Wrapping it up, the last few days in Japan

Sorry this post has been so long in coming, but I'm finally going to wrap up the remainder of my trip to Japan.  So here you go.

Our first stop was the Docomo R&D facility.

We were allowed to take pictures inside, but they said for personal use only.  i.e., no posting to websites or showing people.  So... with restrictions like that, I didn't bother taking any pictures.

They actually had some pretty cool stuff in there.  For those who don't know, Docomo is Japan's leading cellular communication company.  Some of the stuff they showed us included an application for cellphone data analysis.  The phone companies track where each phone is at any given time, and therefore can tell how many people of what gender and age are in a given area at a given time of day (approximately.  Not everyone has a cellphone on them at all times).  They were showing how this can be used in city planning, and they're working to make it more readily available and useful to those in the government who could benefit from it to help with decision-making.  It's kind of a cool idea, and (unlike recent developments with phone companies back here in the US) they said that the data is purely an aggregate, so you can't really see who is where, just how many people and the general direction of movement.  It has potential as a quick mode of surveying the area to make building decisions.

That was a lot more detail than I intended.  They also showed us several new technologies in development.  I'm not really sure how much I'm allowed to say about them.  They're working on the next generation past 4G, which has speeds of up to 2GB per second (!), and should be widely available in Japan in about 2 years.  I'd assume something similar would be coming to the US sometime around then, too.  They showed a demo of that and said it's already functional, but the tower technology isn't yet placed around the country, so they can't release it.

They also showed us several new gadgets which are probably more secret, so I'll just give general info.  There was a device that transmitted sound through your bones into your ear instead of listening through a speaker.  It didn't seem to work that well for me.  There was a translator where you spoke in Japanese and it would write it out in English.  That's been done before, and it all depends on the quality of the translation.  There was something that could pick up trace body chemicals from your fingertips and breath (things you frequently use on a phone) and use that to monitor your health in various ways.  That one sounded really impressive, but the demo we saw in action was a little weak.

We also watched a whole bunch of videos showing the future potential of a lot of these technologies.  The first video was cool, but seemed pretty far-fetched, but then when they showed us how much they've already gotten done of what was in there, it made it seem like maybe it would actually work at some point.  Probably not for another 10-20 years, and not exactly like they showed, but still.

Alright, moving on.  Our next stop for the day was a fishing and farming village.  We got to pull up cages that were hanging over the edge of the docks, used to catch fish.  Two of them had octopi in them, and there were also a few fish, hermit crabs, and an eel.

One of the nets with its catches.

This octopus got out of the net and was trying to escape.  Everyone was taking pictures and watching it crawl across the gravel.  Lots of them (especially the girls I could hear) were talking about throwing it back in the water, but not too much later one of the fisher(wo)men killed it with a hook.  It wasn't very pleasant to watch.

A view from the docks towards the village.

And here's our octopus friend.  We had lunch in one of the buildings there, and it included some tempura (good this time), vegetables, seaweed, rice, and after a while, one of the octopi that had just been pulled up and cooked while we ate the rest of the meal.  I had one chunk of tentacle (they just cut it up with scissors...), and while it didn't taste bad, it was really hard to swallow.  Extremely chewy and rubbery.  And I'm sure knowing where it came from didn't help, either.

We then left the fishing village and went to Jougashima, a small, scenic island.

The town is built right up to the shore in some places.  It had lots of hills and plant life, too, so you could get a lot of nice views.

Looking down from near the top of one hill, upon which sat a lighthouse.

I always like staircases like this.  Long, curvy, and a little uneven.  Plus, one side has a wall of greenery the whole way down.  It's a pretty interesting place.

Some aloe vera plants, I'm pretty sure.  They were growing in a few patches here and there.

Everyone else beat my group to the shoreline, because we were taking pictures.

Not my idea.  The girl who doesn't like getting her picture taken likes taking pictures, and had us pose like this.  She liked that I was flanked by stripes.

I saw that natural bridge from all the way across the island and wanted to go there.  While we did get closer, we didn't have enough time to actually go all the way over.

