See how sad I was when I had to leave Malaysia? *sob*

Given that I will only enter Square Enix in July, I took the opportunity to go back to my home country Malaysia for two weeks. It was really good to be back, to be able to experience the 4Fs of Malaysia. Family, friends, food and freaking hot weather.

I will post pictures up in a bit (took 800+ pictures!); will be a grand task to filter ‘em all! Seeing that I have foreign and Japanese visitors as well, I will write in both English and Japanese. French, Italian and Chinese people are welcome to translate my posts!

Picture above was taken by my cousin Aidi (thanks!) at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, which won Best Airport by the Airport Council International-Airport Service Quality (ACI-ASQ) for three consecutive years! *proud*

Woke up at 5:30 am this morning so I thought, what the heck, let’s go out and cycle around!

Here’s the latest update about my work: Due to some visa application delays, Square Enix has decided to push my working contract to the following month, meaning that I’ll start work on July 1st. I might go back to Malaysia after I receive my work permit. Will let you guys know.

I finally got my lazy ass to cycle my bike from the old home in Yoyogi to the current one last week. Had to clean it and remove some of the rust, haven’t cycled in a while! Now that the rainy days are over, it’s time to take it for a spin today.

My new home is now in West Shinjuku. It’s a really mysterious place, coz it’s so quiet and peaceful albeit being smacked right in the middle of the city. A city boy such as myself approves of this new enriching habitat ^^

To show you how close it is to the city, that’s the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building in Shinjuku, only a 10-minute walk away from my apartment. Feels like living near the Petronas Twin Towers back home!

This is the usual road I take to the nearest train station. I seriously love Japan for its cleanliness and utmost safety, two major reasons why it’s hard for me to stay anywhere else.

Not many are awake yet at this time of the day. The sun is out very early though, this was taken at around 6 am.

There’s a decent amount of greenery in the surroundings, thanks to the people living here.

Some even grow beneath the vending machines!

Tokyoites have to follow a schedule on when to throw out what kind of garbage, you know, being eco-friendly and all. Thursdays are for recyclable stuff (newspapers, cardboards, etc.), Wednesdays and Saturdays are for burnable garbage, and the 1st and 3rd Fridays of the month are for non-burnable garbage like glass items.

The nearest postbox from my apartment.

One thing I like about my neighbourhood is that there are a WHOLE LOT of cats around. I so LOVE cats!

Now that’s a lot of potted plants. Nice!

This place is so family-friendly that there are a total of six schools within a 10-minute walk radius from my apartment.

Here’s one of them, the Kanto International High School. The sight of that gate and the tree has already triggered a few anime scenes in my head.

A 2-in-1 special, Nishi-Shinjuku Elementary School and Kindergarten. I’m probably gonna walk my kid here one day hahahaha /delusion

The elementary school might look cramped earlier but its school ground is bigger than most of its Tokyo city counterparts.

Where there are kids, there will be playgrounds. Ooooh, that slide looks fun!

And a little garden for grownups who look after their children.

Ok time for a (canned) coffee break.

The mystery starts here. Leave this peaceful neighbourhood on this path…

…and the road widens a bit…

…and a minute later we arrive at a noisy and super busy highway! Whoa did they install an invisible sound filter or something?

Remember to always follow road rules even while riding a bicycle!

On the other side of the highway is a loooong line of relatively tall apartments.

To save space, some car parks are built vertically.

You can’t cycle for two minutes straight without the sight of another vending machine!

This is the usual street I walk through to do some shopping, eat and take the train.

A nice cute building smacked right into the corner.

Nearest station to my place. Just two stations away from Guinness Book of Record’s busiest train station in the WORLD, Shinjuku station.

Others prefer to take the Keio bus.

All the major konbinis (i.e. convenience stores in Japanese) are here in a row! Lawson is somewhere around the corner :) Talk about convenient!

It’s time to end the trip with some breakfast in one of my favourite eating spots, Matsuya.

Not in the mood for the breakfast set, so I settled with the usual Gyuumeshi (Beef Rice bowl)… and some raw egg, just like Rocky.

If you haven’t noticed yet, this is just an excuse to not post my room pics, since it’s not 100% ready yet :P Stay tuned for that!

Woo, been a while since I had a picture event post, hasn’t it?

It’s finally autumn, and we needed go to a place that shows proof of it!

Last Monday was a national holiday. A labour and thanksgiving sort of day. Thanks to the CNN link Mama sent me, travel advertisement boards all over the train stations and the beautiful weather forecast, we decided to go to Mt Takao.

