Category: Tokyo

day fourteen: the end.

wow. i can’t believe it came to a rearing conclusion. it was way harder to say goodbye than i thought it would be. i was able to see a bunch of people off which was nice, but i still felt like it wasn’t enough. i lived and traveled with these people for two weeks. we know the weirdest most insignificant details about each other, yet half of us don’t know our favorite colors. i wanna say that we became like a family, but if that’s the case we were a pretty dysfunctional family. but i wouldn’t have changed a thing.

i mostly just kicked about all day, saying goodbyes here and there, wandered around various stores, ate lunch at a decent hour. nothing much to really report. and then me, katherine, sten, and sj were off to the airport. we all conveniently had the same flight, so we were able to cop a ride paid for by rit. sweet!

once we were at the airport it was checking in, checking bags, going through security, waiting at the gate. all the classic and standard airport procedures. but eventually it was time to board the plane, and it really hit me that i was going home. my time in japan had come to a close before i could even fully process that i had gotten used to it. but then i was sat in my seat, where the next thirteen hours of my life would take place.

while on the flight i watched some movies, was able to fall asleep, and also read to pass the time. once i finally landed it was breezy going through customs, and after a slight mishap while trying to get my luggage, finally, i was back. i waited for my mom to pick me up outside of atl airport for maybe five minutes before i saw her pull up. of course we had a forty minute drive back to our house, but that didn’t matter. as sad as i was about leaving japan, i’m just going to use it as motivation and fuel so that i have to go back someday.

i can’t believe all that i saw, all that i experienced! and i’m so glad i got to share it with the group of people i did. this trip was absolutely amazing, and i know i’m going to look back on it fondly.

japan, we will meet again soon. until then.

day thirteen: the final countdown

today was really bittersweet. the last full day of the trip is finally upon us and while i really don’t want it to end, i’m ready to go back. but it was fitting that we ended on a pretty chill note.

we all gathered in the lobby so that we could hit up day one of unreal fest. it was a quick walk (through the rain which was quite unfortunate) but then it was easy enough to get inside. it was mostly just people showcasing the different games they’d been able to develop using unreal engine, but there were also some guest lecturers as well.

i mostly stuck to watching other people play the games, because i am absolutely atrocious at video games. plus it’s nice to watch people who are good at them actually do well. we were on our own for lunch so me, jas, jess, and cam peeled off to get mcdonalds. it was probably about as good as the mcdonalds in the states, maybe just warmer? i’m not sure, but hey, at least it wasn’t worse.

than at 2 pm we all met back up so we could head over to cyber connect. that was basically just a presentation on the overview of the company and the games they produce, as well as the different roles and aspects go into a game developing company. but once the presentation and tour was over that was it. the rit portion was officially done, and we were on our own.

after that we needed to get back to akihabara where a bunch of us decided to go to conveyor belt sushi together. unfortunately we had to split into two groups (me, belle, fabian, and pavel in one and cam, skyler, and liam in the second) for dinner, but i still had an awesome time.

then when food was done the four of us decided to go to an arcade. fabian and pavel were pretty tired and needed to pack, so they went back to the hotel. me and belle however, were feeling lucky. i managed to somehow get a plushy of miffy and a motion detected king boo light, while belle won an emolga plushy. i couldn’t believe it. i still can’t.

we made our way back to our hotel, and then after everyone got ready for bed we met up one last time to finish the second half of the d&d movie. it was nice having mostly everyone there as a final goodbye. but as the movie came to a close, so did our trip, and it was time to head back to our rooms.

all tomorrow is going to be is waking up, getting food, saying goodbyes, and then it’s off to the airport. oh boy.

day twelve: succumbing to my (converse) demons

today was yet another later starting day. man, no disrespect to yuko, but i could get used to this! my day pretty much started when we all got together as a group so we could travel to diver city. it was a pretty long train ride, about 40 minutes, but it also gave us a great view as we traveled through tokyo and its surrounding sub areas. there were many cool views we could look at while on board.

