Shinjuku!

So, I headed out to Shinjuku today in search of about 5 things that I need to make my stay in Japan a little more comfortable.

A rough list:
1)Train Commuter Pass
2)Cell Phone
3)Watch
4)Wireless Keyboard and Mouse

These were listed in order of importance… somewhat.

Though number 4 isn’t very necessary, I’m using it to type right now, so it was a great buy… I’m not really a fan of laptop track pads and keyboards, so it’s a win for me.

First, I got my commuter pass, which is a monthly pass that basically makes it free for me to go to and from school for around a month. Though it’s convenient, it was expensive, and I found that out when I forked over the $70 it took to purchase. Not a fun purchase, but necessary to save money down the line. A plus of getting the commuter pass is that it gives me free access to the stops that I travel through on my way to school, which includes Shinjuku. So, for a month, I have free access to Shinjuku by train. That’s a pretty big deal.

As for the cell phone, I wasn’t quite as successful. Turns out there as been a large influx of exchange students, and the phones were replenished today (prepaid phones), and they’d already been all scooped up by the time my group got there. Though one person did get a phone, I learned of a cheaper phone that I could buy, and I’m just going to wait for that to come out. Since I have free access to Shinjuku now, I can check anytime.

I got a fancy new watch (well, not very fancy, I essentially went for the cheapest watch I could find), so that worked out well, and I finally know what time it is, constantly. Which is good, and bad. Good, because now I can coordinate meeting up with people. Bad, because now I am constantly aware of how much time I waste.

As far as the keyboard and mouse, I essentially got it for any coding/gaming I do while I’m here (oh, another tidbit about me, my major is computer science and I love technology, and making helpful programs, so I do it in my spare time), because of afore-mentioned dislikes.

All in all, a pretty productive day, compared to yesterday when it did nothing but rained, and I got a whole lot of nothing done (a whole, whole lot — though I did hang out and meet some other exchange students).

Picture time! (And look forward to a JStuff feature with all the cool stuff I’ve run/bought so far… they’re kind of piling up, but I’ll post a bunch at the same time).

This shot is of a building that I saw on the way... I've always thought it was pretty interesting, and this time I had a camera on me, so I took some shots (this was the best one). I don't know if I'm qualified to make comments on the Japanese as a whole yet, but it sure seems like they like to decorate things.

A simple shot of the hustle and bustle of the local train station.

All this machine does, 24/7 is advertize the new Pokemon game that's coming out. I feel like theres a small town somewhere with no power, and this machine is the reason.

A small shop, on the way to the train station

For some reason, there was some sort of food/item display in the middle of a station I was transferring at. I couldn't tell if it was a stand, or a store that was near it decided to extend itself into the public domain.

After arriving at Shinjuku, this is one of the first shots I took. A little under-impressive, but definitely interesting, as a shot of the city.

Another shot of Shinjuku I took after walking for a bit.

The Shinjuku Lion.... The first beer hall I've ever seen.

A store that a friend of mine wanted to go into to get some clothing items, this shop was an ultra chic shinjuku-like shop.... Pretty much as expected.

Another store for women in Shinjuku. There seemed to be a lot of them.

I guess this picture encapsulates how Japanese pop-culture portrays foreigners. Definitely not accurate, in my case.

Definietly not your mother's Jelly Beans. I want to know who in the world thought of this, and just how many hard substances they were abusing. And believe it or not, that box should contain a cell phone.

Note- Softbank is a phone carrier in Japan, one of the Big 3 (Softbank, Docomo, AU).

I don't know if I have already become used to seeing weird things in Japan, but this picture didn't warrant a JWeird feature, because I knew what it was. Though who, when, where, and why are still possibly unanswerable.

And of course, let us not forget about the Gundam in Odaiba (I still think it’s only a matter of time until the Japanese government decides to let the world know that it does indeed move and fire ballistic missiles).

Gundam feature on dannychoo.com

I’m not affiliated with dannychoo in any way and I don’t even surf his blog. Google is what lead me to the beautiful picture you see there… Maybe I’ll have one of my own one day.

Second Day in Japan? Tokyo Game Show.

And I was worried about having content for the blog. Yesterday, officially my second day in japan, me and some new friends went to Tokyo Game Show 2010. I didn’t even know it was happening, but luckily for me, some others did, so I followed along. It was a little far away and difficult to get to, but it gave me a lot of insight into how the trains in Tokyo work. They’re very organized, and run on tight schedules, I can see why they are considered some of the best in the world.

I realized on the way there, however, that my camera was dead. At first I thought I forgot the memory card (which I didn’t), but then I realized that the battery was dying/dead. I couldn’t charge the camera (my charging stuff was mixed in with my bigger baggage, which I didn’t have access to at the moment), so it was a big fail on my part. I essentially carried a fancy black rock with detachable lens throughout the day. Luckily others also brought cameras, so I’m borrowing/using some of the images I took with their cameras, or they took.

There are a lot of pictures, and as for this post, I’m only going to upload some (because I only have some of them at the moment), but unless I forget, there will be a part 2 to this post, which will contain the rest of the pictures.

Some scenery on the way there, I think I took this picture from the train... Still working on my photography, though this is just a regular neighborhood.

At a random train stop (well, random to me), someone pointed out that Disney Land was over there. DISNEY LAND. LESS THAN 10 STOPS AWAY FROM WHERE I LIVE. Well, I thought it was amazing anyway.