It’s less than an hour’s train ride from Shinjuku via the Keio line, which was the line Dzaid and I used to travel to school for the first 3 months in Japan. If you’re in the area, you can find out more about how to get there in this WikiTravel page.

This is the base of the mountain near the train station. Looking good already!

Now this is where the headache starts! There are seven paths leading to the peak of Mt Takao and you gotta choose two, one for ascent and another for descent. Most travel sites don’t give out recommendations so we had to decide for ourselves.

Dango daikazoku! Don’t they just look delicious!

We were not even close to climbing the mountain and we could already see the autumn colours.

Lazy people lining up to take the cable car, which takes you halfway up the mountain. No thanks, we strong!

For challenge’s sake, we took the TOUGHEST path of the seven. It started out with madness; we had to climb high steps and steep slopes.

It was refreshingly different from my earlier Mt Fuji climb. Instead of volcanic ash and rocks, I see trees, dried leaves and brown soil. A bit close to home, minus the leeches and insect trouble (hooray!).

Now this is what I hate about camera flash. I can see myself clearly, but it looks as if I photoshopped myself into the picture!

Since this is the toughest path to climb, there were more people descending. We actually felt stupid for a while :P But thanks to this, I now have a six-pack stomach *flex*

Mama taking the occasional rest…

…while drinking hot tea below the shade. This is the life!

We have reached the resting area, where you can relax, use a (smelly) restroom…

…and enjoy the breathtaking view! According to a signboard, Shinjuku (where we live) is visible right in the middle of this picture, at the farthest point of the landscape.

No time to waste though, not much daytime left to reach the peak. We quickly climbed up these stairs to continue our journey.

There were bridges along the path that overlook a bunch of different-coloured leaves.

And now we have reached the final boss! Reminds me of the Batu Caves steps.

Took a little rest midway…

…and voila! It’s as if the mountain shouted “Congrats, now here’s your reward!”. Simply beautiful (the leaves, btw).

It was kinda crowded, but I was too drowned in the breathtaking view to let it bother me.

We came at just the right time. Few weeks earlier or later and we might miss out on all this.

I just realized something, I don’t have a picture of myself with the leaves on my camera. Rats!

To top it all off, we were blessed with the sight of a beautiful sunset.

Same picture but photoshopped… just kidding.

Oh almost forgot to take this! The proof to show that we have reached the peak of Mt Takao @ 600 metres.

As much as we’d like to stay, it’s time to descend the mountain.

Uhoh, it’s getting rather dark. Better hurry.

After a while, it got so dark that our eyes had to readjust to the darkness. Didn’t bring a torchlight, ehek. Mama was a little freaked out but there were other people walking as well, so I wasn’t too worried.

This is how it was without flash. Eek, I’m getting goosebumps just staring at this pic! Don’t worry, it’s not an animated gif :)

Midway through the descent, we were treated with a lovely view of city lights. It was nice to see such a romantic sight… with… my mom…..

So hey, some of you are not as lucky as me and can’t enjoy life here in Tokyo :P Still, thanks to YouTube and a guy with a good camera, you can enjoy the sights and sounds of Tokyo in stunning clarity, as if you were really there!

Why stop at Tokyo when a bullet train away in real life is just a click away online!

Sure brings back memories of my Kyoto trip in 2006. After watching this, I suggest you browse through my Kyoto trip from the bottom of the sidebar on the right, you will see some familiar sights.

Enjoy your walk!

(Thanks to Mari’s diary for the links)

Time for a beach episode, minus the tanline fanservice and bikini slip-ups. Wait, don’t go!

A rather slow week in ahbonk.net, hasn’t it? Was busy with work, japanese studies and other things *cough*death knight*cough*.

I was determined to experience a fully Japanese summer during the holidays, so I invited Daim (sad huh?) to the beach. To my shock, I found out that the Japanese litter their beaches and it’s usually left like that for a week plus, especially the ones near Tokyo. Such a mystery, Japan is very well-known for their clean streets and no-littering behavior.

Also, at Kamakura beach (near Tokyo) they found some human skulls 2 years back xD Thanks to the Yakuzas in the 60s.

So I thought it would be best to go somewhere a little far from Tokyo. Thanks to the Metropolis article feature, we decided to go to Ooarai, a good 2 to 3 hours train ride away.

Once we alighted the JR line, we had to ride a rather rural-looking train. They had rotating fans mounted on the ceiling of the train instead of air conditioners!

Just check out their navigation board! Nothing beats the classic eh.

