Tokyo 2: This Time, More Games (9/16/10 - 9/21/10)

On our second trip to Tokyo, we indulged ourselves with lots of video game-related activities. The main attraction this time was the annual Tokyo Game Show. We bought tickets for both public days, with a special access ticket on the second day to get us in early. Besides TGS, we also checked out some arcades in Shinjuku, walked around Akihabara, ate at a McDonald's decorated for the new Pokémon games, and found our way back to SEGA Joypolis. All in all it was a great time, especially since we could explore on our own schedule without having to go to a virtual reality conference.

September 17th, 2010: Like last time, we took an overnight bus to get to Tokyo. It was just as uncomfortable as before, and it dropped us off really early on Friday. We were able to leave our stuff at the hotel and explore until check-in time (which was 2:00PM), so we went exploring in Shinjuku. There, we found various arcades and played a bunch of games, like a giant robot fighting simulator game, some rhythm games (DDR, Pop'n Music), and electronic darts. We got back to the hotel in time to check in and relaxed on our comfy hotel beds for the rest of the night.

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September 18th, 2010: Saturday was the first day of TGS, so we got up early (well, somewhat early) and got to the convention hall area at a decent time. The train station was packed, and the walk to the convention hall was a mass exodus of Japanese and tourists. We waited in line for a couple hours just to get into the hall, and it was even more packed inside! At one point, it was so

crowded that I was moving by being pushed, and I almost fell down (and onto other people) more than once.

Despite the crowds, there was a lot of good stuff to see. Many big companies had booths, like SEGA, Konami, Sony, and Microsoft, and there were some smaller companies, too. As with every convention the big companies were showing off their new products to hype up attendees into buying their products: Sony had a bunch of PlayStation Moves; Microsoft had women playing the Kinect; Konami, SEGA, and others had demos of their new games. Unfortunately, Nintendo doesn't usually attend TGS, so there wasn't a booth with Nintendo games. There was, however, some merchants selling products like Nintendo plushies, so they did have a small presence.

Another big part of TGS is the cosplay area. Many men and women (but mostly women) dress up as their favorite game characters and pose for photographs for the many attendees. Japanese cosplaying is serious business, so the costumes are all professional-level stuff. The convention hall even had a dressing room and designated backdrops for cosplayers. Japanese men, who know the routine, stand in line at the person they want to photograph and take turns snapping pictures. Cosplaying is just one of those things that are a strange part of the Japanese culture.

Since our special ticket was for Sunday, this first day was mostly scouting out games we wanted to play tomorrow. I did play a few games today, but the majority of the things I tried were played on Sunday. We managed to get to the Pokémon Center in Tokyo after the convention, however, to pick up a copy of the new Pokémon games, Black and White. Saturday night was therefore committed to starting this new game.

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September 19th, 2010: Using our special pass, we got a new bag of goodies (including a t-shirt and pin) and early access to the convention hall. We got to avoid the large line of people that we were stuck in yesterday, and we had about a full hour to scourge the hall before the mass of people came in. In the allotted time we had before doors opened for regular guests, we played double the number of games we had played the day before over the course of the whole day. Needless to say, the $30 ticket for Sunday was definitely worth more than the $10 one we purchased for Saturday. The rest of Sunday was mostly walking around the convention hall like the day before. Having played a bunch of games and got a bunch of free stuff earlier we were satisfied with the event. I definitely took home a couple pounds of swag over two days of convention...

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September 20th, 2010: The last thing we wanted to make sure we did in Tokyo was visit Akihabara. We definitely found it, but I don't think we saw most of it. It seemed like it was much smaller than Den Den Town even though Den Den Town is supposed to be a smaller version of Akihabara. Regardless, we found lots of arcades with UFO crane games in them and other familiar games. The only other thing we did in Akihabara was visit a maid cafe. It was quite the experience, just because it was so much different than anything you would find in the States. The food was a little expensive, but I guess you pay for the whole visit. I shared a plate of ice cream and pancakes with Jared I, who had the maid write "Dry Bones" on our plate. Overall, it was a unique tourist activity that is one of Akihabara's specialities.

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September 21st, 2010: On our final day in Tokyo, we travelled back to the mall area we found last time we were there. During the previous night, we had ventured back here to find the Pokémon McDonald's and today we spent some time eating and playing our new games there. We walked around the mall briefly once more and then ended up back at Joypolis. We decided to buy the first-level discount ticket which gives you about six hours of time before they close (last time we only had four hours, which wasn't enough time). We got to go on many more of the rides, as well as some that we went on last time. It definitely made up for what we missed the first time we went.

