Tag: pain

The Climb

I’ll be combining Monday and Tuesday into a single blog since they were both relatively uneventful (in comparison to most of the other days on this trip).

We started Monday with a trip to Ginza, as there’s a 12-floor UNIQLO store there that we both wanted to visit. The rest of the area was super expensive (think Dior, Louis Vuitton, Valentino, etc.) so we didn’t stick around for long, but the UNIQLO store was definitely worth visiting! I got some cheap shirts (including some Splatoon 3 collaboration shirts) and a nice pair of pants that I had bought previously in a different color. The whole place felt like it was trying to be an art exhibition while also being a store, which seemed like a product of the district it was in but it was kind of neat!

We were pretty beat after travelling to Ginza as it was a pretty far trip and the pure exhaustion from just how much we had been doing for the last three weeks was finally starting to catch up to us, so we revisited the pasta place I praised before for a mix of lunch and dinner and settled in for a night of self care. I dismissed my fear of the customs officers and broke out my switch dock so that Jessica and I could take turns playing Tears of the Kingdom on the TV in our hotel room. While I’m sure we could have dragged ourselves back out for another adventure, we were both pretty beat and I don’t regret taking a night to relax and prepare ourselves for what would come tomorrow.

We woke up a bit late on Tuesday morning and headed to Tokyo Tower for the dreaded 600-step climb to the top. I was much less excited than Jessica for the trek, but it ended up being a bit easier than I expected it to be! They had signs on the way up to question you about some fun facts about the tower, which was probably the only thing that kept me going as I got a second to breathe while Jessica translated the signs. At the top of the tower was a pretty cool view and a small shrine you could pray to, and on our way back down we stopped at some Hello Kitty themed gachapon machines and I got a picture of the statue inside the tower. Pretty cool!

We decided to stop in Ueno as we were coming back from the tower, since it was already on the way and we didn’t trust ourselves to have the energy to leave the hotel again once we were back and showered. We stopped in at a merchandise store outside of the station and picked up some miscellaneous goodies, and then went to visit Book-Off (a pretty well known secondhand store) with no luck.

After that, we took a walk through the park to find a cluster of public activities that featured two more Pokemon sewer grates (YES, I did go out of my way to find more. Don’t judge me.) and I’m REALLY surprised that we didn’t visit this area during the main portion of our trip. There were two museums and a zoo, all nestled into this absolutely gorgeous park that would have been lovely to explore compared to the other somewhat depressing museum we had visited instead. But seeing Diver City instead was worth it!

As we were heading back to Asakusa, the hunger began to kick in, and we ducked into a place that had dumplings for lunch. We ordered 12 dumplings and a large helping of rice, which also came with two fried chicken nuggets and some soup, and it cost us 820 yen in total, which was barely $3 each! I will always mourn the loss of super cheap but still good food now that I am back in America.

We finally got back to our hotel and were able to clean ourselves up and sit down and organize all of our stuff to prepare for the trip home tomorrow. It was quite the daunting task, but a necessary evil that I’m very grateful I left time for. Knowing that this was our last night in Japan made me sad, but deep in my heart I was ready to go home.

The Return to the States

Finally, the day had come: the flight home. Brody and I didn’t have a flight until 6:42 PM, later delayed to 7:05 PM. We left the hotel at checkout time, around 11 AM, and we said a hearty goodbye to those who were there. Brody and I were comfortable with the idea of getting to the airport and chilling out for 5 hours, so that’s what we did. We took a train back to Narita-Tokyo and went to the check-in station for Singapore Airlines – our airliner.

However, we did not expect them to open at 3:40 PM, 3 hours from our arrival time. So, we got our last Japanese McDonalds, where I had a crazy good chicken-teriyaki burger and shaka shaka chicken. I sat and caught up on some Star Wars comics as Brody read some manga until 3:40 PM, where we rushed to drop our massive amounts of clothes and merchandise we had bought during our stay. We made it past the very lax security and to the gate, where we would sit for another three hours with a small gyoza break somewhere in there.

Finally, we boarded our flight and prepared for a 10 hour flight, in which I watched an anime called Forest of Piano. The flight was long, but I was able to get some sleep to help me out with the inevitable jet lag back home. After a not-so-bad 10 hours, we landed at 12:40 PM at LAX. My father picked us up as Brody and I went back to stay the night at his place, Brody meeting some of my relatives for an excellent Mexican dinner.

Brody and I going through the over-hyped US customs

Brody and I got back to my dads house after dinner and binge-watched three episodes of the latest season os Succession (crazy good show, I would recommend it any day) before passing out from our exhaustive day of travel, only to wake up to another full day of travel from LAX to ROC, where we would be taking different flights with different layovers.

Japan was one of the best experiences of my life and I’m grateful to both Professor Jacobs and Professor McKinzie for allowing me to join them on their expedition abroad, and I am thankful to have met all of my fellow students on this trip and gotten to know them. To those who graduated: good luck on your future endeavors! To those who did not: I look forward to seeing you this upcoming year, where we can brag loudly about our fantastic summer trip.

