Summary of the stuff I did in Japan
So, to recap the long, boring version of the stuff I did, seeing that most of the rest of my posts were just kind of ramblings about stuff that I did or observed in no particular order.
May 8th, Monday, Tokyo I arrived at Narita airport in Tokyo (it's about 60 km southeast of Tokyo downtown). It took about two hours to get through customs, but as soon as I left the exit gate, I looked around and Ellie intercepted me; I hadn't seen her at all, actually. But it was all good! We took the express line back to Tokyo station (costs about $15 from Narita to Tokyo Station) and went to Asakusa to find where our hotel was. After some exploration, we managed to find it, and ended up resting there for most of the rest of the day (which wasn't really that long) and eating okonomiyaki at one of the only open restaurants in Asakusa. Yeah, everything in Asakusa shuts down at like, 6 PM.
It's kind of like Victoria, except less pathetic!
Originally, we were supposed to go to Square-Enix and walk around and take pictures and see the huge Sephiroth, but we totally miscalculated and forgot about crossing the International Date Line. So although I left on Sunday in Vancouver, my arrival was actually MONDAY in Japan. Consequently I bid Ellie go see Sephiroth by herself. She said it was anticlimatic. I was supposed to go there and take pictures of her drooling over Sephiroth. :(
May 9th, Tuesday, Tokyo We went to Shibuya, which is one of the big shopping districts. However, we left REALLY early and got there at about 9 AM, when almost absolutely NOTHING was open. We marvelled at the numberous Catcher stores and the Pachinko Parlours (people were lining up for them to open at 10 AM). We visited the HMV, a few local stores, some department shops, and eventually the Mandarake Comic store (which was pretty gigantic) when it opened at 11. Then, we went out and had some lunch at the Sweets Cafe, which is basically a 90 minute all-you-can-eat store. Yeah, it's all like, cake and dessert and fondu and ice cream. Oooooooh. They also had a few things like dumplings and spaghetti, just to ensure that you had SOMETHING that wasn't all junk food!
After that, we went to Roppongi Hills and headed to the Mori Tower so we could try to find Konami HQ and assault the creators of Castlevania: Curse of Darkness and Suikoden IV. Unfortunately, Konami (which is located on the 14th Floor) requires keycard access to get up, so it was totally impossible to go through without either lying really, really well, or doing some awesome technological heist. I have a picture of their security gates, actually, which I'll post up sometime later this weekend. I also tried to take a picture of Ellie shaking her fist at the tower (I lay on the ground! The Japanese tourists walking by stared) but the picture didn't really come out. :( It was a bit cloudy that day but it wasn't dark enough to trigger the flash. I also got a picture of the strange spider-like Half-Life thing, and we took a few pictures of Tokyo Tower and visited a few of the gardens around the area.
We went to the Sony Building on the way back from here, and we checked out some of the new Sony Appliances. They had no gaming stuff, though, but instead had a lot of new technological household items, like their iMac-like computer (which was tiny and had a tiny folding keyboard), their really neat eBook reader (that thing was SNAZZY), and a really cool HD-ready digitical camcorder (I want one). One of the coolest things, in my opinion, was the Blu-Ray ready HD projector in their dark room... which also cost something like 113000 yen or something like that. Yikes! I don't think I took a picture of it (and the projector itself was huge). I was tempted to ask them if they had any Blu-Ray movies at the building so we could play them back, but Ellie objected to the idea :)
And after that... we went to Akihabara! Akihabara is the electronics district in Tokyo (and often labelled as the Otaku section of town by some people). It's filled with discount electronics stores, used electronics, used games, new games, lots of anime stuff, book shops, and lots of porn. We scanned a number of used book stores and went to the Rosenqueen shop, which was on the second floor of some bigger shop. Ellie picked up Little Princess and a Kururu Music Box (cute!) while we were there, and I grabbed a drama CD (we thought it was a music CD at first) and some Final Fantasy Trading Arts figures and a Phantom Brave media CD. After that, we devoted the rest of the night to finding Ellie a Japanese PS2! We did eventually find a used slim-form one for about 17000 yen or so (turns out that in Osaka the local store sold them for about 1000 yen cheaper).
That was a pretty long day, overall! So we went back and fired up Little Princess and then realised that we had totally forgotten to buy a PS1 memory card.
