Author: Jessica

June 2nd:

Today was Unreal Fest and a Cyber connect tour. Unreal fest was definitely interesting but most of it was lectures and I think I need to take more Japanese classes before I’m ready for that. Other than that we got to play a bunch of mini games that game designers were working on which was really interesting. It felt a bit like the end of the game jam if we had more time to work on the games and were all professionals.

The one thing about today that really stood out was the TYPHOON. The casual typhoon. My poor little vending machine umbrella couldn’t handle it. Not to mention Jasmine and I was trying to share this tiny umbrella the whole time. We were basically on top of each-other.

After that we grabbed lunch at Mcdonald’s (mid) and headed back to the hotel to say goodbye to Toshi Sensei ??????.

I managed to not cry (for now) and then we headed to Cyber Connect. It was really interesting to learn about the scale of a gaming company that well established. They had only about 250 people across Japan. They created the Naruto, Demon Slayer, and JoJo games. They also had more indie games not based off of anime. These were interesting because they explained how they must not only make a game, but a comic and maybe even a show to boost the games presence. The studio was pretty small but very informational.

After that the school trip was officially over. We were free to do anything. So obviously we went to a chain family restaurant for American steak. It was pretty good besides the fact we all ended up soaked by the time we got back to the hotel

Then we stopped at Baskin Robins as a reward for our typhoon adventure. I’ll let the photo speak for itself.

June 1st:

I’m the morning I forced myself to wake up early enough to do laundry as I had no socks left and almost no pants. I ran into Emma at the Coin Laundry though so that made me feel less annoyed about being awake. I even discovered that they have delicious latte drinks in boba esc containers. And they are GOOD.

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Next was mini shopping time at the Gundam mall! I got a really cool drink with the best melon cotton candy I’ve ever had wrapped around the top. I also did lots of souvenir shopping.

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I didn’t get any pictures as I was half asleep the entire time but we went to a science museum. Honestly I don’t remember most of it I just remember most of the topics being very deep and calling to the smallness of humans and how we are ruining the earth. Jasmine said “I’m scared” at least 10 times.

BUT AFTER THAT. We went to teamLab Planets and lived the influencer life. My favorite part of the interactive experience was the water pool with the projected koi or the led infinite crystal universe. I also really enjoyed the very beginning having to walk up a slope with water running down it. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves though. A lot of it felt like squid games because we were being corralled into these small room and there was like a mini adventure. Obviously less fatal but you understand what I mean.

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May 31st:

I hate Denny’s but I also am not a big fan of Wendy’s and Japanese Wendy’s was awesome. I thought it would be the same for Dennys in Japan. I think it’s because I got a dessert item for lunch (pancakes) but I SWEAR hear me out ok. Imagine how old people smell. That’s how the pancakes tasted. It was so off putting. I do have to say that the options for Dennys here are much much broader and they had a lot of noodles that looked good. So I think I just made a bad choice.

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After that we rushed to meet with the rest of the group. We headed towards the Imperial gardens to look at beautiful landscaping and lots of koi. The biggest thing that interested me though were the huge stone walls. Each stone was the side of a car or bigger.

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The weather was perfect to walk around outside, it was cool and the pathways of the Meji Shrine we went to next made the best canopy to walk under. It was a very spread out shrine and a far-ish walk to the main shrine building. I even bought a charm to bring me “victory and perseverance”. The best part about this shrine was talking with everyone during the walk and getting even closer.

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After that with the little energy I had left Chloe convinced me to go to another One Piece store in Shibuya. I was so glad I went I got to see Shibuya Scramble Crossing from all the videos and photos I’ve seen in magazines and movies and anime. It is super chaotic and everyone really is scrambling.

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Overall one of my farthest walking distance days but was so relaxing and fun I didn’t even notice.

May 30th:

Today we had Akihabara to explore. We started by grabbing breakfast on a side street close to us. We got crepes and a meat skewers (they were next to eachother).

Next we headed to character street in Tokyo station. Belle and Megan managed to get Kirby Cafe Petit tickets and took me as a plus 1 so I bought a ton of stuff naturally.

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After that we headed to a 7 floor sex store. Not going into detail on that just don’t want to forget.

After that we headed to MUJI. I love Muji pens but I’ve never been to a store before so I was very excited. They were playing like fantasy guild indie game music. It honestly enhanced the aesthetic experience. Below is my haul.

I have had really good juice experiences in Japan so far. The juice here is superior so when I saw Muji apple juice in a cool round juice “box” I bought it.

After that Jasmine and I stopped at a sushi restaurant where I ordered Salmon sushi and the chefs laughed at me because apparently that is a very foreigner thing to do. But they were all really funny and the sushi was amazing.

Then Jasmine and I watched Demon Slayer and I SLEPT.

May 29th:

My idea of Japan before doing any research on it as a kid was that it was a world of anime and pokémon. Now I know that is probably an awful stereotype but as soon as we arrived at Akihabara I thought “this is it”.

Child me would have peed herself on the spot, there was not a single billboard that didn’t have an anime character on it.

Before exploring we settled into the hotel (which was a little suspicious). The shower curtain opened up into the room. As in you could be laying on the bed watching someone on the shower. Aside from that it was a GREAT location. The station was 10 steps from the hotel.

The first store we went to was also suspicious. I bought porn for my friend as a joke. He’s gonna hate it I can’t wait. I’m sorry I am not going to put a picture. This is a school assignment.