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I would say that our second time in Tokyo was more enjoyable than the first. We were there for fun this time and we had more time to see what we wanted to. (We also weren't dying from a 13 hour volcano-climbing hiking trip.) I know we definitely didn't get to experience everything that Tokyo had to offer, but we were satisfied nonetheless.

(Whew, that was a big one. One more Japan blog post to go! Check out all the photos here and here!)

Himeji Under Construction, Come Back in 2014 (9/12/10)

(I'm finally getting around to finishing my Japan blog posts! I have three planned: this one about Himeji Castle, one about our second trip into Tokyo for the Tokyo Game Show, and a final "wrap-up" post. Stay tuned!)

September 12th, 2010: On our final impromptu weekend trip we took a train out to Himeji Castle in the Hyōgo Prefecture. We stopped in Kobe on the way to the castle, but didn't spend too much time there; we only ate lunch in Kobe on the ride back.

Himeji Castle is probably the most famous castle in Japan, so we figured we should go see it. Unfortunately, it was under construction when we were there and the scaffolding wouldn't be gone until Spring 2014. Regardless, we walked around the castle grounds and took lots of pictures (including lots I can use for game textures). We also overheard that the castle grounds are stunning in the spring when the cherry blossoms are in bloom, so I'll have to go back some day to check that out.

After perusing the castle grounds, we headed over to the Himeji City Zoo, which is literally attached to the castle area. It costs 200 Yen admission, and there are a decent amount to see inside. There were some pretty nice animals, like polar bears, a giraffe, an elephant, lots of birds, and red pandas. Sadly, most of these animals looked awfully depressed, especially the polar bears who seemed to be tortured by the 90 degree weather. Surprisingly, the penguins seemed to be enjoying themselves and the piglets were squealing cutely. It was nice to see a bunch of animals that weren't pigeons or deer, even if some of them didn't want to be there.

We left the zoo and headed back to Osaka via train. We stopped in Kobe briefly but decided not to venture towards the harbor. Instead, we decided to eat at a restaurant in the station that was advertising beef and onions on rice for pretty cheap. I almost gave in and bought a McGriddle from McDonald's across the way, but I'm happy I decided to go with the beef bowl.

(Check out all the Himeji photos here and here!)

Next time I'll recap our second and last Tokyo trip, including Tokyo Game Show, arcades, another trip to SEGA Joypolis, and lots of new Pokémon. Hopefully it won't take me as long to write it as this one did!

Sonic 4 vs. Sonic Genesis Games (A Design Analysis)

(It's been a while since I've made a blog post and I still have some Japan ones backlogged but I wanted to write this one while it's still fresh and relevant.)

Sonic 4: Episode 1 was released a little while ago and it's been receiving mixed reactions. Some say that it is truly a step in the right direction for Sonic while others say that the game's issues prevent it from being a redeeming outing for the hedgehog. I downloaded it and have been playing it on my Wii and I wanted to do a little design analysis of it compared to the original games that debuted on the Sega Genesis. I don't mean for this to be a game review, although it may be used as one. I hope to compare and contrast some of the elements from Sonic 1, 2, 3, and Knuckles to those in Sonic 4. I will also try to offer some changes that might make Sonic 4 more of the "New Super Mario Bros. for Sonic" that fans have been clamoring for.

A Return to Sonic's Roots

Sega had a great concept when coming up with Sonic 4: making a new Sonic game with classic gameplay elements and throwbacks to the old games. Fans (me included) thought this was great; finally, a Sonic game that's won't be terrible! Of course, there was the Sonic Cycle in the back of our minds, telling us that this is just another game that will be overhyped and that will never live up to our expectations. Some fans embraced and accepted the Sonic Cycle, saying that no Sonic game that Sega puts out will ever be good. Ever. Well, Sega became aware of the Sonic Cycle and were determined to break it. Sonic Colors, a new 3D Sonic adventure, will be out in November and may break the cycle (or so they say).

