Tag: Sights

My Wallet vs. UNIQLO (2023)

On Friday, we had a free day until 4 PM, as that’s when we would have our first introduction to the KCG students. Brody, Esther, Maddy, and I wanted to go to the Toei Studio Park, where there was a big Evangelion attraction. We asked others if they wanted to come, and Sten ended up straggling along.

We got the park and went straight to the attraction, which was a large statue that you could take pictures with, and even enter and go up towards the top. After a couple photos, we entered and explored the inside, which had cut-outs of many of the characters and a pilot-aptitude test in the form of a multiple-choice personality quiz.

Standing in the hand of the Evangelion attraction

Afterwards, we explored the park a little more, going to get some Evangelion-themed ramen, and going around the many stores. It was getting around 2pm and was a 50 minute journey back, so we left the park and hopped on the train. Once we got to the station, Brody, Esther, and I saw that the AEON Mall was right across the street. The thing about AEON Mall was that there was a very special store in there: a UNIQLO. Sten and Maddy went back to rest as we went into the mall with only the intention to look. How wrong our intentions were. After seeing how cheap the clothes were compared to their US prices, and the different and more diverse designs, we found ourselves on a shopping spree.

Our spree, however, was cut short by time, and it was starting to approach 4 PM. We rushed back and got ready for the bus ride to KCG. Our introduction started with a tour of their newly-built building, which had a minimalistic design to it that I really loved. It was not a very large building, but the facilities were luxurious, especially the teacher’s lounge and garden.

Part of the garden outside of the teacher’s lounge

After our quick tour, we met with the KCG students and shared some Japanese pizza with them. My teammates were really nice, and with the help of one of the translators, Quan, we were able to get along quite well.

We went back to the hotel and some of us got together for a small group hangout, but with the early morning and day-full game jam the next day, it didn’t have its full rager potential.

May 26th: Kimono Day!!!!!!!!!

Todays the day!!! The day of wearing Kimonos!! I was so excited since I made the reservation two days in advance and I even woke up buzzing with excitement. At around 7:05am, Belle, Chloe, and I headed out to the Kiyomizu-dera area ( this is the place with the old looking pretty streets and temple that looks over Kyoto). Our reservation was at 8am and we ended up getting there at around 7:45am. We walked around for a bit then headed in. We were greeting by this middle aged Japanese lady that spoke pretty good English! Being the try hard student I am, I tried to speak Japanese the entire time we were there, the women there said I had a good accent!

We all chose our kimonos, belts, and accessories and the women there got to work. I never realized how many layers a kimono had but there was alot. There was a white under cover, a lot of straps to tie it together, towels to keep the shape firm, the actual designed kimono cover, the belt, and accessories. Overall it took 30 minutes to get dressed and about 15 minutes for them to do our hair. It was a really fun experience as I tried to speak through it.

Once we got out we headed towards Kiyomizu-dera to take so many photos. The plan was to go early to miss the crowds but the crowd was still there. We took some photos at the top then headed down the hill. A lot of other foreigners asked to take photos with us which was kinda weird but we said no. Here’s some photos though of the temple with us in it!


We headed down the hill to the shopping area. Belle and Chloe got some goods from the stores and we took photos along the way as we could. It did get crowded fast but we managed. The worst part of the kimonos were the shoes. The shoes are basically wedged flip flops that were a little too small and you had to wear socks with a little cut for the flip flop. Here’s a photo of what it kind of looked like.


We walked around a while. I headed to the Ghibli and freaked out for a bit ( as in I bought a cute mug with Spirited Away and sat next to JiJi from Kiki’s Delivery Service). After our shopping was over we went to a couple other area for photos then headed back to the kimono shop to get undressed. We were lucky it was cloudy in the morning but the afternoon started to get really warm, especially in all those layers.



After we got back in our regular clothes, we took a walk to the Pokémon Center of Kyoto. I already went earlier in the week so I won’t go into much detail there. And No I didn’t spend more money at the center this time I held back. After the Pokémon center we went exploring near Nishiki market and all it’s cool stores. We went to the otter café but it was full sadly but we explored instead! We saw a sticker store that was really cool. It kind of reminded me of Zumiez at home. We also went through some anime stores with many many figures and a thrift store that was too expensive to be thrift. We had to be back to our hotel at 4pm for our next schedule event so I grabbed a cream puff ( shuu-cream in Japanese) and we all headed to the station.

