The foilage of Nikko.

(A Tree on Chuuzenji-Lake)

Yesterday, Tomo, Rin, Fumi, and I went to Nikko to see the 紅葉　（こうよう）　or the changing of the leaves. We were planning on going to Nasu first to play Disc Golf, but because it rained we probably couldn't have played, so we went ahead to Nikko instead of going to Nasu first.

It was a good thing we didn't stop at Nasu first because on the day we wanted to see the famous Kegon falls, there was some accident up along the famous I-ro-ha road (this road has a certain amount of turns representing good luck I think) and it took us about two and a half hours to get to the top, but after that we had really no problems with the rest of the day.



(A picture of the very long line on I-Ro-Ha rode leading up the mountain.)

We parked near Chuuzenji lake a very famous lake and it was beautiful! The lake with all the trees changing leaves were a very pretty sight! I just wish that cameras had the ability of the human eye because there is no camera around that could have captured the same atmosphere. We goofed around for a while making videos and taking pictures, but on our way to find lunch there were three monkeys on the roof of one of the buildings really close to us! I was surprised because I heard that monkeys are in the area, but I never thought they would be close to human establishment!



(A picture of the lake with the foliage of trees in the background)



(Monkeys!)

We decided to eat at a ramen restaurant and the food was good. More and more am I finding that I am becoming sort of like Brian was to Pan (bread) as I am to Ramen. Ramen is known in the states usually in the form of instant ramen, but real thing is 100 times better. Plus, if you have a cold (which I did at the time) you feel all the better after eating a warm bowl of what is essentially soup and noodles in a bowl. The weather was freaking cold though. Because we spent most of the time near mountains or chuuzenji lake, the wind could be easily felt.



(The road we were on with all the restaurants)

After lunch, we went to Kegon-no-taki (Kegon falls) to see the waterfalls. We picked up some Chestnut ice cream, which I didn't get, but I got to taste it and the taste was interesting. It was like if the ice cream itself was of a peanut like flavor, but the taste was authentic.



(Rin, Fumi, and I at keggon falls)

After that we went to Ryuutou-no-taki (Or dragon's head falls, because the waterfall looks like a dragon's head). I don't really think the waterfall looks like a dragon's head, but it does look a lot like the normal kanji character for ryuu (or dragon). I think that's where the resemblance comes from.



(Dragon's Head falls, in all it's glory)

http://www.japanesetattoo.co.cc/images/Japanese%20tattoo-kanji.jpg

(Compared to the Chinese Character for Dragon)

We wanted to see Toushougu (it would be my second time seeing it), but because it was getting late as the sun was going down and there are no natural lights around the shrine area, it would have been pointless to go to see everything so we made a promise to go back sometime. I dunno if Tomo and Fumi will return before Rin and I have to return, but I am willing to see the place in the winter (which will probably be 10x worse with the coldness, but I bet more beautiful than it was today.

Tokyo Game Show BABY!

So, on Saturday I went to the biggest gaming convention in the world, the Tokyo Game Show in Chiba. Let me tell you that if you aren't a fan of congested places, you aren't going to like the convention too much, but most people don't mind because it's the shiny new games they get a chance to play that officially makes up for any short comings to the fact that it takes double the amount of time it should be to get from one edge of the convention floor to the other because of the amount of people that arrived.

Kou-san and I woke up at 4AM to catch the first train to Ueno at 5:10 from Oyama. I was ready for the convention, and despite not having coffee, I was able to withhold from sleeping on the train (yay, taiko no tatsujin) for most of it. We made it to Ueno and had to make a switch to get to Tokyo, which wasn't too hard. But once we got to Tokyo, we had to make a switch to the keiyo line, which was a bitch compared to anything else I have had to do at a station. From the location of the Yamanote line to the Keiyo line seemed to be nearly a half mile. Tokyo station is quite possibly the largest train station in the world and its size is definitely apparent. It took only 10 minutes or so to get to the line (with the help of several people movers and such of course), but it was quite exhausting. On the ride to get to Maruhari Messe the location it was at, I noticed the same line also serviced Tokyo Disney Land (now I know where to go, if I can ever confess to one of the girls I like :-| ). Anyway, the ticket said it wasn't supposed to be open until 10AM, but we arrived a full two hours early. We first went out the wrong exit to the station, but after asking a person handing out fliers, we were pushed in the right direction. When we arrived, I could only think "OMFG, it's so damn huge!" And it is.

http://www.m-messe.co.jp/facility_exhi1-8_e.html (a link to the stats of this behemoth site)



(Front)



(Back)

We got in line, but weren't part of the first set of people in line, so we were a decent distance back. A two hour wait wasn't bad, but that's only because I brought my R4 and some Kirby Super Star Deluxe to keep me entertained while I and Kou-san waited. Earlier I saw some other foreigners there and one of them asked me a question. I was expecting them to probably either speak English or Japanese or something, but instead he asked if I spoke French in French. I was confused because of my previous expectation, but apparently they (as it was a group) went off to some place else. Anyway, the line began to move and I started to see how really freaking massive this building really was.