But was Sonic 4 able to finally do away with the Sonic Cycle? Yes and no, in my opinion. While Sonic 4 was able to do away with useless game mechanics, superfluous new characters, and silly storylines, it didn't quite fully capture the essence of the original Genesis games. Sega did an excellent job reimagining classic enemies and level design, but they missed with the physics and overall feel of playing a classic Sonic game. Sonic doesn't seem to move as he would have in the original games, and it's confusing how they could have neglected this key part of the game. Some of the level art seems overly gaudy as well, and some of the music, while having a familiar sound, doesn't have the same magic that the Genesis tunes did (maybe it's the lack of assistance from Michael Jackson?). Nevertheless, Sonic 4 is an enjoyable game that fans and newcomers can both have fun with; it's just not the Sonic game that it could have been.

Who is the Target Audience?

A common game design question that is asked is "Who is the target audience? Who are we making this game for?" Sega had a few different options for this question. They could have taken the route Capcom did with Mega Man 9 & 10 and restricted the target audience to the hardcore players and fans. This would have been the best option if they had wished to please only the hardcore by using sprites and 8-bit music, but they would have neglected the rest of the gaming audience. Instead, Sega took the "safer" route (from a marketing standpoint) and made Sonic 4 accessible for all players. This is evident by the 3D graphics and the stage selection screen, which lets you choose specific stages as well as special stages.

If Sega really wanted to make it a true classic, they could have opted for 2D sprites over 3D art, and made chiptunes instead of newer music that borrows 8-bit elements. They could have also eliminated the stage selection screen all together and just made the level progression linear like in the Genesis games. (They could have also gotten rid of saving if they were super hardcore.) It's understandable that today's games should be made for today's audience rather than yesteryear's, but it seems like fans would want something more geared towards the past than the present. In my opinion, these aesthetic choices can be overlooked by focusing on the main gameplay of the game.

The Mechanics Matter

So what about the gameplay? The basic elements take off from where Sonic 3 (& Knuckles) left off. Sonic can run (obviously), jump, and spin dash. He has also gained the Homing Attack that was introduced in Sonic 3D Blast, which is a rather decent addition. The controls are simple and familiar, which helps fans feel at home and allows new players to jump right in. The main issue, however, (which has been noted by many reviewers and players) is Sonic's physics in the game. There are several quirky problems which seem to stem from the apparent lack of inertia. Sonic will stop immediately if the player is not holding down a directional, especially during a spin dash or while Sonic is in the air. This flies in the face of hardcore players' expectations; Sonic is supposed to be somewhat "slippery" and glide over slopes easily instead of stopping dead. There are also some issues with running fast vs. spinning that just don't feel right. These issues can be ignored to an extent, and it is possible to enjoy the game despite these flaws. Classic players will be fairly annoyed with these inconsistencies to the Sonic gameplay of the 90's.

In terms of level design, Sega managed to deliver. The level layouts are very reminiscent of the classics and don't merely focus on pure speed (some people complain about the excessive placement of speed boosters, but I found them to be sparse enough to not be a problem). Multiple paths and hidden routes and items are a definite plus that are consistent with the Genesis style. I even found that the "cheap" enemy placement in some levels (where you are almost guaranteed to be hit and lose all your rings) to be somewhat reminiscent, albeit annoying. Some areas seemed dependent on the incorrect physics, which could be tweaked if the physics were changed. One instance was the mine car track in the Mad Gear Zone, where at one point you would fall to your death if you weren't holding right on the D-Pad. If the mine car is moving on it's own, how should I know to hold a directional? Where's the inertia? Even with these minor flaws, the layout of the levels is definitely something that was done right.

Sega, notorious for adding too many mechanics into Sonic games (Sword fighting? In my Sonic game?), managed to keep the mechanics fairly basic in Sonic 4. Sonic himself was only given the additional Homing Attack, and the levels maintained a good level of unique mechanics. Some of the level mechanisms are borrowed from the old games, like the teleporting tunnels from the Metropolis Zone and the slot machines from Casino Night, but others are brand new, like the swinging vines in Splash Hill. Zip-lines and running-powered gears are reimagined level mechanics that make Sonic 4 new but traditional. Of course, loops and springs are a main aspect of the level design, and rings are placed just where you would expect them.

One design that I don't agree with is the special stages. Sega decided to reinvent the special stage from Sonic 1, this time allowing the player to control the rotation of the stage directly. Sonic 1's special stage was the worst of the three, in my opinion; it didn't give the player enough control and seemed more luck-based since they couldn't really directly control Sonic. In Sonic 2 and Sonic 3/Knuckles the outcome of a special stage was directly effected by the players actions and they could directly control Sonic: the player needed to collect enough rings in Sonic 2's stage and all the blue spheres in Sonic 3's stage to be awarded the Chaos Emerald. Sonic 4 combined these two ways of attaining a gem by allowing the player to control a maze similar to a Sonic 1 special stage and unlocking doors when the player collected enough rings. I feel that a special stage where the player directly controls Sonic to complete a task to get the Chaos Emerald would have been more effective, rather than have him bounce around a maze, but that's just my opinion.

