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Mr_Carter

Japan Pastebin

Mr_Carter
Mar 6th, 2018
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  1. Oh man Japan
  2.  
  3. Ill just go day by day and probably ramble a lot about stuff but man theres so much to talk about
  4.  
  5.  
  6. Wed. Feb 21
  7. ***********
  8. Night 1 of travel. Not much to talk about here since we just went from ATL to LAX. Spent the night in a cold uncomfortable chair next to the United Airlines check in counter because we couldn't check bags until they opened at 4am the day of the flight. mpg met up with us in LAX after his flight got delayed for a while.
  9.  
  10. Thu. Feb 22 - Fri. Feb 23
  11. *************************
  12. Flight from LAX to SFO was delayed by a time amount that I forget, maybe an hour or so. I fell asleep the minute I sat down in the plane and woke up an hour later thinking we had landed, we hadn't even taken off. It was at this point that I realized we would have to run from our gate to the next flight (the long one). We got off the plane in SFO and mpg and I started walking quickly to the next gate, which was really far away. At some point a lady came running past us and we panicked and started running. I realized how out of shape I am but to be fair I had a full backpack on and was running on almost no food/sleep. We made it with minutes to spare (simmmons, bananas, and kyeth made it with seconds to spare). Nonetheless we made it. Flight was mostly uneventful. I forget which movies were on which flight but I watched Kingsman 1/2, Thor: Ragnarok, and Spiderman: Homecoming. All were very enjoyable. We lost a lot of hours due to timezone changes so we landed at 3pm on Friday in Tokyo.
  13.  
  14. Spent about 30 minutes trying to figure out how to find the post office so Simmons and I could pick up our wifi hotspots (if you go to japan buy one of these its basically the single most important thing to have). Once we got those we got on a train from Narita to the AirBnB. That took about 1:30 (https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/966947367348916224), and included at least 1 getting on the wrong train. After a long time we finally arrived at the AirBNB. (First Meal https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/967013720286101504). Didn't do much that night because all of us were dead.
  15.  
  16. Sat. Feb 24
  17. ***********
  18. Day 1 of mpg and Carter are on their own because they didn't go to concerts. We pretty much explored Akihabara all day and it was amazing. So many anime/hobby stores, arcades, food, etc. Its pretty much the nerd mecca. I did my first gacha and won the A prize first try (https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/967292648154263552), found a ¥100 (less than a dollar) Sailor Waddle Dee plush (https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/967293664752943104), had spicy kebab rice for dinner (https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/967390724986626049). At night we went back to Akihabara for arcade night (this is pretty much what we did every night because: it owned, most places closed, and it was 2 stops away from the airbnb)
  19.  
  20. Sun. Feb 25
  21. ***********
  22. Day 2 of mpg and Carter's adventures alone. We went to Ueno Park to see shrines and stuff (https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/967598797730672640) , found a bunch of local food vendors making fresh food which was amazing of course, did lucky charms at the shrines, got good luck. mpg got owned by a fat ass pigeon. After the park we went down one of the shopping streets in Ueno which was pretty neat, it was really crowded because it was Sunday. And then we went back to Akihabara for shopping and arcades. I bought andy some stuff (https://twitter.com/AndyLaso/status/970901428804968448) and got a Kirby gacha (https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/967711882327961606). and also I began my quest to become good a Chunithm which is pretty much the best rhythm game I've ever played. I'll put a section at the end of this paste with some of the achievements I was able to accomplish by the end of the trip.
  23.  
  24. Mon. Feb 26
  25. ***********
  26. I had a reservation at the Sega Puchiguru Love Live Cafe so we went to that for lunch. It was really nice, the food was alright, but they had a bunch of cool Love Live stuff and we got some nice pictures and we got to sign the wall. (https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/967938910457245697). I was kind of sick at this point so I was really grumpy and felt like doo doo but we went to Toyko Sky Tree (https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/967996133338357761) it was really cool. We couldn't see Mount Fuji but that wasn't very likely anyways. There was a Macross exhibit at the top of Tokyo Sky Tree and they had a giant Macross mobage setup there so that was pretty cool too (https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/968014391214948353) We did some shopping around the Sky Tree. Aikatsu store, Pokemon Store, etc. We watched some Avengers tv show that was on and the Japanese dub was amazing.
