Japan Day 4

Japan Day 4

Today we went to the Pokemon Center and then to see the new 13th Pokemon Movie! Tom had a Pokegasm throughout the day. I don't blame him though, the Pokemon Center was overwhelming. Decked out with pokemon merchandise from top to bottom, playing pokemon music and videos on TVs over head. With big plastic Pokemon figures hovering overhead. There was an area where you could do something with your poke walker but unfortunately Tom forgot his.

The movie was... incredibly confusing. It seemed to me to be one of the most complicated Pokemon films I had ever seen and the fact that it was in Japanese just made it utterly impossible to understand. There was something about this guy who used crazy technology to make it look like some pokemon was there when it wasnt and to make it look like some town was destroyed when it wasnt and then he could see into the future randomly with his weird eyes and there was these two new pokemon that could transform into any person or pokemon it touched... i'm surprised I even figured that much out. The coolest part about it was that you get a sweet Pokemon Keychain of the new Pokemon just for going to the movie, you also are supposed to get shiny legendary pokemon on your DS. Me and Tom attempted to do this at Toys R Us but it didn't work most likely because I was using a bootleg version and Tom was using an English version. Also we noticed from the trailers before the film that it seems like for every movie you go to in Japan you get some free cool gift to go with it. Seems like a better way to get people to go to theatres than making everything 3D. You also reserve specific seats when you go to the box office which is a cool idea. After the movie there was tons and tons of Pokemon Merchandise to be bout right in the theatre, again a very clever maneuver to make going to the theater more of a unique experience.

After Pokemon we went to "Namja Town" which we had heard was really neat and was in our area of Ikebukuro within Sunshine City. We had only heard a bit about the place and didn't expect too much. But holy shit this place was HUGE! Two floors of insanity. Much of it was designed like Old Japan but than other parts were creepy and eerie and then other parts were just well... I can barely explain it was a whole other world in there honestly. There is a place called Ice Cream city in there with the weirdest flavors of ice cream you will ever find, we bought Sea Urchin Ice Cream. Also had an amazing Ice Cream Bowl that looked like a panda's face! There was a huge area that was just tons and tons of Dumpling restaurants. The place often felt like a giant maze, we'd walk down some weird alley with all sorts of weird things on the wall and sounds yelling at us and come out in some entirely new area. It was really really cool and I hope to return.

Tommorrow we meet up with Joey and Yuki again to go to the Imperial Palace! We may be partying in Shibyu afterwards, we are not sure just yet.

Later

Japan Day 3

Japan Day 3

Today we went to the Ghibli Museum. Yuki, Tris's neighbor when he had lived in Japan, met with us at the Shinjuku Station and then we continued on to the museum. Yuki was incredibly helpful and kind to us the entire time, she has been helping me a great deal with our vacation in Tokyo.

NO cameras permitted inside the museum but I got some footage outside, of course i'm not uploading it all at the moment.

The museum was beautiful and a unique experience. In no way your traditional "Museum" the whole place feels like something right out of Miyazaki's mind. Truly something to experience first hand. The film we got to see was cute and simple, it was the story of a puppy who became lost from it's owner.

I drew the Laputa Robot but it was just sooo hot I couldn't stay out drawing it for very long. I'm not all that proud of the drawing but I will put it up later.

Later on we met up with Joey, Tris's younger brother. We went out to eat at a Sushi Conveyor Belt place which was rather cheap (120 yen a plate! and that was the same price for all plates!). We then walked around a bit and eventually parted ways but it was certainly nice to speak in english with another american outside of our group. We plan to meet up with Joey and Yuki again when we visit the Imperial Palace on Monday.

Later on in the night we ventured back to the Sega Arcade and played some really neat games once again. Also found a 24 hour hot food vending machine, it microwaves your food and everything! You can even get Lo-main, its cheap and good! Just really hot and you have to wait a like 2 minutes after you select your food.

I played the "Metal Gear Solid Arcade Game" which was truly an advanced arcade game. It was in 3D which you wore glasses for and it tracked your head movements so that where-ever you moved your head your character would look that way. It was not easy to get used to but felt really neat and immersive. I have no footage of this or the other cool stuff we played at the arcade but we hope to return tomorrow and I will definitely film then.

Pokemon Center and New Pokemon Movie tommorrow!