The Nostalgia Factor

In a game targeted at all players, how to you please the hardcore? Obviously, the core of the game should be easily recognizable and familiar to hardcore players while being accessible to newcomers. Sega was successful in making a game that everyone could play and enjoy, but the faulty physics detract from a hardcore's complete enjoyment of the game. Another way to please longtime fans is to insert little nuggets of nostalgia into that game. Sega was pretty successful with this aspect of the game, but they could have done much more. I'm fairly sure that all the enemies were borrowed from the Genesis era, with a few new twists. The level themes are almost direct copies of old Zones: Splash Hill is the obligatory Green/Emerald Hill; Casino Street is the popular Casino/Carnival Night; Lost Labyrinth is pretty much the Labyrinth Zone from Sonic 1; Mad Gear is the Metropolis Zone from Sonic 2. Some of the sound effects are directly taken from the classics, most notably the 1-Up sound effect from Sonic 3 and the sound played when getting a Continue. I would have liked to hear the "warp" sound when entering and leaving a special stage, but that's the only one I could think of that was missing. As mentioned earlier, the music sounds like it belongs, but doesn't quite capture what the original themes had. They pull from old songs and have familiar sounding parts but they aren't as lively as some of the music from, say, Sonic 3.

One of the major ways Sega could have improved the nostalgia factor would have been to make the entire game 2D with sprites instead of 3D models. Capcom was successful in doing so with Mega Man 9 and 10 and I think Sega would have experienced similar success by following suit with Sonic 4. Like I said before, this may have shrunk the audience, but the hardcore gamers who did buy it would have thought more highly of it. It is really a debate over sales numbers and the impact of the game on classic fans, and Sega seems to have chosen the former. The impact of this decision may be small, but it is still a noticeable decision among fans. It may seem illogical to make such a large art decision for a small subset of the audience, but it's possibly that Sonic 4 could have been received with more open arms if it had been 16-bit.

Anyone who has played Sonic 1/2/3/Knuckles to an extent will be able to pick out the nostalgia elements from Sonic 4, but the hardcore fans will feel uneasy with this new outing because of the faults mentioned previously. The artifacts of the present that exist in Sonic 4 convince fans that Sonic will never reclaim his previous glory that he experienced in the 90's. But why does he have to? Why can't Sonic evolve to fit into today's game industry as Mario has? I believe that he can, although it will take some convincing of the fans from Sega.

Where to Go From Here

Since Sonic 4 is episodic, Sega has a chance to learn from the fans' response to Episode 1 and address the issues in Episode 2. There isn't a final count of how many episodes there will be, but hopefully Sega will be able to distill the gameplay with each iteration into a pure Sonic formula that can be used in future games to finally redeem Sonic. As long as Sega listens to the fans and uses the iterative process with each new Sonic game, Sonic will be able to rise through the ranks to a place where he once stood proud.

(That's it for now. I may edit this later if I think of anything else, or if there are some glaring issues.)

Back to a Historical City (9/4/10 & 9/5/10)

In an attempt to see the sights we missed in Kyoto, we went back twice (in two different groups) and saw a couple of new things. On Saturday we visited Ginkaku-ji, the "Temple of the Silver Pavilion", and on Sunday we visited the Iwatayama Monkey Park and the Arashiyama bamboo forest.

September 4th, 2010: As with most of our weekend trips this trip was planned at the last minute, so we travelled to Kyoto without any real itinerary (other than wanting to see Ginkaku-ji and Kinkaku-ji). Unfortunately, we only made it to Ginkaku-ji, but we had a nice time walking around the garden area and taking lots of pictures. Both Ginkaku-ji and Kinkaku-ji closed at 5:00PM; we were at Ginkaku-ji at around 4:30PM and would not have been able to travel to Kinkaku-ji before it closed.