Journeying through the foliage.

Emerging on another great lookout point.

There was a long, low bench near the cliff with a sign on it saying it was a glider observation point (in Japanese).  Two older men, probably at least in their 50s or 60s, were putting together gliders, and proceeded to fly them around for a while while we watched.

Building a stack of stones.  I've heard that there are some legends about stacking stones in certain shrines granting wishes or something.  Maybe that was just in an anime, but it sounds like it would be a genuine Japanese superstition.

Dinner that night was nice.  More western style.  I don't really remember where it was... but that's a long table, which is the real point of the picture.

 We got word that the trip to the Imperial Palace was canceled.  Instead we'd be going to the fish market.  Yeah.  Fish market.  So a few of us tried to go that night to the palace anyway.

Tokyo Station again.  A different part.  I say again, because I took a picture of a nearly empty Tokyo Station last time I was in Japan, too.  This one wasn't quite that empty, but close.  Shinjuku station is actually the busiest in all of Japan, I learned later, and that's the one that was right next to our hotel, which we took to get here.

We arrived at the palace gates, only to see them locked up with a couple police on guard.  Since I was the only one who really spoke Japanese in the group, I was tasked with talking to them and getting information.  It turns out that you can't actually see the palace from outside at all. :/ So we made the trip for nothing.

Well, we did get a few pictures, but it was really late at night, so it was hard to get anything clear.  This is much brighter than it actually was, because if I posted the picture that's closer to reality, you wouldn't really be able to see anything but a light gray blur.

We walked around for a while and discovered that the sidewalk running all the way around the palace grounds is really popular for joggers.  We met up with a bunch of Japanese college kids who were taking a break and all talked with them for a while.  They were training, one of them planning to run I think a 100km race in a day or two.  Whatever it was, it was ridiculously long.

And thus ends... whatever day that was.  Monday, May 27.

Tuesday, May 28

Our first stop was Mitsubishi Corporation, which does a whole lot more than just cars.  There we sat through a long and largely boring lecture on the company, and were given packets of info.  It sounded nice and all, but I think most of it went over most of our heads.  I'm not really sure why they thought that it would be a good idea to have us sit and watch so many business presentations on this trip.

Then they wanted to show off Tokyo Station, which I'd already been to several times.  But this time it was the front entrance.  That place must be huge.  I've never seen the same entrance twice.

The main entrance of Tokyo Station.

Tokyo is making a bid for hosting the 2020 Olympics, and there were lots of posters and signs everywhere promoting it.  I'd feel kind of bad if they lost after all that.

Lunch was... interesting.  Not good, but interesting.

We had lunch at a nearby restaurant, where they brought out a bunch of vegetables (probably cabbage, mostly) and cooked them on a plate in front of us.  I'm sure lots of you have seen these types of things, since we have them back here in the US, too.

After frying the vegetables, they made a donut shape, poured in some sauce, then mixed it up some more and flattened it out.  Then they left, and it never solidified past that, so we just kind of scooped it onto our plates and tried to eat it.

The first dish was pretty plain, and not that good.  Then they brought out some more, and this time there was curry powder with it.  And we were expected to cook it ourselves.  I did most of that one.  It tasted a lot better than the first, but still not that interesting, and there was just too much.  We were mostly feeling done already, when they brought...

Something that looked like a giant tongue.  It's actually a bunch of fish eggs, inside... something.  Egg sac?  Not really sure.  This one they cooked.

She did the vegetables like before, with the eggs sitting off to the side and not being cooked at all, until the end when she dropped it in the middle, chopped it into little tiny pieces, and mixed it all up.  We let it sit for quite a while after that, because no one really wanted to try first, and I don't think anyone was fond of the idea of almost-raw fish eggs, so we let it cook.  The red stuff was almost completely gone, whatever it was.  Instead, there were thousands of tiny eggs, about the size of a poppy seed, spread throughout the mixture.  We all tried some, but none of us really enjoyed it.  We left most of it there.  We weren't full, but after three not-so-good dishes, we'd all lost our appetites.