May 10th, Wednesday, Tokyo We started out this day going to Meiji Shrine, which is surrounded by a huge walk of trees. It was a pseudo-sunny day today, in that you could see bright sun through the clouds. I think when we got up, it was slightly misty, but it cleared up. The forest and the gardens within are quite beautiful and we spent quite a bit of time there just looking around and observing the nature and wildlife. We also went to the shrine itself and looked at the Divine Tree and the shrine, which was actually quite large; it was a building encompassed with a large wall. So there's a wall with a big gate, a stone courtyard, and then the shrine itself. It almost seemed like you could defend it against an army (and who know, maybe they did in the times). I'd have to find out.
We went to Shinjiku to look at another park, whose name I don't recall at the moment, and watched a few people practice one-step sparring with their bokkens and grumbled at how the artificial waterfall was turned off (and thus started a running joke about how the Japanese knew that we were coming and therefore had to make the trip as miserable as possible for us silly foreigners). After that, we made an escape to another park, whose name I also cannot recall. We must've arrived about twenty minutes before closing, though. I remember us scrambling to get in (we were trying to find the entrance for a while) and then eventually getting in and sitting for a while on park benches while we observed the scenery and the tactfulness of the person who played the benches. There was a Heian Villa in the park, which was really cool, and it overlooked a tranquil pond. Eventually, we idled long enough for them to blare out the "We are closing NOW!" and they started to play the "Get the fuck out of the park" music at precisely 4:20 PM. We did leave before the gates closed, though.
After that... back to Akihabara! We picked up Ellie's memory card and then returned back to the hotel, dropped stuff off, and then went back out, because we had seen the Mori Tower's main attraction -- the observation deck -- and had decided that we'd go up there tonight. So we went and took a look at the gigantic city that's Tokyo, in all of its nighttime glory. I have a few pictures I tried to take, but it's really difficult to try to take them of a nighttime scene. The place was a really big date destination, it seemed, since there were couples all schmoozing on the provided couches and holding hands and stuff. We made a few walks around the tower, since you get a 360 degree view, and tried instead to pick out the places that we had visited so far :) We're such geeks. But that's perfectly all right!
We returned pretty late at night but got to bed and made a plan to see Kamakura the next day and to take the Shinkansen train back to Osaka.
May 11th, Thursday, Tokyo We were RAINED ON ALL DAY. Originally, the plan was to go to Kamakura, check out the Tsurugaoka Hachiman-Gu shrine, and continue walking north from there, exploring the rest of the shrines. But it ended up raining miserably (I bought an umbrella) and we instead aborted the trip early and ended up going back. We spent a bit of time looking at shopping and food but then headed back to the hotel, picked up our luggage, and began the ride back to Osaka. I stayed with Ellie at her little quaint apartment (it's actually a decent size for a bachelor suite in Japan) for that night and we played games (Little Princess~) and all of that other fun stuff.
May 12th, Friday, Osaka For some reason, I totally can't remember what we did on Friday or Saturday. Maybe Ellie remembers. X_x. I think we stayed at home for most of the day and just kind of idled around until late-afternoon rolled around. More than likely, we spent a bunch of time doing laundry. Or did we do that on Thursday night? Oh man, I totally can't remember.
I recall on this day, we went to Den-Den Town in Osaka and looked around for merchandise and stuff. Ellie bought a few more of the Star Ocean manga volumes, but there were many that weren't in stock. I remember looking at the capsule figure shop there as well. I believe this is the night that we ate "Tex-Mex", for some definition of Tex-Mex. It was rather bizarre; they didn't really use the same ingredients or the same recipe, and so it ended up tasting a little bland. Not enough spices and not enough beans or cheese, if you ask me. There was a little bit of Japanese uniqueness in there that I couldn't quite figure out, as well.
May 13th, Saturday, Kobe I think we went to Kobe on Saturday
I actually don't have pictures from this day, for some reason. We went to Kobe so we could look around and ate Kobe beef, which was EXCELLENT. They would strip off the fat from the meat, use it as oil to cook the steak in, and then cook other ingredients, such as tofu, peppers, and bean sprouts in. They'd then cook more beef and finally serve you the rest of the fat (yeah, it sounds kind of gross, but it's actually quite good). This was some REALLY GOOD food, by the way. It was also rather expensive at 2550 yen a person for LUNCH. But, I did want to have some beef and it was certainly cheaper than going for dinner, which easily would have been 6000 yen or more a person.
