Author: Katherine

Day 12/13

The majority of Friday I spent at Unreal Fest before going with the group Cyber Connect 2. I am really interested in the development and the technology behind video games; I even enjoy watching GDC talks and the making of documentaries in my free time. I got to see how they used motion capture technology to make a mesh follow movement live from a camera reference – I even got to try the headset on. They also let me use the sphere that takes a bunch of pictures at once and turns your face into a mesh for a video game character.

We met as a group in the hotel lobby before making our way to Cyber Connect 2. I’ve never gotten to tour a studio of any kind before, so this was a very cool experience. After this tour, we were free to do as we wished since this was the last scheduled day of the trip. I ended up on the same plane as both Professor Jacobs and Professor Sten, as well as another student so I spent my last day hanging around the hotel with them, mostly trying my luck at the arcade machines; which I did win a prize.

I was fortunate enough to not have anyone sitting next to me on any of my four flights. This was by far the longest plane ride I’ve ever experienced, and I was pleasantly surprised that we got three meals, free headphones, and access to hundreds of free movies.

While I was glad to be home, I found myself already missing the group of students, professors, and the KCG professors, I spent almost everyday with. I am beyond grateful to have gotten this experience and I can already see the short-term effects from this trip: greater confidence, better problem-solving, etc. But I am almost more excited to see how it will impact my life long-term. Thank you for this amazing trip!

Day 11

We started out the day at a mall with a life-size Gundam statue out front. While I have never seen Gundam, I loved seeing the larger-than-life figure in person. It even moved a little, lit up, and played voice lines. There’s apparently another one that moves it’s arms or legs but it was closed for renovation for at least several weeks.

We also got to go to TeamPlanets – which reminded me of Otherworld in Ohio – a huge warehouse filled to the brim with different light, sounds, and tactile experiences. First walking in, we walked up a ramp that was running water continuously. Then we walked through a giant room covered in pillows and bean bags. Which was surprisingly hard to not fall over in, but it was so much fun.

My two favorite rooms came next: the mirror and light room, and the koi pond. There were thousands of lights dangling from the ceiling and mirrors on the floor and ceiling. The room had quite a few cycles that showcased different light patterns creating a number of kaleidoscopic sights. The koi pond was a large room filled with opaque water topped with koi made of lights. Being a big fan of water, I found the dark room very relaxing.

Day 10

I was very excited for this day because I had heard that the Imperial Palace gardens were pretty. The giant stones that made up the walls were incredible and the koi pond was mesmerizing. I loved the waterfall and all of the trails that surrounded the flower beds nextto the pond. One of the things I was shocked by was the number of times each shrine has burned down. I think the most we had heard was eight times, I don’t remember how many times the Imperial Palace burned but it wasn’t nearly that many times.

After a brief lunch of ricotta and banana pancakes, we all met at the final shrine of the entire trip. It reminded me significantly of the backyard of the house I grew up in with the thick woods aesthetic and the river running through it. Something I was surprised by was the giant row of barrels that once held wine – although I cannot remember the story behind it. While this shrine was not as staggering as the shrine on the cliff or the one with over one thousand gates or statues, I thoroughly enjoyed the simplicity of this one.

Day 9

For the free day in Tokyo, I traveled solo to Shibuya to see the Hachiko memorial statue and the famous Shibuya scramble crossing. I remember reading the heartwarming book Hachiko when I was around 10 in school. At the end I found out that there was a statue of the loyal dog in Japan at the station he would wait at for his owner after he left for work. His owner ended up passing while at work and never came back; so the dog never left. After reading about it, I always wanted to get to see it in real life.

Another place on my Japan bucket list was Shibuya crossing. I’ve gotten to see it in so many different movies and television shows. Fortunately for me, it was right next to the Hachiko memorial statue. Right at the crossing’s peak, it has up to 3,000 people crossing at once. I got to cross it and got to see a birds eye view of the crossing.

Afterwards I walked thirty minutes to get to the Gotokuji temple, known for holding hundreds of lucky cat figures. I knew heading into the country, I wanted to buy one of these figures as well as one for my friend. It was almost overwhelming seeing all of the figures and I enjoyed finding hidden figures that other people left.

Day 7/8

Day 7 was the remaining part of the game jam and I stuck with my new group. We worked on adding the audio, the art, and backgrounds, as well as bug fixing when we got lunch. During lunch, I wanted to try adding a boss attack. So within the last 30 minutes, I started and finished adding fireballs to our game so the boss can attack the player.

Then we had two industry professionals review our games. One had started his own studio, and the other worked in the education outreach division of Epic – the makers of Unreal Engine. They seemed to think our game Hero Duo was funny – which was the goal, but gave a critique on our lack of player feedback; particularly when the player gets hit.

The next day, we took the bullet train back to Tokyo. I still think the bullet train is so cool, how it uses magnets to make the train as frictionless as possible. Although I’m bummed I wasn’t able to see Mt. Fuji due to the clouds. We went shopping for a while at some second-hand stores (although I mostly remained in the video game sections) before getting ramen – for the first time – and heading back to the hotel.

Day 6

Today was the first day of the game jam. I spent over half of the day trying to download Unreal Engine on Professor Jacob’s laptop since my 2015 Mac would have never been able to handle that as it can barely handle Unity. While I was waiting for it to download, I began helping another group in the game jam.

During this time, Unreal Engine finished downloading on the laptop. However, it required another software to download. At that point, I felt that it would cause more harm than good if I went back to my previous group; since they would have to explain the entire code base to catch me up. So I remained with the new one since their programmer was sick with covid.

My time at KCG was where I tried a lot of new foods and snacks. I don’t know the names, but they were very good. One was in the shape of a mushroom and had a chocolate top. Another had a koala print on it and was filled with chocolate. I also got to try white rice wrapped in seaweed and Japanese pizza – which I didn’t realize was more uncommon there.

Day 5

I planned this day to be a relaxing and recoving day which was needed after traveling to Hiroshima the day before. I spent the day shopping with a small group of other students. I used this day to buy gifts for my friends and family as well. When I found out I was going to Japan, I knew I wanted to grab a few games due to the price difference and the abundance of games there. I found a few Pokémon switch titles for around $10 each – which ended up being the only games I wound up getting.

My friend asked for an interesting thing from Japan, so I found a bag that is in the shape of a fish for her. The group I shopped with got lunch before heading back to the hotel. After meeting the entire group in the lobby, we all left for KCG, where we got a tour of the newest building for their college. We then got to meet the other students we would work with for the game jam.

Day 4

We started the day early to catch the bullet train headed for Hiroshima. After getting off the bullet train, we stopped at the dome – the last remaining building from the bombing. I’ve seen so many pictures of this building and appreciated the opportunity to see it in person. It was fascinating how this building still stands when it was just over 500 feet from where the bomb fell.

We also saw the origami monument, which I had never heard of until this day. A young girl died of cancer 10 years after the bombing of Hiroshima, and she folded paper cranes everyday believing they would help her recover before she eventually passed away. This started a movement to pray for world peace and up to 10 million cranes are offered every year before this monument.

We got to walk through the museum which was a very emotional experience. Although the topic was incredibly serious, I was happy I got to go. Not just for myself. One of the things on my dad’s bucket list was to go to Hiroshima, something he never got to do, and I’m glad I was able to go.

Day 3

We woke up super early today and meditated with a monk at his shrine. Something that surprised me was that if you get distracted or your back begins to hurt, you bring your hands together, bow to the monk, and he hit you with a rod. My back did begin to hurt – I also thought, “When’s the next time I can get hit by a monk?”, so I gave this method a try – it shockingly helped. While it was hard to focus occasionally, it was a cool experience.

Afterwards we visited one of my favorite shrines, the one with all of the statues in it. I couldn’t take pictures due to it being a sacred site, but nevertheless I loved the visual and the story behind it; where the emperor wanted to show his strength and security so he created this temple.

We also got to walk around a small marketplace with incredible views – at the base of the shrine where the people jumped off and survived – and got to have make tea at a tea ceremony. I piqued my interest how strong the tea was. Apparently it’s made with either less water or more tea and is very caffeinated.

Afterwards, Megan and I went to the Pokémon center where they had Pikachu wearing a kimono greeting the customers and where I spent a surprisingly small amount of money. Later that night we met up at Round1 for bowling and I got two strikes.

Day 2

The entire group spent the day sightseeing numerous temples – both Shinto and Buddhist. While I don’t remember the exact names of all of them, I remember them all clearly. We first went to the Golden shrine right on the lake, that had part of the cremated remains of the Buddha on the third floor.

After getting on the bus and traveling to our next destination, we found ourselves in a bamboo forest and a marketplace for lunch. Before moving on to a temple on top of a mountain – where a group of people apparently jumped off of and survived. It was here where I started collecting stamps from the various temples and shrines so I could make a collage when I got back home.

We finally visited my personal favortie – a temple with thousands of gates – known as the Fox Shrine; where Sten had to photobomb me as payback from something earlier in the day. We spent the night at KCG, watching ‘Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train’. I enjoyed the movie quite a bit, which was surprising because I’m not the biggest fan on anime. I really liked the creepy villain, the story, and the conflict for the main character that fights demons, where his sister is a demon.