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September 5th, 2010: Learning from our previous error of leaving in the afternoon, some of us left a few hours earlier (closer to 12:00PM) and headed to Arashiyama, with the bamboo forest as our destination. On the train ride there we noticed that the Iwatayama Monkey Park was close to the station and on our way to the bamboo forest. We ended up taking the wrong path up the mountain, however, which was in actuality a hiking trail that didn't lead to the park. We spent a chunk of time hiking part way up and then back down after we noticed our phone's GPS straying from the Monkey Park, but after walking a short distance from the entrance of the trail we found the entrance to the Monkey Park.

The Monkey Park, also known as "Monkey Mountain", houses around 150 monkeys that are all named and all have their birthdate recorded. The park has certain rules, such as "Don't stare at the monkeys in the eye" and "Don't touch the monkeys", but you are able to feed them with snacks bought at the top of the mountain. The monkeys are used to human visitors so they frequently walk close to visitors and usually stay still for pictures. One baby monkey actually walked to me and started playing with my shoelaces, but I snuck away when it wasn't looking so that I wouldn't upset its parents. The view of Kyoto from the top of the mountain is also really nice, and there are a few sets of build-in binoculars for viewing the many buildings down below.

After leaving the Monkey Park we crossed the Togetsukyō bridge and walked only a short distance to get to the bamboo forest. The tall stalks of bamboo were quite intimidating but are a really interesting sight to see. They sway in the wind and drop leaves like confetti, and even block out some of the sunlight as you get deeper into the forest. The trail through the forest is fairly long, and there is a path that leads up to a garden made by a famous film maker (if I recall correctly). We stayed on the main path but I don't think we went all the way through. After exiting the forest we took a snack break at a small stand and walked back to the train station, walking along the river and back across the bridge.

(Check out all of the Kyoto photos from this trip here!)

It looks like our next weekend destination is to Himeji to see what is apparently the best castle in Japan. Then after that, it's time for the Tokyo Game Show and more Tokyo sightseeing!

A Little Slice of Tokyo (8/23/10 - 8/27/10)

Soon after the lab trip we travelled to Tokyo for the IVRC Finals at Miraikan. Our side project that we've been working on since before we arrived in Japan made it to the finals, so we were able to present it at the conference in Tokyo. The conference itself was three days, Monday to Wednesday, but we stayed for the rest of the week to look around and to climb Mt. Fuji. We stayed in a fairly nice hotel on Tokyo Bay with a beautiful view of the city, including Tokyo Tower close by. The hotel was also a five minute walk from the Pokémon Center, which was a nice perk.

August 23rd-25th, 2010: The three days that we spent at Miraikan for the IVRC were fairly regular. Monday was set-up and Tuesday and Wednesday were presentation to the public. Our project was パランガ (Paranga), the Virtual Flipbook. As the name implies, it was a device that simulated page flipping and animation that you get with a flipbook. We had some issues with our device throughout the event, and only one worked for half of it, but we were able to show it off without any major issues. There were some official judges going around and taking notes who decided which awards would go to which project. There were also boards where visitors could place stickers for their favorite project. At the end of the second day the main awards were announced, and at the end of the third (last) day the winners of the "audience choice" awards were announced. We ended up winning the Maywa Denki President's Award (presented to us by Maywa Denki himself), which I feel like was more of an "honorable mention" than a real award. There wasn't a monetary prize, just a certificate and an odd musical instrument called an Otamatone. It was still better than what I was expecting, which was nothing! It was cool to see the different types of projects that other people brought to the conference, especially since we were pretty much thrust into this project without any background of the contest. I think we did pretty well, given the circumstances.

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August 25th, 2010: After the IVRC was over, we decided to walk around for the rest of the night to visit some local places. Obviously, the first place I wanted to go was the Pokémon Center, and we walked there first since it was close to the hotel. The store itself seemed smaller than the one in Osaka but had much of the same merchandise. The one thing that stuck out was the table for playable demos of the new games, Pokémon Black and White. There weren't many people/kids in the store or at the demos because the store was closing in less than an hour, so I was able to hop on one of the DS systems quickly and play without the pressure of other people in line. I really enjoyed what I saw and played, and I definitely will be purchasing a Japanese copy when it comes out on September 18th.