They brought two more sets of food, neither of which we even put on the grill.  I felt really bad for not eating it, but I couldn't take more of that cabbage stuff and the sauce.  The other tables were leaving heaps of food, too, but they all at least tried some of each.  One table actually managed to finish all five courses, but my friend there was obviously overstuffed and not too happy for the next hour or so.

Look familiar?

 Our next stop was back in Akihabara!  We only had about an hour 40 minutes to look around.  Nowhere near enough time to see everything.  I went around with my friends for a while, but eventually we split up and did shopping for our respective interests.  I bought a couple more games and an art book, then didn't have enough money or time to buy anything else.

Giant Vocaloid Nendoroid ad on the wall of the Sofmap store.  I think the big one is actually the fat, scary "Miku Dayo~" figure, but it's blocked so I'm not sure anymore.  Not sure why you'd want that.

Giant character art from one of my favorite artists, Kantoku.  I haven't watched any of the show it's advertising (Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko) but I always like Kantoku's style, so it made me happy to see it.

I just think it's funny there's a donut shop chain called Mister Donut.

After a depressingly short time in Akihabara, we moved on to Harajuku.  Well, I couldn't have bought anything else anyway, what with having only about 1000 yen left after everything else.  So I guess it's not that bad.  I only brought about $100 on the trip all together, so the fact that I managed to get everything I did is still impressive.

We are all chelsea.  I don't know who Chelsea is, but I assume it's that guy.  And now I'm him.  And you're him.  Everybody is him.

Looking down the street of Harajuku.  Once we got into the crowds, it was mostly girls talking excitedly and looking at all the shops, and guys ignoring everything around them looking straight ahead or talking with their friends.  Sounds like a typical shopping district.  Lots more girls than guys.

My friend fancied the fancy hat.  He didn't buy it.

Crepes are very popular in Japan, and if they actually looked anything like the displays I could see why.  My friend bought a strawberry cheesecake crepe, and it was pitifully small compared to the display.  Still, I had a tiny bit and it tasted alright.

Don't feed the shirts.  I actually thought this one was pretty clever.

Also clever, but...

Harajuku was basically a fashion mall, but I did manage to find a bottle of concentrated Calpis Water to bring back home, spending most of the little money I had left.  Much cheaper and lasts longer than getting individual bottles of the actual drink.

My group got bored with Harajuku after not very long, so we went to the nearby shrine.  At least, to the entrance.  The actual shrine was waaaaaay down the path somewhere off in the distance, and we didn't have time to go that far and back.

Illegal Disposal is forbidden!  Really?

And that's the end of that day.

Wednesday, May 29

The last full day in Japan.  We went to see a demonstration of kabuki dancing.  One man, supposedly a master of kabuki, but I don't remember his name, showed us a few sample performances, explaining the different motions and props as he went.  I studied kabuki back in fall semester in Japanese class, so most of it was pretty familiar to me.  He then had volunteers come up and join him in the performances, teaching them the steps.  I didn't end up going up, but probably about half the people there did.  He only did the female dances when the volunteers were up, for some reason.  In kabuki, both male and female roles are played by men exclusively.  So he showed us both types.

After that, we went to the fish market, an art museum, and a very small kabuki museum.  The fish market really wasn't that interesting, and the others had no pictures allowed.  The art museum was focused on the Japanese feeling of the four seasons, and how it's important to their culture.  I learned about that a couple semesters ago, too, but I saw it a bit more in depth in the museum than just what we talked about in class.  We mostly mentioned food and things, but it applies to a lot more than just that.  They seem to take it into every aspect of daily life, so the seasons are very important to them.  Having only been to Japan in the summer, that now makes me wonder what the other seasons would be like.

Outside the kabuki museum, my friends found a random store's mascot character and posed for a picture.  I've never heard of Gunma-chan before, but he had all sorts of merchandise inside the store.

Then we had the formal debriefing, where everyone talked about the things they learned and differences and similarities between the countries, and all that.  It was nice, but nothing I can really write about here.