  27. (https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/968077359910809600)
  28.  
  29. Tue. Feb 27
  30. ***********
  31. Another concert day so mpg and I went to Nakano Broadway (basically a big mall with anime/game shops and arcades and food and stuff). It wasn't quite as good as Akihabara but it was definitely still interesting. We got some delicious bakery pastries (https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/968399722376445952) and we discovered the best restaurant near our AirBnB, Yayoiken. I didn't know what I got but it was amazing and somehow DNGR was able to tell exactly what dish it was and what restaurant it was from just from this picture (https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/968434841313099776). Mostly a recovery day since I was still a little sick.
  32.  
  33. Wed. Feb 28
  34. ***********
  35. C A T C A F E.
  36.  
  37. https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/968729451013005314
  38. https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/968730033048178690
  39. https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/968731177724141568
  40. https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/968733382543839232
  41. https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/968734186562576386
  42. https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/968734965700710401
  43. https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/968735401161691136
  44. https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/968747520330534912
  45.  
  46. We went to Harajuku for some shopping and food stuff, ended up in a cat cafe for almost 2 hours and it was amazing. We also stopped by Meiji Shrine and Yoyogi park (we counted the teleport tiles but I wont spoil how many there were) We also got craft beer from one of the Tokyo breweries (https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/968770202673598464), and took the Takeshita Street Challenge aka "get a crepe, try to eat it without dropping it when you get bumped by 1,000 people". Also we got Takoyaki (fried octopus) that night and it was super delicious (https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/968786062674878464).
  47.  
  48. Thu. Mar 1
  49. **********
  50. Ikebukuro day, (https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/969057480968847361)
  51.  
  52. Started off with Mister Donut, the donut shop mentioned in the Monogatari Series Anime, naturally it was delicious. (https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/969060318436446209). After that we went to Sunshine City, a popular shopping mall that houses the Pokemon Center Store, along with other attractions like J-World Tokyo, a jump themed mini amusement park. Got some udon, found some fake bread pllows (https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/969088515764924416), got some FF14 merch (https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/969137541793202177). After that we went back to Akihabara for shopping since most of the group hadn't had a chance to check out a lot of the stores there. I found a cute Family Mart Kagamine Rin Nendoroid for ¥900 which is a steal (https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/969221250559037441).
  53.  
  54. Fri. Mar 2
  55. **********
  56. Shinjuku day. Visited Shinjuku Goyen Park which was really beautiful. It had started to warm up at this point so the parks were much more lively and colorful. (https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/969462475593719810). Also visited ARTNIA, the Square Enix store located outside their headquarters, (https://imgur.com/a/7OuPo). Heres a few other misc images from Ikebukuro (https://imgur.com/a/Koayc).
  57.  
  58. Sat. Mar 3
  59. **********
  60. Shibuya day. Started off hot with the Shibuya Scramble™ (https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/969799485684531200) and CONVEYOR BELT SUSHI. I was looking forward to this the entire trip and it was everything I could hope for and more.
  61.  
  62. https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/969800641693368320
  63. https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/969802948455817217
  64. https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/969806415328985089
  65. https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/969807571065364480
  66. https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/969808621604298752
  67.  
  68. Evening donuts from Mister Donut, and a chill night in Akihabara. Also mpg and I went "bar hopping" that night. It was quite the adventure because we started off at a casual bar that was more american style, with a really nice bartender. We decided to go check out another bar nearby and we ended up picking a whiskey bar with no beer or anything. It was dark, creepy, there was no one else there besides us and the bartender and we got "the standard" (https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/969956372971339776) which ended up being ¥1800 per drink. It was really good but we weren't about to keep spending that kind of money. After that we grabbed 7/11 beer and went back to the AirBnB.
  69.  
  70. Sun. Mar 4
  71. **********
  72. mpg's birthday so we went to a maid cafe naturally. We were all really nervous because none of us really knew what to expect but it ended up being hilarious and amazing. I would highly recommend that everyone at least go once. Its certainly and experience you need to have an open mind about but its not something that you should be afraid of.
