Technology day followed similarly to culture Day with our start at noon. Some of us went to grab Starbucks in the morning before we made our way to Diver City.
At Diver City, we saw the giant Gundam statue, shopped and ate lunch in the mall. I bought two shirts from Uniqlo for less than 2,000 jpy before running into Kat at a pizza place for lunch. We also waited to see the Gundam move which was kind of anticlimactic as only a few pieces and panels on the face moved.
Next, we went to the Miraikan museum which was… not my favorite. Many of the interactions were problematic at best or didn’t have anything meaningful to show other than being slightly cool. For example, there was a game where you chose a goal for the future of humanity. However, many of the different goals were interconnected such as solving global warming and equal access to drinking water. Some were of lesser importance such as the ability for everyone to eat fish. Then, you would send your message into the future by setting a path and trying to avoid the hazards. However, the entire experience didn’t give the participant any feeling of agency or what they can do to help the problem. The museum was also very sparce and did not utilize the space well, in my opinion.
The most interesting interaction I had in the museum was with a Ukiyo-e Hatsune Miku who introduced you to vocaloid.These robots served no purpose other than looking cool.
Next, we made our way to Team Lab planets. Even though I had been before, the experience was almost just as good the second time around. They also added a garden exhibit since I last came.
The Infinite Crystal UniverseProjected Koi that transformed into flower petals upon contactStrange Egg like shapes in the garden exhibitThese flowers slowly moved up and down
Lastly, we went back and gathered people for Karaoke. The experience of doing it for the first time was really fun and the mics could reverb really well inside the room.
My day started with brunch with my Dad, who was on a layover, at Denny’s. At Denny’s, I was taking to my Dad about the trip when the person at the table next to us caught our attention and introduced himself as a employee at Gamefreak. We talked for a while and connected on LinkedIn.
At noon, we all met to go to the Imperial Palace and walk around the gardens. Toshi explained the respect that people have for the Imperial family and thus it was a crime to take anything from there. The gardens were really pretty and one area had different species of trees from all over Japan.
After that, we went to Harujuku where we had a lunch at a cafe at the top of a mall. The mall was really fancy looking and had an escalator that looked as if it could be straight out of Doctor Strange.
The next stop was the Meiji Shrine where we walked through a forest to get inside. The shrine itself was impressive but the forest surrounding it was more impressive, in my opinion.
After the shrine was our free time where some of Jessica, Chloe and I went to Shibuya to shop at the One Piece store. We also stopped by the Jump Store and saw the Mewtwo tank at the Pokemon Center.
Last, we ended the day celebrating Fabian’s 21st birthday at the Monster Hunter cafe. The food was extremely mid but I got a delicious drink.
June 3rd: Finally it’s time to go home. Liam and I were on the same flight so we planned the whole day out. We both checked out around 10:30am and left our luggage at the hotel for a bit to do some final shopping.
We went to BookOff first where Liam got a book for his Mom and I found 2 DS games ( Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers Of Time/Darkness) for like 990 yen!!! In the US these games are worth like $300. Since I’ve come home I have played them and I realized DS games don’t have language options so the whole game is in Japanese… the summer of immersion!
After BookOff we walked to 2 other stores where Liam was looking for gifts. We ended up walking to Ueno and walking through a popular street so that was cool! After shopping it was about 12 and we took the train back to Akihabara. This is where we found out our JR passes as well weren’t working through the scanner.
We also saw some ads for the new Spiderverse movie on the trains! We grabbed our luggage and headed back to the station to head to Narita airport. We took the train to Nippori then transferred to the Skyliner straight to Narita Airport. It was about an hour train ride.
Once we arrived at the airport we took a walk around. This airport is crazy it’s like a mall plus an airport. We saw a Marvel pop up store, Lego store, Gucci, Versace, Chanel, and many other high end stores plus souvenir stores. We went to McDonalds for our last meal in Japan. I got some nuggets and Liam got a shrimp burger.