Then, our last dinner.  We went to a restaurant near the hotel, and had nabe.  Well, I think that's what it was.  They never called it by that name, but it was Japanese hot pot at least.

Each table (for six) had two pots of boiling water, and a few plates of beef and pork, along with a bunch of vegetables.

We put in all the vegetables and meat, let it cook (it only took a few seconds, really), and pulled it out and ate it.  This meal was absolutely delicious!  I would have loved to have more of it, but I think it was probably pretty expensive.  They must have saved the best for last.  I left still a little hungry. :(

After the meal, one of my friends was trying to get rid of all her remaining yen, and really wanted to go to karaoke.  So a couple of us went along with her.  It was better in some ways than my first trip, but harder without a native-level reader to use all the controls.  I ended up having to figure out how to work everything, and we lost some time because of that.  Still, with only three people, we each got to sing quite a bit.  All in all, not too bad of an experience, but I wouldn't have considered it worth paying for (she paid for all of us).

We then spent a while looking for a suitcase for her, since she had bought too much stuff to fit into her original one.  We found a small bag in a clothing store, then thinking that would have to suffice stopped looking and I led everyone into a game store where I wanted to look around.  And lo and behold, at the back of the store, a corner for luggage.  To be fair, the store had more than games, but we were on the game and movie floor, and the luggage was completely out of place.  Interesting setup.

The next morning, we all gathered bright and early, around 7 am (after having an even earlier breakfast) with all of our luggage and departed for the airport.  I spent almost the whole trip home watching movies, including Wreck-it Ralph (first time, good movie), The Dog of Flanders (first time, good but kind of sad), The Hobbit (second time, awesome), and I think there might have been something else.  I didn't sleep at all.  I did try reading some of the manga I bought, and made it about a third of the way through one of the books with the help of my phone dictionary.

Flying over Alaska, or thereabouts.

It was a great trip.  I'd love to return to Japan again someday.  I might even try to make it an annual or biannual thing if I can afford it, but that might be pretty hard.  I'd really like to see it in the other seasons, though, and explore more of the countryside.  Maybe go up north in the winter, where there's tons of snow.  Stuff like that.  Anyway, those are adventures for another day.  For now, I'll have to be content at home in the summer heat of Virginia.

Thanks for reading.  I doubt I'll be posting much more to this anytime soon, but hey, you never know.

Day 30: Akihabara

I'm no longer in Tokyo.  I took the overnight bus back to Nagoya, then the train to Yokkaichi.  But let me back up.  Yesterday was a very long day.  Continuing where my last post left off...

After we got cleaned up, we planned our trip to Akihabara in a little more detail, then went and got breakfast at Sukiya (すき家).  It's a common chain restaurant here in Japan.  I had curry rice, because it was cheap, but I soon regretted it, as the hot food was really not agreeing with my stomach at that hour.  It didn't last long, though, so it was okay.

Tokyo Station, shortly after our arrival on Saturday night.  The central station of the biggest city in the world, and it's practically deserted.

My capsule that I slept in.  My friend had the one above mine.

The view out of one of the capsule hotel windows.  The window itself was wide open, and it would have been easy enough to jump or fall out.  This really wasn't a great neighborhood, which was fairly obvious when we got there, but nothing happened, so it was okay.  The hotel itself was also rather unappealing.

The nearby park.  Near the station and the hotel.  It was actually kind of nice.  We spent an hour or more Saturday night wandering around here before going to bed.  My friend was trying to get a group of local people to invite us into a conversation, but it didn't happen.

Another part of the park.

A rocket park.  They really need adult playgrounds.  If there had been fewer people around, I probably would have gone on this one.  When we saw it again in the morning, it was crawling with kids.

Tokyo Sky Tree.  It doesn't look that big in this picture, but we walked closer and closer, and it didn't seem to move much, so that's gotta be pretty far away.

