Japan Trip W/Pictures

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Skykid
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Japan Trip W/Pictures

Post by Skykid »

Jet lagged.

What a trip. Here's a little of how it went down for those interested.


Day 1 - arrive Toyko 12pm, check in to our hostel, go for Ramen, to Harajuku, to Shinjuku, then to the Studio Ghibli Museum. Korean BBQ for dinner. Crash and die.

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Day 2 - Up at 6am to go to the Toyko fish market - one of the biggest in the world. A bit early but very cool. Eat eel on sticks. Nice.
Then head back for our suitcases and head to Shizuoka (Fuji) on the local train. Get to Shizuoka, drop our stuff with mate's in-laws and then go for all you can eat sushi.
Crash out and sleep.

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Day 3 - Up at 6am for breakfast, leave our suitcases but pack our backpacks for a week of traveling. Get to Shizuoka station and activate JR passes. Fuji looks cool in the early morning light. Jump on the Shinkansen and begin the long travel north.
Snow starts building up around us and by 3pm it's a blizzard outside the window as we arrive in Hakodate, the location of the Anime Noein. Damn cold.
We jump on a tram to our Hotel and check in, then head back out into the blizzard to look around. Get on the cable car to go to Hakodate's peak and drink Sapporo while enjoying the night view. Hit an Izakaya for still kicking squid and Chu Hi alcoholic beverages.
Sleep time.

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Day 4 - Up at 7am, out to check out Hakodate docks and the local market. Ramen for breakfast (nice). Back on the Shinkansen, heading further north beneath the ocean.
Arrive in Sapporo at around 1pm and head for the ice festival. Spend all day taking photos, trying out food (octopus) and keeping warm. Night falls, head to an arcade for a bit, then to a bar. Get wasted with the barman and head back to the station to catch the midnight sleeper train.
Pass out.

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Day 5 - Wake up hungover at 5:30 am as the train rumbles in to the station and snap the above photo. Get off and catch another train.
Travel and sleep for hours until we arrive in Osaka. Check in to the hostel, then head out to Spa World to get naked in a multi themed Onsen.
Many Sauna's and hot pools later and it's time for more Korean BBQ, then bed.

Day 6 - Make a Journey to see the worlds largest wooden temple. Deer wondering all over the place. Some very cool statues.
Back to the train for a pointless rural journey south - its too late for us to reach our destination so we head back to Oji and check in to an amazing traditional Japanese guest house. Sushi for dinner then sleep.

Day 7 - Off to Kyoto for a two day stay. Arrive midday and check in to the Hostel. Go into the mountains to see the temples then to Gion and the bamboo forest.
Drinks and curry before bed. Mmm.

Day 8 - A lie in. Up at 8am. Off to see a Tori gate bonanza (about a million in one forest) and a fairly chilled day checking out Kyoto and eating Carbonara pasta.
One of us falls ill, myself and the other healthy chap head to 'World' for a bit of nightclub shenanigans. Roll in drunk at 5am the next morning after a helluva bash.

Day 9 - The ill guy gets up and goes to Hiroshima for a few hours. We meet up at 2pm and catch the Shinkansen back to Shizuoka to see the in-laws again (not mine.)

Day 10 - Up early to travel up the mountain by Mt Fuji (name escapes me) and check it out in the morning light.
Family lunch in a French restaurant that comes with the highest recommendation. Then shopping, grabbing as many games from one of the largest used games stores in the area.
Then, rush back to the house, grab our suitcases, and head back to Tokyo.
Arrive in Tokyo at 10pm, get to the Bus shelter and wade through hundreds of students to get to the ticket booth and get ticketed up.
Jump on the bus leaving at 11pm and get some sleep. We're the only Gaijin there - weird.

Day 11
Day 12
Day 13
Day 14 - Hakuba, Nagano: Four days of Snowboarding. Snobo hajimete for me: many seriously painful crashes, but by day four I'm a speed king. Learned a new skill and leveled up.
Plenty of Onsen business to soothe the pain.

Day 14.5 - Arrive back in Tokyo at 11pm. Ditch my travelling companions who head back to Shizuoka while I meet an old friend in Tokyo. Some bouts of SFIV in Shinjuku and a beer and then we're off to his place to crash out.

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Day 15 - Shopping has cometh. We clean sweep the whole of Akihabara as my mate takes me on a tour of the best hidden secrets and we pretty much cover off a large chunk of my list.
Much dough is blown. Exchange rate is murder. Sensibly, no PCB's are bought.
Evening time we're in Mikado for some Ketsui, MegaBlackLabel and Daifukkatsu.
Then to Hey! for Otomedius and Futari 1.5
Miss the last train back to Asakusa Ryokan and have to take a cab instead :(

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Day 16 - Final day. Off to Harajuku early for some girlfriend shopping, then meet up with my friend again to head to AOU 2009 in Chiba.
Deathsmiles 2 and KOF XII get blown up!
Amazing show.
By 5pm meet up with my old friend from Japan and we all head to Ikebukero for farewell drinks in the Hub. Sad.


