading a gundam. There were a bunch of space-themed rooms with all sorts of stuff in them. The object was to hold your communicator up to these "red light" spots to download the upgrades. After 3 minutes, the hanger to the gundam opens up. Once there, you have to touch your communicator to the "blue lights" to upload the plans to the gundam. Everyone is given a total of 8 minutes to complete this. I was one part away from completing the challenge when time was called. This attraction is aimed for younger kids, but was still fun with our large group. This is the sign:



That was my day at Fuji-Q. We rode EeJyaNaiKa again before we left. Once back in Shinjuku, we headed off to Milton's house for a party. His host family is really rich, meaning their house is huge. They apparently wanted Milton to hold this party for a while and he finally got around to doing it. There was a bunch of good food and alcohol. Milton's host father brews his own alcohol! The stuff I tried was amazing. The party was alright, but then we got to the main attraction: Smash Bros Brawl! Kyle bought a Japanese Wii previously and picked up Brawl yesterday (the morning it was released). If you do not want to hear about geeky video game talk SKIP THIS SECTION!

So Smash Bros Brawl has been 5 or more years in the making. America has to wait another 2 months before they get their taste of it. I almost convinced myself to buy a Japanese Wii just for this game. I decided against it because I will not have any time in the coming months. I watched everyone play a few games before jumping in myself. It was cool because we had all 3 control schemes going on. After trying all of them, I must say that the Gamecube controller is superior, followed by the Nunchuck and Wiimote, and in last place is just the Wiimote. Using the Gamecube controller just screams nostalgia. Every time I had my hands on it, I won the match, it is just that much better. Using the Nunchuck was nice because it has a joystick and an extra button that can be assigned to jump. The Wiimote by itself sucks because you have to use the B button to shield. It is extremely frustrating trying to flick it with my left middle finger. Plus the D-Pad is horrible for playing the game with. It is not sensitive enough, and I felt like I was pressing really hard. I also had my character jump on random occasions. When trying to dash, about 1/4 of the time my character would jump instead of dash. Really frustrating. Another thing about using the Wiimote with or without the nunchuck is that it takes 2 buttons to drop on item. Lame. Now I know that the button layouts can be changed, but I feel that the Wiimote simply does not have enough buttons on it. Here are Keaton, Micheal, and John playing with the 3 different combinations:



Next, on to the characters. I am not going to go into great detail, as we had 28 characters to play as already. First thing I did was take Lucas out for a test run. I really like him compared to Ness. I feel like he is powerful enough to warrant getting good with. Next, Peach feels really bad compared to the previous game. Sucks because she was one of my better characters. Mario seems really toned down as well. I tried to do his spin attack and ended up with the stupid squirt gun instead. Ugh! Diddy Kong and Wario are really weird. They will take a lot of getting used to in order to be a competitor. Samus and Fox feel toned down a LOT! Samus's attacks did not seem to do very much damage, and smashes felt like they did not send people flying like they should. I did not get to play as Zero Suit Samus, but from what others said, she is terrible. Fox is much slower, but the range of his attacks is larger. He does a lot more gymnastic looking stuff. I really really liked the newcomers Pitt, Meta Knight, Sonic, Olimar, Pokemon Trainer and Ike. They are all really cool in their own way. Pitt and Meta Knight have a lot of cool sword slash moves, and they can glide! That will take some getting used to. I saw some others glide across the screen and into the pit a couple of times because they could not control it. Sonic is uber-fast and his final smash is insanely powerful. Every time someone turned into super sonic, the other 2 people would die. Period. Otherwise, he is really weak. Olimar is just plain weird, another thing to get used to. Pokemon Trainer was fun. 3 characters in one was confusing, especially when they all have different moves and move at different speeds. Ike was really powerful but slow. He has a dash move just like fox. Keaton loved Ike, I thought he was better than Marth to say the least. The rest of the characters felt very similar to their previous installment.

Now on to the final smashes. We were playing 3 minute rounds as most people did not like stock (weird). During any match, the smash ball usually showed up once, sometimes up to two or three times. Depending on the character, getting the ball either did not do anything, or won the game for them. Some of the smashes, like Sonic , Fox, Pit, and Olimar pretty much instantly killed whoever else was playing. Also, some of the smashes are really easy to avoid, making them useless in 1 on 1 duels. Sadly I was not able to have any duels...

The game really keeps its "hectic" feeling when there are more than 2 people playing. There is so much going on at one time with the items and the course, that it is really easy to die if you are not careful. Now me being the guy who always manages to suicide once per match, managed to do fairly well avoiding that. There were a couple of times where I mistaked the A button for the B button, causing the triple jump to not occur. Sucks.

I feel that items are really powerful. I think I was knocked off more by thrown and hit items than anything else. This really made the game feel "less skillful", meaning, good players and bad players both have an equally good chance of winning. I am sure this changes with the items though. There are sure to be ones that are always turned off once I get the game (food, star, hammer, etc). When a star appeared, 9 times out of 10 it would drop directly onto a random person. Lame.

Overall, I was not impressed by the multiplayer. I hate to say it, but at the moment I feel like melee is the better game. Now keep in mind that I did not have a chance to play the massive single player, do any duels, play with items off, or play with stock lives. It is also a point that we had 3 different control schemes, which made it really unfair. Either the person who had the Gamecube controller won, or the person who got the smash ball won (usually it was the same person). I think under the conditions that my friends back home play at, it would be tons of fun. I also need to note that there is no more wave dashing. When you air dodge, your character always floats up a little bit. You cannot aim it, meaning that air dodging to wave dash, or simply to get back onto the platform is out of the question. It is strictly for its original purpose, air dodging.

So there are my thoughts. Hope you enjoyed them! Now I leave you with a pic of the character list that we got to use. I tried out everyone at some point or another: