Author: Maddy

Tokyo -> Albany, NY

Sadly, the trip is finally coming to its conclusion. I loved Japan and definitely did not want to leave, but after the amount of excitement from the past 2 weeks, I wasn’t entirely dreading getting to go back home.

Thankfully, Esther was on the same flight as me! The two of us headed to Haneda airport around 11 am in preparation for our 3pm flight from Tokyo to Washington DC. We had to do a bit of waiting around at the airport for baggage check to open, but once we were through security and had checked our (very heavy and merch-filled) luggage, we could relax a bit.

The flight itself went very smoothly and I was able to get some cool pics of clouds and mountains 🙂

We landed in DC after 13 hours of sleeping and listening to music. Unfortunately our layover did not leave us with a lot of time to get through customs and recheck our luggage and we thought we were going to miss our connecting flight. Thankful, Esther was able to make her flight to Rochester on time and I successfully made my flight to Albany! Crisis averted.

I was looking forward to sleeping in my own bed again, but I can’t wait to go back to Japan! It was definitely the experience of a lifetime and one of my favorite places I’ve ever visited.

CyberConnect 2 !

To start off the rainy morning, the group headed to Unreal Fest! Unreal Fest was held in a venue in Akihabara not far from the hotel, so despite the typhoon weather, the walk wasn’t bad at all. Once inside, we were able to wander the game showcase area to playtest tons of cool projects. One of my favorites was a cinematic, journey-inspired sea life game where you played as various sea creatures. Starting off as a small fish, you soon transitioned to a dolphin, a large school of fish, and more as you swam through beautiful oceans with an amazing orchestral soundtrack. Another favorite of mine that I saw was a small puzzle game called On The Rocks. I believe this was the result of a game jam, and it involved using pinball-like mechanics to transport a marble into a glass at the bottom of the level. What made it so interesting, however, was the various movement mechanics that were derived from simple just tilting paddles. It was also a very fun experience that I definitely think had potential to be developed further.

After Unreal Fest we had some free time, so Esther, Vincent, Brody, and I got some udon for lunch nearby and then went for some final shopping in Akihabara. I went back to a store I had visited a few days prior to get a gift for a friend and found something called a “Zeldabox” from the 2003 Wind Waker release and it was such a good find.

Inside is 2 small figures, a Wind Waker guidebook, a poster, and a cd with select songs from the franchise :0

I was also so excited to find a 1999 copy of Majora’s Mask for the N64 for relatively cheap.

Finally, we concluded our final day in Tokyo with a visit to Cyber Connect 2’s Tokyo studio. Cyber Connect 2 is responsible for the development of popular anime games such as the Naruto, Demon Slayer, and Jojo games. We got a tour of the studio where we could see the workspace layout and artists and designers at work. Cyber Connect is known for its gorgeous animation work and translating the art styles of manga and anime into games.

Labs!

An early morning trip out to the Tokyo port area brought the group to the Gundam mall! This mall featured a life-sized Gundam statue that even moved and played audio every once in a while. Although I am not a Gundam fan and know basically nothing about the franchise, it was still a fascinating landmark to see.

Not far from the mall was the Miraikan Museum of Science and Innovation. We were able to split up and spend some time in the museum and there were some really cool exhibits. Almost all exhibits were interactive in some manner, with some examples being a robot that mimicked viewer movement, modern health science exhibit, and a game in which you can see the trajectory of a hypothetically future.

Finally, we reached our last destination do the day — TeamLab Planets!

TeamLabs is a series of interactive art exhibits that immerses viewers completely in the art. Upon entering, visitors must take off their shoes and socks and wade through cleansing water. This is because the exhibits are barefoot and involve mirror floors, water, and textured surfaces. My favorite exhibits were the first room with pillow-like flooring, the maze of crystalline sparking LED lights, and this pond of virtual colorful fish.

Honorable mention was the hanging flower garden 🙂

Broke x2

Today we visited the Imperial Palace in central Tokyo! While we weren’t able to get actual tickets inside the palace, we spent the morning exploring the beautiful imperial gardens. The most memorial portion of the gardens was the koi pond. It was serenely calm, had a small waterfall and various flowers and plants scattered on its banks. Hence the name, there was also koi fish in the pond! I’m continuously awed by their vibrant colors and spent a while just sitting on the bridge watching them. I also made a pill bug friend!

After exploring the gardens for a while, we then headed over to Harajuku to grab lunch. We found a food court that had a really cool decora-themed interior. I got a korean corn-dog and fried seaweed 🙂 I will also never stop talking about the street fashion in Harajuku and I could easily spend all day people watching to observe the fits.

The group then headed to the Meiji Shrine in Shibuya, known for its large Torii gates. We spent some time at the shrine observing the gorgeous scenery and paying respects to the local deities.

After the shrine,Vincent, Brody, Esther, and I decided to hang around the Shibuya area since we were already here. Esther and I were told about Shibuya 109 (a shopping complex specifically for women’s clothing), and we’re immediately eager to check it out. In Shibuya 109 I found my dream store :0. The store was a blend of goth, punk, and skater styles and definitely embodied my dream style. Sadly, everything was so insanely expensive else I could have easily bought out the entire store. I followed them on Instagram though and I will be back someday with more money. Shibuya 109 was still a successful venture and I ended the day with a few new articles of clothing I was super excited about.

Broke ?

Today, Esther and I spent our free day in Akihabara shopping! As a huge anime and game nerd, I was clearly very excited to get my hands on as much merch as I could from my favorite franchises.

We woke up relatively early to go to Tokyo Station and hit up Tokyo Character Street! Character street is filled with shops for Japanese franchises and characters like Sanrio and Hello Kitty, Studio Ghibli, Sumikko Gurashi, and more. My personal favorite was the Ghibli store, and my wallet hurt a bit after getting lots of gifts for friends there.

After spending some time at Character Street, we took the subway back to Akihabara where we spent the day going in the larger stores such as Mandarake, Animate, and Super Potato, as well as going to any and all smaller hole in the wall shops we could find. My personal favorite was a building we stumbled across called Radio Kaiken that turned out to be floors and floors of some of the coolest figure collections I’ve seen.

Some highlights from the shopping include:

  • Berserk figure
  • Majoras Mask Soundtrack
  • Original Ocarina of Time guidebook for the n64
  • Elden Ring Art Book
  • Pokémon White
  • lotsssss of Hunter x Hunter merch

We ended the day with some yummy hotpot and empty wallets, but it was very much worth the financial hit.

Kyoto -> Akihabara

Today we travel from Kyoto to Tokyo for the second half of our time in Japan. Morning gets off to a slow start as we pack up and head to Kyoto Station to board the Shinkansen bullet train. Train ride goes smoothly as I doze off listening to music.

As much as I love Kyoto, Tokyo is definitely my favorite place I’ve visited, and I am very excited to be able to spend more time here. I’m extra excited as I’ve yet to visit Akihabara district. Once at Akihabara, we make our way to the hotel which is conveniently right next to Akihabara station. While it’s not as unique as the design of the Kyoto Anteroom Hotel, the shower has a window that looks over the city for an amazing view.

Once settled in a bit, we took a group trip to Mandarake, a massive 7 floor store with retro anime, games, television and movie merch.

Afterwards, me Brody, Esther, and Vincent got some delicious sushi! This restaurant was recommended to us and it was right next to the hotel. I tried eel for the first time and actually really liked it!

We then went out for a little more shopping where I got a bilingual copy of The Ghost in the Shell manga, and saw some cool zelda posters 🙂

Game Jam Day 2

Team 01 got off to a rocky start but by the time day 2 came around, we felt much more prepared and had a better understanding of what we needed to do to complete our project.