As expected, there were rice and vegetable fields as far as the eye can see.

After a sweaty ride, we have arrived! And I look cool, as usual.

This is the very opposite of the crowded Shinjuku station. Oh wait, do I see a mirror?

Reflective camwhoring time!

We ran into a bit of trouble at the station. We were looking for a card reader (similar to Touch’n Go) but couldn’t find any :S Never assume you can use your Suica card in all stations! We were given a little paper to give to a certain Tokyo station dude and paid for the entire ride in cash.

I dunno, but this feels so California-ish. The space was so huuu~uge! Ok, think I’ve been in Tokyo for too long.

As usual, my love for Japanese street views got in the way of our beach vacation.

Never knew potholes could be so cute!

Summer flowers greeting us through the 15-minute walk to the beach.

A footwear wearhouse (geddit?) near the beach. Quite smart of them to put it here, specifically targeted for people like Daim who damaged his slippers at the beach!

Finally, the sea! Umiumiumiumiumiumiumiumiumiumiumiumiumiumi~ (minor Azumanga reference, in case you didn’t know)

Man, is this the life or what!

I like how the two fishermen didn’t give a damn about my antics, haha.

Time for a little lunch, mateys!

Yohoho, me presence can scare little lasses away!

*Ahem* Anyway, it was a simple sandwich lunch, me not a big fan of sandwiches anyhow.

Then off we went to the beach! As with many beach episodes in anime, you could find many beach cafes lined up here. Not anymore though, only during the summer.

This is where the main characters have to work part-time under some unique circumstances (read: bikini waitress scenes),

Your attraction level goes up when you bring a guitar with you at all times. This is a fact!

I think I’ll look cooler if I bring one of these babies.

We found a nice quiet spot at the beach. Not as crowded as we expected, but that’s a big plus point.

And there are still some great sights to behold ;)

Daim was rather busy with his usual hand in the scene picture-taking. Artistic la konon :P

I left Daim with his cool time-to-get-girls activitiy…

…while I feel the sand underneath my feet and walk along the beach line.

This is proof that males all around the world think alike.

The weather was superb! Just looking at this picture warms me up amidst the cold autumn winds.

Hey dude, you’re in the way.

Thanks.

Other people see a jetski. I see a tourist trap.

The people that make the beach safe for everyone.

This beach is also popular with the surfers. The real ones, I mean.

Argh what do you call these things again? It’s at the tip of my tongue! Somethingsomething-foam methinks.

Looks like David Hasselhoff didn’t make it in time.

A little shameless advertising, as usual.

When I came back, Daim seemed to have attracted a couple of blokes. Hahahahahahahahahah tak jadi.

These guys are very sporting, though I thought they were high on drugs lol.

Yay, I have finally grown taller! I knew it was an age factor.

Daim left his trademark toyol (uh, goblin?) on the beach before we headed back.

And no beach trip would be complete without a cool pose by the sea.

All-in-all it was a fun trip. Never felt the salty sea breeze for so long, will definitely go again when I have the chance. Here’s hoping that when we go back there next year, Daim’s toyol will still be around.

Never mind, scratch that.

A great trip to start the autumn. Onwards to 8o pictures of Hakone!

Next, Mama and I went to an area slightly west off Tokyo, Hakone. Known for its mountain ranges and hot springs, it’s extremely popular among tourists, especially those who wanna get out of Tokyo’s bustling urban jungle.

Japan knows the needs of their tourists well; they provide a 2-day Hakone Free Pass where we can ride all the transportation you see in this post for an unlimited number of times. And all the spots are nicely connected via various types of transport lines, so it was easy to get around. Benri da ne! (Convenient!) Fully recommended by yours truly!

Sorry to take up your bandwidth, but I tried to delete as many as I could! There were just too many interesting photos!

After travelling 90 minutes via Odakyu train, we took a bus to get to our accommodation in Moto-Hakone. Give me an AE86 and Dogfight single CD and we could’ve gotten there much faster.

Once we checked in, we decided to hike down this little path.

Life is slow in this part of Japan.

Where the only web around here was the spider’s.

There were some nicely designed houses here as well. Wonder how much does it take to own a piece of land here.

Most of the houses had a western design to it, like some sort of cabin/rest house.

With this kind of view, it doesn’t matter how you design your house, you’ll have a great life for sure. This is Lake Ashi. The orange gate (or torii) on the other side belongs to the Hakone shrine. If you want to do a tourist brochure of Hakone, this is one view you must include. It was simply breathtaking.