We used the Tokyo rail map we picked up the day before to find how to get to Akihabara, then went to the station and set out.  We arrived probably around 11:00 or so.  The first thing I noticed at the station was that all the ads were anime- or game-based.  That's not common elsewhere.  The second thing was a huge tower labeled SEGA, to which my friend was immediately drawn.  We headed towards it and found ourselves (after a few stops) on the main street of Akihabara.  Both sides were lined with shops featuring gigantic images of anime characters, many of which I recognized (and took pictures of).  The main stretch of the street is probably a little over a mile long, but the shops spread into side streets, too, for roughly a square mile of solid otaku shopping, I'd guess.  Except that the shops had anywhere up to 7 floors each, so multiply that by at least 4.  And I covered ALL of it.  Except the restaurants.  And the technology shops.  But I at least looked in every shop, even if I didn't go in.

Our first open view of the main street.

Looking to the right.

After walking to the right quite a ways, looking across the street.

Persona 4 had a huge ad campaign going here for the newest version, Persona 4 Golden.  There were gigantic posters and murals everywhere.

The stores were divided fairly evenly among anime/manga/related media, PC and console games, and miscellaneous technology (cameras, phones, computers...).  There were also lots of restaurants, including maid cafés.  I didn't stop to eat, though.  I'm not really interested in the maid café thing.  Speaking of maids, almost every street corner had one or more girls in maid costumes or other similar attention-grabbing outfits handing out flyers or other ads for their stores.

I was sorely disappointed at the lack of true cosplayers there.  I think I saw two, plus someone dressed as Saber from Fate/Stay Night to promote the store's upcoming release.  I didn't recognize any but her, though.

The only true cosplay I saw and recognized, and it's part of the store's advertising.  Oh well.

One of the side streets, and there's still this much advertising on the buildings.

They close the main road down on Sundays for a good portion of the day, so people just walk everywhere freely.

Back to the shopping.  The stores had just about anything I could have wanted to buy.  I must have seen thousands each of figures, CDs, video games, mangas, light novels, doujinshi, anime magazines and so on, and hundreds of wall scrolls, visual novels, and miscellaneous other items.  I ended up buying Sister Princess for Playstation, since my friend said he can let me use his Japanese PS2 back in the US since he obviously isn't using it now.  I also tried to buy the Haruhi PS2 roleplaying game, but I found out too late (only after I got home) that the box only had the included figure, and not the game itself.  Very disappointing.  At least it wasn't too expensive.  I also got a White Album Cospa t-shirt for 2/3 off, several music CDs, a Noizi Itou/Zatsuon art collection CD, and a Little Busters! Kud Wafter mini handkerchief.  I planned before even coming to Japan that before I left, I'd have to find an anime handkerchief to buy and bring back.  I'm satisfied with this one.  Surprisingly, the only figure I bought was the one that was supposed to have the Haruhi game.  There were a ton I would have wanted, but the lack of space in my suitcase and the insanely high prices on a lot of them kept me from buying any.  Honestly, I could import a lot of them for the same price or cheaper in the US, if I looked around carefully.

Here's one store that had things that would be nigh-impossible to find in the US.  The entire store was packed with retro games and consoles.  These are original Famicom cartridges.

And here we have Super Famicom.  Including Chrono Trigger over there, for a whopping 680 yen.  That's pretty cheap.  The store also had a guarantee that all the games and hardware worked.

A portion of the Gameboy collection.

Many of the stores had these sorts of labels on each floor, saying what was for sale where.  This isn't the best example.

There were quite a few anime card games around too (the green and yellow sign in the middle is advertising that).  You could buy cards and play in a lot of the shops.

In addition to the labels outside, most stores had the steps show you what was coming up on the next floor.

The stairwell wall posters also gave you a hint of what to expect.

The biggest find and purchase for me, though, was the one thing I had really hoped to be able to get in Japan: The Key 10th Anniversary Memorial Box, which includes all of their Visual Novels through Little Busters! Ecstasy (Planetarian, AIR, Kanon, CLANNAD, Tomoyo After, and LB! Ex).  The reason I wanted this so bad is it's the only version available of AIR, Tomoyo After, and LB! Ex that doesn't have the adult content, and it's a collector's item besides.  I'm pretty sure it has more than just the games inside, but I haven't opened it yet.  I had previously found the box for sale, used, on eBay, but it was over $400!  This one was 8800 yen (about $110), although it's also used.  I actually asked the guy at the counter if he had the game, and he looked it up and said no, but I decided to go ahead and browse anyway, and sure enough, there it was.  It was the only copy I found in all the stores I went to, so I don't think any more of them exist.  I really lucked out.