  73.  
  74. Maid Cafe Pics
  75. https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/970144040778739712
  76. https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/970145170212601856
  77. https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/970162741884235777
  78.  
  79. After the maid cafe we split up, some people spent more time in Akihabara because there's literally endless shit to do there and even after all the time we spent there was still plenty we didn't see. mpg and I went to Mount Takao which was 100% worth it because it was far enough outside the city to be more of the peaceful, natural japan. We took a cable car up to the top because we were worried things were going to close but we ended up hiking down from there. It was a lot of vertical distance traveled but it was worth it all for this one view: (https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/970223913081888769). It got really dark really fast after the sun set over the mountain and we got to see the city light up on our way down. It was truly majestic. Heres the view from the daytime, also very beautiful (https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/970201701465468929)
  80.  
  81. Mon. Mar 5
  82. **********
  83. Travel Home day, spent a few hours in Akihabara before we left, it started raining which was very fitting because it was very sad to leave. Mostly uneventful travel home. Had the best seat possible on my long flight (https://twitter.com/Mr_Carter13/status/970709617314488320). Had to go through security in 3 different airports because I booked flights at different times and because of international travel (NRT, SFO, and LAX). Finally arrived home at midnight last night. And thats pretty much it.
  84.  
  85. Some general stuff
  86. ******************
  87. Tokyo is probably one of the most all around great cities that I have ever visited. Its clean, the people are nice, there's endless stuff to do, and the food is amazing. There are no trash cans in the streets, just some recycling cans near the vending machines that are everywhere that serve hot and cold beverages, including many types of very good hot coffee/tea.
  88.  
  89. Akihabara has arcades that will blow your mind. There are 3 SEGA arcades within a block of each other and each one is at least 5 floors of crane games, gachas, and pretty much any style arcade game you can think of. And that's just the SEGA arcades, theres also Taito Game Stations everywhere, and 3rd party arcades like HEY and Tokyo Leisure Land that are all amazing.
  90.  
  91. Everyone there is super polite and nice. It was incredibly jarring to go from the super nice airport employees in NRT to the SFO employees who all seemed like they were having the worst day of their career. The niceness was contagious too, its just so easy to be calm and polite to everyone when you get the same in return. I don't really know how to describe it otherwise.
  92.  
  93. The metro station is super easy to use, all the signs are both Japanese and English, google maps works very well with the trains and you can see exactly what platform to go to and when the train will come and how much it will cost. Its very foreigner friendly.
  94.  
  95. Im sure theres a ton of stuff that I cant think of to talk about right now, so feel free to ask me and ill try to answer.
  96.  
  97. Chunithm Stuff
  98. **************
  99. Chunithm is a rhythm game where you have touch keys and sensors for lifting your hands up off the keys as well. Heres a video that sort of shows whats going on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brP--73dohY
  100. There are 16 keys, but the notes can be variable sized (as small as 1 key or as large as all 16 keys). Everytime you see a green arrow pointing up, that means you have to raise your hand up into the sensors above the keypad. It ends up being really really smooth and fun gameplay for the most part. The difficulty ramp is insane though and its really fun to get into the harder stuff. That video I linked is a perfect play of a 10+ difficulty song, the scale goes all the way up to 14 from what I can tell, maybe higher for special plays. I managed to clear a 13+ which coincidentally is one of the songs that got me excited about playing the game, Freedom Dive. Here is a video of someone getting All Justice (the highest rating) on it, keep in mind I wasnt even close to full combo or anything, I just cleared. Im still really proud of it and I'm really sad that I wont be able to play again unless I go back to japan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIAqag8NQAc
  101.  
  102. I really hope that Chunithm comes to Round 1 one day because holy moly I could play this game for hours on end. Its so addicting and the movement is so fun. I hope you try it if you ever go to Japan.
  103.  
  104. Final Thoughts
  105. **************
  106. I uh... I really want to go back. I would seriously consider moving and living there if an opportunity arose for me to do so. I felt like a different person in Japan. It was so refreshing and coming back to America it just feels bad. I hope you enjoyed this pastebin and I hope you get to go to Japan someday as well and have as great of an experience as I did. :)
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