After eating, we attempted to find where security and bag check was. I was nervous because of my tax free goods but it ended up not mattering in the long run. We checked out bags, saw some Pokémon, went through security ( which was very relaxed compared to the rush in the US with shoes and putting things in Bins), and looked for our gate.
On the way to our gate we saw a store with Pokémon merch, Ghibli merch, some gunpla, and souvenirs. I had some extra yen so I got some sake KitKats, a magnet for my parents, a snow globe for my grandmother, and a crystal puzzle of JiJi from KiKi’s delivery service! We also stopped by a vending machine to get so much apple juice before leaving the country.
We sat at the gate for about an hour before boarding the plane. We were lucky that the storm was south of Narita so we had no delays. I was surprised that the bathroom in the airport ( I only know the women’s room) had a little holder in the stall for a baby and a sink with handrails. It was really interesting to see that.
We got on the plane and while Liam and I weren’t next to each other, we were the same row at least. The flight was about 12 hours so we got a couple meals. Most of the flight I watched movies like Le Mis, Soul, and Spiderverse. Meal 1 was some chicken and rice with chocolate chip mochi as a dessert. I skipped the middle meal as I was trying to nap, and breakfast was an omelet with tomato sauce, a sausage, and hashbrown. Meals were overall ok.
We landed in the states to see Newark NJ, what a grey city. We deplaned and headed to customs with took FOREVER. I don’t understand how you can have 9 booths to move people through and only have 3 open for a couple planes worth of people. It took probably an hour to get through customs and to get our bags. It was about 5pm EST and we left Japan at 5pm JST which was fun.
Liam and I split at baggage check as my parents were in the airport looking for me. I grabbed my bags ( all safe and sound ) and headed to meet my parents. I gave them a hug and we headed back to my hometown.
I got home, had a pork roll and egg on an English muffin, took a quick shower, and passed out. Since then my sleep schedule has been messed up and I’ve been trying to fix it. I’ve also been telling stories of my trip to my friends and parents.
Overall this trip has been a life changing experience for me and I’m so happy to have been able to experience everything with a fantastic group of people. I will always look back on this trip with pride, joy, and happiness. It has even inspired me to apply to the Fullbright program and have to chance to live in Japan for 10 months for research.
Thank you everyone for making this trip amazing. Love you all!!!
Our first free day in Tokyo started with a quick Starbucks run and a trip to a crepe shop. I got a tiramisu cream crepe and it was pretty good. The group then decided to go to Character Street at Tokyo Station where we bumped into a wild Sten wandering around Akihabara. He then joined us on our travels.
At Character Street, we shopped at all of the stores. I bought merch at the Jump store, Snoopy store, and a Quintessential Quintuplets pop up store. There were also other smaller stores where I bought my new favorite towel. It is a Haikyu towel of the character Kageyama Tobio and it says Ballin. They also had a Ghibli store and a pokemon center.
Afterwards, I headed back to the hotel with Sten and had a brief visit to Super Potato before heading back to the hotel. However, instead of resting, I had to find a coin laundry. I then found one on Google maps that was 11 minutes away and walked to it. Turns out, it was right next to a station one stop away from Akihabara so I went back to shop during the hour while my clothes were being washed. After picking up my clothes, I stopped off at a Thai restaurant for a quick early dinner.
At around 7:30, it was time for a maid cafe adventure with Sten and Steve. Since Jas and Jessica went to a cafe where the maids wore cat ears, we decided that it would be a great idea to approach any maid we saw but only if they were wearing cat ears. Immediately, Sten finds a cute maid in cat ears right outside our hotel and nonchalantly walked up to her and asked where her place was. The poor maid was in sheer terror as she probably had never met such a large and scary bald man with Yokai tatoos. After that, I was relegated to the duty of maid conversationalist as I am neither a large or scary bald man and I do not have Yokai tatoos. My ability to speak Japanese may have also been a deciding factor. Sten and Steve were lucky and had the job of pretending not to know me by hanging out in a nearby store to not scare the maid. After talking to a few maids, I struck a meaningful conversation with a maid and she offers to show me the way to her cafe. I call over Sten and Steve which surprisingly did not scare her off. She leads us up into a slightly suspicious bar with brightly colored and expensive looking alcohol where we quickly make our way out the door. We later found the maid cafe where Jas and Jessica went the day before. At the beginning, they served us Tokyo Mew Mew water where upon drinking it, you would turn into a cat! After turning into cats, we then enjoyed overpriced and aggressively mediocre deserts and soft drinks served by the maids in cat ears. We also got our pictures taken at the end.