My spoils.  In the top left, the Haruhi figma (minus game :( ).  The top right has music: Kyon's Sister image CD, Genesis of Aquarion opening CD, Deep Blue Sky and Pure White Wings vocal CD, Bamboo Blade OP/ED CD, Fate/Stay Night: This Illusion, and the Rewrite OST.  I haven't listened to any music from Rewrite, but it's Key, and from my experience they can do no wrong when it comes to that sort of thing.  On the bottom left is my t-shirt, in the middle is Sister Princess, and to the right is the Noizi Itou art collection.  On the bottom is my Kud handkerchief.

The big find.  I can hardly believe it was actually there, but it certainly took some searching to find it.  Also, this thing is HEAVY.  I had to lug it around the rest of the day, and I'll have to figure out the best way to bring it back to the US.

A note if you're planning a trip to Akihabara.  Akihabara is NOT KID-FRIENDLY.  About 3 in 4 stores have adult products.  Of those, I'd say about 20% have them in visually concealed areas or on separate floors.  The rest are right out in the open, usually (but not always) mixed in with all the good products.  You really can't avoid it here.  And, as with everything else in Japan, they never actually check IDs or anything for age, even if you buy it.

Oh, so my friend had to leave around 4:00 to make it home in time to go to work the next day.  I stayed by myself to finish exploring.  The shops seemed to start closing up around 7:00 or 7:30, and by 9, it was basically shut down except for the big ones.  That really surprised me.  I had kind of figured everything would be open until midnight or later.

Akihabara in the evening, as things start to wind down.

One of the two station entrances right there by the main street.  I took this one in, but not back out.

Since I'd seen basically everything at least once already, and run out of money to buy anything else, I decided to call it a night and go to the station.  But actually, I didn't even have enough money on me to make it back to Yokkaichi anymore.  I could afford the bus to Nagoya, but probably not the trains, so I needed to find an international ATM.  I was also on no schedule of when I needed to be back, so rather than take the train from Akihabara to the Tokyo station (where the buses would be), I decided to walk.  It took about an hour, maybe a bit more, counting stops to rest and look at maps.  I didn't actually have a map besides the train system one (and I still don't), and those aren't exactly drawn with complete accuracy in mind, so I just knew I needed to go southish.  The maps you see on the street in Tokyo don't put North on top, though.  Generally they orient it to the direction you're facing.  This is a problem when they forget to put on any indication of which way actually is North.  Anyway, it was a nice little adventure, and I was fortunate that I found maps every couple blocks to help guide me.  I also found an ATM that worked, after three that didn't, so I managed to get the money to make it back.

Even after leaving Akihabara a good 10-minute walk behind me, I still ran into these Evangelion "Keep out" cones.

A cool bridge I passed under on my walk.

Another view of the two layers of bridges.

These were decorations on the bridge.  Pretty impressive.

Oh, I missed one thing.  In Akihabara, on my way towards Tokyo station, I encountered someone from my home college!  He was one of my friends back in my first Japanese class, but he didn't come on the school trip.  Talk about a small world.  We met each other on the opposite side of the planet completely by chance in a fairly densely-packed area of the largest city in the world.  I mean, really, what are the chances?  So we talked for a while, reveling in the unlikeliness of the situation before parting ways.  I'll probably see him back in the US sometime.

So yeah, eventually I made it to the station, and took the 11:20 overnight bus to Nagoya.  I arrived around 5:45am, after little if any sleep, and I worked my way back through the train system to my friend's house.  I've gotten pretty good at navigating Japan by myself, it seems.  Which is a good thing, because I still don't have a cell phone.