After, we went to Kitano, and looked at the "Western style houses", and then walked down to the shore from the hills. It's actually not that far (maybe three kilometres, tops) and it was a nice walk; Kobe is a really nice city and it reminded me quite a bit of Victoria, actually. It has a sleepy village air to it, but closer to the central area, it picks up quite a bit and gets significantly more busy. The street layout is more like a Western city than a Japanese one; I think it's because a lot of rebuilding occured since the earthquake. We visited Kobe Tower, Merikan Park (yes, it is a romanization of "American") and the Earthquake memorial before heading back to Amagasaki. For some reason, I totally forget what we did that evening; I think we might have just ate at some place in Amagasaki and then stayed home and hung out and played games (there's a recurring theme here, try to guess what it is).
May 14th, Sunday, Himeji We went to see Himeji castle! It was really cool, but we arrived pretty late in the afternoon and ate before we went to the castle, and subsequently were chased out of it at 4:30 when they played "Auld Lang Syne" a.k.a. "Get the fuck out of the park" music. We were joking about how they'd switch it to the cliche RPG chase music after Auld Lang Syne finished and that they'd release hounds on stragglers.
The castle itself was quite impressive and it does deserve its reputation as one of the most impressive castles in Japan. It's quite interesting, both outside and inside. It's definitely an interesting backdrop for a story, and there's some impressive scenery if you go to the top and look outside. We joked a lot about the dirt park, though. :) On the way back, Ellie bought the rest of the Star Ocean manga, and yes, they do blow through Disk 2 of the game in ONE VOLUME. We "read" Volume 7 together on the train back and basically went crazy breaking down into mad giggle fits as we traced the events. The Japanese must've thought we were insane. But how can you not go mad with delight at lines like:
Irwin: Hey, who's that?
Ellie: That's Blair.
Irwin: I thought she got shot.
Ellie: No, she got up.
We eventually go through the rest of the made-up lines like Fayt constantly taunting Luthur with two or three pages of, "I'm going to KEEL you" and Sophia smashing him upside the head (she carries a staff but uses no magic in the entire manga) and eventually conclude with Fayt creating his own happy place with feathers... you know, because Fayt likes feathers.
Yeah, I know, there's a lot of stupid in-jokes here that most people won't get, but that's the consequence when you get two gamers that hang out together for over a week.
May 15th, Monday, Nara Nara was great. We went to see the large Daibutsu in Todai-ji. There's a large park around it, plus a walkway that's filled with stone lanterns. There was a very serene shrine here that was for the Shinto Priestesses, if I recall. Again, it's one of those shrines I can't recall the name of. However, Ellie took pictures here of the divine tree growing here--one of the branches actually grows into one of the buildings.
There's a large seven-storey pagoda, and a lot of deer, as well. Yeah, tons of deer that just kind of walk around here and there and don't really do anything other than butt people for food, though you can actually get them to bow their heads before feeding them. If you just kind of stand there and then bow, the deer will actually bow his head for you! Of course, since I was carrying deer cakes, there were like five who were trying to swarm around me (shoving Ellie out of the way in the process).
Nara has a very different feel than Kyoto. Nara feels more like a forest that has buildings in it and shrines dotted in the area, whereas Kyoto feels more like a big city with pockets of trees and shrines.
That night, we went to Pam's housewarming party. Pam is one of Ellie's friends at NOVA and we were invited through one of her other friends. So we arrived an hour late and were the first ones there. :P I did tell Ellie that arriving on time for a house party was pretty atypical, but coming an hour late to me seems reasonable! They had tempura for us! I also drank some sake for the first time. Later, some of Pam's other friends, and Ellie's friends, arrived -- John had brought a 1 gallon bottle of beer from a vending machine on the way in. Yes, it was pretty gigantic, and it was out of a VENDING MACHINE. I think that in itself was pretty awesome.
May 16th, Tuesday, Kyoto We went to Kyoto and saw the golden pagoda, which is in Kinkaku-ji. It took like over an hour for us to actually get there by bus. Ellie had not seen it before, so I figured that it would be a good place to go look. She was immensely worried about being a bad hostess ("We only saw one thing in Kyoto!") but really, she was fine. The park was immensely beautiful, if not a bit crowded, and a little short. After that, we tried to get to Arashiyama to see bamboo forests and the Monkey Park, but by the time we got there, it was closed. We did do a walk by Tenryu-ji, though, and wandered around the weir that's in the area. I found it quite calming, myself, and enjoyed the time that we spent around there.