once we got to diver city we made a beeline for the gundam statue, which was actually really cool. it was like 100 feet tall and to scale. i could feel fabian’s smile and absolutely positive energy just radiating from him. after we took a couple photos it was inside the mall to get some food. i got these chicken bites that were pretty good, but unfortunately my appetite is small. i only had about three of them before i was full.

after lunch it was just meandering around the mall, and i knew i wanted to get a couple souvenirs here. as i was looking around i managed to stumble across gundam kitty and i actually wanted to explode she was so cute. i made my way to the actual gundam store though so i could buy my brother something. and then it was there i saw it. as i was riding the escalator down i happened to catch a glimpse of a certain logo.

the converse logo.

and for those that don’t know, i might have a tiny problem. let’s just say i have 25 pairs of converse— well, 24 before today. anyway, i immediately raced into the abc-mart and what did my tiny little eye spy? a pair of deep navy converse, duel navy racing stripes on the rubber, with gold colored eyelets around the laces, and a white collar with another set of duel navy racing stripes printed on it. i was in love. i needed them, and so naturally i bought them.

after that devastating blow to my wallet, it was time for a museum. and i gotta be honest. i kind of just sat on the bench with sten for a lot of it. i wasn’t all that interested because it was all pretty depressing stuff about how we’re killing our planet and other various things. it was fine, just i was too excited for what was coming next.

next on the agenda was teamlabs and that is probably one of the biggest things i’ve been looking forward to this entire time. it’s basically a glorified photoshoot space, but i didn’t care because it looked so damn cool. we eventually get to teamlabs but we were split into two groups and our time slot was the later one. so we waited for about two hours until we could finally enter.

but man once we did, my breath was taken away. the mirrors made everything so trippy, and interacting with all of the different rooms was so fun. i was looking around in amazement and wonder the entire time. talk about an experience. we took several group photos, as well as plenty of individual shots too. the people i was grouped with, matched with the ambiance of teamlabs really made it such a fun activity. i definitely would want to do that again (lol i’d do the entire trip again) if i ever came back to japan.

it was pretty late by the time we got out, so it was mostly just back to the hotel and off to sleep. tomorrow is the last full day of the trip and i can’t believe how quickly it already got here. until then.

day eleven: yuko back from the past?!

no, not actually. today was just a very jam packed day in a short amount of time that it almost felt like the spirit of yuko was guiding us along. we set out for the imperial palace and it was something that i was looking forward to seeing because i knew it had beautiful gardens. so we started our day by taking a train ride and then walking a short ways to the entrance of the palace.

as we began along the path it was crazy seeing just how large some of the stones in the walls were. they were cut so perfectly, smoothed down so nicely, were even taller than me (cries in 5’2″), that i reckon they had to be at least 1.5 tons each. EACH. and there were thousands of these stones littered across the emperor’s property. yeah, apparently the emperor lives there and we were just waltzing around. granted thousands of people visit a day, but shhhh.

once we got to the gardens i was extremely happy because everything was just so pretty!!! i really enjoyed walking around and just taking in the peace and tranquility of it all. i got some lovely photos, and i’m pretty surprised at how nice some of them turned out.

after that we were on our own so about half of us headed down to shibuya so we could hit up a couple stores. me, jess, and skyler once again headed to a one piece store. and yes once again i spent an absurd amount of money. while there we happened to run into maddy, esther, vincent, and brody, but unfortunately maddy got spoiled something while she was looking around womp womp. i purchased some goody’s for myself, my brothers, and my boyfriend, and then we headed over to the mall where the rest of the group was.

as soon as we got to the mall i headed to the nintendo store to look around. i thought maybe i’d find something mario odyssey related, or something adorable that i’d just HAVE to spend money on. i found neither of those things. then i realized that i couldn’t find jess and skyler. assuming they left with the big group i headed over to the pokemon store. i searched high and low for something magikarp themed for my boyfriend but to absolutely no avail. i was truly gobsmacked. feeling dejected i headed back to the train station only to find out that apparently skyler and jess hadn’t abandoned me and were waiting for me at the malls elevators, while i was already at the train station. whoops. after we all got back in one piece 😉 i headed up to my room to decompress.