Game Jam Day 01

05/27/2023

Forgot to add this to my last post, but LOOK AT THIS TINY FRAME IN ONE OF OUR ROOMS.

Perfection.

Anyway, today was the big day! Our team had somewhat communicated before meeting, and we had decided on a concept to expand & build upon today, which I was grateful for. While we didn’t communicate as much as I would have liked, at least we didn’t have to scramble for a concept.

My breakfast at Anteroom Kyoto was pretty light today. We headed out a bit late today but still got to campus on time with a few minutes to spare before the Game Jam officially started.

We had from 9:30am till about 8:00pm to work on our games. The entire time I was wracked with anxiety as to how I could contribute to my team. As a photo visual media major with a million hobbies, I could only call upon my self-taught skills in art & audio to contribute to our team. I was constantly trying to find little things I could do.

Cameron handled the heavy lifting for visuals, Chloe handled the UI icons & menu designs, while our Japanese team members (Takato-san & Kiri-san) handled just about everything else regarding the actual building of the game. I was designated project manager of visuals (and facilitated some conversations between our team members) & sketched out drafts of background music that we could use. A few hours before the end of our session, Chloe and I ended up taking on the task of designing our other player character while Cam was hard at work on the asset art.

It had been a while since I last drew digitally, but today was a day of trying many new things in order to pull my own weight! With our combined braincell, we had designed the character together (wirh input & advice from Cam) and Chloe sketched out a very simple walk animation for us to digitize.

Baby’s first……walk cycle animation……..

We laughed so hard at this that we started crying.

Here’s the second attempt, less than half an hour after the first try! You learn fast when you’re embarrassed of your work.

(Pictured above: our poor teammate being brought back to work by his friends while Chloe cheers him on (?) ft. Cam)

Another sideways photo but here’s our western styled bento that we had for dinner! I asked Kiri-san (pictured above) if he could read the box’ packaging label for me to see if I could understand the text verbally but after he read it, I nodded politely while my head stayed empty.

We wrapped up after many long hours and headed home shortly after 8:30pm. Otsu today, everyone!!

Kyoto ? Hiroshima day trip ? Kyoto

05/25/2023

Classic start with breakfast. The karaage was yummy! As was the croissant! Not sure what the spread was ontop of the bread & lettuce but it was alright!

We have a long day ahead of us today, as we are visiting Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park as well as the museum.

The shinkansen ride was beautiful as usual. My favorite part is seeing the fields & mountains.

Before heading in, we stopped by a small food court for lunch. I got this deeelicious cookie & cream chiffon cake from starbucks with Jess, Belle and Megan.

Conveniently placed tree that hides the dome from view (?).

Conveniently placed random man that ruined my almost perfectly clear shot (?).

I took exactly zero photos once we wandered into the park & museum. Besides being ‘respectful’ and not lifting my phone to snap photos, I also felt it was much more respectful to spend my time reading as many plaques & text descriptions as I could. The main exhibition inside the museum is the permanent exhibition, which displayed a large amount of personal belongings left behind by victims.

There was a projected simulation of the timeline & destruction path of the bombing near the entrance of the exhibition which offered a very helpful visual diagram of how the land looked before and after the destruction.

The whole experience was, needless to say, extremely depressing & sobering. When I was learning about nuclear energy & war a few months ago, I ended up doing a deep dive into the destruction of Hiroshima, but there are just experiences & artifacts that you don’t see online. Reading so many personal quotes & stories from victims’ families, seeing the tattered & burnt clothing of victims, and seeing chunks of glass & metal fused together from the sheer heat of the blast really hit me.

Something I really appreciated was how well-designed the exhibit was! The flow of sections leading into the next physical area/room were well-planned, and the one room with victims’ photos/plaques being displayed within a glass or acrylic panel next to gently lit display cases were nothing short of beautiful, elegant & respectful. The text was easily legible despite the dim lighting, and the vibe of the room paid tribute to the tragic event very well.

Now for something that’s just as distressing as the contents we just explored in the museum. This insane clock is right outside the entrance to the exhibits (but inside the building).

If you’re having a hard time reading the text in the photo above, here’s a snippet from the plaque: “The cogwheels represent a virtual countdown which warms us that we are on the path leading to towards the annihilation of humanity. The cogwheel at the top rotates 100 times per minute, but will spin faster if the earth shows signs of being in danger. If it reaches the immovable cogwheel at the bottom, the clock will automatically self destruct.”

HUH?

I didn’t get a video but the cogwheel at the top was spinning pretty fast….and even if the plaque is just hypothetical, I still have so many questions. Some of our classmates spent a good while discussing what we think the text means, and I tried to not fall into a deep pit of existential dread like how I usually do during the conversation.

After the museum, my feet & soul absolutely died while we were dragged around past our bodies’ limitations (or just mine, at least). I sat near the outskirts of the castle with a few others while the rest of the class trudged onwards and then we got okonomiyaki for dinner and went back to the hotel in Kyoto.