Green mountains surround the lake, taking your breath away even more.

We have finally reached the foot of the mountain hike.

Time to eat some egg sandwiches beside the lake. Made by Mama!

We met a friendly Australian couple in the bus, and coincidentally we met them again here. G’day mate!

We can see Mt. Fuji from here! Or at least its right shoulder. Man, that pirate ship looks tacky.

Spotted an old couple enjoying the breeze. The lady was reading a novel while the man was drawing. Is this the life or what?!

Instead of the lake, he was drawing a bunch of cedar trees. Now why is that?

Coz it was just nearby! This is the Ancient Cedar Avenue.

A path lined with cedar trees. It was parallel to the busy road, so it wasn’t THAT scenic.

Still, the trees and the sunlight seeping through them were enough to make this path a spectacular one.

An important historical site, the Hakone checkpoint. Jin and Fuu were held here while Mugen went on a superb drug adventure in Samurai Champloo. Didn’t see anyone jogging on site.

Samurais won’t resist drawing their swords (courtesy of Lawson) if you don’t have a pass.

Just as depicted in Samurai Champloo, this checkpoint separates the Edo side (now known as Tokyo)…

…and the Kyoto side.

We didn’t have a pass, but luckily the officer didn’t bother to use the weapons behind him.

Alert alert, tourist trap, tueettt tueetttt~

Can someone tell me who this is?!

Could get some lovely manjuu here, hot mochi balls filled with red bean paste or green tea.

Say, that shopkeeper looks familiar.

I look like a nun in a samurai costume.

It was getting late, but we had enough daylight when we got to the other side of the lake.

The entrance of Hakone shrine.

Huge sacred tree! Maybe I should’ve chopped some wood off and carve myself a blue-haired shrine maiden.

A flight of stairs to the main shrine. Touhou immediately comes to mind (Man, UFO is haaaaaardd).

And finally the torii that you saw earlier from the other side.

It’s these little things that highlight the religion’s emphasis on serenity and peace with oneself.

It was getting late, even the goose needed her rest.

While waiting for the bus, this cute kitty kept clinging on us. Felt bad leaving her :(

Nothing much to do after 7 here, so it was time to return to the guest house. Wanted to go to the hot springs, but it was getting late and Mama didn’t want to go anyway. Oh well, next time.

Moto-Hakone Guest House is a nice little inn with some homely deco.

Our room was called Sakura :) Love the flower, love the character (yes, all of them).

Awww how lovely! They had some nice paper cranes to greet us in our room.

Money-saver Mama decided not to opt for local area cuisine and instead chowed down on some Maggi Curry Flavour. I gladly followed along :)

PSP ran out of batt. Time to sleep!

The next day, we were surprised to see a lovely clear view of Mt Fuji!

…on the inn’s computer desktop :P

Outside, it was in fact the very opposite.

We planned to take the cruise from Moto-Hakone, but the ship could only depart from another location due to the mist.

The ship at Hakone-machi however departed as scheduled. Welcome to the (super tacky) Hakone sightseeing cruise. I love pirates and all, but this feels so…. fake.

Regardless, I enjoyed the sea breeze, as you can tell from my messy hair.

By the powers, enemy spotted!

Avast scallywag! Or I’ll place ya with me black balls!

Mama decided not to play pirate and went to the lower deck.

This “pirate” went around asking people to take polaroid pictures with him (for a fee of course, told you it’s tacky!) but no one accepted his offer. Poor guy.

At Togendai, we took a bus to the next stop, Hakone Glass Forest. Mama said (translated to Manglish), “die die oso must come here ok!”. She’s a big fan of glass and crystal crafts.

At first I thought it would be as tacky as some french village in Malaysia, but it was very well-decorated. Attention to detail was amazing. Moreover, it’s a mini Venice \o/ Now, why would I like Venice?

I thought I’d get into the Italian mood myself.

Looking at this picture, you’d think that it is a bridge surrounded by waterfall droplets.

When in fact they’re strands attached with beautiful hand-crafted Venetian glass jewels.

I was most amazed by the moss and flowers that grew naturally in the area. They added a lot to the atmosphere.

There was even a nice cottage house with a mill that doubles as a cafe.

The place features a little museum showcasing various Venetian glass and crystal crafts. Mama said it was a little disappointing as she was expecting more stained glass exhibits.

This is the archway to yet another tourist trap…

…The craft shop! Tueettt tueeet~

Mama is one happy customer.

We took the bus back to Togendai and rode on the Hakone Ropeway.

This is me trying my best to hide my fear of heights.

