Hikone and Sekigahara

Last weekend I went on a field trip to Hikone and Sekigahara, which are a castle and a battlefield, respectively. The trip there via the JR line went as smooth as could be expected. It was a long trip, yes, but I got to sit across from my Professor who pointed out attractions along the way (such as points through which the old trade road passed and the Suntory Whiskey distillery). Upon arriving at Hikone station, we immediately went to a smaller train line to go, you guessed it, back the way we came. This was so we could walk to the castle via the same route by which the old road went. This was pretty neat because we got to look at some old buildings and get lots of historical side notes. We also stopped by a place that made and sold shrines for you to heep in your house. They ranged from about $60 to about $1,000,000 depending on how big and elaborate you want.

Anyway, the castle itself, as I could tell from the get go, was designed so that the invading armies would break their ankles bafore reaching the main keep. The stairs were TERRIBLY designed (but not as bad as they could have been. keep reading). Some of the steps didn't even lead anywhere! Fortunately all of those wicked stairs paid off, for at the top of this giant hill was one of the most spectacular views I've ever seen. I could see all of Hikone city and across Lake Biwa there was snow falling on the mountains. I have some pictures that will be down farter in this document. Inside the castle there were more stairs. In this case, when I say "stairs," I mean "protruding ladders." After climbing two flights of those things, we decided that the other flights really weren't worth it. At the base of the hill was a large garden, which too was beautiful. Big pond in the fading light. Oh, and there were Sakura trees that were blooming! I thought that they all blossomed in the spring and that I would miss it, but apparently this one species blossoms late! Wooo!

Then we were off to Sekigahara to stay at a traditional Japanese hotel. It was pretty chilly and there were more of us than the pace was made to handle, but the food was great and the futons were SOOOO comfy. At this point I should probably mention that last weekend was rather chilly and that the legal drinking age in Japan is 20. With supper we had hot sake and beer. Now, I don't know what you people are thinking when you tell me that sake is nasty, because the stuff is pretty dern tasty. Apparently good sake isn't really sold in the States. I'm beginning to believe that.

Anyhoo, the next day we actually started looking around the city to see the historical sights. First was the Head Mound, where there is a giant tree which is planted on top of a big ol' pit of severed heads from the Enemy soilders. That is why the tree is so big! Afterwards we went to where the losing army's commanders were stationed. It was a great big ol' hill. Now, after climbing this hill I decided that I could die happy if I never saw a stair again in my life. The memory is too painful, so moving on. From the hill I was treated to another amazing scenic vista. A picture is to follow. You'll recognise it by the awesome farmland we got to walk through. We took the scenic route through the area before heading back to the station, where we unofficially disbanded. I still wound up sitting near the professor on the train back.

Well there's a good big update for you. I hope you enjoy reading it as I have written it in leu of a History paper. There is plenty more to the story, but I'll tell ya later. Bye now.

Big News, Everyone!

So it looks like we've got ourselves a shiny new Presidential Elect! This is big news all over the place. I saw part of both Obama's victory speech and McCain's concession speech live on CNN. There are lots of TVs in the Global Lounge at school.

Everyone seems to be very pleased with the outcome of the election. My French friends are even happy to hear it. I have posted for your visual entertainment the front page of Thursday's newspaper. It may be written in Moonspeak, but it does show that American politics are serious business.

Apart from that, I really don't have a lot to report. Next week I have my Mid-term exams, which should be a BLAST. Also, next Friday a few friends of mine and I are going to start up a campaign of D&D 4th Ed. It'll be awesome, I'm telling you.

Well, so long for now. Keep your teeth clean.

Tokyo Game Show '08

I fulfilled any Gamer's dream last weekend and attended the Tokyo Game Show, an annual event that displays demos of the biggest upcoming releases from the world's biggest brand leaders (except Nintendo, they're so cool they throw their own private event). The line to get in was HEUG, but fortunately it was in a near constant state of motion. It didn't take us long at all to get inside.

Once through the not-so-tight security, I filed into a large dark area that opened up into a giant poorly-lit exposition hall FILLED with shining screens, brand names, and OVER NINE THOUSAAAAND people. Not long after our arrival, I broke away from my friends to do some exploring on my own. In the end it's a good thing that I did, as they didn't even play anything. I however, shuffled my way to the Konami booth and got my hands on the upcoming Metal Gear Online; a team deathmatch game that has taken cues from Battlefeild and plays, of course, just like Metal Gear Solid 4. I was pleased to see the empty cardboard boxes sitting arond the ruins of an arctic factory, and more pleased to se another one in my inventory.

Anyway, I scoped out the entire place. I was somewhat surprised to see Spore at the EA booth, as it was released last month. Since I have that, I moved along. I wanted to play Final Fantasy Dissidia, but they had special tickets for their demo area. Dissida, by the way, is a fighting game (Ehergeiz, for those of you who know what that is) that uses the main pro- and antagonists from all of the as of yet released FF games as its combatants. Once it's relesed, we'll see how Cloud holds up against Kefka!

Instead I headed for my other anticipated game: Banjo Kazooie- Nuts & Bolts. It is the third release of the BK series on consoles. Unfortunately, this one is an Xbox360 exclusive. I got to play this one, and it handles quite well. They have put a vehicle system in the game they they seem to intend for you to use almost exclusively. Though I'm sure it will still be great fun, I think the game may lose some of its origional charm.