Steve found the maid show mildly amusing, probably.Sten enjoyed the experience, probably.My Otaku cafe was about 1/10th as delicious as it was cute.
With that experience in the books, what could possibly top this?
The dawn of the last day, and as sad as I am to leave, I’m happy to be able to go back home and rest for a change. The hustle and bustle of a trip like this is great, but there’s no place like home after all!
But first, souvenir time!
I had a good few plans for things to get my family, but some of them were a bit hard to get in Akihabara. You would imagine finding a model sailboat wouldn’t be hard, but at every model shop I went there was nothing but battleships!
I hiked up with Megan on a trip up to Okachimachi, where I had set up a small journey to look for some souvenirs.
I got a nice book and a daruma for my mother, a soccer Jersey (that might have been a bit too expensive, woops ?) for my brother, and a hat and a 3D puzzle for my dad, as well as some miscellaneous sweets and kit-kats!
I didn’t even know it, but I had found myself right in the middle of Ameyoko!!
Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time to appreciate the intricacies of the market, or take a look in the really ornate looking temple in the middle of it all, since we had to head back to pick up our bags before the airport!
A short 2 minute train ride back to Akihabara, and we fetched our bags back from the hotel. We were able to say goodbye to a few more of our travel mates, and off we went!
Akihabara to Nippori, Nippori to Narita Airport via the Skyliner. A truly beautiful trip! What a way to end off the sights 🙂
Arriving at Terminal 1, I posted back my pocket Wi-Fi, and headed over to the South Wing. We spotted a McDonalds, and we both knew what we had to do. How hilarious would it be to make the last meal in Japan the most American thing possible?
Just like 4 years ago, I got me a shrimp burger!
The mall between the two terminals was massive, I’m talking absolutely insane here. Marvel Pop-Up store, Lego store, a place for stuff from Akihabara, sweet shops, souvenir shops, the whole deal. I heard there was even a Pokémon center in the second terminal.
Shuffling over through baggage claim and customs, we found our way to our gate, and were blessed with our final vending machines. Since we were both unable to return our IC cards on time, these were perfect for getting the last bit of value from them.
The apple juice here is like nectar of the gods.
Boarding the plane, and off we go! I ended up finishing the last Lord of the Rings movie, and rewatching Spiderverse to ready myself for the sequel back home!
I also managed to catch a few Z’s, which was definitely necessary. I take off at 5:00PM and arrive at 4:40PM the same day!
I get picked up at Newark Airport and, the trip has concluded.
If one of you are reading this, I hope we can join up again, on campus or elsewhere!
This time, we had to wake up a little earlier! Meeting up at 10 in the lobby, our day had two plans: head to Unrealfest nearby, and tour the Tokyo headquarters of Cyber Connect 2!
Luckily, Unrealfest was just a few minutes walk away from our hotel, at the Akihabara Sumitobo Fudosan building. Right next to Mandarake! It was quite a small venue for a convention, but since it was marketed specifically towards a Japanese audience, it was very understandable.
There, I walked around the expo floor and took a look at a few games. My personal favorite was the Cyberpunk inspired game called Ukiyo! Although the frame rate was certainly low, the visuals and background art were absolutely stunning. Very neat! There was also a small games competition going on with the theme of the Japanese word “かける”, kakeru. It’s a word with so many meanings that I think it’s perfect for a game jam theme!
Stephen was also kind enough to introduce me to a company that specializes in a lot of Tech Art related fields. Perfect for what I’m looking at! I’ll definitely look into it a bit more.