Had a nice chat with these two Japanese ladies. The one on the right was so particular on how our picture should be taken. “There, you can see the lake! And those trees, with this perspective it’ll be great! Quick, give me your camera!”, hahhaha.

We reached Owakudani, a place overcrowded with tourists, and you’ll see why.

Hello Kitty manning the souvenir shop.

Finally, the full shape of elusive Mount Fuji! I know I climbed the beast before, but seeing it from afar is another thing altogether.

Tourists flock here to see the volcanic activities that are still, uh, active. And man, it was smelly out here, no thanks to the sulfur content in the air. Should be called fart mountain.

The main attraction here are the eggs, cooked by the sulfurous volcanic pools and picked up by this poor dude who had to endure the heat.

They’re called black eggs coz the shell is black (thank you captain obvious).

It was fresh from the pool, so it was VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY hot. Had to be careful when peeling off the shell!

The yolk was especially delicious. Eating one egg is said to lengthen your lifespan by 7 years. Just had 21 years added to my life, woohoo!

They had a spare uniform, so wore it and took picture with this cute attendant-on-duty :3

We were freaking tired after that, so we decided to go home right away. At Gora, we took a cable car down the hill. You know, that slanting train like the one you see in Penang. The autumn colours were starting to show near the tracks.

Then we took a nice little 2-carriage train on the Hakone Tozan line. It was unique coz once it went down to one part of the hill, it traveled in reverse to go down further. This process repeated a number of times. After all, it’s stupid to build a circular track around the hill.

Like the schoolgirl in front of us, we took a nap throughout the journey.

It was a wonderful trip! Just 10k yen per person and you can enjoy all these sights. Highly recommended! One day I need to go there again and enjoy the hot springs :3

My cousins and I visit the oldest university in Japan, on top of doing many stupid things.

Dzaid and I were (and still are) having our autumn hols, and Daim had his silver week holiday. It was high time that the 3 of us went on a holiday again. After browsing through many destinations in Wiki Travel, we decided to go for a simple day-trip to Ashikaga. It was the cheapest too!

It was a one-hour train trip from Nippori station in Tokyo.

Once we arrived, we searched for the nearest map. Such a happy place, this Ashikaga.

Ah, so the winds are blowing west today. Gotta change my schedule then.

We stopped at Ashikaga-shi instead of Ashikaga station, which is just a bridge away.

Nothing like letting the river listen to your trumpet.

I love rivers in Tokyo. The surroundings give that sense of peace and serenity.

Or so I thought.

Ok enough toying around. It’s time to cross the bridge.

But not till I send my photo to Facebook!

Ashikaga is a nice quiet little town.

A little too quiet. A tourist destination without the tourists? What’s going on?!

Oh yes, the usual mirror camwhoring session.

Dzaid scares me sometimes.

Recommended by many travel sites. You can drink their own house blend while enjoying the nice cozy library-like atmosphere. We didn’t enter for that reason exactly. My cousins and I, quiet? Hah! Cameras are not allowed either :(

My mom’s dream car.

Did I mention that I like taking pictures of roads? :3

While in Tokyo, make sure you capture the magnificence of the electric pole.

After much walking, we stumbled upon this old train carriage in front of Ashikaga station.

EDIT: Whoops it’s actually a locomotive hehe. Thanks to tymmur of figure.fm for the detailed writeup! Here’s the excerpt of his comment there:

I noticed one flaw though (not a serious one). In your interesting trip to Ashikaga you saw an old train “carriage”. It’s actually more like an old freight locomotive (stats). This makes it more interesting as it’s usually out of reach for regular people. Did you happen to get a look inside?

Funny thing is that Danny once saw a lone “carriage”, which turned out to be an EF81 (further down the page). This makes me wonder how often people see locomotives without realising they are a whole different world compared to the usual electrified carriages. Carriages has windows for passengers and are relatively light, meaning they have 4 wheels in each end (best stability). If something has more wheels than that, then it’s heavy and (in this case 96 tons) and it has to be something else. After all even fat passengers can’t make a carriage that heavy ^^

Oh for the record: the locomotive power is 2550 kW, which is 3465 horsepower (I suspect that should be read as +- something). This is in other words quite powerful and I will be sure to take a look if I’m in the area… which I have no plans for at the moment :/

This is the start of a thematic series of pictures initiated by Dzaid. See if you can figure out what the theme is (my face is a good clue… I think).