A wall at TGS, with some interesting graphics on it.

The banner over the entrance to TGS2010

There was a Megaman Universe booth... I didn't really go inside, so I'm not sure what exactly this game is going to be like, but it was cool looking!

From one of my favorite series of all time, heres a lifesize figure that was propped up at the show.

A little note about the following pictures. There were A LOT of cosplayers at TGS 2010. Some of them stood out, and some didn’t, these are just some of the pictures I managed to scrounge up of some of the cosplays I recognized and loved. Yeah, theres a lot I’m not covering, but I wasn’t able to take pictures of all of them (since my camera wasn’t functional), so I just have some. The ones I put here are top notch though, pretty awesome stuff.

A fantastic cosplay of Yuffie. Japanese cosplayers are definitely a cut above.

Another awesome cosplayer, dressed this time as solid snake. I finished MGS4 the day I flew out of the US (packing was a little less important than seeing the ending), and this guy did an awesome job on Old Snake.

Look for the continuation of this post, hopefully sometime in the near future, I should have some more pictures and possibly description of TGS…

As for a cursory description of TGS: there were screens, games, costumed people, people, small people, big people, foreigners, xbox stuff, ps3 stuff, bigger screens, more people, smaller screens, cellphone stuff, technology, booths, EVERYWHERE. It was crazy. So much stimulation. Being my first game show, I was really surprised at how well set up everything was.

Black people in Japan +1

I’ve finally arrived. In Japan. I don’t know if culture shock is contagious, but it must be, because I’ve culture shocked every Japanese person I’ve come across. It’s a weird feeling to know for a fact that you are drawing the gazes of everyone around you. I even heard some people coming off the plane saying “Dekai!” which means “huge” or “big” essentially (I’m translating loosely, I’m sure someone on the world wide interwebs will comment and tell me if I’m wrong). He even made a guess to my name, he thought my name was “Frank”, I guess a typical American/Big Person/Black person name? I resisted the urge to turn around and correct him. I figured I should get used to it. Plus, it’s kind of nice to be able to pick up on conversations about you when people don’t know you understand what they’re talking about.

My first day in the country was quite an eventful one. After getting off the plane, I got my heavy bags mailed to my dorm for around $35, which I thought was amazing, considering it was quite far. I met up with some people from the college I’ll be going to (Sophia Univeristy), and had some of my first conversations with actual Japanese people. I don’t know why people make a big deal about communicating with people in other languages, it was actually kind of fun figuring out how to say what I want to say, and then saying it, and making sure I was understood correctly. Unfortunately, despite promising myself I was going to study numerous times this summer, the only studying I did amounted to reading the notebook from the FIRST Japanese class I took… Needless to say, I should study some more later…

After that, we took multiple train transfers, and a bus, and got to my train, finally. It turns out the Japanese concept of space must be different than the US… Because evidently, two locations that are 50 minutes away from each other by train are still considered to be in the same city (Tokyo). That can’t be normal. I also learned the hard way that everything looks close on a map, yet reality is much more tiring.

Later that night, I went on my first Japanese adventure, finding the convenience store. I had a map, some money, and long strides on my side. Despite all that, I got lost pretty quick. Turns out I was reading the map wrong (not to get into too much specifics, but I’m not a bad navigator, I just misunderstood that the exit point to my dorm wasn’t as it was marked on the map…). However, I found the convenience store eventually, and got some snacks, drinks, and made some copies (yeah, convenience stores in japan have copy machines… go figure.). Then on my way back, I promptly got lost.

I’m really not a bad navigator. What I did was try to engineer a new route back home from where I was… I guess it was a little too early for me to be making shortcuts. Either way, I found my way back, and plopped down on my bed to sleep.

Very interesting use of greenery there, Japan. Nicely done.

The all-powerful & famous Japanese vending machine. These are the first I saw when I got into Japan

A baseball field I saw on the way from the airport, looks like America is alive and well.

Unfortunately, I have no idea if this building has anything to do with the Honda Motor Company. Maybe in that building they sell happy Hondas? I may never know.

We're not in Kansas anymore

Some fields I saw on my way from Narita Airport

Another picture I just felt I had to take... Like a tourist rite of passage or something.

While some might think this looks like a picture out of a first class/business seating section of a jet, it's in fact the view from a train. Very nice, to say the least.

OK, Finally get outside the trainstation, and of course I see some nicely fitted wheels to start. No chrome 22s or spinners. Just some tasteful wheels. I love japan.

Half of my room. Yes, it is as small it looks. Scratch that, it might be even smaller than it looks. I can extend my arms, and touch the wall and my closet at the same time. Then again, I am 6 foot 5.

A different view of the other half of my room

The rewards of my first adventure in Japan! I played it safe at the convenience store, and picked some snacks that I could easily distinguish (the Japanese have a love affair with bread, as do I)

Half eaten sandwich. It was actually really good, despite how it may look.

Well, that’s it for the first day in Japan. This post is a little retroactive (I guess that’s what I’ll call it, this post was made 1 day or more after the fact), I can say that the next post should be pretty entertaining… I took a trip with some new friends to the Tokyo Game Show. Being my first time to a game show, I was taken aback by the sheer number of things they had to do and see there, as well as the sea of heads (some pictures I took will illustrate this more). Look forward to it!