We made it home just in time for our class time and got on the bus to KCG. We were going to a pizza party and meeting the student we were going to be working with! We arrived at the school and got a tour of the grad program and meet our teammates.

Tangent time: we got pizza from a popular chain around here called pizza-la. To be honest it was really sweet and didn’t sit well in my tummy but it’s ok. There was only 1 plain pizza though the others were overly topped for my taste. There was chicken nuggets though! Ok tangent over.

We met with our groups, hung out for a bit, then headed home. We got a nice group pic on the bus ride home though!


After wards us RIT kids went to family mart for some snacks and drinks and played jackbox party pack together since it was an early night. That was pretty much my free day! I keep forgetting to take pictures of my merch but think of it as a surprise for my last post when I show everything I’ve gotten ( cause I’m not done yet we have a whole week in the anime fans center of the world Akihabara)

See you next time blog!

7th Impact

Toei Studio Park Kyoto

Today was our free day in Kyoto, followed by the game jam kickoff at 5pm. For the free day Vincent, Maddy, Esther, Sten, and I went to the Toei Studio Park in Kyoto to see the giant Eva 01 statue. We went with the understanding that we would only be able to look at the statue and take pictures in front of it. However, we were able to do the full boarding and linking experience. We got a bunch of pictures of ourselves in front of the Eva and then went inside it, where we took a quiz to see which of the characters in the show we were, based on some random quiz questions. After that there were cardboard cutouts of the characters in the show that we got to take pictures in front of. Then we ascended the mech and got to do a compatability test by sitting in the plug in its neck. It simulated what it feels like being shot from the underground city to the surface, like they do in the show. We all got really low compatability percents :).

Sten in front of his favorite character, Asuka

After going through the Eva we got a printed photo of all of us standing in its hand, then explored the rest of the park. There wasn’t all that much there unless you wanted to do some of the attractions, but they costed extra and seemed to be meant more for kids. We shopped at the stores in the park and I got a little Gojo keychain and a coin purse. There was a cool Evangelion shop that had a bunch of cool stuff, and there was a lot of samurai and ninja merchandise which I thought was super strange. The park was overall kind of underwhelming, since there wasn’t really anything for the shows that Toei has, it was all just ninja themed areas. We ate at this resturant that served Evangelion themed dishes which was alright, not the best food I’ve ever had but not the worst. After eating we did one last run through of the building and then headed back to our hotel.

Before we got the hotel Vincent, Esther, and I went shopping at Uniqlo in Aeon Mall, and I bought 4 Attack on Titan shirts for only 30 USD :D. After shopping we walked back to the hotel just in time for the bus to KCG. After we got to KCG we did a tour of their new building for masters students, which was really cool. Made RIT look cheap with their fancy event floor and rooftop garden. Their classrooms and library were also super nice, and they had a sound mixing room that looked really cool. After the tour we headed over to the building next door to kickoff the game jam! It was super cool to meet all the japanese students, and they were all really nice. We ate pizza and snacks while getting to know each other. Then we all installed Unreal in preperation for the next day, said goodbye, and then took off. Today was super fun and I am excited about what the game jam has to offer.

Day 3

We woke up super early today and meditated with a monk at his shrine. Something that surprised me was that if you get distracted or your back begins to hurt, you bring your hands together, bow to the monk, and he hit you with a rod. My back did begin to hurt – I also thought, “When’s the next time I can get hit by a monk?”, so I gave this method a try – it shockingly helped. While it was hard to focus occasionally, it was a cool experience.

Afterwards we visited one of my favorite shrines, the one with all of the statues in it. I couldn’t take pictures due to it being a sacred site, but nevertheless I loved the visual and the story behind it; where the emperor wanted to show his strength and security so he created this temple.

We also got to walk around a small marketplace with incredible views – at the base of the shrine where the people jumped off and survived – and got to have make tea at a tea ceremony. I piqued my interest how strong the tea was. Apparently it’s made with either less water or more tea and is very caffeinated.

