Tag: Free Time

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 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 eight: gameJAM pt. ii and osaka

the end of the gamejam was a mad dash of last minute additions and changes that i can’t even remember everything. kiri and takato were stressed until the very end, and honestly me, cam, and jas, were just happy that we finished. i was a bit disappointed that my ui didn’t look as good as i wanted it to, and i could tell that cam wasn’t necessarily all that happy either, though jas seemed to be having a good time. takato and kiri were clearly unhappy at how it turned out, but i’m glad we got to spend that time with them.

we got to see everyone’s games and they were all so cool and unique. i really liked group one’s where you had to beat a fusion of godzilla and big foot using one player that could switch between eastern and western superhero identities. i also really liked group five’s (i think? it might have been group three) game where you had to take the customer’s order in your native language, but had to actually make their order in the language you were trying to learn. everyone had such different ideas that tackled the them of bridging the gaps of culture.

once we took our pictures and said our goodbye’s, a large group of us headed off to osaka. it was a thirty minute shinkansen ride, so before we knew it we were there! we immediately embarked on our quest to this mall, because it had several shops all on one floor for all of us to weeb out at. for me, that was the one piece store.

i went in all starry-eyed and amazed as if i was in heaven, similar to a toddler in toys r us (rip ✊?) around christmas time. it was magical. needless to say i spent several thousand yen here, and i hadn’t even been to the other stores yet. next up was the nintendo store where i exhibited some restraint and didn’t buy anything. however that restraint was all but thrown out the window when i got to the pokemon center. what? i bought a chouchou plushy from the one piece store and he was lonely, so i bought a ditto plushy as a friend. i had to.

me, belle, skyler, and jess got dinner at an italian place, and their four cheese pasta was alright. like it definitely could have been worse, but it also wouldn’t have been that hard to make it better either. after that though we headed to the shinkansen station so we could take the train back to kyoto.

deciding to not let the party end there when we got back to the hotel most of us decided to hang out and play some jackbox, while also sipping on some beverages(those of us that were legal, that is). it’s hard to say which i preferred between friday and today, but they both definitely give the other a run for its money.

i look forward to tomorrow because i actually get to sleep in oh my GOD. it’ll be a travel day, so not too much on the agenda, and after the brutal nonstop pace of kyoto i can’t wait to have more breathing room in akihabara.

day six: kimono’s and pizza

it’s here, it’s here! the day i’d been waiting for so long for, our (mostly) free day! the day started off bright and early with me, belle, and megan leaving the hotel at around 7 am. once we got to the kiyomizu dera area we arrived at the kimono rental place a bit early, so we just loitered outside until it was 8.

we easily chose our kimonos, belts, and accessories as they started to fit us and do our hair. i chose to do a fun braid that wrapped around the back of my head, since i didn’t want my hair to rest on my neck because i knew there would be a lot of layers for the kimono. once we were all dolled up, we hit the streets and began our day of photos and shopping.

we started by heading up to the beginning steps of the temple and took a bunch of photos of and with each other. we even had other foreigners asking to get photos with us??? but i digress. we meandered through shops, buying things that caught our fancy —i bought some raccoon themed cups, and belle bought a freaking SWORD— and i made sure to stop in a ring making shop, getting one custom made to fit my right index finger. and then they made it in front of me, it was sick.

eventually it got waaaaay too hot to keep the kimonos on, you would not believe the amount of sweat that had accrued on my midsection, we headed to the pokemon center in kyoto. this time i only bought some hand towels that had cute drawings of pikachu and food, and a pair of chopsticks with ghost and dark type pokemon. this was pretty close to nishiki market so we mostly just wandered around there until we had to head back to the hotel so we could have a pizza party with the kcg students. while there i discovered my new favorite snack, karamucho, that are these spicy potato fry chip things? idk, but they’re awesome.

it was a little awkward at first because of the language barrier, but we were able to get past it. kind of. there was lots of google translate involved, and a lot of double checking things with liam, but it was a good time. it was short, yet fun. today was definitely my favorite day so far.

