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Yusaku Godai |
Going to Gotemba (Japan)! |
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I made a slight mention of this on the IY board last week, but on Monday morning I'm leaving for Japan to visit Hoshi Shouri. Since I'm the last of
the three webmasters to actually go to Japan it was way overdue. I'm going to try to take lots of pictures and post 'em here and keep everyone up to
date on what's going on over there and everything I see. I'm particularly interested in being there in these weeks as Inuyasha is so close to ending.
Might find some cool stuff!
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luvIY |
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I'm excited for ya! How long will you be visiting? Must be so much to see there, I'm sure it'll be insane! Hope you will have a most wonderful
time.
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andyjay |
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Excellent! I'd really like to go myself someday, even if I don't know much more Japanese than "Do you speak English?" and "Where's
the bathroom?" And I guess it'll be Golden Week when you're there, so that should be fun.
What other parts of the country do you plan to see? |
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GodaiMH |
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Have a great time while there! Sayonara! Have fun with Hoshi!
Regards,
GodaiMH MH = Means Married Happily.
(Image kindly edited by Hoshi Shouri. Thanks Hoshi!) |
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Yusaku Godai |
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I'll be gone for two weeks. Leaving at 6 in the morning, and still have all my packing and stuff to do so I'd best get on that. Not looking forward
to the 16 hour flight to Japan, but otherwise I'm really excited. We'll be traveling around Tokyo, and I know we're going to the Osaka/Kyoko area
for sure, and to Takarazuka to visit the Osamu Tezuka museum.
Talk to you guys again when I get there!
Last Edited By: Yoiko Hibiki
05/07/08 07:51 PM.
Edited 1 times.
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andyjay |
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Not looking forward to the 16 hour flight to Japan...
Bring some cash and order a couple beers, maybe even a rum and Coke. Hey, they might even have sake on a flight to Japan! |
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Yusaku Godai |
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Day 1 and Day 2
I didn't have any problems getting through customs and met up with Hoshi just fine. Everything is so big and overwhelming though, I know I couldn't do anything if I wasn't with someone who spoke the language. The train system is very efficient but seems impossible to figure out and decipher where to go and whatnot. I'm also surprised to see graphitti all along the train routes. The city itself (Tokyo) is so industrial looking, sort of ugly, but the Westin hotel we stayed at was SUPER fancy and was in a cute little area of Tokyo called Ebisu that was more upscale looking. Lots of brick sidewalks and stuff. Hoshi took some pictures of the hotel room and I'll post them up on the board later. I was so tired the first night I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I woke up early the second morning, around 6AM. I actually saw Koichi Yamadera (Ryoga)'s talk show! He has a show on at 7 AM on TV Tokyo. A little girl is his cohost and she's pretty cute. She keeps pumping her fist at the screen like she means business or something. haha We went to Uniqlo in Harajuku on the second day and I got all the new Takahashi shirts that have come out. Got some pictures with the big Lum and said hello to her for us! haha The floor there is really cool, just covered in UY pages. Unfortunately I had to haul my huge luggage all around Tokyo because I couldn't find an empty locker to store in it. To top it off one of the extender bars broke and went inside the suitcase, so its hard to manuever too. That was a major pain in the ass all day, especially with the numerous stairs to climb. We went to Mandarake in Shibuya that day too. Hoshi says we went all over the place today. I got some stuff there. Its pretty deep underground actually, so you have to walk down a ton of stairs to get to it. Looks sort of like a dark cave inside. They had a lot of cool stuff, not much rare Takahashi stuff though unfortunately. No old Shonen Sundays there just old Jumps (we asked) but they had lots of her manga. The new UY shinsobons too. Took some pictures there too. Oh, I saw an old golf anime when I first got to the hotel last night and then also saw Kyojin no Hoshi. Thats it so far. Everyone is so fashionable looking. It seems like the people our age spend a fortune on clothes, but they all look really nice.
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Rob Heinbecker |
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Everything is so big and overwhelming though, This kind of fascinates me. Surely you've been to large cities Yusaku, aside from the obvious language difference in signage,what makes Tokyo overwhelming, as compared to a New York or Los Angeles?