After eating ramen at a small restaurant for dinner, we debated whether we should go back to the hotel to plan our Mt. Fuji trip or take the monorail to the large mall and SEGA Joypolis that we discovered the night before. Although, in retrospect, it would have been better to plan out our Fuji trip I have no regrets about our choice to check out Joypolis. At first, I assumed that it was merely an arcade with a few rides like the one in the HEP Five building in Umeda, but I was only partly correct. Joypolis is a 3-floor amusement park with about 20 rides, many arcade games, and some gambling games. Unlike the one in Umeda, this Joypolis has some large rides, including a fake snowboard halfpipe and a small roller coaster. There are also some "virtual reality" games, like racing and shooting games. We were totally surprised when the giant entrance doors opened and we walked inside because we were not expecting it in the slightest. At first, the ¥1,900 discount ticket still seemed expensive, but I think it was worth every yen.

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August 26th & 27th, 2010: On Thursday we started our day fairly early to travel to Shinjuku where we would catch a bus to the Mt. Fuji area. Instead of resting up for our hike we made the mistake of walking around Shinjuku looking for arcades. We found several of them and played some games which was nice, but all that walking left us tired and not fully prepared for our Fuji encounter. The games I played were the usual Rhythm Heaven game, DrumMania (which was much harder for me than Rock Band drums), GuitarFreaks, and Mario Kart Arcade GP 2 (I actually printed my "license" card this time for ¥200 extra).

After visiting the ¥100 Shop, waiting a little while for our bus, and riding the bus for about 2 hours, we arrived at the 5th station on Mt. Fuji. This station is one out of the 9 that are located along the trail to the summit, and most climbers start here and continue to the top. I started the hike in my usual clothes (shorts and t-shirt) because I enjoyed the cool weather that we experienced due to already being about 2,000m up the mountain. As we got closer to the top, I resorted to putting on my sweatshirt but I kept on my short for the entirety of the hike. I don't remember much of the hike up because it was really repetitive and dark, plus I was already tired and mainly focused on climbing rather than thinking about anything else. We took frequent breaks along the way, and we took the time to look back down the mountain at the clouds and other hikers, up at the distance we still had to travel, and up at the stars we wouldn't have been able to see from the city. As we got closer to the top it got harder and harder because of the lack of sleep, lack of energy, and lack of oxygen. Somehow, we managed to make it to the top (and at that point I didn't actually know it was the top) and were able to rest for a bit before sunrise, despite the biting cold and supreme exhaustion.

The sun rose at about 4:30AM and we had the best seats in the house (3,776m about sea level). Instead of seeing it rise above the ocean or normal horizon, it seemed to rise out from the clouds, illuminating everything as it found its place in the sky. Once it was up we could truly see all of the clouds and smaller mountains surrounding Mt. Fuji and the actual number of people that were on the summit. We took some time to take pictures around the crater but didn't stroll around the top to look around because we weren't really in the mood to do anything other than go back home. We had been climbing for about 7 hours and were not looking forward to another 5 hours of walking back down. The descent sounds like it should be easier than climbing up, but it was probably just as difficult because of the steep slope and tiny rocks that afford slipping. I witnessed a few people falling and slipped many times myself. It was not an enjoyable experience in the slightest, but the view of the clouds and mountains below us helped make it better. At one point near the end of the descent, the clouds were actually sweeping up the mountain and onto the trail, giving us a refreshingly cool breeze that I would have loved to bottle up and take with me. By the time we reached the 5th station again, my knees and feet were killing me and I was covered in a thin layer of dirt from the downward trail. We took another bus back to Shinjuku, travelled back to the hotel to get the luggage we stored there, and waited several hours for our overnight bus back to Osaka (all without sleep...). I was able to pass out on the overnight bus back home, but it took some time for me to get back into my regular sleep schedule. It was a good thing we ended our hike on a weekend!

(Check out all the photos from our Tokyo trip here and here!)

"A Quiet Mountain Retreat" (8/18/10 - 8/19/10)

Although we staying in last weekend, we were able to join almost everyone in the Takemura Lab on a two-day lab trip out to various places in the Chūbu region of Japan, such as the Gifu and Ishikawa Prefectures.

August 18th, 2010: On the first day of our trip, we woke up early and boarded the bus outside the Cybermedia Center at around 7:30AM. After picking up some more people at the Suita campus, we embarked on a 4 hour ride to Shirakawa-gō. This village is a historic World Heritage site with many thatched-roof houses surrounded by many mountains. It was very hot and sunny while we walked around the village and there were several souvenir shops that sold cold drinks and shaved ice. One of the places we stopped at was a small museum in one of the houses. There were some ceramics and other items on the first floor and many old tools and machines on the upper floors for farming and other tasks. Upon leaving the museum, some of us headed for the mountain viewpoint up an inclined path at one end of the village. From the top, we could see all of the houses and the adjacent mountain in a beautiful panoramic view. We descended from the viewpoint back to the entrance of the village and spent some time at a rocky area by a small river, and then got back on the bus to head to our hotel.