Our main task to finish up was to finish art and sound assets and put them into the unity project, and then implement player attacks. We were also able to implement some last minute boss attacks. Finally, we hooked everything up through make a semi-working prototype that simulates gameplay and game flow.

It was great seeing everyone’s projects during the showcase afterward. Some teams used Unreal Engine and had more of an emphasis on animation, models, and graphics, while other teams had simpler visuals with an emphasis on gameplay and interaction. Everyone took the theme of “collaborating across cultures” in a unique direction and overall it was a productive and inspiring weekend!

That night, we all celebrated at the hotel for a chill night :).

Game Jam Day 1

Day one of the Game Jam was a success! My group consisted of 2 KCG game designers, an RIT animation student, a RIT new media student, and me, a game design major.

We got off to a bit of a rocky start due to some programming road blocks and issues being the only programmer on the team. However, as the event progressed we were able to get in the flow, overcome some challenges and progress with the programming. Katherine also ended up unofficially joining team 1 to assist with programming due to the imbalance of skills on the team.

Our concept dealt with idea of differing cultural depictions of superheroes and common legends. We wanted to incorporate 2 player coop with one player controlling a samurai hero and the other player controlling an american hero. While we were unable to implement local multiplayer, we still incorporated the idea of a dual tag-team esque mechanic by having a single player game in which the player toggled between heroes with siffeeent movesets.

Ultimately, on day 1 we made a lot of progress establishing the idea and feel of the game, communicating with the team about everyone’s role and aspirations for the project, and getting a good foundation with the code structure and programming.

The highlight of the day was definitely continuing to talk to the KCG students and get to know them as we collaborated. My teammates were wonderful and it was super interesting how overtime we were able to figure out an effective way to communicate despite language barriers. Can’t wait to continue tomorrow for day 2!

Nerv Kyoto Base

Today we had some free time where we were able to go explore Kyoto independently from a big group. I had learned about a Neon Genesis Evangelion exhibit at the Toei Studio Park in Kyoto. As a big Evangelion fan I was so excited and this was genuinely an experience I was so grateful to have gotten the chance to have.

The exhibit featured a life-sized model of Eva Unit-01 that you could take pictures with, go on top of, and even go on the hand. I got pictures with my favorite characters 😀 and even stood on the model’s hand. They incorporated a lot of elements from the series and it was such a fun experience.

Before leaving the park, we had a quick lunch break and I ordered the Misato Katsuragi curry ramen 🙂

We ended the night with a kickoff for the RIT x KCG game jam where we got to officially meet our teammates and start planning ideas. I am looking forward to working with everyone in the days to come.

Hiroshima

Today we traveled from Kyoto to Hiroshima. I was looking forward to visiting Hiroshima because of everything I have learned about it, and was not at all disappointed. The scenery was beautiful with moving memorials and stunning gardens. We saw the Hiroshima dome which was a building left standing after the bombing. The dome was located on the side of a river near the blast center, and it was so surreal to stand in the very place of such a huge historical event.

The above picture matches almost perfectly one of the pictures from right after the bombings, and it brought tears to my eyes seeing such a place in real life.

After walking around the memorial garden and the dome we went to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum where I was able to learn a lot about the events of the atomic bombing, the health impact, and the rebuilding of the city. What was most moving were the survivor stories and witness testimonies. In the Peace Memorial Park, we passed a man who told us he was the son of one of the oldest survivors of the bombings, and was passing along information about his testimony and peace advocation.

After visiting the memorial sites, we also traveled to a shinto shrine in Hiroshima where we walked around briefly and saw some cute koi fish. It was a relaxing way to decompress after the powerful yet emotional morning.

Finally, to end the day, we enjoyed a traditional Hiroshima dish called okonomiyaki for dinner. The okonomiyaki was delicious and the restaurant staff were very kind and welcoming. Afterward we took the bullet train back to Kyoto and crashed for the night in preparation for our free time the following day.