"The saddest part of a broken heart is not the ending so much as the start." (Leslie) Feist
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Captain Hummingbird |
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WOW! I don't even know you, and I'm insanely jealous! Sigh, I would looove to go to Japan...closest I can get right now is going to Uwajimaya (a
Japanese supermarket) to get Japanese candy...
Have a wonderful and safe trip! So honey...
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andyjay |
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Hey, you made it! Congrats! Is this your first time out of the country? Yeah, the jet lag may be tough, but there's nothing like the rush you get when you
find yourself in new surroundings. Especially when you get there by flying, and you basically walk in a big metal tube in one area and eventually, without
seeing the world changing around you, find yourself in an entirely different world. It's almost like teleportation, sorta, especially if you don't have
a window seat. For that reason I still find flying rather romantic, despite all the security hassles and delays.
That said, I do want to drive cross-country someday. PS Rob, Tokyo is the world's largest city, so I could see how one might feel intimidated at first. All those people! And all those garish billboards and storefronts! The garish neon of the Ginza area is probably the most prominent image I've had of Japan, having grown up with atlases and encyclopedias that show that as one of the main images in their articles of Japan.
Last Edited By: andyjay
05/07/08 08:53 PM.
Edited 1 times.
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Yusaku Godai |
Picture Time! | ||
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Yeah like Andy said, its the biggest city in the world (bigger than Mexico City now?). Its really a whole different animal than being in an American city. I
mean I lived in Houston for two years but thats nothing like Tokyo. This is like being on another planet almost. The architecture is so different, and except
for Hoshi, everyone else around me looks different. I mean you can imagine the looks you get being the only white person in sight. *_* It makes you feel a
bit lonely, plus not being able to communicate adds to that. Its sort of like being stupid, or a little kid. Its just very different.
Anyway, time for pictures!
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Rob Heinbecker |
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It won't be as good as yours I'm betting. Thanks for posting some photos. I have to admit to a tinge of jealousy. Just a tinge.
I find it fascinating that after well more than 20 years. Lum seems to still hold quite a presence in Japanese hearts to still have such displays created. Just how big was Lum?!?!
"The saddest part of a broken heart is not the ending so much as the start." (Leslie) Feist
Last Edited By: Rob Heinbecker
05/08/08 10:05 PM.
Edited 1 times.
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andyjay |
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Yup, according to Wikipedia, Tokyo tops the list in all largest city categories except for the population of the city proper: urban areas, urban agglomerations, and metropolitan areas. One thing about these lists I didn't know
was that New York is the world's second largest urban area, and appears in the top five of the other lists. I knew the Big Apple was big, but not
that big! We're No. 2! We're No. 2!
Excellent pictures. I was going to ask whether that was one of those love hotels in the foreground before you pointed out that it was a wedding chapel. Are dedicated wedding chapels a common part of the Japanese landscape like in Las Vegas? And your quote about being "lost in translation" in a country speaking a language where you can barely even sound out the signs reminds me a little of a moment in Bill Bryson's "Neither Here Nor There" where the author is marooned at a bus station in Belgrade, former Yugoslavia (it was still Yugoslavia when he wrote this book): "The babble of a dozen tongues filled the air. All the signs were in Cyrillic. Suddenly, the idea of being innocent and free in a foreign land didn't seem exotic and appealing. I couldn't even tell which was the information window. I was as helpless as an infant." Also, remember that Japan is much more densely populated than North America, which would mean even bigger crowds in the city centers. |
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GodaiMH |
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Don't OD on the Mandrake. Seriously, you look good in a yukata. Don't worry, I'm straight. LOL! These were some awesome pics. Sounds like a real excellent time. How is the food? Is your palette able to keep up? Is it quite different than you expected?
Regards,
GodaiMH MH = Means Married Happily.
(Image kindly edited by Hoshi Shouri. Thanks Hoshi!) |
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Yusaku Godai |
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Back from backpacking across Japan! What a weekend!