The ride to the hotel took about an hour or two, and it seemed as though our group had reserved half (or more) of the floors of the hotel for our group. The hotel itself was fairly small, but I'm pretty sure we took up most of it. The WPI and UCSD students occupied the 5th floor of the hotel, which was three rooms for 4-5 people each. Shortly after dropping our stuff off in our rooms, we attempted to try out the onsen before dinner but didn't have enough time. Also, since we were awkward American foreigners, we were a little uncomfortable with the Japanese customs surrounding the onsen and decided to try after eating. The dinner was very fancy and obviously pretty expensive. Unfortunately, most of it consisted of seafood so the hotel staff had to make an impromptu non-seafood dinner for me. I felt bad that they weren't informed beforehand, but they were very kind about preparing a separate meal for me. I think my favorite part of it was the tempura vegetables with sea salt. I definitely would like to try some more (non-shrimp) tempura in the future.

After eating, the UCSD students gave brief statements about their stay since it was their last week in Japan and we all headed to the onsen. There were a few different baths with different temperature water in each, ranging from normal swimming pool temperature to scalding hot. We stayed until the hotel started closing the baths, and then went back to our rooms and got ready for bed. The hotel rooms were very traditional, with tatami floors and futons for beds. The futons were extremely comfortable and the blankets were fluffy and heavenly. If there was one thing I wanted to take from the hotel, it was one of those blankets.

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August 19th, 2010: We were told the night before that breakfast would be at 8:00AM, but we stayed up until 3:00AM for no reason and were woken up at 8:05AM by the organizer of the trip. Half-asleep, I picked at my breakfast and afterwards packed up my backpack and got ready for another bus ride to Yunokuni no Mori, a village whose main attraction is the handicrafts that are created there. The first thing we did was paint our own ceramic cups. The cups were supposedly baked to complete them, but at this time we haven't gotten our cups and I'm not sure if we will. We hung out in this village for a bit, walking around and checking out the other shops that were in the area. There was a souvenir shop with other hand-made crafts and a "gold leaf" store with a lot of gold items. We met at the entrance when we were finished walking around and we took the bus up the hill to a very seafood-y restaurant. Luckily, the staff was informed that there were two vegetarian meals that were to be prepared (one for me and one for a UCSD student) so I was fitted with a non-fish meal again.

Following lunch, we took a large group photo with all the trip attendees and boarded the bus to our final destination: the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum. Prior to the trip, we were asked if we wanted to go to a large temple or the dinosaur museum, and I obviously picked the latter. As interesting and visually intriguing as temples are, we've seen a fair amount of them but haven't seen anything relating to dinosaurs. The museum consisted of 4 floors of fossils and information about Japanese archeological digs and findings. The building was filled with full skeletons of several types of dinosaurs, some smaller fossils of other creatures, and even some moving animatronic dinosaurs. The museum was spectacular and I enjoyed all of it. I thought about purchasing something in the gift shop, but couldn't decide on what would make a good souvenir for myself. Also, I already have some fossils that my amazing girlfriend got me in Morocco. We only spent about an hour in the museum, but that was enough time to see everything that was on display. We boarded the bus after that and headed back to Osaka, which took another 4-5 hours. I'd say the whole trip was definitely worth the ~$270 we paid since we got to visit and see places that we wouldn't have on our own.

(Check out all of the photos from the trip here, here, and here!)

Our next scheduled trip is to Toyko for the IVRC Finals, which we will conclude with a hike up Mt. Fuji! I'll try to take notes during the week (8/23 - 8/27) and compile them into a blog post next weekend (hopefully). I may split the week-long trip into smaller posts, especially since the IVRC Finals and Mt. Fuji hike are fairly separate topics. Anyway, that'll be coming in about a week!

Osaka Fireworks and Historic Nara (8/7/10 & 8/8/10)

Last weekend we watched some really impressive fireworks in Umeda and took a trip to the historic prefecture of Nara (which had an area that was full of wild deer). It was a lot of walking around (about 20,000 steps each day, according to my Pokéwalker) but I thoroughly enjoyed both days.