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Day 17 - Planes trains and automobiles.

Day 18: Today.

Some of the haul:

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Always outnumbered, never outgunned - No zuo no die

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Momijitsuki
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Post by Momijitsuki »

Cool stuff, man.

I wanna go to Japan someday--at least, when I become more fluent in Japanese.
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jpj
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Post by jpj »

great stuff :)

now get some sleep and try not to look at your bank balance for a few days :wink:

what were your thoughts on deathsmiles 2 and kof XII by the way..?
RegalSin wrote:Videogames took my life away like the Natives during colonial times.
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sven666
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Post by sven666 »

cool trip (morepics please), dunno if it was but youre making it sound fucking hectic man, did you enjoy it at all or was it just a chore?

ed: how much was gourmet sentai?
the destruction of everything, is the beginning of something new. your whole world is on fire, and soon, you'll be too..
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KindGrind
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Post by KindGrind »

Pleasant read/watch, man. Great stuff. Sounds hectic for sure. Nice times... :)
Muchos años después, frente al pelotón de fusilamiento...
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Skykid
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Post by Skykid »

JPJ: Too right, the bank balance has taken a helluva beating.

Death Smiles 2 is clearly unfinished. It has a feature where holding down one of the buttons brings up a circle which can be used to take out enemies in the background for extra points. Works, but feels a little tacked on at the moment.
The graphics are horrible, like hi-def first generation PS1 - but the game plays ok in terms of bullet patterns. Only two stages available on demo, and as with DS1, a complete walk in the park.
Potentially the weakest Cave release ever, but I'll hold my breath until the final product.

KOF XII - I'm not worthy! Seriously though, the game looks gorgeous, lives up to the grainy you tube video hype. The characters and the hits are super solid, but some of the obvious moves have been changed. Couldn't get Iori to throw a fireball (?!) Clark's standard grab wasn't there (?!!) and Kim didn't have his back-toward charge move...

Based on the above, the jury is out. It seems to have all the right touches, but with only one go (queue too long) it needs an in-depth play to know for sure. Should be great though.

Sven: Hectic it was! As hectic as it reads I suppose - but it was a journey, not a chore. :wink:

The other guys have more pics to fill in the gaps on their camera's, which I'm yet to get - sorry mate.

Gourmet was 7000 yen, which was by far the cheapest I found - all the others were in the region of 11-12000.
Always outnumbered, never outgunned - No zuo no die

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GaijinPunch
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Post by GaijinPunch »

How was the boarding? I went for a day before heading to Hawaii, but it kind of sucked. Very slushy.
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elfhentaifan
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Post by elfhentaifan »

oh man im so envious.
I loved tha snapshot of the old temple countryside covered in snow :D
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zlk
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Post by zlk »

Great pictures! I am especially impressed with the smashtv cart. :D
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zap
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Post by zap »

Oh I think I saw you guys on AOU then. One of you got pissed because they had ran out of the toys you get after playing?

Nice trip, seems like you did more than I've done it 2 years, haha. Next time I come back for traveling I'm definately gonna get of those JR passes.
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Post by Ed Oscuro »

I like how the figure with blue ribbons in her hair got punted off to the side :D
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Skykid
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Post by Skykid »

Snowboarding was great actually, where did you go GP, Hakuba?

The first day was a bit icy, therefore all of my crashing was extremely painful, but after that we had some really good, heavy snowfall which made the slopes pretty smooth. Good fun.

Zap: Ha ha - that sounds like us. Still managed to bag one though. :wink:
Always outnumbered, never outgunned - No zuo no die

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Post by GaijinPunch »

Skykid wrote:Snowboarding was great actually, where did you go GP, Hakuba?
Just after new years was Hakuba. Really nice. I had a pretty terrible tumble on the ice, too. My amazingly expensive TENS device really came in handy though. I had that fucker jacked up.

This past trip was to Gala Yuzawa. A rather cheesy mountain a mere 90 minutes by train from Tokyo station. The rental shops are connected to the train station, so it's quite convenient. Just not the best snow.
RegalSin wrote:New PowerPuff Girls. They all have evil pornstart eyelashes.
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Skykid
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Post by Skykid »

After four days I woke up feeling like I'd been beaten with a lead pipe, Casino style.