day two: electric boogaloo

i started day two off on a much better foot than day one, not only had i gotten nearly 12 hours of sleep, but we had free time to do essentially whatever we wanted. so after hitting up the 7/11 for breakfast with katherine, checking out and storing our luggage, it was off to the races! a big group of us —jess, belle, liam, skyler, cam, megan, and i— went to the aquarium which was conveniently attached to the hotel.

once we got inside a few of us went on a pirate ship ride, which was pretty fun all things considered. after that though is when we really started looking around. there were so many cool fish to see; i really liked the ones that could camouflage to look like coral, the fluorescent ones, and the silly looking guys. after the tiny little fish we went to the jellyfish room, and i felt kind of bad for them since the tank was so small, but they looked really cool. especially because there was blue, pink, and green lighting that highlighted the jellyfish pretty nicely.

after the jellyfish exhibit we moved on to the larger sea creatures, like sawfish, leopard sharks, stingray’s, and a bunch more that i don’t even know the name for. and for some awesome reason they also had capybara’s which was actually sick. following that was an otter show which was potentially one of the cutest things i’ve ever seen. he did so many cool tricks and listened to his instructions so well!!

once we were done with the aquarium it was time to meet up with everyone and head to the bullet train so we could travel down to kyoto. the train ride was nice because i got to chat with those around me —jas, cam, megan, fabian, and jess— and also enjoy looking out at the scenery we passed by.

when we arrived in kyoto it was time for dinner, and i was pretty excited going into it. i knew that they were probably going to serve things that were outside of my comfort zone, but i was willing to give things a go. the first plate they brought out was… interesting. there was tiny raw squid, fish, collared greens, vegetables, and beef. i’m proud of myself because i ate both of the raw squids, but the best thing on the plate in my opinion was the beef. after that was raw fish, and i gotta be real, i am not a raw fish fan. next up was pork and vegetable hot pot, which was probably my favorite thing the whole night. following the hot pot was a salad which was standard, i enjoyed it. after that was shrimp that were in some sort of fried batter, and that was pretty good too. next up was this tofu gelatin thing?? i’m honestly not too sure, and frankly the texture was just not it. we had sushi after that, and since i’m not really a raw fish person, i wasn’t too keen on that either.

all in all it was a really solid day. i had fun hanging out with everyone, and despite the fact that dinner was touch-and-go, i still really enjoyed it. kyoto has very cool architecture from what i’ve seen so far, and i’m excited to go on the bus tour tomorrow!

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 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.

Food in Day 5: Free Day and Meeting KCG

Today was our free day! A small group of us decided to go to TOEI Kyoto Studio Park to see the life-sized Eva-01 attraction. After that, Brody, Vincent, and I went to UNIQLO and did some shopping before we headed out to KCG to meet the students we would be having the game jam with. I was on team 3 with Bella and Liam from RIT and Naoki, Tamura, and Ryuki from KCG.

In terms of the important stuff, for breakfast, we had finally graduated from the boxed lunches and were free to pick out our own food! They gave us our sandwich of the day, which seemed to be prosciutto with onions, lettuce, tomatoes, and mustard. Sadly, I was not a fan of the sandwich, but that is because I am not a fan of mustard. I also had bok choy, a croissant, sausage, carrots, and fried fish. All of the things I had hand-picked for myself were delicious. I also had a latte to give me a jump start to the day.

For lunch at TOEI Studio Park, I ordered a meal off of the special Evangelion menu. The meal was based off of the character Mari Illustrious Makinami, and all of the other meals on that special menu were based off of different characters. It was some kind of soup along with a variety of pickled and steamed vegetables. Sadly, I had a rough time eating some of the vegetables due to my allergies, but the soup was nice and relaxing to have as a break from a day of walking.

For dinner, I had pizza and snack provided by KCG at the welcome event. I picked out seafood pizza, cheese pizza, chicken nuggets, potato sticks, and a bowl of a variety of snacky items. The seafood pizza was better than I was expecting. I have had seafood pizza in the U.S, and I remember it being too salty to enjoy. This pizza, however, was not too salty. It was actually quite good. The cheese pizza was cheese pizza: always a good and safe choice. The chicken nuggets were chicken nuggets: always a good and safe choice. By the time I got around to the potato sticks, they were cold, so I did not particularly enjoy them that much. This may be because they were sitting out for a bit before I ate them, but they were reminiscent of slightly soggy hashbrowns. However, the snacks were in fact snacking, so overall, it was a good way to end the day.