Afterwards, Megan and I went to the Pokémon center where they had Pikachu wearing a kimono greeting the customers and where I spent a surprisingly small amount of money. Later that night we met up at Round1 for bowling and I got two strikes.

Day 2

The entire group spent the day sightseeing numerous temples – both Shinto and Buddhist. While I don’t remember the exact names of all of them, I remember them all clearly. We first went to the Golden shrine right on the lake, that had part of the cremated remains of the Buddha on the third floor.

After getting on the bus and traveling to our next destination, we found ourselves in a bamboo forest and a marketplace for lunch. Before moving on to a temple on top of a mountain – where a group of people apparently jumped off of and survived. It was here where I started collecting stamps from the various temples and shrines so I could make a collage when I got back home.

We finally visited my personal favortie – a temple with thousands of gates – known as the Fox Shrine; where Sten had to photobomb me as payback from something earlier in the day. We spent the night at KCG, watching ‘Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train’. I enjoyed the movie quite a bit, which was surprising because I’m not the biggest fan on anime. I really liked the creepy villain, the story, and the conflict for the main character that fights demons, where his sister is a demon.

Hiroshima

We started another early day with a quick breakfast and boarding the Shinkansen to Hiroshima. After the 3 hour train ride, we arrived and had lunch at a local food court where I tried tsukamen for the first time.

After lunch, we visited the peace memorial dome. All of us were pretty solemn, but at the same time this was an important visit.

Crane Statue during a school visit

During this time, we also visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. This was another site that was definitely important to go see.

Afterwards, we took a short visit to a small castle and temple before heading to an okonomiyaki restaurant. It was very delicious and filling. Mine had various types of seafood, green onion, egg, along with other foods.

Lastly, a group made a extremely quick trip to the Pokemon center. This was the only one that had a shiny Gyardos.

We all ran back to rendezvous with the rest of the group to take the Shinkansen back to Kyoto. Overall, a very heavy day physically and emotionally but well worth the trip!

To be continued…

Meditation + Tea ceremony + Temples ?

05/24/2023

Starting off strong with a yummy breakfast. I don’t ever eat breakfast in my daily schedule so having it built into our schedules during this trip was really nice and something that I appreciate lots!

Today we set out bright and early for a traditional zazen meditation session with a cool monk at a beautiful temple. I’m not exactly a religious person, but man do I love temples.

The architecture of traditional japanese temples is always so gorgeous, the lush greenery & gentle sounds of nature just instantly put me at ease. I felt so comfortable there.

During the first block of meditation (15 min), my right leg fell asleep about 5 minutes before the block was over, and I contemplated letting it fall asleep and not moving until the session was over but then I got insanely paranoid that I would permanently injure a nerve or something if I didn’t adjust my position, so I had to let go of my (self-perceived) perfect meditation posture.

I used to meditate often when I suffered from insomnia & heavier loads of stress, but I haven’t had the time lately and the session today helped spark my desire and motivation to meditate at home again. It was genuinely so peaceful and lovely….

The monk recommended us to experience the Whacking(tm) at least once, usually reserved for those who have trouble maintaining focus during sessions. I was hesitant at first since I thought I was doing well maintaining focus and keeping my mind clear, but upon the others’ recommendations, I asked for a whack during the second meditation block and I did not enjoy it as much as it was advertised.

When you’d like to request a whack, you’re meant to place your hands together in a praying motion, bow, and wait for the monk to then use his stick to whack both sides of your back (left and right), twice on each side. I was also informed by Toshi-san that other temples may do this unprompted if they catch the meditator asleep, so it was nice that this temple lets you request it!

After meditation, we headed to one of the locations we were at the previous day to witness and experience a traditional japanese tea ceremony (not full length). The hostess was kind and understanding, and taught us about just some of the nuances behind tea ceremony etiquette. When drinking from the bowl, you want the most decorative part of the bowl to face you, the person who will be holding the bowl, and you turn the bowl twice clockwise before drinking, so that your lips are not placed directly on the beauty of the bowl.

