Learning flixel (Again!)

It seems like the past few times I've tried to learn flixel I have stumbled across a seemingly simple obstacle and put it down to finally figure out later. The first time I tried to pick it up I was following a simple platformer tutorial as it was going out of date and the discrepancy between the tutorial and the newest release of flixel made it too hard for me to follow along. The second time I tried to pick it up again was when I was in Japan, and I don't actually remember what prevented me from getting the hang of it then...

Anyway, I've started again and I think I've got it this time! There's a quote about persistance beating talent or something like that and I wholeheartedly believe [in] it! This time I started from scratch like usual, but I followed a series of tutorials by a classmate written for the introductory Interactive Media and Game Development course here at WPI. I think my past experience with flixel, although limited, combined with these tutorials has given me the basic understanding of flixel that I've been looking for. Hopefully I'll get to know as much about flixel as I learned about Game Maker back in high school.

To begin familiarizing myself with the flixel library, I'm going to be implementing an idea I came up with while in Japan. The player controls a traveler trying to reach his bullet train in a Japanese train station and the only thing in his way is millions of businessmen. The gameplay is similar to that of a bullet hell game except the player is pushed around rather than killed. Score is based on how quickly the player reaches the train and a time limit determines how long the traveler has to catch his train. The game itself if fairly simple and easy to expand upon. I have ideas for different types of obstacles, such as faster moving businessmen and a foreigner that follows the player around, as well as some desired features, like posting scores to Facebook/Twitter and some others.

I plan to record my progress and update my blog fairly frequently while creating this game. Although I won't post everything, I'll try to write about big milestones and have demos of my progress. Stay tuned!

Japan 2010 Final Thoughts

Since our last couple of weeks in Japan consisted of us focusing on finishing our project, I didn't take many photos towards the end of our trip. Our final trips consisted of souvenir shopping at places we'd already visited, so nothing really new happened. The end of our stay approached pretty quickly and I don't think we fully anticipated it. As such, I felt it was necessary to write a final "wrap-up" post to sort of summarize and look back on the trip a little bit. For this post, I will be organizing my thoughts into categories of lists in a sort of "postmortem" fashion.

Things I Did

Visited many historic sites, like temples and castles

Visited other interesting places, like arcades, SEGA Joypolis, a dinosaur museum, and a zoo

Tried to go somewhere almost every weekend

Ate many new Japanese foods

Learned a little bit about the Japanese language

Took over 3,800 pictures

Climbed Mt. Fuji in one 13 hour attempt

Went to Tokyo Game Show to see some cool upcoming games

Survived the trip without eating any fish (intentionally, I probably had bits of some somewhere)

Learned Adobe Illustrator and Flash for our projects

Learned about working in a team with people of varying skills

Things I Wish I Did

Planned our Mt. Fuji hike a little better (rather than the night before)

Thought about souvenirs earlier, so I wouldn't have to scramble to find things at the last minute

Took more pictures towards the end of the trip, like in the airport(s) on the way home

Wrote my blog posts shortly after the events happened instead of months later...

Learned more Japanese while I was immersed in the culture

Things I'll Do Next Time

Visit during the spring to see the sakura trees (cherry blossoms)

Bring Melissa to see and eat some of the things I saw and ate

Learn how to cook more Japanese food with Japanese ingredients, instead of using American ingredients with online recipes

Well, that's it. The trip is over and I've summarized almost all of it. Although it's great to be home I feel a little reverse-homesick every now and then. I had a great time in Japan and I can't wait to to back!

(I've compiled 200 of the best photos I took while in Japan. You can check them out here!)

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.

* * *

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.

* * *

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...

* * *

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.

* * *

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.

* * *

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!

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.

* * *

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.

* * *

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.

* * *

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.

* * *

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.

* * *

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!)

Reach for the Sky Building (8/1/10)

Oops, I haven't updated my blog in a while. I've been keeping busy with lab trips, presentations, and other stuff for the two projects I've been working on for my MQP. Anyway, here's a summary of last week's events.


August 1st, 2010: For the first day of a new month, some of us took a trip to the Umeda Sky Building and some other places near the train station. It was a trip we had been planning on taking for a while, and we finally had a free weekend to visit.