After that, we went to eat ramen and headed off to karaoke with a bunch of the people from the housewarming party yesterday. Ellie loves karaoke, and she sings quite well; I was rather impressed with her ability. I don't really sing at all, since I don't know most of the songs in the songbook, and don't sing well anyway. But... I can usually find some cheese to throw up and sing. So we did, among other things, Meatloaf's "I Would Do Anything For Love".
No, seriously, Ellie sings well. She denied it though and will probably continue to do so. :) Then again, she claimed that I could sing in tune and did a decent job. I don't believe her.
May 17th, Wednesday, Osaka We went to Den-Den town again and I looked for art books, because Ced the Lad from the SuikoX forum gave a decree that I go out and buy an art book so I can update the Anime Girls thread on the Tinto Subforum. So we went out and looked, but since I'm ultra-picky and am heavily unfamiliar with so many of the older anime series, I ended up picking up a Princess Maker 4 art book (lol loli) and some Scrapped Princess novels (I thought they were manga).
We DID go to that doujinshi store. I think it was called K-Books, or something, at least, that's what the black mat that covered every window said, but Ellie thought it was called something else, so I'm not sure. I wrote the store here already so I won't repeat it, but yes, there is a "used boy love" section. And yes... we both bought stuff. >_>
May 18th, Thursday, Osaka Thursday was departure day! It was sad. There was much idleness that morning, a kind of quiet apprehension. Well, I mean, what else is there to say here?
Originally, I was supposed to fly out at 7:10 AM, but eventually, I called JAL and decided to reschedule the domestic flight out of Kansai to a later time. They changed it to 12:30 PM from Itami to Tokyo Hameda, which is incredibly easier to do! I'll have to recall this for the next time I travel. Avoid 7 AM flights out at all costs, because NOTHING runs that early in the morning. Nothing. X_x
I did get back safely to Victoria after about 19 hours in transition. It was seriously a LONG trip back, but it was mostly uneventful and I got back safely and didn't lose anything!
Okay, I'll try to write more later. I know that Ellie summarized most of the trip at ellienonikki, but I know that most of my friends are going to ask me what I did and what I saw, and instead of pointing them to Ellie's journal, I figured it's better form to just write it myself and point them here, instead. :)
May 8th, Monday, Tokyo I arrived at Narita airport in Tokyo (it's about 60 km southeast of Tokyo downtown). It took about two hours to get through customs, but as soon as I left the exit gate, I looked around and Ellie intercepted me; I hadn't seen her at all, actually. But it was all good! We took the express line back to Tokyo station (costs about $15 from Narita to Tokyo Station) and went to Asakusa to find where our hotel was. After some exploration, we managed to find it, and ended up resting there for most of the rest of the day (which wasn't really that long) and eating okonomiyaki at one of the only open restaurants in Asakusa. Yeah, everything in Asakusa shuts down at like, 6 PM.
It's kind of like Victoria, except less pathetic!
Originally, we were supposed to go to Square-Enix and walk around and take pictures and see the huge Sephiroth, but we totally miscalculated and forgot about crossing the International Date Line. So although I left on Sunday in Vancouver, my arrival was actually MONDAY in Japan. Consequently I bid Ellie go see Sephiroth by herself. She said it was anticlimatic. I was supposed to go there and take pictures of her drooling over Sephiroth. :(
May 9th, Tuesday, Tokyo We went to Shibuya, which is one of the big shopping districts. However, we left REALLY early and got there at about 9 AM, when almost absolutely NOTHING was open. We marvelled at the numberous Catcher stores and the Pachinko Parlours (people were lining up for them to open at 10 AM). We visited the HMV, a few local stores, some department shops, and eventually the Mandarake Comic store (which was pretty gigantic) when it opened at 11. Then, we went out and had some lunch at the Sweets Cafe, which is basically a 90 minute all-you-can-eat store. Yeah, it's all like, cake and dessert and fondu and ice cream. Oooooooh. They also had a few things like dumplings and spaghetti, just to ensure that you had SOMETHING that wasn't all junk food!