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Later Jasmine convinced me to go to a MAID CAFE. It was super socially draining and awkward but it was a really new cool experience and I’m glad I went.

The food was better than I thought. Don’t get me wrong it was all very overpriced but I was expecting it to also be poor quality. The spaghetti was adorable with the little seaweed cat egg face.

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Because of the Cat combo (cat themed cafe if you didn’t get that from the photos) I got a “free” polaroid. I was worried about the price of everything at first but it came out so amazing and now I can remember it forever.

May 28th:

Being down the KCG programmer, me being sick for the first day and a half, and working with three language worked in our favor. It was such an amazing experience to watch a pile of ideas and fear of not finishing turn into an AWESOME game.

I’m not sure how to post the game right now so maybe I’ll do it later? But the music, art, UI, mechanics and everything came together so much better than we all could’ve hoped for. Everyone seemed really pleased with the results. Kat (who switched groups to help us) and Maddy were programming until the last possible second.

I’m sure everyone in Game Jams feels this way but it was too short of a time and I am a bit sad we didn’t get more time to work with the KCG students.

On a more positive note Yume said he would join my minecraft server.

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After the Game Jam we all decided to go to Osaka!!!

Lots of shopping. Most of my time was spent at the Mugiwara Store (I almost cried, not a hyperbole)

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May 27th:

I know that it is customary to take your shoes off in homes and many resturant’s here but upon entering the clinic we had to remove our shoes as well!! Not to mention they had slippers of seemingly only one size for visitors. Below are Steve and I’s new fashionable footwear.

The doctors was WEIRD. They looked at my throat for one second and made me put this tube in my mouth that blew lowkey gross air into my lungs?? I couldn’t figure out how to inhale it. They kept telling me in Japanese but I was so confused. Then they promptly kicked me out gave me a prescription so I guess it worked out. So strange, but effective??

This was my technically first day of game jam as I missed yesterday. At first I wasn’t supposed to go but working remotely was near impossible and I would have preferred not participating at all as I felt I would hold the group back and add little help to it.

Eventually, I was allowed to go! I met everyone and at first I was very concerned with the team that we had. It was one programmer and the rest were artists. The majority of the day Me, Emma, and Yume worked on character design for our American Japanese combination boss rush game.

There were really tasty snacks so I ate a lot and was exhausted by the end of the day! Some assets and food below.

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Yume and Ryusei were super amazing and I tried my best to say anything I could in Japanese but I’m not sure how well that went. Also, working together was super interesting because we were bouncing ideas around in English, sign language, and Japanese it felt like magic. How the heck did we do that.

May 26th:

Unfortunately I have little to share today because I am 90% sure I have strep throat. It is very on and off pain wise. Sometimes I feel fine other times I can’t speak or swallow. Now is one of the latter times. Perfect for typing.

I woke up late and played Zelda for a bit before Jasmine convinced me to go to Mister Donut with her. I still haven’t tried mine but they look amazing.

I also got to hangout with Professor Jacobs while he helped me navigate getting to an ER (they don’t have urgent care) and taking covid tests and such. No help as of today however it was honestly a really interesting culture experience.

We got some tasty food afterwards and I learned a lot about the abroad program and our class and other fun stories from Jacobs.

With some extra time left part of the group played jackbox games! I left pretty quickly though as my throat began to hurt again. So annoying but I’m still very happy to be in Japan and having fun.

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May 25th:

Today was a bit challenging. I am staring to get sick and we are going to be out all day. Not to mention the weight of going to the Hiroshima museum was more than I expected There were many school groups with young young kids going into the museum that had very graphic and tragic content. The children also preformed speeches and bowed to a memorial statue as well. It was a lot different from any school field trip in the states.

Because of the intensity and out of respect I avoided taking photos in the museum I did get a few others of the dome building that is still standing.

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On a lighter note Skyler and Emma accidentally ordered alcoholic drinks for lunch at 11 am and Skyler actually drank a decent amount of them. I also got a chance to try some banana and caramel mochi balls at Starbucks.

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After the museum and talking to some Japanese children that were very curious about Sten we headed to an old castle were we mostly watched fish and took a short sitting break.

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And finally we had a HUGE dinner. I am the only one who didn’t finish their food I don’t know how everyone did it I was in pain. It was so yummy though. I was attempting to understand Yuko and the chef speak in Japanese but I probably looked like a children just staring at them while critically thinking.

bonus image: sten’s head

May 24th:

As today approach I constantly wished to sit for a while since my feet hurt. I wished incorrectly. We had meditation early in the morning and I had to use every ounce of my strength to keep good posture and attempt to weave my legs into a braid. It was really interesting process wise, however I am weak willed and not very good at sitting still. One part that was really surprising was being hit by the long stick to help you focus or wakeup or if your back hurts. It really did do what the monk said I felt very energized directly after.

After that was visiting the national treasure of the Sanjusangendo Shrine. This was sort of a speed run and photography wasn’t allowed but there were 1000 golden (colored not material) buddha statues which was a little spooky. The building was massive and every time I thought we saw all the statues there were more.

Next was a look into the Japanese tea ceremony. Our guide told us that an actual ceremony takes FOUR HOURS. However we had a summary version and even got to try the tea ourselves. The most interesting part was that when holding the tea cup you have the most beautiful facing side of the cup towards you, but when you drink you face it away as you don’t touch your lips to the most beautiful part.

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Finally we got a look around the area and some smaller temples!

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