While I enjoy matcha, I am not great with bitter foods or drinks. But I offered myself to be the volunteer to drink the hostess’ dose of matcha due to my interest in the ceremony! Yes the matcha was bitter. I drank all of it out of respect and then proceeded to drink the dose of tea that I made myself shortly after. As someone who is extremely poor at downing any amount of liquid more than a cup (and as someone who is bad with bitter tastes), I think I had a real brave moment today.

We then headed to the Nishiki Market to grab some food, before I popped back to our hotel to rest for an hour or so. We were scheduled to go to Round1 for bowling at 6pm, so I headed back outside about 40 minutes prior to the meeting time.

Bowling happened. I believe some KCG students played with some of our students, but I had a very full team with Emma, Todd, Shannon and Kat. I forgot how awful I am with bowling, but they had a special vocaloid drinks menu so that was my coping mechanism for the night.

We headed out and arrived home at around 10pm, our feet feeling like lead from the past 2 days.

Forgotten and Left Behind

Note: There are less photos today due to many locations restricting photography (I also left my phone at the hotel lmao)

The day began with a meditation at a temple led by a monk. 2 – 15 minute meditation sessions were held. I enjoyed the first 5 minutes before my legs started hurting. This was overall a pleasant experience to start the morning, however, I could have done without the second session.

After that, everyone else got up and left me behind. How embarrassing…for them. Freed from the clutches of the group I had my newfound freedom at last. No one could stop me from finding a new bus… and then I ran into Steve. Returning back to the bus was my only option.

The next stop was a temple where over 1,000 golden statues were held. It is said that you will be able to see yourself in at least one of them. I definitely saw myself in the small Mushu like dragon.

Next, we returned to the old streets of Tokyo where we walked around to see various smaller shrines and gardens. We circled back to participate in a tea ceremony where we made matcha green tea and learned the proper etiquette in a ceremony.

The group then made our way to Nishiki market where we had lunch. It was very crowded so some of us had lunch at Wendys. I got pesto pasta with shrimp and avocado along with both sets of Tokyo Revengers combo meals. On our way back to rest at the hotel, I also got the legendary Lawson’s socks which are rumored to me the most comfortable sock money can buy.

After a much needed rest, we went bowling at round 1 where I ordered special vocaloid themed drinks and dominated the competition.

There were also various arcade games. I gravitated toward the rhythm games where had we not had to get up early, would have stayed there all night.

That’s all for today. Tomorrow we go to Hiroshima.

To be continued…

Press Your Luck

I thought that today’s blog post would be super chill all the way through — we’re never that lucky, right? (Or unlucky, in my opinion!)

Today we took the Shinkansen to Hiroshima, the site of the first nuclear bomb dropped on Japan in the final days of WWII. While I was looking forward to a better look into the city’s history, I certainly didn’t think that I would be as affected emotionally as I was by this trip. After brunch, we first stopped at the A-bomb Dome, which is a building that was close to the hypocenter of the nuclear explosion that remained partially intact, miraculously. There was a man standing outside who was sharing information about his mother, who at 105 is currently the oldest survivor of the Hiroshima bomb alive today. He told us the story of how his mother developed bladder cancer twice due to the radiation caused by the blast, but that she made a full recovery and is still alive and healthy today. This was my first bitter taste of the overwhelming impact of this event.

Next, we headed to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, a museum close to the A-bomb Dome that houses many artifacts and personal accounts of how citizens were affected by the Hiroshima bombing. While I wasn’t prepared for this visit to be a particularly joyful one, I also didn’t think that I would find myself in tears twice while walking through the museum. Many pieces of children’s clothing that they were wearing when the blast occurred, as well as personal letters sent from parents to children and vice versa before and after the bombing detailing the devastation caused by the event were extremely difficult for me to read; as much as we are taught about the nuclear bombings in Japan and how much destruction they caused, reading from and listening to the accounts of children orphaned or severely physically damaged by the nuclear explosion makes everything feel a bit more real and all the more horrific.

To cool off after a pretty emotionally stifling experience, we decided to visit a nearby castle that also housed a shrine. We weren’t able to enter the castle itself due to the crowds, but we were able to walk through the gates and visit the shrine. The castle and the surrounding walls and buildings were incredibly beautiful (though not what you might have thought of when i said ‘castle’), and there was a river/moat with some koi fish and turtles in it that were very fun to look at! I personally didn’t pick up any mementos from this shrine, but there were some very cute carp figurines that held a fortune in their mouth that you could open, sort of like a more preservable (more expensive) omikuji!

