Tag: Travel

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 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 !!

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 10

I was very excited for this day because I had heard that the Imperial Palace gardens were pretty. The giant stones that made up the walls were incredible and the koi pond was mesmerizing. I loved the waterfall and all of the trails that surrounded the flower beds nextto the pond. One of the things I was shocked by was the number of times each shrine has burned down. I think the most we had heard was eight times, I don’t remember how many times the Imperial Palace burned but it wasn’t nearly that many times.

After a brief lunch of ricotta and banana pancakes, we all met at the final shrine of the entire trip. It reminded me significantly of the backyard of the house I grew up in with the thick woods aesthetic and the river running through it. Something I was surprised by was the giant row of barrels that once held wine – although I cannot remember the story behind it. While this shrine was not as staggering as the shrine on the cliff or the one with over one thousand gates or statues, I thoroughly enjoyed the simplicity of this one.

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 8: Traveling Back to Tokyo

After waking up early to pack all of my things, Maddy and I went downstairs to have breakfast before the long train ride back to Tokyo. On the train ride, I wrote as much on my blogs as my stomach could handle before taking a nap while listening to music. After getting to Tokyo and dropping off our bags in our hotel in Akihabara, we speed ran as many floors of Mandarake as possible, went to Super Potato to look at their retro games, and looked around Animate before having dinner and going to sleep.

For my last breakfast at the hotel, I was given toast with prosciutto, spinach, tomato, and parmesan. Although I was not a big fan of how hard the crust was, the rest of the toast was delectable. I also grabbed more fried fish because I’ve enjoyed all of the fried fish I’ve had here along with some egg, another croissant, some mushrooms, and yogurt with soybeans and brown sugar. I also got another glass of apple juice because I cannot resist its call.

After our long train ride, Maddy, Brody, Vincent and I went to a food court near the hotel and got some ramen. I got ramen with shrimp tempura in it because I love ramen and I love shrimp tempura, and I have already had the two together, so why not get it again?

For dinner, we decided to go to a sushi restaurant that Toshi recommended to us. I got this rice combination bowl with various different things in it so I could try a little bit of everything. It was absolutely delicious, and I would definitely recommend going there if you like sushi.

Tomorrow is our last free day on the trip, so let’s make the most of it!

Food While Traveling Back to the U.S.

June 3rd: the day we say goodbye. After saying one last goodbye to the remaining students in Japan in the hotel lobby, Maddy and I braved the train system together with our heavy bags and heavier hearts. Luckily, our two head working together helped us get to the airport without too much struggle (ignoring how laborious lugging our bags around was). We were also able to get through immigration, security, and on our plane without any issues.

However, Maddy only had about an hour and a half layover, and I had about two, proving to be an issue when we got to immigration in the U.S. Thankfully, we had just enough time to get to our respective gates before boarding started, but the anxiety while waiting in the long, snake-like line was overwhelming. Now we know in case we ever travel outside of the country by plane ever again: if you have a layover in the United States, make sure it’s at least three hours long. Although we made it on our planes, we were both cutting it real close, and I would much rather have way too much time to spend in an airport than cut it that close ever again.

I made it back to Rochester with all of my bags, got picked up by my friend, took a pit stop at Chipotle, and then went home.

This was my last meal in Japan. I decided to get tempura on rice at the airport. It came with egg tempura, shrimp tempura, and various vegetable tempuras. It was super yummy! I kinda of scarfed it down to make sure Maddy would have enough time to eat before the flight, so it’s hard to say more than that, but I thought it was really good.

On the plane, I got some pasta with a piece of bread, red bean mochi, and vegetables. I really like the pasta. It was very flavorful, and I liked not being allergic to something that I eat on the plane. I could not eat the vegetables because there were peas included. The bread was bread. Bread is always solid; a safe choice. The red bean mochi was really good, but the texture made me feel nauseous since Iw as already feeling lightly nauseous because I get motion sickness, so I did not finish the mochi. However, I know if I were on solid lad, I would have greatly enjoyed it.

For a mid-flight snack, I was given a ham and cheese sandwich with some snacks. I pocketed the snacks for later, but the ham and cheese sandwich was… a ham and cheese sandwich. Not much to say about it. Just a plain ham and cheese sandwich. I would’ve preferred it with mayo, but I was thankful to be getting any food in the first place.

For breakfast, I was given an omelet with a sausage and a piece of potato. The omelet was okay. It was cold by the time they got to me, so it felt kind of gross to eat. The sausage was better tasting cold. The potato thing was worse. This was probably the sketchiest plane meal I had on this trip, but once again, I was just thankful to not be allergic to it at all.

That marks the end of the trip! It was honestly such an amazing experience, and I am very grateful to have been able to go. Now, I’ve been back in the U.S. for a few days, and the jet lag coming back to the U.S. is way worse than it was when going to Japan. Take that warning as you will.

Food in Day 12: Unreal Fest and CyberConnect

We started the day out by braving the rain and making the walk over to Unreal Fest. It was super cool to see all of the projects being made using Unreal Engine. It makes it feel like the possibilities are endless. Seeing that inspired me to keep working hard on my own projects so that one day I may be able to create something like the things that were being shown off there. After that, we went and got a tour of CyberConnect2, the game studio behind the development of the Naruto fighting games, .hack series, and Fuga: Melodies of Steel. After that, Jasmine, Jessica, Megan, Brody, Maddy, Vincent, and I trekked through the rain for a delicious last dinner and ice cream. After that, a few of us had a late-night meeting, I finished packing, and then head to bed.

