Tag: Train

Free Day ? KCG campus tour

05/26/2023 (Friday)

Since I slightly passed away from our tiring journey yesterday, I slept in today while my roomie Megan and a few others went out for an early morning kimono dress-up session. I went to breakfast at around 8am and came back and napped until around 1pm.

I headed out with Jess to Kyoto station to grab some new clothes from uniqlo & order from mister donut for the first time! We also managed to squeeze in lunch before rushing back to the hotel to head out again at 4pm to check out the KCG campus.

Here’s what Jess & I ordered wrow! I embarrassingly went into the wrong storefront after getting the menus mixed up and we apologized while going to the store to the left of the menu instead….

Pretend the image is properly oriented I can’t believe wordpress doesn’t have this option included in the base post editor

The food was so yummy…..katsu perfectly cooked & juicy, didn’t feel oily or greasy at all. I could drink a gallon of their miso soup too…

Baby’s first time at a mister donut!!! It’s been 2 days and I’ve yet to eat what I ordered but I’m sure its delicious.

Arrived at KCG’s graduate campus for a quick tour!

We then headed to KCG’s main campus to meet the students that would be game jamming with us! Shoutout to nametag guy ?

It was nerve wracking to meet our teammates for the first time, but I was excited to practice my japanese! One of our team members ended up not hanging out with us as often due to being nervous, but I have faith in him for our actual game jam. They brought tons of snacks for us to try, and we also had pizza-la delivery! I’ve heard of the chain name before but I was not expecting the pizza to taste so…sweet? Many of us ended up sharing similar sentiments after the dinner meet.

We shared a very crowded bus with the KCG students on our way back to the hotel & also saw Kyoto Tower!

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.

Food in Day 1: Traveling to Kyoto

Before the long train ride from Tokyo to Kyoto, Brody, Vincent, Maddy and I went to the Shinigawa Aqua Park. We saw many amazing aquatic animals I had only seen in movies and video games (mainly Animal Crossing). Afterward, we hopped on the train, where I spent the whole time gawking at the scenery. We ended the day with a 10-course meal at our welcome dinner in Kyoto.

Pictures from the day

To start out the day, I had a matcha cake roll that I got from 7-11 the previous night. It was super yummy and only a little sweet. It was effortless to eat before Maddy and I headed out to meet up with Vincent and Brody for an actual meal

Matcha cake roll

In terms of real food, I ended up getting pork fried rice. The green onion, egg, and pork combination was incredibly satisfying to eat. The addition of the rice make the dish filling, making it perfect to have before the long train ride that awaited.

Pork fried rice

The last meal of the day was the 10-course meal that we had as a part of our welcome dinner to Kyoto. We started out with a few small dishes including squid, pickled vegetables, bok choy, and pork. As the soup was cooking, we were given a small assortment of sushi. The soup was a type of fish soup, but I, regrettably, do not recall what it is called. After that, we had more pork that we dipped into hot oil to cook ourselves. That was followed by a salad that I did not end up eating due to my allergy to raw vegetables. After that, we had shrimp tempura with fried lotus and pepper. That was followed by more sushi, which we got to see prepared by a professional chef. After that was a tofu dish with a gelatin soup base on top. After that was another soup that was followed by ice cream. Everything that I was able to eat was delicious. I wish I was able to eat more of the delicious dinner, but sadly, I am allergic to life.

What a great way to start our trip in Kyoto!

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.

An emotional day

Today was our trip to Hiroshima. Obviously it is a very sobering and educational experience but it was such an interesting day overall.

We started the day early with breakfast at 7am and being on the skinkansen around 8:30. The ride to Hiroshima was about a 2 hour ride on the bullet train. I spent the time confirming our kimono appointments for tomorrow.

Once we got off the train, we got some food. I got a cookies and cream cake and vanilla Frappuccino from Starbucks. After food we headed over to see the dome. The dome is a still standing building from before the A bomb fell. It was incredible to see, especially the before and after.


After that we walked around the Peace Memorial Park. There were many flowers and school children going on a trip to see Hiroshima. We also then learned about the legend of the paper cranes. There’s a statue representing a school girl that got leukemia from the bomb and how she made paper cranes to wish for her health. The story goes that she died before she could finish all the cranes to grant her wish ( you need 1001) but her classmates finished it for her. We saw a group of school children bow and say thank you to the statue in the park.

After that we headed towards the actual museum. I didn’t take many photos since this was a very personal experience and it felt wrong to really take photos of such a thing.

The museum itself was wonderfully put together. The story of the bombing was extremely well told and made me cry at one point. I think the most impactful thing for me was seeing the clothes of the children that died from the bomb and reading the stories of the people who came home covered in burns and radioactive energy. The destruction was everyone and was really emotional.