Another recommendation by Wiki Travel, and this time we did go in. This is Tonkatsu Sakae, an eatery that obtained some fine-dining club seal of approval. They use only the lean parts of the animal, so you’re assured that you’ll get a healthy meal.

And this is what we had for lunch, Chicken Katsu Don. Frankly I wasn’t too impressed, but I was too hungry to notice.

Then back to stupid poses. Welcome to the Bell and Rose series! See if you can guess what characters we’re trying to portray, of course they have to do with Bell (left) and Rose (right). Seriously most of them deserve everyone’s facepalm, but try and guess anyway :P

Hint for this picture: Cartoon character and fighting game character.

Hint: Inventor and musician.

Hint: Old sitcom series and a hedgehog with a hammer.

Continuing the theme initiated by Dzaid.

Please forward all questions to him. I’m too lazy to explain lol

This is Ashikaga Gakko, the oldest university in Japan. It was established in the 1400s by a deputy shogun. Now it’s just a National Historic Site. That means you gotta pay to enter :(

At least you pay for what you see, coz the area was so beautifully landscaped!

Why is it that when Dzaid poses like this, it looks like a Japanese drama poster…

But when I pose, it looks like some Indian movie.

The main building showcased the main halls where the students lived their lives.

And this is the classroom. Can’t blame the students for sleeping during class.

Surrounding the building was a beautiful Japanese garden.

No fair! My university had car parks, elevators and businessmen in ties.

We had a good chat with Satan.

Others see it as a miniature model. We see it as a battlefield.

Poor guy, he must have found the whole thing boring.

The delinquent.

The shy type.

The nerd.

Don’t worry, even those who play Shenmue won’t know what on earth this picture is about.

We were not in the mood for Mexican food (apparently it’s the opposite for the Mexican dance) but this is another recommendation by Japan travelers, Southwest Paradise.

We had some nice gelato in Romano, another great recommendation by Wiki Travel. Try the cheesecake flavour, it’s no surprise that it’s the most popular one here!

To our disappointment, our next venue was under some restoration process. This is what was left of Bannaji temple, a very very old temple dating from the 1200s.

We did the next best thing: go to the nearby playground! Say, doesn’t this bunker remind you of a Shadow of Colossus battle?

Come kids, play with me!

Dunno what these are.

Let’s giddyup!

This is so ghey beyond words.

And so the trip ends with 3 losers riding something that was obviously not built for their size.

You thought that I’d skip the cosplay pics? Never!

For those new to this culture, these are not hired professionals. They’re just normal fans who buy/customize their own clothes and wear them to portray an anime/game character. Some of them pursue it as a hobby, others pursue it professionally, with some of them giving out business cards to photographers.

Anyway, will you look at the above FFXIII cosplay?! Isn’t it amazing? Their clothes, facial features even! Lightning and Vanille look especially convincing (hence, yummy). We have come to an age where cosplay debuts before the game does!

I’m leaving for Hakone soon, so I don’t have time to caption all the pics. Those who know, knows. Those who don’t know, too bad :P

Miku seemed a bit bloated up.

Dzaid wore the right shirt at the right time :)

Another superb cosplay. For Ico, to boot. We need more of this and less Cloud Strifes.

A pack of hungry wolves.

Misty grew up.

Strider Hiryu ninjas a photo.

The girl on the left looks like my ex-student Samantha. Somebody, tell her!

Somehow Dzaid seems more Clark-y than the guy next to him.

Rats, forgot to bring my sword.

Two generations of Yuna.

Professor Layton! Don’t you just love it when a gaijin knows exactly what character to cosplay?

In real-life, soldiers shoot with cameras in alert mode.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Same perspective, same location, different year. It’s the Tokyo Game Show!

Whew what a tiring weekend, went there for two days in a row. And today I’m going to Hakone with my mom, so forgive me for the short write-up.

An annual event not to be missed by gamers and game makers worldwide, an exhibition of games that are yet to be released. The theme of this year’s Tokyo Game Show is 「Gameは、元気です。」 or “Game, it’s energetic”. It must be because this show drains my energy, I’m so dead tired right now!

Dzaid could easily be mistaken for one of the employees. Shirt courtesy of Uniqlo.

Game characters that are gonna change your life (i.e. steal your money) for months to come.

Entrance to game paradise.

The BAM-in-your-face booth that welcomes you to the show is the huge Koei-Tecmo booth.

Woohoo, I get to touch bewbies in TGS this year! This is in line with the commercial of boob-physics-frenzy game Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2:

Next to it was the Capcom booth.

