I'm going to Japan!

[ilnadmy]

So this has been a few months in the planning, but I finally went today to apply for a visa to visit Japan, so now it's official. A friend of mine over the past year at university was an exchange student from Japan, and she invited me to visit her in Tokyo, so I figured this would be as great an opportunity as any to visit the land of the rising sun. I've heard so much about it, not to mention played so many of its games, that it's at the top of my list of countries I want to visit. Needless to say I'm very excited.

I'm actually interested in people here who have visited Japan. I know Gamer88 visited some time ago, so if you have any suggestions on what to do/where to go, I would love to hear any suggestions. I'm thinking of spending most of my time in Tokyo, but also visiting Kyoto and maybe Osaka. My friend is going to show me around when I'm in Tokyo, so I'd have to make my way around Kyoto/Osaka by myself. Not a completely bad thing, but I'm thinking I'd get more out of Tokyo with a guide than Kyoto without one.

Anyway, if anyone has any comments/suggestions, throw them my way.

[Rogue Bounty Hunter]

Meet as many Asian chicks as you can. :D

I've never been, but that's a place I wouldn't mind going.

[T.Tashi]

I'e been there but it was only for a 10 hour layover. But I would describe Tokyo like the Christmas season; all the lights and crowds, except it's 24-7. The arcades there are like office buildings. They're like 5, 6 floor some of them. So I can't tell ya much, I slept most of those hours away in a hotel I was so tired. But it'll be completely overwhelming and it'll be a blast.

[Mochan]

Just make sure to eat revolving sushi and get laid.

[BaneNWN]

Just make sure to eat revolving sushi and get laid.

haha good post

[ilnadmy]

Just make sure to eat revolving sushi and get laid.

I thought that was implicit when I said I was going to Japan.

[PapaSmurf]

lucky sob. I've always wanted to go to Japan. Hopefully I'll make one those study abroad trips while I'm still in college.

[Mochan]

I thought that was implicit when I said I was going to Japan.


Well, that's all that really matters but if you want the full course don't forget to create a doujinshi and sell it at Comiket, then attend the cosplay bukkake party afterwards. And make sure that you get on Takeshi's Castle and watch Dream 5!

[ilnadmy]

Most of that made no sense to me, but I know for sure I would NOT want to be in a bukkake party (let alone a cosplay bukkake party...weird), but I would also most definitely LOVE to appear on Takeshi's Castle!! Hahaha that show is AMAZING!! I'd get totally annihilated, but it would be reaaaaally fun.

[Jaa Phaanom]

It's probably obvious and already on your list, but Akihabara electronics district would be one place to go. The place is pretty big and I could probably spend at least 2-3 days there if I had the chance to go back.

[Aku]

My friend at work just got back from two weeks in Japan, and she had a great time. Plus the food over there is actually pretty reasonably priced if you stay away from the tourist places.

[T.Tashi]

Most of that made no sense to me, but I know for sure I would NOT want to be in a bukkake party (let alone a cosplay bukkake party...weird), but I would also most definitely LOVE to appear on Takeshi's Castle!! Hahaha that show is AMAZING!! I'd get totally annihilated, but it would be reaaaaally fun.

Id' be awesome if you could get on Ninja Warrior or some other crazy Japanese show, preferably with some scantily clad babes, sans the bukkake... unless you get to go first.

[ilnadmy]

Akihabara electronics district would be nice to visit and see I guess, but I don't see how I could spend a few days there, unless I was into buying a lot of stuff and taking it home with me. Although I wouldn't mind buying a game or two while I'm in Japan, but the problem is that all the games will be Japanese so there's no way I'll be able to play them and understand anything that's going on.

The food is DEFINITELY something I want to explore while I'm there, I freaking love Asian cuisine and Japanese is up there with the best. Guess I'll have to ask my friend to take me to some non-touristy food places while I'm there.

Haha and Tashi, I'd rather avoid bukkake altogether. That kind of thing shouldn't be communal...

[Mochan]

It's probably obvious and already on your list, but Akihabara electronics district would be one place to go. The place is pretty big and I could probably spend at least 2-3 days there if I had the chance to go back.

And while you're there be sure to have some coffee in a maid cafe.

[Mochan]

Id' be awesome if you could get on Ninja Warrior or some other crazy Japanese show, preferably with some scantily clad babes, sans the bukkake... unless you get to go first.

You know what would be hilarious? If Ilnadmy got caught in a show like Nasubi. Hehhehehe.