The whole museum was a very emotionally strong experience for me that I don’t think I could put into words all that well. It really is something you have to see for yourself.

After the museum we sat outside for a bit. Some school children ( like 8 or 10 years old) came up to us and said hello. I responded in Japanese and the kids literally jumped back in shock. It was so cute!

Afterwards we went on an adventure to find Hiroshima Castle. It was so hot outside and I was in jeans so I wasn’t doing that hot. We eventually made it to the adjoining shrine and relaxed there for a bit. It was pretty with the guardian there being koi fish.

After that we headed to dinner. We got okonomiyaki ( Japanese pizza but instead of crust it’s cabbage). I tried it but wasn’t a fan. The meat and mochi in it was good though.

Afterwards, a small group broke off to run to the Pokémon center! I was in that group haha. We took a taxi over to the center, ran up the stairs and got in. I got some cookies while everyone else shopped. The reason we rushed was because we had to meet back up with the rest of the group to make our train back to Kyoto. We had 20 minutes to meet up with everyone and we were 30 minutes out of the station. We literally speed walked back to the station and made it just in time! We got on our train and I took a little nap. From here we just got back to the hotel and got ready for bed.

See ya next time blog for our very special Kimono edition!

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!

Tokyo -> Kyoto

Before heading to Kyoto, we had some time to kill and went to the aquarium. I expected it to be a lot smaller than it was, and I really enjoyed getting to see manta rays, seals, and otters!

After the aquarium, we boarded the bullet train! The train ride was about 2-3 hours long and I listened to music and watched the beautiful countryside and mountains as we traveled.

Once in Kyoto, we met up with some professors from KCG and had a wonderful welcome dinner. Dinner consisted of 10 courses where we were able to sample traditional Japanese foods. I’m not a huge seafood fan, but I did give the raw squid and sashimi a try.

That night I was tired after a long day of traveling, and definitely was happy to relax at the hotel. The hotel aesthetic was a nice fusion of modern minimalist with some traditional Japanese style and bathroom. I especially enjoyed the complimentary night robes we were given, they were so comfy!

Tokyo & going to Kyoto? Day 02+03

Combining 2 days into one since I KO’d the past few days

05/21/2023

Today we were scheduled to meet up with everyone at Shinagawa Prince Hotel. As our group arrived a few days ahead of schedule, we had to travel from our prior accommodation in Oshiage to Shinagawa. We left at around 10:00am.

Cam and I absolutely passed away today. We went from Oshiage -> Shinagawa, then saw the discord ping notifying us that Shinagawa was not the right place after we had already spent a good amount of time hauling our luggage from the station to Shinagawa Prince Hotel (we had to climb multiple slopes while getting lost around that hotel).

We were told to go to Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa, so while looking for the main entrance of Shinagawa Prince Hotel, we switched directions and had to climb up many more slopes to the Takanawa Hotel. We checked our luggage in early and thought all was well enough to go grab food before the check-in at 2pm. It was around noon at this point.

Cam and I met up with Skylar to go to our first family restaurant at Royal Host! I ordered omurice & garlic toast.

We also took a quick trip to Akiba to check out the Hololive x Kanda Matsuri collab since it was its last day!

On our way home, we saw once again another change in plans, in that Shinagawa WAS the right place after all. We had to make the walk of shame to the luggage desk and let them know that we wouldn’t be checking in at that location after all, but luckily there was a free shuttle to all the surrounding Prince Hotels so we didn’t have to carry our luggage through the heat back to Shinagawa.

After that very eventful travel journey, we met up in the hotel lobby at 6pm to get our rail pass vouchers exchanged for the real thing and we all went to the food court in the nearby station for dinner before retiring for the night.

Kakeudon for dinner!

05/22/2023

We woke up early today to grab breakfast before taking our trip to Kyoto! We were scheduled to stay in Shinagawa Prince Hotel for one night before heading to Kyoto, and I have to say, that hotel was severely underwhelming for how much extra facilities they had to offer. Shinagawa boasts an aquarium, bowling alleys, etc etc, but the room had pillows that were too soft and didn’t offer nice support, and the comforter!!!! was so!!!! uncomfortable!!! scratchy and thin….

Anyway, we got a small squad to get breakfast together consisting of Jess, Megan, and Belle, with Skyler and Liam joining us a bit later. We went to The City Bakery at around 8am. *takes note if I ever visit again in the future*

I picked up a croque monsieur, some thick bread slices & maple bacon french toast. I saved much of the bread for takeout, and then also ordered an eggs benedict set for dining in. Yummy!