After that, we went to Roppongi Hills and headed to the Mori Tower so we could try to find Konami HQ and assault the creators of Castlevania: Curse of Darkness and Suikoden IV. Unfortunately, Konami (which is located on the 14th Floor) requires keycard access to get up, so it was totally impossible to go through without either lying really, really well, or doing some awesome technological heist. I have a picture of their security gates, actually, which I'll post up sometime later this weekend. I also tried to take a picture of Ellie shaking her fist at the tower (I lay on the ground! The Japanese tourists walking by stared) but the picture didn't really come out. :( It was a bit cloudy that day but it wasn't dark enough to trigger the flash. I also got a picture of the strange spider-like Half-Life thing, and we took a few pictures of Tokyo Tower and visited a few of the gardens around the area.
We went to the Sony Building on the way back from here, and we checked out some of the new Sony Appliances. They had no gaming stuff, though, but instead had a lot of new technological household items, like their iMac-like computer (which was tiny and had a tiny folding keyboard), their really neat eBook reader (that thing was SNAZZY), and a really cool HD-ready digitical camcorder (I want one). One of the coolest things, in my opinion, was the Blu-Ray ready HD projector in their dark room... which also cost something like 113000 yen or something like that. Yikes! I don't think I took a picture of it (and the projector itself was huge). I was tempted to ask them if they had any Blu-Ray movies at the building so we could play them back, but Ellie objected to the idea :)
And after that... we went to Akihabara! Akihabara is the electronics district in Tokyo (and often labelled as the Otaku section of town by some people). It's filled with discount electronics stores, used electronics, used games, new games, lots of anime stuff, book shops, and lots of porn. We scanned a number of used book stores and went to the Rosenqueen shop, which was on the second floor of some bigger shop. Ellie picked up Little Princess and a Kururu Music Box (cute!) while we were there, and I grabbed a drama CD (we thought it was a music CD at first) and some Final Fantasy Trading Arts figures and a Phantom Brave media CD. After that, we devoted the rest of the night to finding Ellie a Japanese PS2! We did eventually find a used slim-form one for about 17000 yen or so (turns out that in Osaka the local store sold them for about 1000 yen cheaper).
That was a pretty long day, overall! So we went back and fired up Little Princess and then realised that we had totally forgotten to buy a PS1 memory card.
May 10th, Wednesday, Tokyo We started out this day going to Meiji Shrine, which is surrounded by a huge walk of trees. It was a pseudo-sunny day today, in that you could see bright sun through the clouds. I think when we got up, it was slightly misty, but it cleared up. The forest and the gardens within are quite beautiful and we spent quite a bit of time there just looking around and observing the nature and wildlife. We also went to the shrine itself and looked at the Divine Tree and the shrine, which was actually quite large; it was a building encompassed with a large wall. So there's a wall with a big gate, a stone courtyard, and then the shrine itself. It almost seemed like you could defend it against an army (and who know, maybe they did in the times). I'd have to find out.
We went to Shinjiku to look at another park, whose name I don't recall at the moment, and watched a few people practice one-step sparring with their bokkens and grumbled at how the artificial waterfall was turned off (and thus started a running joke about how the Japanese knew that we were coming and therefore had to make the trip as miserable as possible for us silly foreigners). After that, we made an escape to another park, whose name I also cannot recall. We must've arrived about twenty minutes before closing, though. I remember us scrambling to get in (we were trying to find the entrance for a while) and then eventually getting in and sitting for a while on park benches while we observed the scenery and the tactfulness of the person who played the benches. There was a Heian Villa in the park, which was really cool, and it overlooked a tranquil pond. Eventually, we idled long enough for them to blare out the "We are closing NOW!" and they started to play the "Get the fuck out of the park" music at precisely 4:20 PM. We did leave before the gates closed, though.
After that... back to Akihabara! We picked up Ellie's memory card and then returned back to the hotel, dropped stuff off, and then went back out, because we had seen the Mori Tower's main attraction -- the observation deck -- and had decided that we'd go up there tonight. So we went and took a look at the gigantic city that's Tokyo, in all of its nighttime glory. I have a few pictures I tried to take, but it's really difficult to try to take them of a nighttime scene. The place was a really big date destination, it seemed, since there were couples all schmoozing on the provided couches and holding hands and stuff. We made a few walks around the tower, since you get a 360 degree view, and tried instead to pick out the places that we had visited so far :) We're such geeks. But that's perfectly all right!
We returned pretty late at night but got to bed and made a plan to see Kamakura the next day and to take the Shinkansen train back to Osaka.