[Gadfly2317]

I thought that was implicit when I said I was going to Japan. (revolving sushi)

I'm totally jealous. Congratulations. Japan is high up on my list of places I want to visit.

Because of your thread, I decided to try the revolving sushi boat restaurant by my house. It's always so crowded, and there's another sushi restaurant a block over that I always eat at and I just never had tried it. So anyway, I'm again feeling in love with San Francisco, city of every kind of food. . . the revolving boat sushi place is only three blocks from my house, and I went a little early so I could actually get in. It was the most amazing, fresh sushi I've ever had, and the creativity of the stuf they were putting out was unbelievable. It was an all japanese staff, and over half the diners were japanese. I don't think I can ever eat sushi anywhere else again. Also, we ate until we were stuffed and it was only $42 dollars, less than 1/2 of what it would have cost at a sit-down-order-off-the-menu place. So be warned, I'm sure Japan will ruin sushi for you anywhere else.

I also understand there's a tea-shop in Japan that's been in continuous operation for over 700 years. I don't know if you are a tea lover like I am, but if so, that would be high on my list of places to see.

Damn I hate you Ilnadmy!!! :) Have an awesome trip and tell us all about it when you get back.

[ilnadmy]

A tea shop that has been in continuous operation for 700 years?!! Sign me up! I love tea, what's the name of the place?

And yeah I love sushi and I can only imagine the mouth watering excesses that I will be privy to once I go there. I've never actually seen a revolving sushi place, so I need to check that out pronto. Good thing I'm gonna have Japanese people showing me around, I'm sure they know the good places to eat. :D

I'm also planning to take a trip to Mount Koya and spend a night in a temple, where you get to live like the monks, eat what they eat (some sort of vegetarian only diet), and then wake up at 6 AM to participate in their morning prayers. They also have hot springs you can bathe in, so I'm looking forward to that.

[ilnadmy]

So I just got into Tokyo, and wow the language barrier hit a lot harder than I expected it to. No English signs around here, all Japanese all the time. I got a cell phone and I called up a bunch of my friends but they're not picking up so I guess I won't hear from them until tomorrow. Guess I'm out on my own tonight! Should be exciting.

Oh btw the computer I'm on right now is at an internet cafe and it has no less than 15 MMOs installed on it. No joke. This sh*t is hilarious.

[ilnadmy]

Today was the day I had the best meal of my life. Wow. To all of you seafood lovers, you have to visit Japan. I don't even know what half the stuff I ate was, but I'll be damned if it wasn't all top shelf fantastic stuff. Gad I don't know what kind of food you had at that restaurant you visited, but it can't have been better than what I just ate. Delectable. The sushi itself is similar to what I've had in the US and elsewhere (although it did taste better), but it's the slices and cubes of raw fish dipped in whatever sauces they have that blew me away. I also found out that there's a fish market here that makes food for you with the fish that has just been caught that morning. In essence you're eating something that was killed just a few hours ago. I need to try that.

My friends called me back so things are going smoothly. I might be going to an Onsen park tonight, basically a place with a bunch of different pools you can sit in (warm, hot, boiling hot, cold, freezing cold, and one that apparently has electric currents running through it). That should be quite interesting.

So I've decided that since the only internet access I get is at this internet cafe and they charge you for one hour minimum, that any extra time I have on the computer I'll spend here writing up my experiences for the day. Sort of like a mini-blog.

I still haven't visited Akihabara though, and that's a must. If there's one place I'm determined to see it's the gaming/anime/electronics mecca of the world. Depending on how much of it I see I might even go several times.

Oh and one more thing. The Japanese people are EXTREMELY polite. Example: I was walking towards my hotel dragging my bags, and as I turned the corner my bag slammed into the leg of a teenager who was walking with his friends. He turned to me, picked my bag up, and helped me carry it to the hotel. And everyone is like that (from the very little I've seen at least).

[ilnadmy]

I'm in Kyoto right now, got here yesterday. I spent all day today, from 8:30 to around 4:30 walking around and seeing all the amazing temples they've got. One in particular, The Golden Pavillion, is a sight to behold and has to be seen by anyone planning a visit to Japan. I got there relatively early, so while there were a lot of tourists there was still room for me to take photos and have photos of me taken with the Pavillion in the background without tourists populating the photo.

Anyway tomorrow I'm getting up early to see maybe the second most famous temple in Kyoto, Kiyomizu. I'm then leaving to Mt. Koya, which is a spiritual mountain with about 200 Buddhist temples, and I'll be spending the night at one of the temples, eating the monks' special vegetarian food, and getting up at 6 AM to attend their morning prayers. There's also a natural hot pool at the temple that I can soak in and enjoy. Should be really relaxing and a great counterpoint to Tokyo.