Getting to the Sky Building was easier than we thought. We took the train to the station between Juso and Umeda, and we could see the Sky Building as we got off the train. From the station, we just walked towards the Sky Building until we got to it (which took about 15 minutes or less). At the base of the building there was a large event going on; tents and chairs were set-up, along with a small stage and some penguins (for real). There was a small pool with a penguin swimming around in it and another penguin standing on a small table surrounded by blocks of ice. The penguin on the table wasn't very happy to be there, judging by how it pecked anyone who pet it (its beak was taped so that it wouldn't bite anyone). We pet the penguin and continued on,wondering what the heck this event was. We soon learned that it was some sort of Michael Jackson event, which didn't help us understand why there were penguins, but they seemed to fit in for some reason.

To get to the top two floors and roof observation deck, we had to take escalators up to the 3rd floor, an elevator up to the 36th floor, and then a big escalator to the 39th floor. Access to the top floors costs ¥700 but it's totally worth it. The 39th and 40th floors have out-facing windows with a great view, and there's an even better view from the observation deck. There are pictures on the inner walls of other "sky" buildings, such as the Empire State and Chrysler Buildings in New York (classified as "Sky Musical"). On the roof there are signs for the cardinal directions and large fences for preventing falling customers. One segment of the roof is the Lumi Deck, were lovers can sit at night and be illuminated by the city lights. The surrounding fence is covered in heart locks that represent the promise of a loving couple. I'll definitely be going back someday, but not by myself. When we were done at the Sky Building, we took an underground path that led back to the Umeda train station. We passed the first First Kitchen we ate at and the Yodobashi department store on our way towards the station, which let us know that we weren't lost.

Our next two stops of the day were the Pokémon Center - Osaka in the Umeda Center Building plaza and the HEP Five department store. Of course, I was super excited to be going to a Pokémon store in Japan and we finally made it! Unfortunately, one of the stickers on the window said no cameras so I wasn't able to take any pictures of the cool stuff inside. Out front there was the "Pokéwalker Corner", where you connect your Pokéwalker with a staff member, scratch a scratch ticket, and get a small item for free. I got a small plastic folder with the Generation II Pokémon on it. There was also an automatic gifting machine inside that sent an item to your Pokéwalker when you connected with it. I'm not sure what the criteria for obtaining items is, but I got TM 34 (Shockwave). We looked around for a bit at all the cool stuff they had; there were t-shirts, plushies, cookware, game-related items, toys, and lots of other Pokémon goods. When we were finishing up looking at stuff, a timid Japanese teen who came up to me and connected her two Pokéwalkers with mine, and her Nidoking and Nidoqueen met up and play-battled with my Furret. I will definitely be returning to the store to purchase souvenirs for people (and myself) at some point before October.

Our last stop of the day was the HEP Five department store that we kept seeing and hearing about. It's hard to miss, what with having a large red ferris wheel on top. The building itself has 9 floors, with the first 6 being mostly clothing stores (and as a result, being filled with lots of young women). The 7th floor has some food stores and access to the ferris wheel, and the 8th and 9th floors are devoted to Joypolis, a SEGA-owned arcade and amusement area. Of course, we headed straight to the top to see the arcade which didn't disappoint. Not surprisingly, the likenesses of Sonic and his friends are posted everywhere, from change machines to height-requirement signs. There are several "rides" inside the amusement area which we didn't explore (they were ¥600 each for admission) but one was a hanging cab that moved into a room with a large movie screen to simulate an adventurous flight similar to those virtual roller coaster machines. Another ride involved riding in a car and shooting things around you, but I don't know if it was simulated via screens or was an actual ride like those in Disney World and Universal Studios in Florida. I got to play two games in the arcade: the arcade version of Rhythm Heaven and Mario Kart Arcade GP. Each game was ¥100 which isn't too bad; Rhythm Heaven allowed three games to be played and Mario Kart allowed one race.

After I played Mario Kart, we went down to the 7th floor and bought tickets for the ferris wheel. It costs ¥500 per person and each ride is about 15 minutes each. When we were there the ride was pretty empty, as were the lines to get to the ferris wheel. We were able to purchase tickets and instantly hop in a car. One of the cool things about the ferris wheel cars is that there is an iPod dock behind the seats on one side. Luckily, I had my iPod Touch on me and was able to put on some Sonic music from the Genesis era. There were also stickers on the windows on four sides to tell what sights could be seen from the ride. From where I was seated, I could see the Sky Building and the Namco arcade that we saw a few weeks ago but didn't end up visiting. We had actually planned to visit the Namco arcade while we were in the area, but after the ferris wheel ride everyone was ready to head back home. And once the ferris wheel ride was over, we did just that. Overall, the trip was a success and we learned that there are some cool places worth revisiting that are not too far from where we live.

(Check out all the photos from our trip to Umeda here!)

(Next time: Fireworks and a trip to the historic city of Nara! Coming soon!)