The next day we went to Takarazuka and it rained all day. The Tezuka museum was great! I really enjoyed going there and seeing all the cool stuff. The
exhibition right now was on his final series (I think) so it was focused on Gringo, Ludwig B, and Neo-Faust. I got some stuff in the giftshop.
After we left there we went to the Gion area and stayed at the ryokan........sort of freaky. We ate dinner right when we got there and I was SO glad that I'd eaten all that ramen because dinner there was shabu shabu.......and all the stuff they gave us to cook in the water wasn't so great. I had to eat some awful liver that almost made me puke in front of the lady who was bringing the meal trays. She also put some mushrooms and tofu into the boiler thing......bleh. The coca cola was the best part of that meal by far!!! The meats were pork and beef and duck, I tried the duck but wasn't too crazy about it. I felt bad eating it. The pork was the best but you're barely getting it cooked in that water..... the ryokan was gorgeous though. We took lots of pictures from our room. You could look out on a little rock garden and we got to wear yukata all evening and slept on the floor and stuff. The bathroom was really cool looking too. A wooden bathtub!! Dinner took almost two hours and they gave us some sherbert at the end. After that they layed out our futon and left us alone for the night so we watched some TV. We watched the new Gokusen TV drama which is really good, and then some comedy shows that were pretty interesting. A lot of the comedy duos where seem to do a lot of comedy that would be considered "hacky" in the US. Lots of catch phrases repeated over and over and over.
Woke up yesterday morning and ate breakfast..........more of the same from the ryokan, grapefruit, toast (the best), yogurt, non-crispy bacon, and a salad. I poured a ton of sugar into my yogurt and it tasted like pudding so I was able to eat that and the toast. Finally found some good anime on this morning, GeGeGe no Kitaro and One Piece, so we watched those while we ate. After we checked out we walked around Gion and there was a big temple and walking area near by. Lots of foreigners were there so we took a lot of photos and I rang the bell at the temple and did all the traditional stuff there. We stumbled across some teenage girls getting professional photos taken of themselves in kimonos and we got our picture taken with one. After that it was back to the train station and they had a big Tezuka store there (bigger than the gift shop at his museum) and I found a cool Blackjack mug that I got. After that it was just a long series of trains back here. Hoshi found a bunch of Hello Kitties from Kyoto and Osaka to add to her collection and I got a UY shinsobon at a giftstore in Kyoto as a memento. I found quite a few magazines at the Mandarake. I doubt any of them have color pages but found some early UY ones. Its amazing how cheap this stuff is here, especially compared to train tickets and food and stuff. They had a TON of old Shonen Jumps but barely any Shonen Sundays, but I got what they had. |
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luvIY |
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Wow, sounds like you're having a terrific time! I'd love to be a night owl in that amazing city rather than bleaching to study for my diploma exam.
The wedding hall is gorgeous! I'd like to see more of the crazy products made in Japan, anything that's strange and insane (like that boob and poop candy you showed earlier in another thread). By the way, any cosplay conventions you've seen or will see? |
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Rob Heinbecker |
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Thank you very much for sharing your experiences Yusaku. Keep em coming!
"The saddest part of a broken heart is not the ending so much as the start." (Leslie) Feist
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ryogasgirl |
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You're so lucky to be able to visit Japan! I heard about Shonen Sunday's - and Shonen Magazine's - 50th. Is that the talk of Japan too? I still can't believe the 'brother' mags have been around so long. Truly a feat for the genre. |
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Diko Linnai |
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wow those photos are gold!!!! thanx 4 sharing, I have a close friend whom is a JET and I miss my junior high students there...but w/ our economy/recession
i'll be lucky to afford to go out of state....>_<
"Miss Shinobu won't you have some tea with me?"
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Rob Heinbecker |
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I think our Otaku tourist is having too much fun as we haven't heard from him in a bit.
"The saddest part of a broken heart is not the ending so much as the start." (Leslie) Feist
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andyjay |
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Hopefully this isn't the reason we haven't heard from him in a while...
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