In terms of the stars of the show, sadly, I had to skip out on breakfast because I did not wake up in time to grab breakfast before going to Unreal Fest. So for lunch, I got oil noodles again, but with a raw egg to mix into my rice this time. Maddy and I had already come to this place before in Shibuya, so we knew this was good. I decided to try a different flavor this time, but I forgot what that flavor was called. Again, this was delicious. I also appreciated that they gave us broth this time. I assume they did this because it was rainy outside. Great service, and I appreciated being able to order form a terminal that included English translations.

For dinner after CyberConnect2, Jasmine, Jessica, Megan, Brody, Maddy, Vincent, and I had dinner together. Jasmine and I shared some garlic bread with pesto as an appetizer. It was toasted just enough to have a bit of a crunch, and the garlic and pesto paired well together. It was the perfect way to lead up to the steal that I got that came with rice and baked vegetables. The steak was super flavorful and juicy, and the sauce only made it better. The whole dinner was just delicious.

For dessert, I got a Sumiko Gruashi-themed ice cream from Baskin Robbins, which was a fruity-flavored ice cream. I really like it, and I enjoyed the character being a little chocolate that you could eat. For second dessert (to help me stay awake during my meeting), I had a coffee jelly from 7-11. It was also really good and super cheap.

Tomorrow, Maddy and I need to brave the subway system together once more to the airport. Leaving will be very bittersweet.

Food in Day 10: Downtown Tokyo, Harajuku, and Shibuya

The first thing we did after having breakfast was go to the Tokyo Imperial Palace. We walked around, observing the architecture, gardens, and koi fish before we went to Harajuku to visit the Meiji Shrine and have a lunch break. After that, the class split up, and Brody, Vincent, Maddy, and I went back to Shibuya. We visited a record shop before Maddy and I split off to look around in Shibuya 109 before we reconvened, had dinner, and went back to the hotel for yet another late-night meeting.

Guess what I got for breakfast?

Wow! You got it! I got McDonald’s again! This time around, I got the red pepper Shaka Shaka chicken with fries and an iced latte. The seasoning that came with the Shaka Shaka chicken was super good. It was just a tad spicy, and it was very flavorful. I put a little bit of the seasoning on my fries as well because it was so good. The latte was also good because it was less bitter and not hot coffee.

In Harajuku, we found this unique Pink Panther food court that had a stage for performances. During performances, photos and videos were not allowed, but because we went to eat in between performances, I was able to take pictures. I got a tornado potato and a Korean hot dog with cheese on the top and a hot dog on the bottom. I was not a big fan of the potato tornado. It was incredibly messy to eat, and it was mildly sweet when I was expecting a salty potato treat. Thankfully, the Korean corn dog was incredibly good, and I would highly recommend anyone who likes corn dogs to try it out. It was major upgrade from just a regular American corn dog. This may even ruin them for you as it did with me.

In Shibuya, after a lot of walking to find somewhere to eat, we finally out this barbeque place. Honestly, it was not the best considering the price. It was very tasty, but I’ve had the same amount of tasty but with more food for a lesser price on this trip, so I didn’t see it as worth the price. Vincent may fight me about that though.

Afterwards, we rushed back to have our meeting and get as much sleep as we could before our long trip to Odaiba tomorrow.

Food in Day 6: The Game Jam

Today was the official first day of the game jam! I was put in charge of designing and creating the art for the UI. For the concept behind our game, we decided to go with Belle’s idea, which was to create a game based off of moving to a foreign country and opening a bakery. The point is to get better and better at determining the orders of the customers, who are giving you their orders in their native language. This is pretty much the only thing we did today.

For food, I started out the day with the provided sandwich of the day, which was a fried chicken sandwich. Although I am unsure of all of the ingredients in the sandwich, it was good! I also picked out another croissant because I enjoyed all the other ones I’ve had so much, some penne pasta with ham and zucchini, and fried salmon. All of the food was super good, but I had to rush a bit because I went to breakfast late. I did have a cup of apple juice which was refreshing paired with all the fried foods I was eating and a cappuccino to help me power through the rest of the game jam.

For lunch, we were given a variety of rice balls and other snacks. I honestly forgot which rice balls I had chosen to eat, but I do remember that one of them had a very strong fishy taste, so I was unable to finish it. I do remember picking out an egg folded into an omelet, and it was sweeter than any egg I had ever had before. While the sweetness bothers my fellow RIT teammates, I quite liked the subtly sweet egg.

For dinner, we were given these bento boxes filled with an assortment of food. Included was rice, shrimp tempura, pickled veggies, salad, cooked veggies, fried chicken, a piece of waffle, and a hamburg steak. I enjoyed almost every aspect of this meal that I was able to eat. However, I did not like the hamburg steak. To me, it tasted like an unseasoned meatball with gravy on top. Everything else (except for the salad and pickled vegetables because I could not eat them) were delicious and a good source of fuel to help me power through the last hour or two that we had of the game jam for that day.

The next day marked our last day of the game jam and our last full day in Kyoto. Although I was excited to see how completed our project would be, it was a little bittersweet as I was not quite ready to say goodbye to the beautiful scenery in Kyoto.