May 11th, Thursday, Tokyo We were RAINED ON ALL DAY. Originally, the plan was to go to Kamakura, check out the Tsurugaoka Hachiman-Gu shrine, and continue walking north from there, exploring the rest of the shrines. But it ended up raining miserably (I bought an umbrella) and we instead aborted the trip early and ended up going back. We spent a bit of time looking at shopping and food but then headed back to the hotel, picked up our luggage, and began the ride back to Osaka. I stayed with Ellie at her little quaint apartment (it's actually a decent size for a bachelor suite in Japan) for that night and we played games (Little Princess~) and all of that other fun stuff.
May 12th, Friday, Osaka For some reason, I totally can't remember what we did on Friday or Saturday. Maybe Ellie remembers. X_x. I think we stayed at home for most of the day and just kind of idled around until late-afternoon rolled around. More than likely, we spent a bunch of time doing laundry. Or did we do that on Thursday night? Oh man, I totally can't remember.
I recall on this day, we went to Den-Den Town in Osaka and looked around for merchandise and stuff. Ellie bought a few more of the Star Ocean manga volumes, but there were many that weren't in stock. I remember looking at the capsule figure shop there as well. I believe this is the night that we ate "Tex-Mex", for some definition of Tex-Mex. It was rather bizarre; they didn't really use the same ingredients or the same recipe, and so it ended up tasting a little bland. Not enough spices and not enough beans or cheese, if you ask me. There was a little bit of Japanese uniqueness in there that I couldn't quite figure out, as well.
May 13th, Saturday, Kobe I think we went to Kobe on Saturday
I actually don't have pictures from this day, for some reason. We went to Kobe so we could look around and ate Kobe beef, which was EXCELLENT. They would strip off the fat from the meat, use it as oil to cook the steak in, and then cook other ingredients, such as tofu, peppers, and bean sprouts in. They'd then cook more beef and finally serve you the rest of the fat (yeah, it sounds kind of gross, but it's actually quite good). This was some REALLY GOOD food, by the way. It was also rather expensive at 2550 yen a person for LUNCH. But, I did want to have some beef and it was certainly cheaper than going for dinner, which easily would have been 6000 yen or more a person.
After, we went to Kitano, and looked at the "Western style houses", and then walked down to the shore from the hills. It's actually not that far (maybe three kilometres, tops) and it was a nice walk; Kobe is a really nice city and it reminded me quite a bit of Victoria, actually. It has a sleepy village air to it, but closer to the central area, it picks up quite a bit and gets significantly more busy. The street layout is more like a Western city than a Japanese one; I think it's because a lot of rebuilding occured since the earthquake. We visited Kobe Tower, Merikan Park (yes, it is a romanization of "American") and the Earthquake memorial before heading back to Amagasaki. For some reason, I totally forget what we did that evening; I think we might have just ate at some place in Amagasaki and then stayed home and hung out and played games (there's a recurring theme here, try to guess what it is).
May 14th, Sunday, Himeji We went to see Himeji castle! It was really cool, but we arrived pretty late in the afternoon and ate before we went to the castle, and subsequently were chased out of it at 4:30 when they played "Auld Lang Syne" a.k.a. "Get the fuck out of the park" music. We were joking about how they'd switch it to the cliche RPG chase music after Auld Lang Syne finished and that they'd release hounds on stragglers.
The castle itself was quite impressive and it does deserve its reputation as one of the most impressive castles in Japan. It's quite interesting, both outside and inside. It's definitely an interesting backdrop for a story, and there's some impressive scenery if you go to the top and look outside. We joked a lot about the dirt park, though. :) On the way back, Ellie bought the rest of the Star Ocean manga, and yes, they do blow through Disk 2 of the game in ONE VOLUME. We "read" Volume 7 together on the train back and basically went crazy breaking down into mad giggle fits as we traced the events. The Japanese must've thought we were insane. But how can you not go mad with delight at lines like:
Irwin: Hey, who's that?
Ellie: That's Blair.
Irwin: I thought she got shot.
Ellie: No, she got up.
We eventually go through the rest of the made-up lines like Fayt constantly taunting Luthur with two or three pages of, "I'm going to KEEL you" and Sophia smashing him upside the head (she carries a staff but uses no magic in the entire manga) and eventually conclude with Fayt creating his own happy place with feathers... you know, because Fayt likes feathers.
Yeah, I know, there's a lot of stupid in-jokes here that most people won't get, but that's the consequence when you get two gamers that hang out together for over a week.