[Mochan]

Foood!!!!! Too bad I am allergic to shrimp and crab but despite that Japanese cuisine is still my 2nd favorite (right behind Italian). I love eating sushi and katsudon is still probably my favorite Japanese dish.

If I ever go to Japan, I will make sure to watch an event of Dream live (too bad Pride is gone) and yeah I'm going to Akihabara too.

[PapaSmurf]

Foood!!!!! Too bad I am allergic to shrimp and crab but despite that Japanese cuisine is still my 2nd favorite (right behind Italian). I love eating sushi and katsudon is still probably my favorite Japanese dish.

If I ever go to Japan, I will make sure to watch an event of Dream live (too bad Pride is gone) and yeah I'm going to Akihabara too.

Allergic to shrimp and crab? I'd shoot myself...

[Mochan]

Not me. I hate the smell of those anyway! Crabs are the garbage collector of the sea! Shrimps look like swimming cockroaches.
Yuck!

Now if i were allergic to pasta I'd kill myself.

[ilnadmy]

Mt. Koya was a blast, I went to Okunoin, a large graveyard where all the followers of this really famous monk are buried, with his mausoleum at the very end. I went there at night so it was scary as hell, so many trees and graves as far as the eye can see (there are about 200,000 graves there). It honestly scared the everliving out of me since I insisted on taking these winding dirt paths off the main road into areas that have no lights. I then went back in the morning and wow, many of the graves and pagodas have been there for thousands of years, so they have iridescent green moss growing everywhere. And the trees were crazy tall, it was a sight to behold.

I'm back in Tokyo now, did some shopping in Akihabara this morning and got Zelda Phantom Hourglass for about $20 and a 4 GB USB stick for around $12. It actually sucks shopping in Akihabara for American games because everything is so damn expensive. I wanted to get Soul Calibur for PS3 but it was like $85. Forget that. I did go into Club Sega again though and played some Street Fighter 4, but got my ass handed to me by some Japanese dudes.

It's funny though, there was an American guy there who thought he was the sh*t, but everytime he got his ass kicked he would start cursing and giving the middle finger to the screen and saying that the other guy was cheating. But when you look at the Japanese, when they lose they just take it and move on. Kinda makes me respect the Japanese a whole lot more.

And Mochan, you'll be happy to know that the Japanese love their Italian food. In fact, after Japanese restaurants, the highest number of restaurants is Italian, at least in Tokyo. But it's a special mix of Italian with some Japanese flavor, so it's kinda cool.

[Mochan]

Japanese and Italian are my favorite cuisine. I never pass up a chance to eat either. I want to go to Mt. Koya as well. Sounds like quite the adventure! Kimodameshi there would be scary as hell!

[ilnadmy]

It was actually Okunoin that scared the crap out of me. I'm not sure what Kimodameshi is?

But yeah, I've basically been enjoying my time in Japan a lot. Would definitely come back here again for another vacation if I felt up to the task of a 10 hour plane trip. Got a few more days before I leave, so I'm just trying to relax, enjoy myself, and have some great experience. I got accosted by a prostitute on the street tonight as I was leaving a bar. That doesn't really happen in Philly haha.

[Cuddly Knife]

Sweet. I was wondering where you been, and if maybe you got Turista'd(it's a movie), and were done for. I always think the worst, that's why I've never(and might not ever) get on a plane.

[ilnadmy]

Big mistake dude, one of my favorite things to do is travel the world seeing new cultures. It really is quite an experience. Hell I have a fear of heights and of planes, and I still travel all over the place. I think because of how many planes I've taken (mainly going to the US to study) I've lost my fear of flying.

Anyway today's my last day in Japan. Sad. I leave in about 6 hours, so I'm just gonna chill with a friend and try to enjoy my last few hours here.

[ilnadmy]

OK, Australia f*cking sucks. I was supposed to leave Japan two days ago to go to New Zealand. But apparently Australia needs me to have a visa to be allowed to transit through their crappy-ass airport. So I wasn't allowed on the plane, and since their embassy in Tokyo is closed Saturday, Sunday, AND Monday, the earliest I might get a visa is Tuesday. So I'm stuck in Japan until they decide I'm not a terrorist and I'm allowed to land in their stupid ass airport. A$$holes.

[Rogue Bounty Hunter]

That sucks.

At least you have an opportunity to take in a couple more things in while in Japan.