August 7th, 2010: Our original plan to watch the fireworks was to see if we could stay at the Umeda Sky Building and watch from the upper floors (and possibly the observation deck). When we got up to the floor with the ticket counter, however, we learned that the Sky Building closed at 6:30PM (fireworks started at 7:50PM) and that they did sell special tickets for watching fireworks from the top. Unfortunately, these special tickets were sold out weeks ago, so we had no chance to follow through with our plan.

For Plan B, we walked to the river where the fireworks were to be launched from and looked for an adequate seat. They were selling tickets for a reserved seating area that was close to the river and had folding chairs but it was ¥5000 per person! Instead, we found a cement slope at the base of a raised area and behind a stretch of grass that had enough room for us to hang out. We sat there for a while playing our portable gaming devices until it got dark, and there were many others playing their DS systems.

The fireworks themselves were superb. There were many different types and colors, and even some shapes like smiley faces and fish. One thing that I had never seen before were fireworks that went off close to the ground. These explosions were coupled with the ones in the sky but appeared only as semicircles on the ground. Lots of people around us would call out the names of the shaped fireworks and also applauded heavily after grand cascades of explosions. After the show, we walked back to the convenience store we passed on the way to the Sky Building and got jumbo franks on sticks for dinner.

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August 8th, 2010: One of the Japanese students that Sarah and Liz are working with lives in Nara and offered to take us all (in two groups) on a tour of the city. Since that group I was with was in Umeda on Saturday we went to Nara on Sunday. Shunsuke, our student guide, picked us up at the Toyonaka campus and drove us to Nara early in the morning (the whole drive took about an hour and a half), with a breakfast break at a rest stop halfway there. The rest stop has a few food places inside, but we all ate at a danish shop called the Little Mermaid. I got a hot dog with onions, a cheesecake-filled ball (pretty much just a big Munchkin), and a chocolate-covered, custard-filled twist. After eating, we traveled the rest of the way to Nara.

Our first stop in Nara was the Isuien Garden, a tranquil area with two ponds, some traditional Japanese houses, and lots of trees and other plant life. There were a lot of pond skaters on the surface of the water, and even a couple koi (or carp) in the ponds. The paths and bridges over the ponds and streams were all made out of stone, which made the entire area seem very natural and peaceful. We also visited the small museum next to the garden which housed mostly historic decorated mirrors and ceramics. From the garden we walked back to the main street, through an underground passage (to prevent pedestrians from crossing the busy street), and to a sidewalk next to a large park. This area was home to a bunch of wild deer that were accustomed to people giving them attention. There were several vendors selling disposable cameras and crackers for deer food. The deer were pretty aggressive when they sensed someone with food, and signs were posted warning visitors of potential harm that deers may cause. We continued out trip by walking for a bit down the street to an area with some temples and pagodas, with deer all along the way.

The main temple in this area is called Kōfuku-ji, and there are many, smaller buildings in the area. Although we didn't go inside the main temple, we pays to view the small national treasure museum nearby and walked around to see the other pieces of architecture. We stopped to get some shaved ice soon after we arrived, and we saw many places that we've become used to from visiting the temples in Kyoto, such as hand-washing stations, hanging wish/fortune tags, and small shrines for praying. Our guide lead us around this area for a bit and then down a few streets with deer and various vendors.

Our next stop was to the famous Tōdai-ji, which houses a huge Buddha statue as well as some smaller statues. Being a popular tourist sight, the temple attracts many visitors and it was no exception when we were there. Some people stopped to burn incense at the beginning of the path leading to the temple and others took photos in front of the building. One interesting fact that we learned from Shunsuke was that the path leading up to the temple was constructed with five different types of stone, representing Buddha's journey to Japan.

From Tōdai-ji we sought a place to eat lunch and then drove to our final destination, Heijō Palace. The entire palace area is massive and includes a gate, a large courtyard, and some small museum rooms that depict the excavation and restoration of the palace. It didn't take as long as I thought to walk from the entrance to the palace, but it looked like it would take forever (especially in the blazing sun). The palace itself houses some informational panels about excavation and restoration, and also has a small throne area in the middle.

Altogether it was a very full weekend and I'm glad that we were able to see one of the several summer fireworks shows while we are here and that we had the opportunity to visit Nara, since we might not have been able to given its distance from where we live. The other places we have in mind for weekend trips are Kobe, which is in the opposite direction of Nara from us, and obviously Tokyo. I'm not sure if we have any upcoming plans to go to these places, but there will be blog posts when we do go!

(Check out all the photos from this weekend here, here, and here!)