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel to get ready to check out and travel to Kyoto. A bit before 2pm, we all met up once again in the hotel lobby to set out for the station. It was my first time riding the shinkansen, and it was painfully uneventful due to how cramped we all were. I had planned on getting some work done, but our group was packed into the space and I ended up taking many mini naps while sneaking peeks at the scenery outside and praying for my phone battery to make it through the day.

Once we arrived, we were greeted by KCG faculty and they were very hospitable and kind! Our luggage was loaded onto a bus while we were treated to an amazing 10 course(?) meal at a restaurant called Ganko(?).

My phone battery KO’d after the third course but it was all very tasty! (Minus the faux savory tofu dessert…)

Travelling to Kyoto!

Everyone travelling to Kyoto!

Today is the day we travelled from Shinagawa to Kyoto via bullet train. Our original plan was to get on a train at 11am after checking out of the hotel around 10am. However, the trains were all full at 11 so we had to switch to a 2pm train. This game us roughly 3 hours between checking out of the hotel and heading to the train station. So after eating some ramen at the food court within the hotel, me and my group went to the aquarium!

Lunch before Kyoto!

The aquarium was so cool to see! There were all kinds of animals there, not even just fish. It was a tad bit pricier than typical aquariums in the U.S., but the quality of the exhibits and, from what I can tell, the treatment of the animals is far better. There were capybaras, stingray, sharks of all kinds, jellyfish, coral reef fish, otters, frogs, piranhas, and even more. We didn’t get a chance to see the bigger fish, like the dolphins, because the exhibits were later, but I’m ok with that. We did get to see an otter show, which was so cute!

Otter show! The otter was catching a ball thrown at him 🙂

The aquarium was split into many different sections, including a jungle section which included most of the land animals. We also saw another group of students in the aquarium at the same time as us! My favorite animal exhibit was either the seals or the otters because they were sooo cute. After seeing all the exhibits we went through the gift shop to look around, but things were a bit pricey (as to be expected). After leaving the aquarium we went to 7/11 to get ice cream, which was super tasty, then we headed back to the hotel lobby to wait until we went to the train station. The train ride went pretty smoothly with the group and was a nice, comfortable ride (I played Tears of the Kingdom the whole time).

One of the seals doing laps upside down!

After arriving in Kyoto we met up with our friends from KCG and loaded our bags into the bus we would take to the hotel later. Before going to the hotel we had dinner in this really fancy restaurant that must have costed a lot of money, so I am very thankful for the opportunity! The dinner was 10 courses and each were so, so good. The first course was an assortment of seafood and vegetables. I got to eat 7 baby squids because no one liked them :). The second course was an assortment of fish served with wasabi and shiso, which was very scrumptious. Dish three was vegetables boiled in a really yummy broth that was set on a flame on our table! Dish number four was a pork belly and lettuce plate that very special instructions. The server came and lit the fire under neath a bowl of oil, then we put all of our lettuce in the bowl and waited 3-5 minutes. After the time was up we were able to put the pork belly into the oil one slice at a time to cook it, then dip it in the sauce to eat. This was one of my favorite dishes of the night! The fifth course was a salad with avocados, lettuce, and tomatoes. Course six was tempura shrimp and vegetables, which was absolutely amazing. I wasn’t a huge fan of the circular vegetable but everything else was yummy. Course number seven was a tofu gelatin dish that I did not enjoy very much, as much as I hate to say it. Dish 8 was sushi made right in front of us by the head chef of the restaurant! Some students even made the sushi themselves! The sushi was great and the staff were wonderful. Course 9 was an egg broth that was very good. The final course was desert, which was vanilla and soy ice cream! Really liked this one, haha :).

The many courses of the night! (Reverse order, starts with 10)

After dinner we got on the bus from earlier and headed to our hotel! I took a bath, had a meeting, then clonked out! Day 2 done 🙂

To Kyoto, and Beyond

After our adventures to the Aqua Park, I met up with everyone else as we prepared our trip to Kyoto. We went to Shinagawa Station and used our newly-acquired JRPasses to hop onto my first-ever bullet train!

The ride was about two-and-a-half to three hours, but it went by fast. As we approached Kyoto, the scenery changed from metropolitan to gorgeous countryside. It was absolutely stunning, not to mention noticing how fast we were really going on the train.

We got to Kyoto and met with our sponsors at KCG, who were super hospitable and kind. They took us to an amazing restaurant where we had a 10-course, authentic, Japanese cuisine experience. It was truly some of the best food I’ve ever had. After the dinner, we made our way to the Anteroom Hotel, which has the quaintest and cutest rooms I’ve ever seen and it’s own, dedicated shower room.

A picture of Brody during our morning stroll to 7/11 in Kyoto