[Aku]

Well, you shouldn't be playing World in Conflict on your laptop in the airport, blowing sh*t up while swearing in Arabic. It just makes people nervous.

[ilnadmy]

Well, you shouldn't be playing World in Conflict on your laptop in the airport, blowing sh*t up while swearing in Arabic. It just makes people nervous.

Hahaha that made me smile.

Yeah I guess it gives me a few more days to do the things in Tokyo that I haven't done yet. I just went to an onsen (natural hot spring) today, and boy was it an experience. They have 4 pools - one warm, one really hot, one cold, and one really cold. You dip in one, then the next, then the next, etc... It really is pretty crazy how different your body feels once you step out of each onsen. Then I went to their outdoors onsen when it started raining, so I just lay on my back on a horizontal piece of stone for half an hour under the rain, wearing nothing but a towel. It was really soothing.

But yeah, I delayed my trip back to Bahrain by a week so I can actually spend a good amount of time in New Zealand. That means I get a day and a half in Bahrain before I have to leave for the US. So once again I repeat: F*ck Australia, Australia sucks.

[Aku]

So once again I repeat: F*ck Australia, Australia sucks.

Croiky!!!

[ilnadmy]

I FINALLY beat Street Fighter IV today. I've been playing the game on and off for two weeks at arcades and I finally did it. I took 4 shots at the game today at probably the most pro arcade in Tokyo. This is where the big boys come to play, and you can tell - there's people with 20 game win streaks going on at this place when you walk in.

Anyway they have two SF4 machines hooked up for only CPU play, so no one can challenge you on these machines. My first two attempts were with my favorite character, C. Viper. She's really cool and has some awesome moves and I love playing with her, but I got my ass handed to me by Sagat first and then by E. Honda the second time. I then switched to Ken, who I actually got to the final boss with previously, but like that time I was able to beat his first form before he transformed into a super lame ass cheap-o character that whooped my butt. My final attempt was with one of the new characters - Abel. He's French, which makes him awesome, and he's a wrestler/brawler, which makes him even cooler. While playing him I discovered what type of beast this man is. He has a throw that can knock off a fifth of the opponent's health. His super and ultra combos can take almost a third of your health out, and they cover a large distance; you could be standing across the screen and they'll still connect. He's fantastic, and he has some cool combo throws/grabs which look off the chain.

I faced against Sagat on my way to the boss, and while Sagat was as lame as ever I managed to break him in half. I then came face to face with Seth, the final cheap-o boss. I beat his first form handily, which is pretty easy. Then he came at me with his super duper "you can't catch me" form. He can teleport, shoot sonic booms, use Dhalsim's extendable limbs, and suck you in close to pummel you senseless. He beat me around until I got dazed, but I managed to sneak an ultra combo onto his ass as soon as he landed the first hit that brought me out of my daze. He still managed to kill me though.

Second round I landed three of Abel's glorious throws on him in a row. I think I scared him off, because he's usually running full speed at you, but he started jumping away to avoid my throws. There was a bit of back and forth until I got him to within two hits of his death - he even landed his ultra combo on me which drained half my health away. And here is where Seth's cheapness shows. I threw an ultra combo at him as he was getting up - the plan was to hit him with the combo while he was still getting off the ground. Somehow he manages to block it. So I knock him to the ground and throw a super combo at him as he's getting up. Not only does he block it, but he reverses it into his OWN super combo. At this point I'm about a hit away from death and so is he. As I get up I manage to land a kick on him as he's jumping towards me, and I threw my fist up in victory. Abel is now my favorite character. He will kick your ass.

I realized that in SF4 the characters aren't balanced - they're all equally cheap. If you don't know what you're doing you're going to get rocked and yell how cheap the game is. But once you find your character, you'll be abusing opponents in no time. Before I came to Japan SF4 wasn't even on my to-watch list. Now it's top of my must-buy list. This game rocks, and while I'm excited to play Soul Calibur IV soon, SF4 can't come soon enough.

[ilnadmy]

Got my transit visa to Australia! I'm leaving for the airport in 20 mins, and hopefully I won't face any more problems on my way to New Zealand.

I guess the delay wasn't the worst thing in the world. I got to visit a natural hot spring, I went to Yokohama yesterday, the second largest city in Japan, finished Street Fighter IV, and bought myself some cool stuff today including a kimono. Japan was great! You guys should definitely visit when you get a chance, I was actually kinda sad when the Australian embassy called and told me my visa was ready. I don't want to leave Tokyo!