later that night a bunch of us got together in liam and skyler’s room to watch the first half of the new d&d movie. it was pretty outrageous, kinda predictable, but it was goofy and fun. i really enjoyed watching it with everyone, even though towards the end of the night i was pretty tired.

day ten: free day part. ii

today was a free day, and first up on the agenda was to hit character street. we went at about eleven, so there was plenty of time to sleep in, and we were off to the races. actually finding character street was a little confusing because you had to enter it via a subway station. except we couldn’t find the right staircase that would lead us to it. we went on a wild goose chase for about fifteen minutes before we finally managed to find it.

from there we all kind of dispersed, agreeing to meet at the kirby cafe for the 1:30 pm reservations we had. first up on the agenda was hitting the shonen jump shop, where i purchased a (you guessed it) 1000 piece one piece themed puzzle. me and belle spent most of out time perusing the stores together, making numerous stops to fawn over cute things. we also hit up the pokemon store they had down there so belle could get her location based coin. we didn’t realize how cut and dry it would be, so we wound up at the meeting spot like 20 minutes early. oops.

but the kirby cafe was cute. we placed our orders for which treats we’d get, and i opted for a tiramisu and a strawberry yogurt and jam thingy. both were delicious, and came with a mug and tiny mason jar! so (kind of) free souvenirs! after that me, belle, jess, megan, and jas all embarked on a journey to muji. it was mostly home decor, clothes, and stationary. following that we headed to uniqlo so we could shop for clothes. i didn’t wind up buying anything at these stores since i already spent so much earlier.

it was getting pretty late so i decided to get dinner with katherine. we found this cool ramen place and the food was pretty good. i was expecting authentic japanese ramen to really blow me out of the water, and it did a pretty good job of meeting my expectations. once we were full from dinner we headed back to the hotel, and since we’re roommates it was pretty easy to just flop on our beds and not move for a second.

but we decided that we would stay in and just relax for a second, so we had a bit of a movie marathon. we watched the little mermaid, frozen, and frozen 2. bit of a disney kick but it’s fine, we’re fine. it was pretty late by the time we finished, but honestly i didn’t mind. it was nice to just chill and sing and have fun. until tomorrow!

day nine: bits and bobs

today wasn’t really all that eventful. like, sure we did things, but it also somehow felt like we did nothing. maybe it’s because i didn’t have that good of a night’s sleep, and also like an idiot had forgotten to eat like all day. so i was also probably kind of hangry too tbh.

nevertheless i decided to utilize my last morning in kyoto by sleeping in. that’s right. i don’t think i woke up until like 11. i took my time getting ready, i finished packing, and began to map out what the upcoming week would look like. we headed to the station and began the two and half hour shinkansen ride to akihabara.

i managed to snag a window seat and took a bunch of cool photos of the countryside and various towns and cities. once we arrived at the station our hotel was literally a thirty second walk, it was awesome. by the time we got checked in we had an hour to kill so i think this is where things kind of went a bit downhill. i was exhausted so i decided to nap, except i couldn’t actually fall asleep so i was essentially just tired and horizontal.

then we were summoned to the lobby so we could all head as a group to mandarake, a really cool old manga and other types of media store. i went off on my own and managed to snag romance dawn, which is the first volume of one piece, as well as a book with snoopy comics. then we left for super potato which had a bunch of retro video games. i didn’t buy anything, but it was super cool to see all the old stuff they had. there were things for every nintendo console, every playstation console, games, merch, add-ons, there was everything.

after that though we were free to do whatever, so me, jess, and jas decided to do the most sane thing one could do in our shoes, and go to a maid cafe. and not just any maid cafe, a catgirl maid cafe. it was… an experience. if we wanted to order, we couldn’t say “excuse me.” no, we had to go “meow meow.” we also had to wear cat ears during the duration of our meal. jess got this really cool drink that came with a face so you could take pictures with it.