For some reason, one of the security guys cut off the line just in front of us and allowed the others to continue on. At first I was pissed somewhat, but I figured it was better than crowding, and we eventually caught up with the rest of the line soon after being released. But, I think that had something to do with our failure to be first in the line for some of the hottest games (i.e. Monster Hunter 3 for the Wii). Anyway, funny thing is they made us go all the way around the circumference of the building, but the line was long enough to merit such a reason. We gave our tickets (strange we weren't given any stubs back from them, but I guess it's because of volume) and made our way into the place. It seemed almost a mad rush of people grabbing the broachers and making a bee-line to all the must-play games, but we decided first and foremost (because we had no clue, never being at this convention before of this size and magnitude) to fill out forms for our free game (btw, I am fucked if I get the game I picked, that being Monster Hunter 3 for the Wii, I don't have a Japanese Wii). We should have made our way to play the games we wanted to play first (Monster Hunter 3), instead though.

Monster Hunter 3 was the exception at the entire convention. I'd say within 30 minutes of the place opening, there was already a 1 hour wait at the booth, and within 1 and a half hours, the booth had to start limiting people from trying to get to the game. If only they had the space Microsoft or Sony did at the convention, they could had more machines, but then again, Capcom's booth seemed eclipsed by the Monster Hunter portion. They had far as many people than most other games and that area was a clusterfuck when both a SquareEnix's game and Capcom's Resident Evil 5 both gave special preview trailers at the same time. But, given that it's the 1st (or 2nd, depending on whom you talk to) gaming convention in the world for it's size, I should really not be surprised about the crowding. It's....I am used to having room in my conventions.

Other than that, the convention was good. Our tastes weren't really for a specific game, but I'd say that RPGs had the most dominance of all the items at the convention (duh, it's Japan). Just about every major (and minor) developer had an RPG of some sort (Hudson was lonely without a real one). We barely played much due to the long wait times (and either tiredness or hunger making it a pain to wait), but I did get a chance to play Taiko no Tatsujin for the Wii. Let's just say I want this thing to come to the state side. Considering the Wii's market in the states right now, I'm giving it a 70% chance of coming over here. They just need to work on the drums; I felt that I had to beat them to death sometimes to get them to register the Don (or for all of you that don't know Japanese and/or Taiko, the red notes). Other than that, I hope for downloadable tracks on the Wii (for fucks sake, Hudson is releasing a Joysound Karaoke game for the Wii with nearly 30000 tracks available online, so it's possible to pull off a system like that Namco).

In other news, I am working on acquiring an account on a Japanese blog site where I will post things in Japanese (also, following the format that most Japanese bloggers do, I'll be taking lots of pictures of my meals, shorting the hell out of my speech, and making like 4 posts or more per day.....well maybe ; ) ). Someone suggested this to me a while back, so I finally decided to do it. Maybe I'll have translations on my B-side blog (that would be ridiculous, because I'd be translating my own thoughts xD).



(I thought SNK was dead! Oh, that was in the states. Hopefully, more than half the titles AREN'T fighting games.)



(I so wanted to play this game. I would swear it is like a Tales of game, but Tales of Hearts was already on display at the convention).



(The convention "joystick" blocked all the potential gamers that wanted to play Monster Hunter 3. And, yes this was a picture of the first time we passed by the booth. The sign says in Japanese "We're limiting new entry people")


(Part of Sqaure's booth. They had a gallery dedicated to Crono Trigger, which is set to be released next month. They had a playable version at the show if I remember correctly. Pretty damn popular too.)


(I said capcom should have had a bigger set up for Monster Hunter, but with games like Capcom vs. SNK and Resident Evil 5: Degeneration, it was kind of hard to give up more space).


(Another game I wanted to play, but there wasn't any type of demo around for it. But damn it's going to be a nice addition to my DS when it comes out next year.)


(Proof of Taiko no Tatsujin for the Wii. Damn I am too excited about this game. >__<
(Another nice game that looked a lot of fun. It actually feels much like the MGS game for the PSP
. It too had long lines and some kind of tourney was also taking place.)