May 15th, Monday, Nara Nara was great. We went to see the large Daibutsu in Todai-ji. There's a large park around it, plus a walkway that's filled with stone lanterns. There was a very serene shrine here that was for the Shinto Priestesses, if I recall. Again, it's one of those shrines I can't recall the name of. However, Ellie took pictures here of the divine tree growing here--one of the branches actually grows into one of the buildings.
There's a large seven-storey pagoda, and a lot of deer, as well. Yeah, tons of deer that just kind of walk around here and there and don't really do anything other than butt people for food, though you can actually get them to bow their heads before feeding them. If you just kind of stand there and then bow, the deer will actually bow his head for you! Of course, since I was carrying deer cakes, there were like five who were trying to swarm around me (shoving Ellie out of the way in the process).
Nara has a very different feel than Kyoto. Nara feels more like a forest that has buildings in it and shrines dotted in the area, whereas Kyoto feels more like a big city with pockets of trees and shrines.
That night, we went to Pam's housewarming party. Pam is one of Ellie's friends at NOVA and we were invited through one of her other friends. So we arrived an hour late and were the first ones there. :P I did tell Ellie that arriving on time for a house party was pretty atypical, but coming an hour late to me seems reasonable! They had tempura for us! I also drank some sake for the first time. Later, some of Pam's other friends, and Ellie's friends, arrived -- John had brought a 1 gallon bottle of beer from a vending machine on the way in. Yes, it was pretty gigantic, and it was out of a VENDING MACHINE. I think that in itself was pretty awesome.
May 16th, Tuesday, Kyoto We went to Kyoto and saw the golden pagoda, which is in Kinkaku-ji. It took like over an hour for us to actually get there by bus. Ellie had not seen it before, so I figured that it would be a good place to go look. She was immensely worried about being a bad hostess ("We only saw one thing in Kyoto!") but really, she was fine. The park was immensely beautiful, if not a bit crowded, and a little short. After that, we tried to get to Arashiyama to see bamboo forests and the Monkey Park, but by the time we got there, it was closed. We did do a walk by Tenryu-ji, though, and wandered around the weir that's in the area. I found it quite calming, myself, and enjoyed the time that we spent around there.
After that, we went to eat ramen and headed off to karaoke with a bunch of the people from the housewarming party yesterday. Ellie loves karaoke, and she sings quite well; I was rather impressed with her ability. I don't really sing at all, since I don't know most of the songs in the songbook, and don't sing well anyway. But... I can usually find some cheese to throw up and sing. So we did, among other things, Meatloaf's "I Would Do Anything For Love".
No, seriously, Ellie sings well. She denied it though and will probably continue to do so. :) Then again, she claimed that I could sing in tune and did a decent job. I don't believe her.
May 17th, Wednesday, Osaka We went to Den-Den town again and I looked for art books, because Ced the Lad from the SuikoX forum gave a decree that I go out and buy an art book so I can update the Anime Girls thread on the Tinto Subforum. So we went out and looked, but since I'm ultra-picky and am heavily unfamiliar with so many of the older anime series, I ended up picking up a Princess Maker 4 art book (lol loli) and some Scrapped Princess novels (I thought they were manga).
We DID go to that doujinshi store. I think it was called K-Books, or something, at least, that's what the black mat that covered every window said, but Ellie thought it was called something else, so I'm not sure. I wrote the store here already so I won't repeat it, but yes, there is a "used boy love" section. And yes... we both bought stuff. >_>
May 18th, Thursday, Osaka Thursday was departure day! It was sad. There was much idleness that morning, a kind of quiet apprehension. Well, I mean, what else is there to say here?
Originally, I was supposed to fly out at 7:10 AM, but eventually, I called JAL and decided to reschedule the domestic flight out of Kansai to a later time. They changed it to 12:30 PM from Itami to Tokyo Hameda, which is incredibly easier to do! I'll have to recall this for the next time I travel. Avoid 7 AM flights out at all costs, because NOTHING runs that early in the morning. Nothing. X_x
I did get back safely to Victoria after about 19 hours in transition. It was seriously a LONG trip back, but it was mostly uneventful and I got back safely and didn't lose anything!
Okay, I'll try to write more later. I know that Ellie summarized most of the trip at ellienonikki, but I know that most of my friends are going to ask me what I did and what I saw, and instead of pointing them to Ellie's journal, I figured it's better form to just write it myself and point them here, instead. :)