Entered the theater and watched a bunch of cool trailers. The one that I anticipate the most is Ghost Trick, blogged about it earlier. It’s by the maker of Phoenix Wright. You are dead and you’re a wandering spirit investigating your own murder. You can control objects around you and play tricks on living characters. Here’s the trailer:

Ookami Den for the DS had an impressive booth space, even came with falling Sakura petals! As for the game, I dunno, the stylized graphics don’t seem to translate well to the DS. Have to wait and see, I’m gonna buy it anyway :)

I waited in line for an hour for Lost Planet 2. It was well worth it, everything was awesome :)

At the Alienware booth (!), Daim and Dzaid battle it out in Street Fighter IV. Nude mods not present :P (Link not safe for work, duh)

Next is another favourite company of mine, Level 5.

A bunch of people trying out the Level 5  games on the DS.

A game to watch out for is Ni no Kuni, a collabo between Level 5 and Studio Ghibli. Experience the Ghibli magic first-hand in this trailer. Ok, second-hand if you were not in TGS.

Level 5 had more than just games to show off ;)

Sega, a company that I have rooted for for years (come on, there’s still hope for a good Sonic game… rite?).

Still haven’t played Valkyria Chronicles on the PS3 yet. Oh wait, I still haven’t bought a PS3 yet. ARGH

Daim looks similar to the Ryu ga Gotoku main guy amirite? And beside him in the banner on the left is Dzaid!

If this is what a Yakuza’s life is like, sign me up NAO.

One of my favourite RPGs, Lunar SSS is having a remake for the PSP. Oh the joy!

Kojima was on stage, but we were too busy taking cosplay pictures to care about him :P

MGS4 is Kojima’s last MGS game? False alarm! Another MGS game, Peace Walker, will be coming out for the PSP. It has a cool coop feature called the COOPS ring. You have a ring around you, tag with a friend and share health and ammo. Also, you can tag enemies so both of you could see the same person, and come up with a strategy to fool him.

We stood for 10 minutes in front of the projection to watch this trailer. Superb presentation, though the trailer can tell you that Kojima did what he does best: self-indulgence (syok sendiri).

My favourite wait-in-line game demo this year is definitely Peace Walker. Felt like those Disneyland rides where there’s lots to see on the way there. First there were monitors showing an impressive demonstration of game controls.

Then we had this American black soldier (or look-alike) briefing our mission in super fluent Japanese! He was very sporting too; You know that many game booths don’t allow cameras? Knowing this he said “Hey you there! Taking pictures huh? Well take more soldier, put them in your blogs!” LOL That’s exactly what I’m doing!

As with any other year, Sony had an impressively HUGE space.

Another game that I would love to have, The Last Guardian. Ueda Fumito is a genius.

The biggest announcement here is the release date of Gran Turismo 5, which is around March 2010. Also came with an impressive ride. Ah, forgot my keys, left it at home.

All I could say was WOW. How much wow?

This much.

How does your game face look like? One of the most impressive Sony Playstation campaigns, imo. Here’s the CM, and check out the webbie too.

Another big hoo-ha was the display (and a bit of demo by the booth babes) of the PSP Go. It has a smaller screen but its price reaches that of the PS3 slim O_O

I was very, very impressed with the Wipeout demo of the 3D software plugin for the PS3, which enables ALL PS3 games to be viewable with 3D glasses. Released sometime next year. Click here for the Engadget writeup.

You know what’s everyone waiting for in the Squeenix booth. FFXIII trailers, obviously. But they also showed a bunch of other RPGs that I never heard of but were equally imaginative.

Who do you wanna drink today? ;)

Another RPG expert, also fighting game expert and music game expert, Bandai-Namco. Two Tales Of game series were featured: one is the improved Tales of Vesperia for the PS3, which is currently riling up Xbox 360 users. And the other a Wii-exclusive, Tales of Graces.

I took a picture of the Gundam headpiece on exhibition, but the picture turned out blur _orz

After two days of waiting in line and standing in awe, the show was finally over.

This was actually a good time to take picture of booth babes bowing their farewells. I was too tired to join the crowd ^^;;

Outside the halls, it was far from over.

Girls in military uniforms <3

Finish Peace Walker with 100% stealth and you unlock these two characters.

The spoils of war (first day). You can leave it to my cousins and I to make full use of them:

Colourful stands. Stage performances. A textbook example of a Japanese summer festival!

Natsu toieba, matsuri da ne! When you talk about summer, you think of festivals! And that’s exactly where I went.