Right after, I went to a panel on the visual style of Hi-Fi Rush, and the technical artistry that went into the game. It was even a bit hard to understand for me, and I know the language! Nevertheless, it was really interesting, and I was able to talk to the presenters afterwards and introduce myself. My first time introducing myself professionally in Japanese! Words came out of my mouth so fast I could barely believe it, haha.
Afterwards was a small lunch break before we were all headed to Akihabara station. Wandering around, I stumbled into a Tully’s Coffee, where I had some pasta and some banana cheesecake! You can tell I’ve become addicted to Japanese sweets, as I got a glazed croissant donut immediately after. Best donut I ever had.
Finally, to the station! Headed back to Ōimachi station (Hey! That’s where I met my host family!), we were hit with absolutely torrential weather. After all, a typhoon was headed its way to the country. Still, lots of inside out umbrellas and soaked shoes later, we finally made it to the company headquarters.
It was quite a fashionable office, and we were immediately introduced to the titles lined up in the center! We were them led to a little presentation about their company, and what they did. It was quite interesting how they made an effort to assign people to the projects they’re truly passionate about, or the franchises they love. Their encouragement to engage with media and fiction was also very admirable! You can tell the people there had passion. Nevertheless, I’m always wary with crunch and worker treatment. There were a few reddish flags, but nothing that would completely put me off of working there. In the end, I think it would be a really neat place to work! Everyone was very kind, and I’m glad I was able to see the insides of a place like that.
Welp! Back to typhoon weather, haha. Originally, I had planned to go to the Jojo Bar in Nakano today, however with the fatigue and train delays, we decided on retiring the day early. Plus, an evening to process the trip was definitely in order.
After a small nap at the hotel, a few of us arranged to go to a Rotating Sushi place nearby! The Sushiro just a few minutes away seemed good, and I was excited to go to a place like this again!
Sadly though, my hopes were just slightly dashed when I saw that there was no sushi up for grabs on the conveyor belt any more. Turns out there was an incident a while ago of some complete idiot deciding to wipe his saliva all over some sushi and the table’s utensils, and it caused such a public stir that now the only option is made-to-order. The main conveyor belt was now nothing but a stream of salt, wasabi, and ads.
Nevertheless, everyone else seemed to be having fun, which I guess is all I could ask for in a trip I suggested. Turns out I REALLY like tuna sushi here! I also really enjoyed the small little melon sorbet that they offered. Was a pleasant time overall, with only the occasional mishap. (They really should keep towels at each table if there’s a water dispenser for each booth!)
I decided to get some ice cream that was near our hotel afterwards. They had a Hokkaido milk flavor, which really interested me! The ice cream was very heavy, but also moldable. Really neat!
Afterwards, we headed back to our rooms. I personally found the rainy, night-shone Akihabara to be super atmospheric and photogenic, so I took a few videos along the way.
Since we had the rest of the D&D movie to watch, the others came over to finish it up! I’m glad that everyone enjoyed it in the end.
As we all shuffled into our separate rooms, it all really dawned on us that it was the last night together!! Hugs were exchanged, goodbyes as well, and thanks for a wonderful trip together (just in case we couldn’t say goodbye the next day)
I’ll never forget this trip nor group for as long as I live 🙂
Today started like yesterday, with the group meeting up at noon to head our for the day. But since I woke up a little bit earlier than that, I decided to head back go Yarou Ramen for another taste. It was just so good—I couldn’t resist!
On top of that good morning, I wandered into the giant red GIGO building. It’s such an icon of Akihabara (although sadly, it’s rebranded from its SEGA roots), that I wanted to give some of the games a try (also, to get rid of some coins, haha) After seeing a machine with 大放出 (big payout) plastered all over it, I couldn’t help it and… THEY WEREN’T KIDDING! Netted 2 plushies in a single play!! This morning’s already going great!
Finally, back at the hotel, we all met up to start our journey to Odaiba. The set of small islands in the center south of Tokyo that the Yurikamome line runs through. It’s home to a lot of big, flashy buildings. On our schedule today was the Miraikan (Future) Museum and TeamLabs, an interactive art exhibit. Before heading there, however, we first went to Diver City Tokyo Plaza!