(Do you know the IdolM@ster? This incredibly popular game in Japan (with almost the same sized audience as Monster Hunter I'd say) was promoted with a live mini-concert by several of the famous seiyu or voice actors from the series. Took me be surprise that there was even a concert, but the song the sung was one from Taiko no Tatsujin, and I knew it >___>;;;; lol)

More pictures from 2008's Tokyo Game Show can be found here.

Things are getting crazy

Anyway, going to gradually push more and more previous entries out, I have recently started the next semester and I've been the busiest I have ever been in my entirely here (possibly my whole life) with things. I finally decided to settle on the matter of my love life, but I haven't gotten a chance to confess to the person yet. I've always said in the past my Japanese wasn't good enough for confessing, nor was perfect enough to not make a mistake during confession, but I decided (with also my finishing reading Who Moved My Cheese? that Professor Glen gave me) that I should push for change that I wanted for a while now; to experience a relationship here. Now, I have had TONS of people give me various advice, some from the very supportive, to the "you're should only focus here on your studies". But, what makes this experience better is with friends and possibly a girlfriend. I'll also try to avoid what a previous student did and not use my girlfriend as a crutch for Japanese, but support in getting to learn and getter better at Japanese (that and teach her English, because most girls I know want to learn that or American culture). I currently have two girls on my mind (similar to a situation that happened before I left), but the only thing really stopping me is I have to ask one of my guy friends how I go about asking a girl if she has a boyfriend already or not. Many girls at Hakuoh seem to have boyfriends, but I think the idea of saying you have a boyfriend already to politely turn down a guy seems to be lost here, but I think it's possible it is used as an excuse somewhere. But, I am almost certain the two girls I like are currently not taken. That's not to say they aren't attractive by any means. Mitsue was voted "most moe" (moe meaning kawaii or "cute" used usually by otaku) by fellow kyudo club members.

But, yeah, things haven't been better. My work has gotten more hectic as I agreed to improve a student's current lesson by now constructing dialog for the book-supplemented class. It's not THAT hard, but it's just something that adds to the pot. I have it about 50% done, not considering that I've constructed a grammar or vocab list for the vocab. School is crazy, but not that crazy. Learning about World history in two different classes in Japanese. Which day is the hardest? Monday of course. The business seminar class I am taking is pretty tough and is class that I don't understand the most in (about 30% to 40% understanding on average versus 70% or more in other classes' averages). But, all my classes are fun or interesting for me to continue to take them.

I wonder everyday how I am going to get stuff home, because it seems I always purchase another thing that just takes up room. Recently I decided to purchase a EEEPC, a product from ASUS computer corporation. It's ultra-light and will do good when I want to use a computer on a long train ride (which is never, my DS and MP3 work just fine), but it can be used when I want a computer at school, but my main computer is too big to lug around all day (being at 17", it's insane compared to normal Japanese laptops). I basically have procured in my half-year so far: a compact notebook computer, another external harddrive, a Japanese keitai (cellphone), mp3 player, about 60 volumes of manga, about 50 or so anime figurines, more clothes (including a junbei, traditional clothes for kyudo practice, and soon to be kimonos), a Japanese PS2 (with about 10 games). That's a list of all I want to take back however. Probably should get looking into it. I get called here by people whom seen my room "okanemochi" (rich) because I have all of this stuff and I feel kind of bad about it, especially considering the situation the taiwanese are in with finances. I wasn't always "well off" (probably one of the worse off initionally going into Hakuoh in the spring) but found out about a scholarship I received before I came to Hakuoh. I would get into personal details about how I feel personally about the program, but I'll save that for another entry of importance.

Anyway, next week has many things going on. Wednesday at work, I impliment the kaiwa (dialogs) with Mrs. Miyoko with hopefully good response while I also have to give an introduction in English/Japanese for a video and have a lesson (Hamaguchi's) slightly filmed for a promotion for the language school. On Saturday, Kou-san and I are going to the Tokyo Game Show in Chiba Tokyo. This will be hopefully incredibily exciting and is something I am looking forward to this week. Doubtful much interesting things will be annouced here (maybe more information about the DSi that was just announced last week; I also want to know what the hell is up with a Monster Hunter game for the Wii that will never probably make it to America) however. Sunday, Tomo, the taiwanese, and I will go up to Nasu (i.e. Kuroiso, a place I haven't been to since Golden Week in May), and I am also looking forward to that.

See you all later!

Edit: I promise to add photos to this entry tomorrow! Just too busy right now....

~Samuraikurisu