For dinner, we headed to a local restaurant for some okonomiyaki, which was sort of like a noodle / egg / sauced up pancake that also included cabbage (and onions? i think?) that you could get a bunch of other toppings / fillings with. I only got pork added to mine, but Fabian and Skylar added seafood to theirs and said it was pretty good! Overall I liked it, but I didn’t like how the noodles on the edge were still somewhat raw and crunchy.

The original plan for post-dinner was to head back to the Shinkansen station and shop in that area for an hour and a half until we could jump on a train. I, of course, wasn’t happy with knowing that we had the opportunity to visit another Pokemon Center (yes, there is one in Hiroshima) and didn’t take it, so me and 7 others (Vincent, Brody, Esther, Chloe, Megan, Skylar, and Liam) decided to take taxis to the SOGO shopping center and press our luck. I had learned earlier that day that a TCG promotion had begun yesterday, which was why we were unable to get into the Pokemon Center in Kyoto yesterday, so I was worried that we would meet the same fate here. Thankfully, we made it to the Pokemon Center with plenty of time to spare and NO LINE!! So worth it!

The only problem with making this detour was that now we had to make it back to the train station with almost no time to spare. We wanted to take another taxi, but we realized that it would likely take too long, and finding the subway was a complete nightmare in the basement of Hiroshima. That left us with one option: to walk (or, more accurately, aggressively speed walk) for 30 minutes to make it to the station and avoid missing our train. And we did! And my legs were on fire. We technically made it there 2 minutes late, but that’s only because we made a wrong turn when trying to get into the station itself, which I think is pretty passable given that we were originally going to be 5 minutes late by Google Maps’ calculations.

Personally, it was 100% worth it. There ended up being a ticket issue last minute anyways, so we could have spared a couple of extra minutes, but I’m very proud of myself for taking the risk and making the trip a little bit more interesting (and expensive). The train rides back home were pretty uneventful, and I’m ready to just crash into my bed and wake up early tomorrow morning for another super busy day!

Food in Day 3: Meditation and Tea

We started our day with a morning zazen meditation, which was led by a Buddhist monk. Secondly, we went to Sanjusangendo, a Buddhist temple known for having 1001 Buddhas. After that, we went back to the same area Kiyomizu-dera Temple was in and split into two groups. The first group, which I was in, went around the town on a tour to look at Kyoto’s architecture and went to another two shrines. After that, we participated in a tea ceremony where we were shown what a traditional tea ceremony looks like and then got to make our own tea. The second group did the same things as us but in the opposite order. Afterward, we went to the (whatever the market was called), which is known for its street foods and goods. Although the food looked delicious, the crowded area was overwhelming, so I ended up grabbing food somewhere else. After that, we went bowling with the staff helping with the game jam. I competed with Maddy and Toshi. I got completely owned by the two of them.

As for the super duper truly important parts of the day, I had another boxed breakfast given to us by the hotel. It consisted of toast with ham and lettuce, a chocolate croissant, a mini loaf of bread, two pieces of sausage, fried fish, a fried egg, and pickled shredded carrots.

During the tea ceremony, we had a sweet that was hard on the outside, but once bitten, its true soft and chewy nature became apparent. The yellow stripe in the middle is yuzu, a tangy citrus similar to grapefruit. For the tea, we had matcha that we made from hot water and powder. The sweets only made the matcha taste more bitter, but the bitterness was never overwhelming. These two contrasting tastes paired well together.

For dinner at the market. I have a steak with corn, rice, and fries. The steak was amazing and very cheap in comparison to the steak I’ve had in the United States. It was very juicy and flavorful, which was yummy to have with the mellow side items.

For dinner after bowling, I hit up 7-11 again and got a rice ball with chicken and vegetable filling. Although it was not the most delicious thing I had eaten on this trip, I could see how this item would be popular with office workers who are too tired to cook and happen to have a convenient 7-11 located on their way back home from work. It was cheap, good tasting, and on the healthier side.

Tomorrow is our free day, and we will finally get to meet the KCG students we’ll be working with!!