the food itself was actually pretty good, i had beef curry and rice. classic. you really can’t go wrong with that tbh. but after we finished eating, it was time for dessert. jess got this chocolate ice cream parfait thing, whereas me and jas shared a bubblegum flavored unicorn parfait. and it was not that good. it’s okay though, because in order to make up for it the three of us got to take a polaroid picture WITH one of the catgirl maids! it was awesome.

after that we went back to the hotel where i promptly went to my room to pass out. it was probably one of my least favorite days i’ve had so far, but that’s not to say that i didn’t enjoy it at all. there were genuinely moments where i was having a good time, like the train ride and dinner, but i think just overall i was having an off day. tomorrow’s our free day though, so i have high hopes!

day one: my first day !!!

waking up at 3:30 in the morning isn’t something that i would normally do, however, if it meant that i would be getting on a plane to go to japan? i think i could make an exception. i got essentially no sleep because i was so excited, but it was all worth it. my flight out of newark was pretty chill with no real hiccups to report, but it kind of sucked because i had a three hour layover in detroit. but once i got on my next flight, i was really off to the races. i spent most of my 12 hours reading, and unfortunately i only slept for about 2 hours.

here comes the fun part though, after my grueling flight i finally arrived! i got my bags out of baggage claim and made my way to the subway to ride to the hotel. it was pretty easy to navigate the subway system since it was just a straight shot. once i got to the hotel and checked in, me and katherine decided to walk around tokyo a bit until we had to meet up with everyone at 6. but this is where disaster struck… i had forgotten my rail pass at home. this was of course less than ideal, and totally threw a wrench in the plan.

after everyone else had gotten their rail passes we were released back to the hotel to get dinner. i decided to get beef curry and rice, and let me tell you, it was incredibly good. once i was done eating we went back to the room, and for funsies i decided to check my sketchbook to see if the rail pass was in it since my mom had said that she couldn’t find it.

the rail pass was in the sketchbook ???

despite being very lucky that i had actually brought it with me, i felt mortified that i had even done that in the first place. never. again. that was basically the last little bit of my day because very soon after i passed tf out. all in all it was a pretty alright day, definitely could have been better, but also could have been way worse. i absolutely cannot wait for the rest of the trip !!

The Journey Home :(

https://youtu.be/TqVmeUrRhng

It was an early and sad morning for me and Fabian we woke up at 6 am and took the train back to the airport. Where we then just waited for our flight. We arrived around 8:30 am and got to the self-baggage check. Fabian almost went through TSA with all his luggage but remembered we had to drop it off in another line.

After that issue was resolved we sat and waited. The flight was long but I did get a few hours of sleep in. Not much to personally say other than the in-flight meal was good. We landed back in the States where Fabian’s parents picked us up and it felt so weird coming back and having the public transport system not working at all there was even an older Japanese man comparing it to Japan and how lucky they are to have it there. I miss the place already and will be back hopefully soon.

Unreal Fest and Final goodbyes

On our Final day as a class together we headed to unreal fest where we saw some cool panels and I meet a fighting game dev legend Katsuhiro Harada the lead director for Tekken 8 and the past few games in the series. So that was cool.

After we made our way to Cyber Connect 2 developers where they showed us around their Tokyo office. It was small and pretty cool. Not my cup of tea in games but still cool to see what environment devs in Japan work in.

I went with some of the group to get food after. We ended up getting Sushiro conveyor sushi for the price it was pretty good. But moreover, we ended up getting together for our final time here as a group and just had a blast.

Museum and Art Gallery

On day 12 we head back to Diver City as a class to do some shopping and a tour of the Science museum. The museum was cool and a little depressing but the stuff being shown was very neat if I was 10 years younger I would be in awe.

What was really cool was the Interactive Art gallery at first going in it felt a bit lame until you head into the room of lights and mirrors. This leads to some back-to-back awe-inspiring experiences that are hard to explain and even harder to show on video. A must-see in-person experience.