Before leaving, I thought I'd stop by the Square Enix shop. After a good 70 minutes of standing in line, I got inside to take a good look at the merchandice. In the end, I bought a wicked cool rubber ducky. It's a Chocobo. Aftr I got out of there, I went across the way and got me a plush Luigi... after a 0 minute wait...

Final thoughts: Part of me wishes that I had gone back the second day to play Mirror's Edge, Fallout 3, FarCry 2, and LittleBigPlanet. On the other hand, I really don't enjoy waiting hours in lines. Also, I'd like to point out that I did other stuff while in Tokyo, such as go to the Meiji Shrine, stay in a capsule hotel, stay in a cyber cafe, and see a store called "Store My Ducks." However, I don't really want to write about all that stuff. You'll have to wait 'till I get back to hear my stories and see the pictures! MWAHAHA!

As the Game Show was my main goal, that's what you get. Here are some pretty pictures.



Oh, and a note to Ben: I rode the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) to and from Tokyo. It was pretty sweet, but it had every quality of an airplane, exept on the ground.

Blub Blub

Last Saturday I went to the Osaka Aquarium with Mika and Kana. The place was truly awesome. They has exibit after exibit of awesome beasties, each one obscured by the massive crowd. I got as many pictures as I could, but most of them came out horriffically because this camera I'm using preforms just plain bad in low-light conditions.

Anyhow, I still got shots of these guys...





Short post and long in the writing, I know, but I have been very distracted with schoolwork ect. I have another adventure tale on the way soon, so stay tuned.

Planned Adventuring

On Monday we went on a class sight-seeing trip. Our first stop was Himeji Castle. Now we are quite lucky that we came to Japan this year, because before too terribly much longer they are going to begin several renovations to the structure, and because of this it will be closed to the public for, oh, FIVE YEARS.

Anyway, I took the grand tour of the castle. Starting from the base, I went around the foundation, then began the long climb up to the 6th floor. Inside they had something of a museum. Lots of awesome stuff. Scrolls, spears, rifles, you know, awesome stuff. The woodwork was amazing and the view was spectacular.




After the awesomeness of the castle, and a pretty tasty meal thereafter, we headed for the adjacent gardens. They were just as beautiful as the castle, however the gardens were shorter. There was a great big koi pond. I could only imagine how much those fish were worth. There were also very impressive bonsai trees, two of which I was sure were over 100 years old.



Of course, this is the point at which my camera's battery gave out. Luckily I am not the only one who went, so at some point I can get more pictures from my friends. Trust me, I got a total of 104 pictures, these are not the only ones.

Afterward we went to the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the world. Now THAT was an example of amazing modern architecture. Not only is it Xbox HEUG, but it's made to be a tourist attraction. It has an observaition deck, part of which has a glass floor. That's kinda intimidating. Srsly.

Well that was this week's advnture. I'll be back.

Last-Minute Adventuring

On Friday, as we have been doing this week, I got out of school early. This is primarily because school has yet to officially start, and this is just orientation. Upon arrival that morning, however, I was informed that several of my friends wanted to go out and do something. After some discussion, we decided to go out for Karaoke at a place we recently learned of that had rooms running at $10 for 3 hours of singing plus one beverage. VERY reasonable, especially on a Friday.

To get there we had to take a Hankyu line train to a station a few stops away from school, then get off and walk down the street to a JR line station. Kinda confusing, but not that bad, really. More details on that later. Anyway, after several stops we got off at a fairly large station that had a nifty walkway attached to it that led to the shopping mall in which the Karaoke place is.

Turns out it wasn't $10. It was $6.80.

I kicked off the fun with a song I never expected to see there: "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" by Eric Idle. I also went through some Queen, Beatles, Pet Shop Boys, and a few others. The high point of the night was when I did a trio of the song "Barbie Girl" with a French girl and a guy from Michigan. Believe me, it was plenty hilarious.

After the singing and paying, we each got a voucher for one free pay at the neighboring Arcade. The downside is that we could only use them to play a grab-hand game. The upside is that this particular grab-hand game contained nothing but ice cream. The other upside is tha I am he only one who won. =P

Not long after that, I headed home. I told my Okaasan that I'd be back home by 7 or 8, and as it was I wouldn't make it back before 8:30. Now when I say "I headed home," I mean it. Our remainig group at this time consisted of two guys who wanted to try out the ping pong place in the mall, and three folks who wanted to romp around in Osaka. This means that I had to find my way back on my own.

As I said, it wasn't so bad. After getting to the JR station I started at, it was a simple matter of walking down a main street, making one turn, and arruving at the Hankyu station moments later. As many of the signage is bilingual, I managed to get myself on the right trains and everything. I didn't even get lost!

Well, that was my latest adventure. Sorry there aren't any pictures, but as I said, it was pretty much a last-minute decition to go anywhere, and this camera is too bulky to just keep around all the time.

Second Trip to Osaka

Yesterday I visited the fantastic little structure pictured here. I would have told you about it then, but by the time I got a chance to st at my computer I was so tired that I just wanted to sleep. Getting to the Castle involved a lot of uphill walking which I did not enjoy. However, seeing the castle was amazing. The thing is huge.

Unfortunately I arrived at the actual castle entrance a few minutes after it closed. This, of course, means that I couldn't go inside. Bummer.

However I have learned that I will be heading back as part of a field trip with my class next week. This means that I WILL get a chance to go inside. Anyway, I don't feel like doing a lot of typing, so here are a bunch of pictures for you to look at.

Oh yes, and Dad, I took pictured of most of the Historical Markers so you can read them later.