June 14, 2023 – RITs International Game Industry Course for 2023

Until Next Time…

By the next morning, a melancholic mood had spread throughout the group as people slowly left for the airport. Sten and I spent the early afternoon doing some last-minute shopping at Mandarake. was staying in Japan for a few extra days. I waved farewell to everyone who left with Sten and Steve and then took my bags to my hotel nearby in Akihabara. Because I had to wait to check in, I went to a nearby 9-story tall bookstore and was impressed at their selection of 3D books. I bought some books there and the best clear file.

After returning and checking in, I went to see the Gridman Universe movie in the Japanese cinema. This was an interesting experience because each seat was in its own cubicle and the trailers before the movie were mixed in Japanese and English. The movie was also completely in Japanese and I was able to understand the gist of most of it.

I walked around Akihabara at night and went to the Kanda Myojin shrine. This was a really beautiful night. Also, I was surprised to still see the maids on the street at 12 to 1 in the morning.

The next day I went with my dad to Mt. Takao where there were many shrines along the way. There was also a monkey park along the way where we watched a feeding.

The view from the top of Mt. Takao. On a clear day, you can see Mt. Fuji

Later that night, I went for a walk around Roppongi and found a Harry Potter themed hallway. Apparently, there was a Harry Potter cafe in the area.

The next day, I went with my dad to the airport. My dad, who is a pilot, and I went with the crew bus to the airport and I was able to look up front and see my Dad do the preflight checks with the other pilots. This was a fun experience as I’ve only flown with my dad on his trips once before this was my first time getting a detailed tour of the cockpit.

What a trip! This was an incredible experience and I look forward to more travels in the future!

The End.

Day 2 in Akiba

05/30/2023

Starbucks for breakfast today! I had this cookies n cream chiffon cake at a Starbucks in Hiroshima, and it was so good that I immediately went for it again at the sbux nearby our hotel in Akiba.

A small group of us wandered out to explore & shop since we had a free day today. We had plans to go to character street (and for some, the kirby cafe) but first, crepes!

Ironically, I did not order a crepe despite being in love with the fake food display. Ever since arriving in Japan, I became slightly more obsessed with soft serve than I ever have been in the states. So I ordered a small cone for 300JPY.

A bunch of us craved something savory after the dessert and got kebabs from the stand next door. Thank you Jess for holding my chicken kebab as I took the photo above ?

We shopped around character street and I got to experience some of the cute kirby desserts with those who went. We also stopped by muji!! Weird to say, but I’ve always wanted the handheld paper shredder from their website but the shipping costs stopped me before. I was able to snatch one in person for myself during our short drop-in and I was living the life.

By around 5pm, we were getting HUNGRY. I had a date to meet up with a friend for dinner tonight, so I thought I could eat a few pieces of sushi and still be hungry enough for dinner. Jess and I went to a sushi place where I made a huge mistake. For some reason I didn’t think I would get full off of a full set of sushi and happily chowed down on the fish & miso soup.

The sushi chefs were super friendly & funny with us, and we were enjoying the food so much that I just ate as much as I could. I met up with my friend in Ikebukuro 3 hours later and ended up only ordering a slice of cheesecake due to how full I was from the sushi.

I met up with my friend to grab a package that I had shipped to her earlier this year, and to make a trade off with our merch. She works as a professional translator, moonlighting as a mangaka & illustrator in her freetime. She had recently tabled at an event and sold out of her original series but she had saved one copy for me, so I greedily asked for her signature while sliding over some of my own merch as thanks!

The meal she ordered looked delicious, and unfortunately I ate the worst cheesecake of my life this night. The little pink bud things on the whipped cream were sakura flowers. For some reason I thought they looked fun to chew so I popped one in my mouth and a sour taste immediately blossomed in my mouth, mellowing out to a bitter taste a few seconds later. I died a little. The cheesecake itself was insanely dense (in a bad way) and very tasteless?! The berry sauce unfortunately did not help the flavor much, not to mention how TINY the slice was. It was around 700jpy and it was the first time I felt juped by the pricing of food since I arrived in Japan.

We went karaoking for almost 2 hours after dinner, and then said our tearful goodbyes at the station before heading back.

Back to Tokyo! -> Akihabara

05/29/2023

The classic breakfast photo! Today we’re leaving Kyoto and heading back to Tokyo. I’ll miss Anteroom Kyoto…..their beds were comfy and the breakfast every morning felt so healthy and tasted delicious….!

I had iced my leg after getting back to the hotel yesterday, and here you can see a fresh bag of half-melted ice ontop of my luggage as we all waited to board the shinkansen back to Tokyo (about 2 hours travel time).

Our next hotel is in Akihabara, called REMM Akihabara! It was actually located directly next to one of the station exits which was extremely convenient. While my leg was in slight pain the entire time we walked around, I was so excited to see all the merch in sight. Genshin billboards and hololive collabs…..dreamy sigh.

For dinner, Jess, Chloe and I went straight to a maid cafe (Akiba Zettai)! Judging by the name, I assumed it was just thigh-high themed but it was actually a cat girl maid cafe……but! The girls were super sweet and we still had a great time. The food was cute, and we had fun conversations with each of the girls before we made Jess choose a maid to take a polaroid with. We’ll treasure this photo forever!

We explored animate afterwards (where I promised myself to come back as soon as I could) before heading back to the hotel to crash for the night after a long day of travel.

Game Jam Day 2

05/28/2023

Game Jam Day 2. Today was a blur. We worked hard on our respective parts for the game before having to present to everyone.

Omurice for lunch!

We met two very cool developers who critiqued our work and got to see what everyone else worked on during the jam. It was very interesting to see the concepts that everyone went for. Some were very cute, and some were very shonen-esque.

Here’s our very cute group photo once we were ready to head out!

This was also the day where I noticed my ankle had gotten bit at least 5 times by some sort of bug (not mosquitos…?) and was the start of a few miserable days following this day. It was just a bit itchy in the morning, and my entire right ankle had swollen up by the time we were leaving the university. Luckily, we weren’t walking around much and we took a cab home so my leg could rest in the meantime.