Just one train line away from my place is the Fukagawa Hachimangu Festival, said to be historically one of three grandest festivals in the Edo era. Though now much smaller in scale, it still hosts performances that are sometimes not shown in other summer festivals. We have, on stage, traditional dances, drum performances, a harp musical and even a kendo tournament (the last two which I sadly couldn’t attend).

But first, survey the area! It’s hosted in Monzen-Nakacho and this is the map of nearby shops. It’s a traditional town was hit severely by the Great Kanto Earthquake and World War II, and later reclaimed and built to become the modern town it is today. A few shrines and temples still remain.

Now it’s very much a suburban town with a lovely park.

Don’t you just love playgrounds? This reminds me of some lovely Tomoya-Nagisa and Tomoya-Kyou scenes. Sorry non-Clannad fans.

When traveling alone, the camera timer is your new best friend.

In Japan, you don’t need to worry about leaving your camera on the ground and walk away!

This is not the main part of town, but in the area I love this street the most.

The weather was perfect for a walk and for drying up clothes.

The lantern of a nearby Oden shop. They’re Yong Tau Foo-like things that you saw back in the Ueno Spring Festival.

Japanese just can’t live without their beer!

Dunno who this is but he must’ve waited for his friend for a long, long time.

Rivers always make good photos!

Trying to be artistic with my shadow. Phail.

Bars and karaoke lounges crowd this area. It might be empty now but wait till you see the life here at night!

Finally we have reached the festival venue, Tomioka Hachimangu Shrine. Still early though.

Like many places of worship, shrines just emanate this sense of peace that’s hard to explain.

Did you know that you can sleep on the shrine grounds for free? It doesn’t only happen in anime! In fact, Tyler MacNiven walked an entire 2000 miles of Japanese land in 145 days to find the birthplace of his father prior to his participation in Amazing Race. He would find a shrine to pitch a tent for his night’s sleep. Go watch his award-winning Kintaro Walks Japan documentary.

Unlike many shrines in Tokyo, you wash your hands from a natural stone formation here. Cool.

And the show begins! On Day 1 we have the lively drum performance.

I assure you, the DON! DON! KATSU! coming from Taiko Drum Master in the arcades is nothing compared to the real thing.

They change drums after EVERY performance, and that means having 4 or more people carry them one-by-one to and from the stage. No curtains and revolving floors here!

Took some video too. Enjoy!

You need muscles and the stamina of a horse to beat Japanese drums for hours on end.

Towards the end, the whole cast went out and hit their drums in harmony.

The finale was exciting coz they kinda broke out of their traditional mood. A whole lot of fun!

Finally it’s finished. Even hours after, their drum beats were still playing in my brain!

There were cicadas flying about during the performance, even scaring some of the audience.

Kids however love to pick them up. Yotsubato much?

Day 2. The stalls are finally opened.

Here you use a stick to pick up the strings of a yoyo-tsuri (yoyo water balloon) that you want. It’s usually very easy, even if you can’t do it the old man will help you.

Interestingly, they had a research laboratory stall where you participate in their tests. If you get food poisoning, they’ll compensate your family with a huge sum of money.

Now won’t that be great? Too bad it’s just syrup to pour on your shaved ice. Boring.

Kingyo-sukui or goldfish scooping, what Mikuru did EIGHT times in the show. You’re given a paper scoop to pick up as many goldfish as you can into your bowl. It easily tears with pressure though, so you gotta be smart and use the edges.

You then put those fishes back in your little aquarium at home where they will die days later due to your negligence.

Sour apple candy, yum yum. With each purchase, you get to participate in a little ball game. If you’re lucky, you’ll get another one.

This is something we have in Malaysia too, throwing balls to make cans fall to the ground. Although here you can win a Wii Fit and some girly men posters. Do not want.

If you’re not good with your balls, you can always rely on your gun.

Don’t you think that tall guys with long arms have a huge advantage? No fair!

They also had a flower arrangement exhibition. Nothing shouts out the brightness of summer like the Himawari, or sunflower. Did you know? Long time ago, 2 guys and a girl traveled far in search of a samurai that had the smell of sunflowers…

Mama also came on Day 2. She might be smiling here but she is not enjoying that pickled cucumber one bit.

Day 2 was also the day for traditional dance performances.

The crowd was bigger than that in Day 1, thanks to the stalls methinks.

Girls of all ages performed on stage.

Even kids from junior school. The girl on the left was so cute. Unlike the other girls who were obviously nervous, she waved hello, danced relaxingly and smiled to everyone.

The old women showed that age is not a factor!

Even when it comes to technology!