It was nice getting to know my teammates better before the game jam started! tomorrow would be the start of the game jam, so I headed to bed early(-ish) to be prepared for all the brain power I’d be using the next day.

Day 2 in Akiba

05/30/2023

Starbucks for breakfast today! I had this cookies n cream chiffon cake at a Starbucks in Hiroshima, and it was so good that I immediately went for it again at the sbux nearby our hotel in Akiba.

A small group of us wandered out to explore & shop since we had a free day today. We had plans to go to character street (and for some, the kirby cafe) but first, crepes!

Ironically, I did not order a crepe despite being in love with the fake food display. Ever since arriving in Japan, I became slightly more obsessed with soft serve than I ever have been in the states. So I ordered a small cone for 300JPY.

A bunch of us craved something savory after the dessert and got kebabs from the stand next door. Thank you Jess for holding my chicken kebab as I took the photo above ?

We shopped around character street and I got to experience some of the cute kirby desserts with those who went. We also stopped by muji!! Weird to say, but I’ve always wanted the handheld paper shredder from their website but the shipping costs stopped me before. I was able to snatch one in person for myself during our short drop-in and I was living the life.

By around 5pm, we were getting HUNGRY. I had a date to meet up with a friend for dinner tonight, so I thought I could eat a few pieces of sushi and still be hungry enough for dinner. Jess and I went to a sushi place where I made a huge mistake. For some reason I didn’t think I would get full off of a full set of sushi and happily chowed down on the fish & miso soup.

The sushi chefs were super friendly & funny with us, and we were enjoying the food so much that I just ate as much as I could. I met up with my friend in Ikebukuro 3 hours later and ended up only ordering a slice of cheesecake due to how full I was from the sushi.

I met up with my friend to grab a package that I had shipped to her earlier this year, and to make a trade off with our merch. She works as a professional translator, moonlighting as a mangaka & illustrator in her freetime. She had recently tabled at an event and sold out of her original series but she had saved one copy for me, so I greedily asked for her signature while sliding over some of my own merch as thanks!

The meal she ordered looked delicious, and unfortunately I ate the worst cheesecake of my life this night. The little pink bud things on the whipped cream were sakura flowers. For some reason I thought they looked fun to chew so I popped one in my mouth and a sour taste immediately blossomed in my mouth, mellowing out to a bitter taste a few seconds later. I died a little. The cheesecake itself was insanely dense (in a bad way) and very tasteless?! The berry sauce unfortunately did not help the flavor much, not to mention how TINY the slice was. It was around 700jpy and it was the first time I felt juped by the pricing of food since I arrived in Japan.

We went karaoking for almost 2 hours after dinner, and then said our tearful goodbyes at the station before heading back.

Back to Tokyo! -> Akihabara

05/29/2023

The classic breakfast photo! Today we’re leaving Kyoto and heading back to Tokyo. I’ll miss Anteroom Kyoto…..their beds were comfy and the breakfast every morning felt so healthy and tasted delicious….!

I had iced my leg after getting back to the hotel yesterday, and here you can see a fresh bag of half-melted ice ontop of my luggage as we all waited to board the shinkansen back to Tokyo (about 2 hours travel time).

Our next hotel is in Akihabara, called REMM Akihabara! It was actually located directly next to one of the station exits which was extremely convenient. While my leg was in slight pain the entire time we walked around, I was so excited to see all the merch in sight. Genshin billboards and hololive collabs…..dreamy sigh.

For dinner, Jess, Chloe and I went straight to a maid cafe (Akiba Zettai)! Judging by the name, I assumed it was just thigh-high themed but it was actually a cat girl maid cafe……but! The girls were super sweet and we still had a great time. The food was cute, and we had fun conversations with each of the girls before we made Jess choose a maid to take a polaroid with. We’ll treasure this photo forever!

We explored animate afterwards (where I promised myself to come back as soon as I could) before heading back to the hotel to crash for the night after a long day of travel.