It's a blast though - no regrets!
Always outnumbered, never outgunned - No zuo no die

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Post by adversity1 »

Next time holler when you're in Osaka!
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jase25
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Post by jase25 »

Thanks for sharing that Skykid, me and my gf have just read through the thread, we went to Japan in September and had a top time, your hol brings back a lot of happy memories for us!
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Post by 320x240 »

Nice copy of Wonderboy IV.
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Post by PC Engine Fan X! »

Those figurines sure look mighty sexy. ^_~

Nice pics of your trip to Japan, Skykid. And what did you think of riding on the famous Shinkansen bullet train?

Yeah, there's suppose to be some California-based bullet train project in the works soon -- it's been in the planning stages since the early 1990s at the taxpapers' expense -- it's business/politics as usual. Had it been approved back in the mid 1990s, perhaps it would've been almost completed by now and at a cheaper price tag. Why drag such an expensive and huge undertaking bullet train project for so long...just get it started already. A bullet train trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles in less than two hours? (To pull off that techincal feat, a seperate high-speed train track would need to be built from the ground up.) That is the famous "selling point" right there. ^_~

No new arcade PCBs for your personal collection, eh? Well, if you don't want to max out the ol' credit card to the hilt...that is a very good and sensible idea not to go out on an expensive arcade PCB buying spree/binge. For some arcade PCB hobbyists, they couldn't resist going out on such a spree, especially in Japan of all places. ^_~

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~
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elfhentaifan
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Post by elfhentaifan »

btw scan the doujins orz :shock: :shock: :shock:
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Shelcoof
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Post by Shelcoof »

Great pics and thanks for posting....

Add in more food pics!! :D
You can't go wrong with food pics now :)
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robthebanks
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Post by robthebanks »

Thanks for sharing... I'm so jealous.
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Rupert H
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Post by Rupert H »

Awesome looking trip guy. I'm planning some sort of Japan trip for the next six months and I hope to tick of lot of those boxes on my journey too.
Skykid wrote: Couldn't get Iori to throw a fireball (?!)
Apparently the guy has lost his Orochi power. Looks like he's had a '96 Kyo-style makeover. Good. :D

Now, word on the street is you have some merchendise for me...
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Khan
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Post by Khan »

wow man your so lucky, and its cool that you managed to sneak in some nice shots of the some delicious looking japanese women :)
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Skykid
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Post by Skykid »

Rupe, I've got a bunch of stuff for you dude, shoot me a PM and let me know if you want me to bring it down next time I'm in London or get it in the post (faster option.) :wink:

Khan: I took that pic on the street just to show how utterly mental the Japanese chicks are with mini skirts at the moment. They're like belts.

However, this is just one element of what appears to be a country in serious social decline.
Always outnumbered, never outgunned - No zuo no die

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Post by spadgy »

Awesome stuff mate. Really good to see. I must chat your trip over with you on the phone at some point. Me and the wife are planning on a trip away, and possibly to Japan, so it would be good to hear about your adventure.

Great pics, and thank christ none were of your gruesome, swarthy face.
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Post by Lordstar »

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cave loli escilators in yeah! (EDIT: I meant HEY!) cant fucking miss them can you :lol:

I am so gutted that my main chip with all my photos on went missing right after i got back. :-(

yeah was one of the few places that they asked if i would stop taking photos. :roll: I still got about 50 though :lol:
Last edited by Lordstar on Thu Feb 26, 2009 9:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Skykid
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Post by Skykid »

spadgy wrote:Awesome stuff mate. Really good to see. I must chat your trip over with you on the phone at some point. Me and the wife are planning on a trip away, and possibly to Japan, so it would be good to hear about your adventure.

Great pics, and thank christ none were of your gruesome, swarthy face.
Lolz!

No worries Spadge, I thought I'd spare you. I'm still settling back into work etc, and found out that I need to move too, which is a pain in the ass and causing much stress - but I'll get around to giving you a bell shortly. Either that or perhaps we can catch up in Casino sometime soon and I'll tell you about it all over a beer.

As for recommendations, there are few places I think a gamer could enjoy more than Japan. :wink:

Lordy: You mean Hey! not Yeah! :idea:
Always outnumbered, never outgunned - No zuo no die

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Lordstar
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Post by Lordstar »

:oops: oh dear god! you can tell ive not had my morning can of coke/cup of coffee (but thats another thread)

My mate (one of the guys I went out to JP with) is back out there in September. I want to go to hong kong and do Tokyo again next year. Idealy before IC-2010 so I can bring back lots of sexy PCBs for people too oogle over :P
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D
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Post by D »

Thanks for the report!
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Skykid
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Post by Skykid »

D wrote:Thanks for the report!
My pleasure!

Lordy: Hong Kong is a haven for game related goodies too - awesome city, I loved it there!
Always outnumbered, never outgunned - No zuo no die

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