Japan Day 2

Today we went to Shinjuku, we went to the Park there which was really impressive once you got to the Japanese Gardens. There was a really cool old japanese house with a nice pond in front of it filled with GIANT fish which swarmed towards you when you came close begging for food. We found another arcade that was 5 floors or so. We played "Elevator Action Death Parade" which I wish I could upload the footage from but it is too big for blogger. We had a group of schoolgirls behind us clapping and watching intensely. Also bought a pack of these cards called "Lord Of Vermillion" with these cards you can play this videogame where you use the cards in the game, its kinda hard to explain but its like real life Yu-Gi-Oh if that makes sense. The cards are from all different card games INCLUDING Magic the gathering! We then played this super fun and difficult Rhythm game called "jubeat".

Also these two guys stopped Alex in the street cause they saw his Passion Pit shirt and got excited, they then put on "Sleepy Head" by Passion Pit on their boombox, made us all very happy. We then had a ten burger high Burger that we split three ways, super yummy.

We had a long adventure in pouring rain trying to find the Seiyu Grocery Store in Ikebukuro, we were forced to buy umbrellas because of the deadly rain. We did eventually find it and got shrimp chips, green pea chips, and cheetos things. Tom got some cereal that came with a pokemon card, I got a big thing of this awesome apple juice, also got plum and banana juice. They had really cheap premade meals there too, each of our meals were only about $4! Wasn't the best food but good for the money. Oh and I got "Sweet Potato Liquor" also known as "Shouchu Kaido" I believe. Have yet to try it.

Unfortunately a lot of these videos are just too big to upload. I plan to edit a nice video together when I get back home though, for now enjoy these little pieces.











Tommorrow is the Ghibli Museum, unfortunately no camera's are allowed :( But we also plan to hit up "Namja Town" afterwards so i'll be sure to capture some of that on video.

Whisper of the Heart is on TV!

Later!

More Videos

These are from yesterday still, i'll put up more on what will be friday morning for all of you American peoples

Later

Japan Day 1

Japan Day 1

Ok so this will probably be a pretty sloppy post cause I've been up for 48 hours and am incredibly tired and worn out.

We had no issues with the plane ride, subway, and hotel.

Everything has honestly been perfect.

After half a day here I would describe Tokyo as a cleaner, nerdier, and more technologically advanced NYC.

We went around the area our hotel is in at Ikebukaro and found a MASSIVE SEGA arcade beyond any arcade I have EVER seen. It was incredible and I cannot wait to go back!

We also found Sunshine City which is a MASSIVE mall. There were many other adventures, the train ride from the airport was beautiful and the city is unique and exciting.

The only issue i'm having right now is we are all so uneducated in the different phrases and mannerisms that I feel we come off as rude and stereotypical foreigners.

Anyway here's a little piece of the uncut footage, i dont have time to edit them. Probably wont do that til I get back home.

Enjoy!













Some of it will have to wait for editing as there is too much dead time in them and it would take too long to upload.

Will update again tomorrow!
Later

Off To Japan!

I'm off to Tokyo, Japan!

Hope to arrive around 4-5ish on thursday. it'll be 5-6 am over in the US.

I plan to document the trip on video, i'll try to post them each day at night. Look for the first one Thursday night.

Bye!

I'm Employed!

I got the job! I'm now working at Bunko Studios in NYC as an After Effects Animator. I don't think I'm supposed to say specifically what I'm working on but all I can say is yesterday I worked on a shot with hundreds of puppies running off a cliff.

Oh and my first official task was to build my chair, literally I walked in and there was an

unopened box at my desk with the pieces of a computer chair in it.

Also got my Pen for my tablet and colored those two

life drawings I spoke of in the last post.

More Waterfalls!

There was a turtle just sitting there in the middle of the trail, he was shy but I managed to do a quick sketch of the guy

Both of these were colored in photoshoped and sketched with that same brush tip marker

Oh some pics from the massive Lightsaber Battle!

It's a Jedi Rave Party !

This battle was intimidating, no its not cause he's a black sith lord! It's cause he has a cape!

Oh and that comic strip I spoke of, here it is finally. I hope to put one of these in the blog every other post or so.

Uhhh.... it just uploads as super tiny on here so I'm linking everyone to the Deviant Art Page below

Blog Comic 01

(click the image and check out it out full size or its unreadable)