Diver City Tokyo Plaza is a massive mall/entertainment complex that has lots of different stores, restaurants, sports, etc! There’s even a giant Gundam at the very front. Take a look!
Upon walking in, I was immediately lured in by this store that sells a GIANT bundle of cotton candy. And I mean like absolutely giant. A stupid amount of cotton candy. I got the rainbow one. Good way to start pride month, eh? There was also an expansive crane game section, but I think my win earlier today satisfied me enough to keep me from throwing 100 yen coins into the machines. I mostly wandered around and tried to counteract that intense sugar high from the aforementioned cotton candy.
We made it out just in tome to see the Gundam Statue move! Sadly, it wasn’t anything all that impressive, but it wasn’t disappointing either. Not overwhelming or underwhelming—it was whelming. Only the head opened and closed, some lights flashed, and one of the knee sections moved, and that was about it. Absolutely don’t regret stating to watch it, though. Will say though, feels quintessentially Japan! Can’t wait to see where we’ll be in 30 years with all this stuff.
Speaking of the future, we next headed to the Miraikan! It was absolutely massive, the outside under construction, yet still a behemoth to behold.
Inside was quite spacious and modern, fitting for a facility meant to display ideas of the future. In my opinion, however, a lot of what I expected about it was pretty much confirmed. I think it’s a great place for ideas and introducing people to topics they might not have considered, but it was mostly uncritical of our current system and the way we do things. Things such as plastic pollution were instead just addressed as “Oh! More innovation”, with or protesting as a form of change never really introduced. Great ideas, but ultimately half the story. It feels enough to leave some people inspired, but also a lot of people pessimistic.
Overall, the museum had many artistic interpretations of things, such as future progress, microbes, incorporation of technology with nature, etc. I personally found the giant light up globe to be pretty interesting.
Upon exiting, we then took the Yurikamome line over to Toyosu station, where TeamLabs was a minute walk away! We were cutting it close, but luckily the line was nowhere near as bad as expected. Given how tired my legs were from so much walking the past two weeks, I had thought “how cool could this actually be.”
Turns out, VERY cool! I was not expecting it to be that immersive or visually entertaining. In my opinion, a must-go. I’ll let the gallery below do the talking, but really, it’s a you-have-to-be-there sort of thing.
Afterwards, it was getting dark, and we all went our separate ways back home. I managed to exit around the same time as both Sten and Stephen, so we accompanied each other back to the hotel. Had some great talk with Sten about the co-op process, getting myself out there in the game industry. It was filled with a lot of flattery, but ultimately, I’m glad I now have someone I can talk to about all this. “So when are you moving here?”
No idea, but I’m certainly open to the idea 🙂
Finally getting back home after around 40 minutes on two different train lines, I decided, you know what? Screw it!
Let’s do some Karaoke!
I gathered up a few friends willing, and headed to the Big Echo just a minute from our hotel. Once again a situation where I’m very glad I was able to speak Japanese, haha. The receptionists couldnt speak any English, and we needed to be led to another building.
But once we were there, a completely other story! We all kicked it off and had a ton of fun. The little tablet they had for ordering things was a bit confusing at first, but we soon got used to it. I had a ton of songs cued up in my head, and enjoyed everyone else’s picks. The drinks and food they had there were great for the occasion, and I greatly enjoyed the fancy mustard they had.
I don’t greatly enjoy my singing voice, but if you’re curious, here’s a bit of it. I’m singing Brain Fluid Explosion Girl, a notoriously fast song.
Afterwards, it was around midnight, so we all headed back home, and to bed we went! Lights out, for another day tomorrow.
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
The garlic bread was good
Then we stopped at Baskin Robins as a reward for our typhoon adventure. I’ll let the photo speak for itself.
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.
Because I didn’t have socks I walked about a mile in my Adidas slide and then my feet hurt for the rest of the day.
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.
I drank a Red Bull on the subway because I was falling asleep. Stupid laundry.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I got a great video of the crossing but I have issues uploading videos so just imagine it.
Overall one of my farthest walking distance days but was so relaxing and fun I didn’t even notice.
